bird_dirt

it would be a wet dream to get kg here, but just that-a dream. unless the hawks make one of the most unheard of turnarounds in history, kg will not want to come here. he wants to win, now, which is why he would opt out of his contract. minny gave him a boat load of money, and they didn't win, and now he realizes the money alone won't make him happy. unless the hawks make it into at least the second round of the playoffs and show up well, there is no way he would want to jump ship from playing for a mediocre team for a lot of money to another mediocre team for a lot of money. more than likely he will take a lot less to be on a seriously contending team, much like the mailman did with the lakers, or the miami aging all stars.

i agree. unless billy can tell donnie with a straight face that he has other serious offers he will take if the pacers don't meet his demands, then walsh won't back down. unfortunately, bk tends to show his hand, and thus far everyone and their grandmother knows that the hawks don't want salary back, and only the pacers with the trade exception can provide a trade like that. hence, there is no reason what so ever for donnie to back down, and unless bk is willing to go another route, he will have to take whatever he can get from indy.

hinrich wouldn't be bad at all. i can't even believe rasheed is on that list. when the hawks presented him with his very own keepsake wallace jersey in detroit after he got traded, he turned it into a comedy routine, dancing around the locker room making billy and company look like fools. no way he comes back here EVER. but seriously though, are there any decent sf players available next summer?

it's nice to finally know that god almighty is 6'9. he must be if billy was willing to give up schmoe for him (or her).

RED LIGHT! GREEN LIGHT! man, what the hell is jones doing? if he tries to bust some soviet marching high step like that on the court, they better send him back to south florida.

sounds very smug. he knows billy doesn't want any contracts back, which is what every other team but the pacers have to offer. donnie: "come here, billy, let me bend you over and [censored]" billy: "i want an unprotected 2007 first rounder, plus $3 million" donnie: "i'll give you a protected 08, and a foot in the a**." billy: "okay, a protected 07, and 3 mill." donnie: "protected 08" billy: "unproteced 08 then, and no cash?" donnie: "protected 08" billy: "fine, protected 08--but your taking john edwards! and i want a reach-around, too." donnie: "i'll compromise. protected 08 + edwards, no reach-around, you just have to take it." billy: "deal."

Quote: Don't forget that JJ made 20 million last season and he will be making much less this seaon. I smell a rat!!! let's also not forget that one reason jj was signed to that 20 mil front loaded contract was not just to try to keep phx from matching (we were dealing with them anyway), but also to make sure we got our payroll to the league minimum last year. charolette is dealing with that now, trying to get to the minimum payroll, and there have been a number of people criticizing johnson for running that team on the cheap, too. it's not far fetched. belkin was 1/3 of the bank, so regardless of who ends up with the team, they will be running the team on the cheap. you try running your household with 1/3 less income and see how often you still go out to eat and buy new toys. look, they all needed each other to pull enough capital to get the team, so why is it so hard to see that if you take away one major piece that they are going to struggle to keep up?

yeah, i was just a mention during one of the "sports update" breaks. they said it during the break right before ripken came on. 6 yr/57 mil + edwards for a future 1st rounder. no mention of protection or year of pick. same info the ajc has reported, only ajc said the hawks "could" sign al..., and 790 has said the hawks "have". no major announcement given.

here's the 790 link. it's also good for folks who live otp, as i remember that station's signal sucked. 790 live

i may sound rediculous to some, but i picked keyshawn. i just think he will have a big year. steve smith is the panther's #1, but he won't get the kind of year he had last year again, other teams won't let him. kj will get a lot of open looks and with the panther's run game not exactly set, they'll be looking to pass a good bit. mcnabb is pretty good, too, but really, i think unless you get peyton, brady, or palmer (if healthy) that can deliver above average stats every week, then any of the other qbs are pretty much a toss up each week. i got pretty lucky last year basing my team around receivers and won my division and had the most points for the season in my league (lost in postseason). i think it was part luck because i got larry fitzgerald and santana moss in the last three or four rounds, but also because receivers tend to stay healthier than rbs. case in point, my first and third rbs taken were ahman green and deshaun stevenson. green was a wash and deshaun only worked okay since i also picked steven davis. lamont jordan was my #1.

well put. any center coming off a 12 and 8 season would be looking for 8 million in free agency, due in large part to how rare decent bigs are. i think zaza is doing a good job, logging more minutes than he should be, and at a great price to boot. that said, since he isn't the complete package, we do need the yin to his yan that's a defensive stopper/enforcer. i really hope that el toro and sheldon really step it up and give us a pleasant surpise this year.

uhh...hotlanta, i dig the new pic. don't get me wrong, i like otis, but i never looked forward to your posts so much before as i will now.

isn't kendrick and perkins the same person? if he could play more center than power forward so we could have mw and js on the floor at the same time, i wouldn't mind it. that's why i'd be looking for more of a 5 than a 4. we just drafted two 4s and ideally would like to find time for josh and marvin playing together.

yep. if we pick up jsmith's option, we'll have a couple more years to evaluate josh and marvin both individually and together as players. two more years should be plenty time to see if one or the other steps it up significantly. if one does, we focus on him. if both do, and do it well together, we should be glad that we have such a problem to deal with. if neither do then, well, would jerry west be available again in a couple years (just kidding)? i agree with the playoff senerio. i'd be surprised if we made it this year--we don't even have one player that was an all-star last year (jj got kinda close, but snubbed, right?) and you generally need at least two all-star caliber players. i'd be surprised if we didn't in the following year, however, given how much mw and js SHOULD develop.

lol, and i thought run dmc's "dumb girls" was bad. it's too bad for him that 123mycodes.com put an add on his page of a guy dancing in his undies.

