AHF

Akis Petretzikis. Delicious.

I’ve seen nothing that makes me think Trae has requested a trade. All we’ve seen from him publicly this offseason is saying he wants to win in Atlanta and praising his teammates and the kids who have come up through his camps. I “appease” my star by building the best team around him not by doing what he says. Sometimes those things may overlap. Sometimes they won’t. If I am GM the right call rests with me. Trae will be a FA in two years. That is plenty of time to go from where we ended last season to being in the range of a 5 seed type of team which I think would be satisfactory for him.

I can’t see the pick being included from their side but it seems like something of interest given both teams’ needs. SA is better with DJM + Wemby over Vassell + Wemby. That said, finding a point is easier than finding a wing.

No apology needed. Carry on, my friend.

Agreed. The last time we traded a star player it was a bit of a disaster and destroyed the most promising season in Nique’s entire run with the team. Trading him for a lesser talent to avoid paying him was a huge PR and basketball mistake. Better to hang on to your star a bit too long than to trade him away too early. Make the most of it.

I am expecting us to draft Sarr and trade DJM with potential trades of a couple of other Hawks. Don’t know about Bey but should be relatively cheap like a QO if we resign him. Not expecting us to pay the tax. Still could be a dynamic reshaping of the team.

An unprotected pick in that timeframe would have a lot of value. A protected pick, not as much.

The deal you laid out doesn’t make sense so likely would be something else if this has real legs at all. More likely it is something discussed between teams or internally in the Atlanta front office and never goes anywhere.

Who could forget the Greek Process?

And we know that Fields who wanted the trade was made GM shortly thereafter…

Hunter is much more valuable than Wiggins. I think Hunter would return some value if trades even if it would be disappointing. I think GS would have to attach a valuable pick to Wiggins to get anyone to bite.

It is but I would not care about the 15th spot on our roster if we could get Giannis on a deal that makes sense. We carried plenty of dead weight last year. Who cares if it is his brother on a minimum deal instead.

We absolutely could have traded him for value. We let him dangle in the wind for years exploring offers. We let him get injured and have a disasterous season. When he finally got healthy, we traded him at the nadir of his value and got less than nothing back in return. It was the equivalent of posting an ad on Craig's list for your sofa where anyone who is willing to pick it up can take it. His contract absolutely was a problem but it was made worse by combination of his injured / impaired play and the common knowledge that the team was desperate to get off his contract. Other overpaid players have been traded for much better value over the years. With DJM, him being dangled out there with no push back absolutely cratered his value. He is a proven player on a value added contract (compare his numbers and his salary to FVV for example) and because teams knew we were desperate we couldn't get jack in return. Now Fields gets to run it back this summer trying to trade one his young point guards for value. If he is leaking stories about how Trae is one foot out the door he is choosing to tank the value for his own player before he even begins to market him. That is like putting your house on the market with a sign that says, "Desperate to sell. Ring bell to inquire within. Ask for dumba**."

People forget how bad that Wright trade was. We could have drafted Amare Stoudamire (on the board and taken right after one pick) and Quentin Richardson (taken with the other pick). Instead we got a mediocre backup big man who played with the team for two years and averaged something like 10 points and 6 rebounds during that time. Colossally stupid move. Babcock made some good trades during his time as GM and was the worst draft in NBA history but there is no defending the Wright trade.

I think it is absolute BS to think Trae was calling the shots in the first place. Like a billionaire who is too involved in these decisions is going to roll over for a 24 year old under contract for the next 4 years. Likewise, the front office needs to make the call on any deals this summer. They own the decisions. No blaming Trae for whatever they do. He isn't the GM and the only person who can override Fields is Ressler.