emeans

Okafurs back problems really scare me. I don't think I would draft him because back problems just don't go away. These back problems can nag him his entire career. We have to draft Howard and put a package together (JT and a future 1st round pick or package 2 2nd round picks with JT) to get the other phenom from Georgia in the 1st round similar to what Chicago did a few years ago with Curry. I wouldn't touch Okafur with the 1st or 2nd pick with his injuries especially back problems.

I have watched about 6 Portland games since the trades and I can tell you Shareef is not a very happy camper in Portland. He may be re-evaluating his career at this point. He has been relagated to a backup for Randolph, a ball huging, wheeling machine and he is lost in this offense. And to top it off he STILL won't make the playoffs. I think this may be getting to him mentally. Billy Knight is a genius and Portland is in trouble. They have too many high paid mid-tier talent players. They are now in the same position the Hawks were in and they will not win with their team as it is right now. Billy Knight need to be given executive of the year for getting rid of talent on the down side of their career with big contracts. Brilliant!!! I felt sorry for Shareef, it was written all over his face yesterday and Rasheed made them look even more silly for trading him.

I now keep up with seveal teams and root for them to win (Orlando, Chicago, Washington and Pheonix). I even look at Portland to see if we made a bad trade. So Billy Knight has done an excellent job. I think the plan is coming into reality. We will have the No. 1, 2 or No. 3 pick in the draft if the lottery balls coorperate. I really hope we get the No. 1 pick, but I think Orlando is too far behind, but the balls my bounce our way....who knows?? I also root for Atlanta to play well, but lose in the end. It is kind of weird to root for a team and want them to lose at the same time. We have found several keepers from this team to build with which is good and I just have to give Billy big props. Babcock and Co. would have never done what he is doing.

It will be very important to keep Jackson in a Hawks uniform during this rebuilding stage. He has totally impressed me this year and seems to be getting better each game. We need to keep the following players and build around them: Sura Jackson JT Rebraca Pryzbilla Crawford Diaw Draft Howard or Okufur Sign Quentin Draft two other young players and get Ekezie back. That is 12 players and I think they would be competitive depending on who the 3 picks are and who the new coach would be.

I agree. These are the only two out of the new bunch that I would keep for next year. Maybe and a big maybe Pryzbilla for a big body.

I only saw one of Howards game and I watched the entire game. He strength is getting the ball in the paint and slamming it. He has absolutely no outside game. He shoots the ball flat. This is something he really has to work on and he is too light in the britches. He will get pushed around in the NBA. His potential will not be seen until 2 to 3 years down the line in the NBA. That being said I will still draft him in the top 5 because NBA has become and will continue to be a developmental league. He has to work on his outside shot, which is something a young talent can get better with. Truly I don't like the 2004 draft. There are no Lebrons/Carmelo's in this draft.

I have read both sides of the fence in these debates about whether or not Billy Knight did terrible/good. I personally think he did what needed to be done to this team and that is to totally blow it up. The question is "Did he do it in the right way". I don't think any of use can definatively say this was good or bad until AFTER the entire offseason and we have drafted our picks and signed our free agents. IT IS TOO EARLY TO GRADE ANYTHING PEOPLE!! So far Billy Knight has done well on the BUSINESS side, now lets see if he can do well on the PRODUCT side. Now I admit we probably should have been able to get a 1st rounder from Portland, but that was not the true purpose of that move. That move was totally for cap space and it was a very good cap space move. Billy 1st agenda is to get us spending MONEY WISELY on contracts. Babcock and Co. have repeatedly overpaid players with ridiculus contracts for mediocre talent. He is trying to change that entire climate and have some cash. This alone is big to me. I hated when Koncak, Alan Henderson, CC, Ken Norman, etc.... got huge contracts for mediocre talent. THOSE DAYS ARE GONE. So lets wait until after the draft and offseason before we come to judgement about Billy Knight. I personally give him my vote of approval to him.

Przybilla can't hit point blank baskets and layups and he is 7 '0". He works hard but the natural talent is not there. He is just a big body and hard worker. Now Wallace is a keeper. He is truely talented, probably the best pure talent we have had in years. Wallace may need to be the free agent we keep and bring in another free agent and build from there.

