Sothron

What good players exactly are you talking about? We already lost our chance to get Magloire. The only other names I'm seeing bandied about are Chris Mihm (ugh) or hoping we can talk Denver into letting go of Miller or Camby. Who else do you have in mind that we can realistically trade for?

I'd love to see Miller or Camby come back for just Harrington.

Quote: Quote: So according to you we should either A. Fill up our cap with mediocre players Who said mediocre players? Don't twist the facts. I am saying its better to get a sure thing than nothing. Apparently what you want to do is overpay players. We already overpaid Joe Johnson to get him on this team. If we have to overpay to bring in a real floor leader like Hinrich or a real good young big in Kaman then that is what we do. After all what is the point of conserving cap space except to go after needed free agents to make your team competitive? Last I heard cap space didn't win you too many games.

Mihm does in fact suck. Zero defense, mediocre rebounding, a career backup until last season where he was forced to start...what's the attraction? Only if we got an unprotected 1st rounder from the Lakers would it be worthwhile IMO.

I just wanted to add if you guys like using minis have you tried Warhammer gaming? Its tabletop wargame playing and very fun.

Quote: Quote: They don't want to set a precedent by giving Kaman a max deal then having to deal with overpaying their own guys to keep them. Let's don't discount the Donald Sterling factor either: he's the literal case example used in all sports for a cheap owner. Why would he ok giving Kaman a max deal or matching one for him? What "own guys" are you talking about? The only one they have on a rookie contract is Livingston and the new guy they picked up this year. It is fairly obvious they will give Livingston a Max or near Max deal when the time comes. And they already did set a precedent, they gave Brand a Max deal when the Max was worth more. Quote: As for Hinrich, we can dish out Lue or Claxton if need be for a servicable backup point guard. Claxton is not a franchise point guard and frankly isn't even really a starting one. He's best served as a sixth man off the bench in the PG role like he was used in NO/OKC. I doubt that. Plus, it is very obvious that BK believes Speedy is our starting PG. Just look at all he has said about Speedy. And you don't pay $6+ mil for a back-up, he is our starting PG whether you like it or not. So according to you we should either A. Fill up our cap with mediocre players Or B. Never actually make an effort to bring real talent on the team instead of someone's castoff (Claxton) Should we bother to play the games or just mail those in as well? The Clippers will not give Kaman a max deal. The Bulls will not give Hinrich a max deal. We should either take a one year rental at center and shoot for the moon in the 2007 FA or find a way to get someone with real talent (Camby) without overpaying to get him. This roster as it stands now is going to be yet another lottery team with a huge hole in the interior.

They don't want to set a precedent by giving Kaman a max deal then having to deal with overpaying their own guys to keep them. Let's don't discount the Donald Sterling factor either: he's the literal case example used in all sports for a cheap owner. Why would he ok giving Kaman a max deal or matching one for him? As for Hinrich, we can dish out Lue or Claxton if need be for a servicable backup point guard. Claxton is not a franchise point guard and frankly isn't even really a starting one. He's best served as a sixth man off the bench in the PG role like he was used in NO/OKC.

If there's anyone that's worth the max or close to it and available its definitely Hinrich and Kaman. Both of them are exactly the kind of young, hungry players that a team like Atlanta needs to have in order to actually start winning. Hinrich is the best point guard leader of a team since Thomas and Kaman could be an easy 16/11 guy for us for years. I don't believe either one of their teams will spend the max or even over 10 million a season for them. They won't match if we signed them so we don't need to trade for them. Wasting our cap space on a guy like Wilcox is the WORST thing we could do. He has done nothing in the NBA except average 14/8 over 28 games. Wow. That's average for a NBA PF/C. Why overpay for mediocre?

Quote: Kaman isn't going anywhere. The Clips love his style, his work ethic, and he is young and learning fast. They match us. That is the issue. Who on the FA list looks like they might not be retained or matched? And would we have to pay thru the nose again to get another FA? What I want is someone paying heavier for AL. Mihm just doesn't do anything to really advance the cause. Wilcox is the best option that I see in the current and available category. The Clips will NOT pay the luxury tax. They won't spend more than 10 million a season to keep him. Both Kaman and Hinrich could easily be luxury tax victims next offseason. Can you imagine both of those guys on our team? Just one of them would be better than wasting our cap space on a guy like Wilcox.

I don't want Mihm or Wilcox or some other fill in the blank third tread center or a guy whose claim to fame is 28 games of averaging 14/8 and wants 60 million a season for it. No thanks. I'd rather give Lo Wright a one year deal and go after Chris Kaman next offseason to bring in a talented young big man whose getting better every season he's been in the league. Failing that, trade Harrington for Camby.

It depends on the bigs but in general yes I agree. Enough of Atlanta every year being the youngest team in the league. We need some kind of proven veteran talent (preferabbly a true honest to god CENTER now) to get past the hump.