Quote: that is true. but it doesnt have to be a superstar. dallas came real close to the trophy last year with damp and diop. oh yeah, that and 7' dirk who avery finally got to play in the paint and set a record for free throws. if we had nowitzki, i'd probably feel pretty good about zaza and lo wright as our centers, too.

i couldn't find the article from you link (and i'm too lazy to search all over for it). but let me guess the five... indy(offering jack-doody and a mid/late 1st) minny(doesn't have jack-doody outside of kg, not happening) boston(young pg?) gs(offering $40mil troy jack-doody murphy) denver(camby?) first time i think i've seen boston mentioned. i would hope they are looking hard at denver or boston. possibly lakers if their in it (perennialy good/great team, great history, where al calls home--he would love playing there). if he didn't mention them it's because he knows it's a very real possibility there and he wants to raise the bidding. i'm hoping they can get either a real starter at center (camby; maybe/maybe not mihm; or possibly bynum for the future) or a point for the future (like one of the celtics youngin's). we have two great value 5s, but neither are serious starters that would ever get any kind of sniff at an all-star vote. as far a pg goes, i like speedy, glad we got him, but until he proves it over the course of the season as a starter, i'm holding out on declaring him the answer at point for beyond this season. he hasn't proved anything yet to me, so i would feel more confident having someone in the wings waiting to take over if need be as starter in the last year or two of speedy's contract.

yeah, too bad bk can't reaquire that player from his past for us. that was a pretty nice move by him, unfortunately it was before he came to the atl. i don't understand how some people can totally bash him for what he's done both here and at memphis with this one in the books. you can't have it both ways!

Quote: We eventually dealt Wright to Memphis in the Shareef Abdur-Rahim trade. Now things have come full circle; Wright is back in Atlanta but signed to a much more reasonable deal... full circle indeed. it was bk who traded shareef to the hawks in exchange for lo wright and brevin knight. guess he really likes the guy.

that really stuck out to me, too. seems everyone in the media is faulting bk for the long delay, saying how inflexable he is (even the author of this article alludes to it), how unwilling he is to accept what is offered to him. i'm glad someone else (particularly a gm) is finally saying you don't have to take trash just because you're the hawks.

yep. after leaving atl and going to portland, he pretty much made it known that he hated atlanta and wouldn't go back there. besides, who cares how we face up with shaq? he's on a steep decline, and only shows up for most of the playoffs --and we won't have to worry about playing him then anyway.

Quote: While we are not now a top tier team and we really don't expect to win it all, we should expect to be a better team next season. Do we expect any of our young Hawks to be worse this upcoming season? No!! Do we look for some improvement? You bet we do. the only trouble is that every team expects to be a better team, everyone has had one more season of experience after last year. the one thing we have going for us, is our youth. being young allows for the players much more room for growth than a team with older vets could expect. i think it would be pretty difficult for our best player, jj, to be much better than what he was last year (which was quite a bit). i could be wrong, but i don't see how his body could continue to take another full season of playing so many minutes, especially if he goes all out for the usa team, too. if he could duplicate last year's stats with fewer minutes played, it would be a success. all in all, i would be fairly shocked if they topped more than an additional 10 wins next season. i've been thinking a 35 win range, give or take a couple.

he's one of my favorites, too. i wouldn't trade him, though. he's the league's premier center fielder. past and present pitchers have stated over and again how much his play behind them has saved their a**. i've been wishing the braves would trade larry jones. i think he's over-rated. a good player, no question, but over-rated. i know they won't though, now that they've traded wilson betimet and andy marte.

lord, i hope you're right. i went on vacation for a week (with a bunch of indy fans, no less) and expected to see some good news on hs when i got back. no such luck. with all the build up, i think it will leave me with a similar feeling to the draft once completed -- completely anti-climactic and devoid of any excitement.

i'd do it. i'd bring AI here. i know i'm in the minority here, but i like him. i love watching him play. i'm tired of seeing the hawks slowly plodding along, and they need something to shake them up. i don't think it's mortgaging their future with one heavy contract. hell, pretty much every team in the league has at least one major contract, except the hawks. yes, jj's was big, but it was big last season, not so much for the remainder of it. you need numerous bad contracts to underachievers to bring you down (i.e. gs and nyk). maybe i don't know sh*t, and i'll admit that, but at least i would enjoy watching them play more, and living away from atl now, i would like more chances to get to see them play.