Uuus

And what about Curry and Evans? That's a long, strong list.

I like the irony here. BK wanted to fire Woody and let Drew take over as head coach a few years back. Well, we've moved on to the future and that scenario has played out under our new GM now.

Maybe he can be the next Phil Jackson!!! Ha!. I guess all he needs is a MJ or a Shaq or a Kobe now.

Sure, JJ can just walk and sign w/ Miami. But I don't think he will. This is his last chance to get a big contract. And I'm sure, both he and his agent, are gonna want that extra year that we can provide. So at the minimum there should be a sign and trade.

that would be awful for us. do you have any links?...I couldn't find anything on it but didn't spend too much time or effort looking it up either.

Thats exactly my point....the front office needs to put a plan in place in order to ATTEMPT to bring LeBron to Atlanta....just because its a long shot doesn't mean that our front office shouldn't be trying to do it. They should be in touch w/ his agent on July 1st...have a creative marketing plan in place ready to show LeBron and his agent just why he should want to play in Atlanta. The chances are great that he will shun us, but that shouldn't prevent us from going balls out in order to convince him.

Yup, that exactly what I was asking about. Thanks for the clarification. Dolfan, the other thing you said about us having to trade Joe....well, if you convince LeBron to come to Atlanta (a very longshot i know) and it is clear that we are not trading Joe Johnson back in return, I still think Cleveland would be hard pressed to find a better package than Josh Smith and fillers/draft picks in return. Is that just my homerism or do you all agree?

First, what does the warning on my original post mean? I've been following this site for years but just started posting more frequently now. Secondy, I don't care how remote the chances are. There has to be a plan in place to attempt to convince LeBron to come here. If this front office is serious about winning, this has to be done. And there's no point in thinking about how little the chances are...you just go for it. What does LeBron want? Hmm, well I would think that he wants to win and he wants to get paid. Those 2 things are at the top of his list and we can provide them both. But unfortunately, unlike the teams under the salary cap, it requires additional work in this case-you have to convince him that he can thrive in the ATL and make him want to come here. There's so many athletes that love living in Atlanta in the off-season so its definitely a great destination for the rich and famous. The marketing department needs to put together a plan to convey all this to Lebron. He would be loved like no athlete in the history of Atlanta, he would be getting paid, and he would have a shot at winning multiple championships. I know many cities can claim all this but I don't think realistically there's many that have all 3 of these points covered like we do.

I know we can't sign him outright, but it would be foolish for us to not contact the biggest free agent of the last decade at all. We have some good assets that can be traded and if LeBron can be convinced that he can win a championship here, can't we do a sign and trade for him? I don't know how the salaries would need to match up in order to make a trade w/ Cleveland (I think Diesel had one in another thread), but if you can trade for LeBron, you can still resign Joe, and have Horford here still (he's got a cheaper contract so Im thinking Smoove would have to be traded at least). You can then bring back Chillz and sign a service-able big man (i'm sure there would be people willing to sign for cheap if you have a chance at winning the championship). I know the owners would be spending a lot of money, but the Highlight factory would be sold out every game and we'd be on national tv a couple times every 2 weeks at the least. And most importantly, a team w/ Joe, LeBron, and Horford can win a championship. Our front office should be putting together a plan to at least try to attract LeBron to the highlight factory. My question to the board is: If you worked in the front office, what would you do to try to get LeBron to come to Atlanta?

first, I don't think van gundy will get fired. but if theres any chance that he might, hell I say we wait and then we pick him up. he's a better option than anything that's out there right now. he brings discipline , fire, and toughness to the sidelines. and he's shown the ability to come up w/ an offensive gameplan that takes advantage of his players strengths. and don't forget that his team has been a top defensive team the last few years. while orlando has folded this season, stan did get them to the finals when no one expected them too. the problem w/ orlando isn't stan. its that their on court leaders are soft...yes dwight is soft...he's lacking that on court toughness necessary to win championships ...he's just a big happy go lucky athletic freak. and then you combine him w/ vince and you got 2 guys that are completely lacking the intangibles needed to lead a team to the top. I would love to see the work he could do w/ horford, smith, marvin, crawford, teague, and possibly joe.