Quote: First of all, I think it is CLEAR that Chillz is a better player than Biedrins RIGHT NOW. Biedrins has the POTENTIAL to get better but so far, all he is proven is that he is not good enough to get minutes from Adonal Foyle on a TERRIBLE team. Adonal Foyle was the only Center he had to battle for minutes and yet he played less than 15 mpg last year. And Foyle SUCKS! Foyle averaged 4.5 ppg, 5.5 rbg and 1.6 bpg. Zaza average 11.7 ppg, 7.9 rbg and .5 bpg. Why do you think Biedrins would have gotten more PT behind Zaza (let alone STARTED ahead of him) when he couldn't get minutes behind a lesser player in Foyle? As for Chillz, he had to fight for minutes at SG and SF with JJ, Smoove, Marvin, Al and Salim and he STILL managed to play more than TWICE as many minutes as Biedrins last year. Bottom line, even with what we know now, I wouldn't even CONSIDER trading Chillz straight up for Biedrins. Funny that no GS fan would even CONSIDER trading Biedrins straight up for Chill. Nor do I blame them. GS has to start Foyle to justify the insane contract they gave him. Mullin has to justify playing him to keep his own job. That is the only reason why Biedrins doesn't get more minutes. Go to a GS board and ask the fans there who see the kid play more than we do and they will tell you the same thing.

lol I knew this was going to happen eventually. Everyone was counting on Harrington taking less money "just" to play with Indiana again and this thing has taken so long that now he wants all the money he can get.

I either want Camby or some one year stiff to hopefully get Kaman next offseason.

Quote: Well actually, looking back at the list, i thought there were more on it. He probably doesn't deserve 3rd on that short list. But which 20 games did you watch? I watched about 10 and was very impressed by his overall floor generalship and the way he used his quicknes. He also could get up for rebounds and help with strips and steals. Nobody flat stops other quick PGs anymore due to the hand-check rule. You a Dookie or UNC guy? In college I root for UGA/GT equally. I'm not a fan of either Duke or UNC. I've had several relatives attend Duke but I do not consider myself a Duke fan at all. Why do you ask?

Quote: I watched NOK a few games last year. Paul was a great floor general who was quick enough to hedge on his own man a lot and assist on quick double teams when needed. He was always a threat to steal the ball. He also rebounds very well for his size. As a one-on-one defender he may not be all that special - but he can be an important part of a very good defense. I'd put him middle of the pack for this list. I watched over twenty games of theirs last season simply to see what Paul was doing. He routinely gave up easy baskets, easy looks and was pushed easily out of the paint or the low post by every point guard he was defending. His only saving grace was jumping into a passing lane and trying to get a steal (and more likely than not flubbing it and leaving yet another wide open jump shot since he was out of position) just like Iverson. Each game I watched him I couldn't help but think that as bad as we were last season on defense just how much worse we would be for years with that black hole on defense that would need help every possession to try and contain his man.

I'd love to have a "Take a baseball bat to BK and Belkin night!" myself.

Where did I bash Zaza? I like the guy. He's a great backup center. That's the key of course: backup. He's not a real starter and we all know it. Biedrins would certainly have been better in retrospect on our team than Childress.

Anyone who actually watched Paul play last season would have as good of a laugh as putting him on that list that I did. Paul is a horrible defensive player. If it was not for Steve Nash I would list Paul squarely as the worst defensive point guard in the entire NBA.

And Mihm who got tossed off the Cavs and is barely a starter for a big man starved Lakers team is any better?

Quote: Quote: Looking back on it, Deng, Iggy and Biedrins would have been better fits on our team. Especially the big man. What has Biedrins proved? Childress is a better athlete than Deng and a better shooter than Iguodala. He can play 2 positions and he also plays D. Isn't that what this team is going to be all about? Guys who are versatile, can run the floor and play D? Too many of you are writing off Childress too soon. Go find the two highlight videos I posted of Biedrins. That kid is very good but he's raw (he's younger than Josh Smith) and he plays on a team that's even more inept than we are and refuses to play him. He would definitely start for us here.

I do agree that the ownership struggles have absolutely stuck this team in the mud for the last two seasons and looks like it will last at least under season. No Hawks fan can honestly deny that. The rest of the article is the typical Hawk hate that the national media regurgitates on itself to try and make it fact.

Not having that meatgrinder of a WC trip to start the season off is going to help, no doubt.

Quote: Quote: Mihm sucks. He is worse defensively than Zaza without even the energy, he's a pedestrian rebounder and the only saving grace to his entire game is his outside jumpshot. Which isn't even good, but average. I would hate having Mihm on this team because he would do nothing to address actual needs on our team. so who would you suggest we get with out giving up our core! it seams like you want us to get a great big man with out giving up are best players. i will take c mihm if it means we only lose t lou. sounds like you are living in fantasy land. the objective is to get the best big man we can with out giving up important peices of our team; any big man we get is an improvement over john edwards! I'd rather give a one year deal to Lorenzen Wright who at least can play defense and plays hard. Two things no one has ever accused Mihm of doing. Besides which if we gave up Lue we wouldn't have a real backup point guard on the roster.

I still think the Pacers are the ones holding this up. They are refusing to lower the protection on the pick because they know we can't do anything else with our roster until Harrington is gone. We have already lost a chance to get Magloire for peanuts from the Bucks. Who knows what else we will miss out on? Meanwhile the Pacers did their own trades while we can't do anything.