I agree about Howard. I think we have to shoot for him because right now he is the most hyped young star the NBA is talking about and he is a local product similar to Lebron and Cleveland. We have to lose the rest of our games to get the 1st pick. Can you believe 4 other teams have worse records than the Hawks?? If we don't get Howard, who do you draft?

Exactly.... We would have the exact same team next year without these moves. What they are doing should have been done after these guys played 25 games. We all knew this was going nowhere. I would rather start with young potential and lose than continue doing the same thing with these huge veteran contract players. Lets lose with potential of good things in the future. I personally think Shareef and Theo are past their prime. They are still good but they are on the downward slope of their career and that is not good for a rebuilding team. These are good moves anyway you look at it!!!

is doing a very good job of rebuilding guys. This is what I said should have been done a long time ago. Blow the team up at the seams and start all over. Przybilla's contract is expiring at the end of the year, so he is making a pit stop also. Doleac only has a 2 year deal. And the biggest advantage of these moves are we aren't going to win another game this season putting us in the running for the 1st pick in the NBA draft and clearing loads of salary at the same time. These are genius moves and I like it!!

First of all Kobe is not coming to the Atlanta Hawks and Rasheed Wallace will probably be let go at the end of this season. Even with the money we will have to spend, the only marquee name that would put fannies in the seats is probably Kobe. Kenyan Martin will not do that. Ladies and gentlemen we have to start from scratch....literally. We are going to have a bunch of young guys on this team. Lets hope we get some young guys with massive potential. I don't think Kobe will be in an Atlanta Uniform because I don't money is an issue to him right now.

I am so sick of this team putting together a nice run at about the All-Star break every year. There is no way in the world Houston should have won this game tonight but of course the Hawks found a way to lose being up by 16 with around 8 minutes left in the game. I hate saying this but they need to suck the 2nd half of the season and get a high draft pick and some trades. THEY NEED TO FIRE TERRY STOTTS at the end of year and get a real coach. We do not need to do the same thing we always do and win the 2nd half of the season and get a bad 1st round draft pick. We need at least two 1st round picks. We need to keep Shareef and Diaw and trade the rest of this team away.

I agree this is going to be one of the weakest draft in years. Absolutely no one is really standing out as the undisputed consensus No. 1 pick. There are no Lebron James in this draft.

This is the sorriest team this city/organization has ever witnessed in its history. The Hawks have to blow this team up at the seams. Everyone should be open for trade. If we are going to be sorry, lets be sorry with youth and potential and high draft picks. At this point I would trade for 1st round draft picks. I would literally clear the roster and start over. I would only keep Diaw and Dickau. I would trade Shareef, JT and Theo. I would try to move the other guys as fillers. Try to get 3 1st round picks this year and load up on youth and potential.

That is the core of the problem with this team. They just don't have any ball movement and they don't trust each other to take the open shot. Shareef should not be taking shots with 2 and 3 guys on him. Someone should be WIDE open to take an easier shot. The trust is just not there or the talent is not there to knock the WISE open shot down. Also a problem was spacing...sometimes shareef couldn't pass the ball out because 3 guys would be bunched up together in the same area...it's called terrible spacing, which goes back to coaching. I was at the game and it was ridiculus. They guys have to work to hard to get baskets and that is because they do not pass the ball to get the open shot. That is why they have good quarters and very bad quarters...they can't continue to shoot high percentages with two and three guys on them an entire game.

I went to the game last night and it really felt like I was in a high school gym. Very empty dull atmosphere!! This team is in TOTAL shambles and they have to start all over. No one on this team trust one another on the court. Everyone one is playing in their own game. There is absolutely no "team" in the fiber of the Hawks. I can't count the number of times these guys would not pass the ball once on an offensive posession. Shareef consistently shoots with 2 to 3 men on him. Now maybe he has too, but that tells me he has absolutely no confidence in his supporting cast to take the open shot. Too much 1 on 1 play with no ball movement. Guys are positioned in the same area, not spread out for efficient ball movement. The bottom line on offense is these guys have to work too hard for their shots. If they score, it is a tough basket with most likely two guys checking the guy that scores. The only way they will win is have a lights out remarkable lucky shooting night. You can't consistently play that way an entire game and expect to win. That is why we do well in certain quarters and then emplode in others. No team can keep that type of luck up an entire game. Now on defense....They have what you call the Atlanta Falcons syndrome on defense. The offense doesn't do enough to keep the defense competitive. In football terms "it's 4 and out" everytime. Instead of scoring the opponent is rebounding and off and running for transitional baskets which makes the defense always going into a transitional defense trying to stop fast breaks. So what happens is when the opponents offense runs a half court set these guys are all bunch up down in the post trying to stop fast breaks which leave their shooters wide open on the perimeter and the rest is history. In other words the defensive and offensive problems are interelated. Bad offense tend to lend to bad defense and vice versa. Now if the offense scores consistent with good ball movement, it will give the defense more time to setup their halfcourt defense. Lastly, they just need more talent. With the exception of Shareef, this team is terrible talent wise. And until this team realizes it has to play as a team (ball movement, spacing and hitting the open man regardless of who it is) they will never win because they work too hard for shots. With subpar talent you have to play as a team to win!!!

