xhawk

15 Million is high for Jefferson (roughly 25% of the cap). I hope we are not waiting in line to pay him that.

I think what helps the "super" teams is the way playoff games are spaced. Teams used to need depth because they only got a night off when they traveled. Now, in the first round, you might have three days between games. However, I don't think super teams are unbeatable--we can still compete.

Getting back to the original question, I think the offense runs through Teague and his ability to get into the paint. I think that he gets much more agressive.Also, I don't think we trade iso-Joe for iso-Josh. Overall, I see a very balanced attack with more pick-n-rolls. I think a more efficient Josh will likely be our 20 pt scorer.

Is Dr Z still a season tix holder ? He would know when the deadline is for season tix holders to retain rights to their seats for the playoffs. That will answer the conspiracey theory.

Agreed. These were definitely the right cuts. Hawks management and coaching staff were waiting for those guys to step and make a statement. Only Ivan Johnson did and the others did not.

He hustled and scored in a variety of ways. I also did not see any errant passes on offense. There were a couple of miscues on defense, but it's hard to say whose fault it was. This guy is definitely worth signing.

I'll be there. It will be my first opening night.

Warriors to sign C Kwame Brown to 1-year, $7 million deal, source tells Y! Sports.

That's insane.

And I believe he is from Brunswick, GA.

I haven't seem this mentioned much, but we are at least 9 players deep. Teague, T-Mac, Collins and Zaza will be getting alot of minutes in addition to last years starters. In this kind of season, this will be big. Even if the Knicks got better with Chandler over Billups, they are not very deep (maybe 6 at this point). We are also relatively young which Boston is not. The Pacers are interesting, but they are going to need some time to learn to play together which we will not--pretty much everyone has been together for 2-3 years. I think it would be disappointing if we are not a top 4 seed.

Any source on this?

Hard to say--with Hamilton coming, they don't really need Crawford.

We make trades: Bibby, Kurt, and Joe. We just don't make the superstar deals. I think the last two GMs of the Hawks have locked into our current core. So in the absence of an obvious deal, they have preferred to keep our current core intact.

There is alot of anti-Nate posts here. But I remember Nate dropping 40+ on Bibby one night in Phillips. I also remember him winning a playoff game for Boston one year. As a third point guard and a third shooting guard, I think he will be fine.

For us to drop down, all the teams above us have to stay put and teams below us have to move up. With all the back-to-backs, I don't see Orlando, Boston and New York doing great with their current roster. Howard can't go 40 mins a night as Orlando's only big man. Boston is aging. And outside of Carmelo, Stoudemire and Billups, New York has: Turiaf, Balkman, Toney Douglas, and Landry Fields.

This is definitely not the year we fall off.

For the right trade, I'd even take a one year rental on CP3.

We are probably looking at Damien Wilkins, Jason Collins and/or Mario West. Our big advantage is that the team has been together for a number of years so we might as well keep that trend.

In the Supreme Court case on NFL licensing, the Court said that some level of collective action that might otherwise be illegal would likely be legal in the case of sports leagues because of the need for those types of elements to make the league successful. There is no guidance at all as to what those might be, though, and a salary cap is probably not one of the types of collective action that a court would approve without a collective bargaining agreement with the player's union (IMO). For that reason, I would assume that if the NBA does open its doors for business after an anti-trust lawsuit is filed that there would be no salary cap.

Adding on to this, I think the bigger issue in a post CBA world would be the legal issues amongst the owners. Many owners, in markets that most of the money, would not want a salary cap. The league would have to have some enforcement mechanism for the cap and I don't see big markets owners conceding to such. As previously stated, they do make most of the money for the NBA.

Players are now going to sue the owners, in court, to recieve 3 times

what their annual salaries would be. Why? Because the owners refuse

to let them make a living doing what they usually get paid to do.

All NBA players can retire in luxury and all the young potential players

can go overseas and play because there's no longer an NBA here.

I think this post illustrates that the players have more leverage than people realize.

But there will be basketball at some point--the NBA won't die. Compared to the last CBA, the player's offer is still a great deal for the owners.

I think the bigger loser would be Marvin. Believe or not, Joe can get a comparable contract if this one gets voided. Marvin probably would not. Also because of Joe's playing style and durability he has more years to recoup money.

Any other season ticket holders out there do the Loyalty Rewards thing? Curious to see what you all decided.

I chose to get my money back even though it's only 1% interest. The bad part is that it is paid monthly as opposed to one lump sum. Also, I heard stories about how Thrashers season tickets holders were not paid in a timely manner.

With only 7 players under contract for next season and 6 for the following season, I'd be surprise if he does not make the team.

For free agents that don't have contracts for next year, it's a great move. For Williams, it's also a great move. Even if he gets hurt, the Nets have to resign him--they gave up so much to get him.

I think if you get a few more all-star caliber players moving overseas, this lockout will quickly end.

As for Zaza, I'd like to see him dominate overseas and build-up some confidence.

I don't think anything will prevent franchises from giving out bad contracts.

The only thing I'd add is one year of an arbitration decided CBA. If owners and players cannot reach an agreement, then an arbitrator would decide the terms for one year. It would mean more basketball and a responsible third party providing input.

If we can find a way to dump Marvin's contract we can have enough cap room to sign a better SF.

That's a big if. How do we do this?

Yeah, Josh finally picked up his defensive energy. That was really the key.