it says 2 major things to me: 1) we need a defensive center to match up w/ howard (collins doesn't count, maybe haywood?). I love al and think we can get by w/ him as the starting center against most teams, just not the magic. dwight was just way too comfortable against us. 2) the team gave up on woodson. they stopped scrapping and fighting so it was obvious woodys time was over. he had lost the players. we need our next coach to be someone who is well respected by the players and in return, someone they will play hard for. someone who gets his team fighting to the death like the bucs did for skiles.

wow. I don't know if that works financially or not but I would love to do this. and I think its a trade that could benefit both teams. throw bibby in too if somehow possible.

All great points. One additional thing I would like our coaching staff to do: if Howard misses his first couple of free throws or goes like 1-6 to begin the game, intentionally foul that dude immediately. I mean right after Orlando throws the ball in or gets a rebound. I saw the Spurs do that to him in a regular season game this year and they totally got into his head. He was barking at the Spurs coaching staff and the official about all the hard fouls he was getting, but then he would miss the free throws. So, in return the coaching staff responded by employing Hack-a-Ho and that messed him up even more. He was so frustrated from that point on. It was brilliant coaching. If he's having a bad day at the charity stripe, you automatically put him there (by getting Bibby or Joe or Jamal to grab him, not Al or Josh or Zaza) and see what he can do. This does 2 things: 1. Messes with Howard's head and possibly gets him even more frustrated. And we all know a frustrated Howard has a tendency to pick up silly fouls. 2. It takes Orlando's offense out of rhythm.

im not sure what to make of it. woody played acie in the first two games in boston and we all know how that relationship panned out. teagues D on jennings didn't really stand out so it'll be interesting to see if woody gives him any burn in next game.

Whether Joe stays or goes, we need to do something about our coaching. I would love to get rid of Woody and get someone w/ a fiery personality....someone like Jeff Van Gundy. I think Van Gundy would harp on Defense and Rebounding just as much as Woody does but he would also "give a **** about offense." And he would also bring the intensity to the sidelines that our team needs at times....there's no way we shouldn't be playing with more fire and heart against teams like the Heat and Knicks when we have a chance to win the division. Woody seems too laid back to me and doesn't bring out this in the team.

I don't know about long term, but short term, they need Al to keep developing his post game. We cannot beat the Magic if we don't go at Dwight. THEY HAVE TO TAKE IT AT DWIGHT and try to get him into foul trouble. Orlando baits us into shooting jumpers and we fall for that crap everytime. Against most teams, we get away doing that because our athletic frontcourt will go get offensive boards and make the opponent pay. Against Orlando we might hit a couple outside shots, but we'll keep jacking up jumpers, contested and uncontested, and then dwight will be down there scooping up all the misses.

Joe had a great first quarter but these nights can be frustrating to watch. I wouldn't be surprised if Joe ends up w/ like 30 at the end of the game, which is a great night but we need more than that if he starts off w/ 18 in the first. The difference between Kobe/D Wade/Lebron and Joe is that if they had 18 in the first quarter, they'd keep pouring it on and end up with anywhere between 40 and 50 for the night. I hope I'm wrong and that Joe has another period in the game where he gets into a groove like he did in the first quarter. But I've seen many nights where he's been on fire for a period but not able to maintain it for most of the night.

A lot of people around here clown Marvin Williams and his love/dedication for the game of basketball. They bring up him playing video games or watching SpongeBob instead of working on his game. The 2 lines above don't sound like they're coming from a guy who isn't serious about improving his game. Here's another quote from him that was in the AJC the other day: "Plus, I feel like basketball players are made in the summer time. That’s when people are relaxing and doing whatever. The guys that put in the work in the summer time, that’s when it really shows in the season. Because the truth is you don’t really have time to work on your individual game as much as you’d like to during the season." That sounds a lot like the mentality of another UNC alum, one who was just inaugurated into the Hall of Fame this weekend. I'm not saying Marvin is anywhere near MJ's level or anything, but he's not a passionless, immature child or anything either, like many Marvin haters on this board make him out to be. He's a professional who's improved his game every year and I'm really glad we were able to resign him. I'm anxious to see what he's added to his skill repertoire this summer.