Ultimately this team will not win. The reason I say 10 to 12 games is because the New Ownership should be in place and official around that time and they can officially start rebuilding. I totally agree with you Hotlanta. Every team in the league has spurts of being good so that should not be anything surprising, even the last place teams. And like I said earlier this "core" has been together long enough to make an honest and fair evaluation of what they will do.

That is about the time that I am giving these guys to get their act together. If they don't show any improvement in the next 10 or so games then it is time to rebuild......AGAIN. I really don't want to hear guys on this forum complaining about give them more time. The core of this team has been together long enough to reep some benefits. 10 to 12 more games is enough evaluation to make a definitive conclusion about this team.

I agree however a team can deal with 1 to 2 knuckle heads but when it starts to get to 5 or 6 players that are problems.....then you have a bigger problem. Every team has 1, 2 or 3 problem children, but half the team is a huge problem. If you break them up and put them around some decent individuals then maybe they will straighten up.....a little.

I analyzed last nights game against Milwaukee and this will only continue to happen. Time for some roster changes while we have some value in some of our guys. If we keep losing, players value will begin to drop. I understand Portland may be having a fire sale after Rudolph was caught with Marijuana last night. I understand Portland is going to blow that team apart because of too many off court problems. Maybe we can make some deals with Portland???

I have to agree with Diesel on this one. I think people put too much stock in Glenn not being a good player. The problem has always been much much bigger than Glenn. If you read his article he really wanted to try another year with this team. He had a lot of pressure on him to come in and produce immediately, which was really not fair. Like Diesel I also think one of the main problems is coaching. I am not sold on Stotts and right now I don't think I ever will. Fratello would do wonders for this team and would have done wonders for this team with Glenn Robinson. However wishful thinking means nothing these days. All of this is spilled milk under the bridge so we should all move on.

Will adding pieces to the core (JT, Reef, Theo) of the team year in and year out really make this group of guys playoff contenders? I am starting to arrive at the conclusion that these guys can compete, but they will never get over the mid-tier hump with this team. I have about 12 or so more games to watch before I make a final conclusion about the team, but it is looking like this team is going to need and probably will get a new makeover (rebuilding) again under our new management. If they do not win this year, there will probably be a fire sale before the trading deadling. Reef, Theo and if they can JT will be shopped for draft picks and young talent and salary cap relief. While I will hate to go through this again, I think this may be the best thing for this organization. My Philosophy: If you not going to be championship level competitive....why bother being average? Especially over a long long period of time. Just my thoughts....

I am giving this team 20 games to get their stuff together. New ownership should be approved by then. If they are still pulling the disappearing act in the 2nd half after 20 more games. I say Blow this team from the seams and start all over. I mean have a fire sale (ala Florida Marlins).....Trade Reef, JT, Theo and whoever else can be traded for either young potential talent and draft picks. Make sure these new players have some size and athletic ability to bang and play mean and tough. The Hawks play too soft. The offense look anemic at times (especially 2nd half) and the coaching just flat out sucks. We need to start all over again and do this thing right this time.

If this team continues to play like it is playing for about 20 more games........It is time to put everyone up for sale and rebuild again under this new ownership group. Kasten and Babcock and gone and it is time to try the new guys out and let them make personnel decisions. Get rid of Stotts and hire Doc Rivers and trade for young players and draft picks. Lets get young and athletic again and try this thing again. I am giving them 20 more games before I make a final decision.