Jason Kidd? Rasheed Wallace? Who is Sekou talking about?!

Ron Artest?!?

Swift intrigues me too. I would prefer a veteran but if we can't get McDyess or the likes, we should definitely take a look at Swift if the price is right. We don't need a starter up front but we definitely need someone on the bench that can provide size to go with good D, rebounds, and blocked shots. Didn't Sund draft him too? That could come into play as it did when Sund brought a familiar face back last year in Flip at a bargain price.

Woodson frustrates the hell out of me and I'm no fan of his. However, I try to look at this objectively. And what I see is a coach that preaches defense and rebounding consistently. His idea is that its defense and rebounding that will win a championship. And I agree with that totally. I look at how our team looks coming out of training camp-after Woody has been able to drill everything he wants into our team-and before the young ins start forgetting the basic fundamentals of defense. It seems like at the start of every year the Hawks come out like gangbusters...and our defense is what carries us.....remember our start this year? remember last year? even that year when we beat Cleveland on the road with Tyrone Lue hitting a floater over Lebron and we were like 5-1 to start the season or something like that (I think that was 3 years ago)? For some reason over the course of the year, the team forgets how it played in those starts. If those starts are really due to woody's coaching and our team grows up and is able to maintain those efforts for most of the season, I am okay with him as our coach. Either way, there is no doubt that we need an offensive coordinator. Its just easier to accept the lack of one when the team is playing defense and rebounding the way it seems Woody wants them to.

After seeing that you have Smoove (or Chillz) at freakin SHOOTING guard, I can't even pay attention to the rest of your post. I seriously hope you're joking! Either that or Billy Knight jacked your computer and posted a message under your name!

I can't hate on Childress for doing what he did. Its a business and he did what was best for him financially. However, our front office screwed dude over too....they could have showed him a little more love and been a little more active in the negotiations with him. If I remember correctly, I think Childress felt disrespected because the organization didn't really reach out to him when the free agent signing period started. They were really passive and didn't really make him feel important. I think he would have settled for less money if the negotiations were handled a little better. I would love to have him back. Mo Evans was a bargain, but there's too many games where he does absolutely NOTHING. Chill always seemed to make an impact in some way. He was our 'baseline bum' that could score w/out any plays called for him. On occasions, he could post smaller players and use that quick spin to get a layup. He was money from the line. His ugly set shot 3 pointer would go in half the time if anybody ever drove to the middle and kicked it out to him in the corner. His defense wasn't too shabby either w/ those crazy long arms of his. And plus he was one of the original members of "The Highlight Factory!!!!" (not that that has anything to do w/ winning games). He was one of those guys that every contending team needs and most championship teams have. Like its been said many times before, San Antonio would be slobbering all a guy like him. I would definitely love to have him back but of course the price is gotta be right. And a part of me feels like theres a possibility that he may come back. It seems like his first few interviews when he went to Greece had a very different tone from the ones I see him in now. He seemed a lot happier than and now it seems like the experience has worn on him. There seems more doubt in his voice now. He just may have realized that perhaps he really does like playing in a raucous Phillips, closer to home, and in his native country, even if its for a few million less- better than some foreign land where he really didn't meet people's expectations of him. Perhaps, time has healed those wounds that the organization created when they showed him no recognition last summer.

Thanks! I don't post much but I read everything on here and have been for a few years. I'm as hardcore about the Hawks as you can get. Been a loyal fan since the early 90s...even in the 13 win season, I watched most of the team's games over the internet (living as a student in NY at that time and too broke to get NBA TV so had to use a friend's pw to watch online!) I haven't posted much but plan to get much more active now that I'm finally finishing up with dental school.