Playoffs03

Hey man, I wasn't here praying for her the first time, but I will be doing that from now on. Hope everything will turn out just fine.

I think 15ppg for Theo is somewhat unrealistic ... unless we have a point guard name Jason Kidd. 12ppg is probably the max he will ever average in his entire career. He averaged 12.4ppg in the lockout season but I doubt he can do that in a full season.

I agree that Smitty is not a starter. I am not really familar with Brown, so I am not very high on him, but I would definitely do this trade if we can somehow get Delk involves in it.

"Odom expressed interest in playing for Canada and Reef before the draft. " I remember reading that too. I love this deal and Odom will be a great fit. Doesn't Wilcox play kind of like Theo when he was playing for Maryland two years ago? I'd love to see Odom and Wilcox in Hawks uniform but will the Clippers do a sign and trade?

I has been a huge fan of Reef since his rookie season. He is a good player, a hard worker, a very classy guy, but he is not a winner. Why? Because he doesn't have that mentality. If you look at guys like Pierce, MJ, Iverson, Kobe, T-Mac etc, they always want to prove themself as the BEST player in the planet and they understand that they are the head of their respective team. But Reef is more willing to sacarifice his personal achievement (being the best) in order to win. This is where the problem is. He needs to realize that he is the best player on the team and that he needs to play like the best for his team to win. There is no contradiction between his personal achievement and winning games for his team. But he never understands this point. Last season when Big Dog was still around, Reef took way less shots, but shot a much higher percentage. He was willing to sacarifice the number of shots he take and let Dog be the best player on the team. The problem is, Dog is not the best player, he is. He will never be a leader that he can be if he doesn't change the way he is thinking. He might become a winner as a 2nd option but not a guy who can carry his own team. Think differently, Reef!

For some reason, I have a feeling that Theo will be the next one to be traded. I like Theo's game, but I think this is actually a good time to trade him because he just had a healthy season and I kinda doubt he will play as much games as he did last year. I think his stock right now is probably at his highest. Thoughts anyone?

Todd, I wanna say thanks too. Good job!

Our lineup should look something like this, JT/DD Diaw/DJ Mo/JYD/CC Reef/Hendu Theo/Nazr/Montross or JT/DD Mo/DJ JYD/Diaw/CC Reef/Hendu Theo/Nazr/Montross and we can have the entire MCE to spend on just one player.

After reading some of the replies from this Big Dog trade idea, I've come up with an improved version of this trade which address two things, 1) much less risky 2) sg help. Glen Robinson for Morris Peterson + Jerome Williams + Eric Montross Mo Pete is a pretty good shooter/scorer and he is young and injury free so far. He was inconsistent last year because he was asked to carry the team by himself when Carter was out. He is not capable of doing that and he had to force his shots etc which made him that inconsistent last year. Overall, he is a pretty good player and would be a good 3rd option for us. His defense won't be a significant upgrade over Big Dog, but at least he is younger and quicker. Montross gives us a big body to bang inside and nothing else, but the good thing about getting him is that we don't have to spend any of our MCE to sign a big man and we could use the whole MCE to sign a SG that can really help us now. In fact, we can even put Mo Pete at SG, JYD at SF and have Diaw and DJ coming off the bench if they are not ready. In this case, we can spend our entire MCE on whoever player we wish. I think the Raptors will still do this because they get an allstar playing at SF and have guys like Murray, Jefferies, and Lenard (resign) coming off the bench at the 2 and 3 behind Carter and Dog.

Glen Robinson for Jerome Williams + Lamond Murray + Chris Jefferies Why should the Raptors do it? They need to win now because their GM is in the last year of his contract. Mo Pete has been struggling without Carter and they need a consistent 2nd option behind Carter and Big Dog is definitely their guy. This deal gives them a much better cap flexibility in two years as they unload a bad contract in JYD. Why should the Hawks do it? One of the problem we had last year was the lack of defense. Getting rid of Big Dog improves our defense immediately and getting JYD and Chris Jefferies will make us a much better defensive team. Lamond Murray's health is a concern consider the fact that he didn't play a single game last season but he is a proven shooter from long distance and he could solve our lack of shooters problem. Jefferies is a young athletic swingman who plays good defense. He and Diaw can work on their shootings together. I know this is a risky move but this deal gives us defense, athleticism, and perhaps a good shooter and all we have to give up is a star who doesn't fit in to our team, a star who helps us better when he is not playing.

Atlanta Hawks Round 1: Boris Diaw, SG, France (No. 21) Round 2: Travis Hansen, G, BYU (No. 37) This was the best draft the Hawks have had in some time. They got the guy who could turn into the perfect compliment to Jason Terry in Boris Diaw. A 6-foot-9 point forward, Diaw can handle the ball while Terry lights up the scoreboard. Hansen is a solid second pick. Combine his maturity with great athleticism, strong defense and a nice shooting touch, and the Hawks found a guy who could make a major contribution to their backcourt. Grade: A-

I think we should. DJ will become very good if his injury from the car crash is perfectly fine.

how many of you guys would actually take him?

Dolfan23 i like your deal a lot. mo pete is a pretty good scorer but he is inconsistent. he will be more consistent when playing along side a true point guard like tj ford and jefferies can take over newble's role. this deal saves us money because we don't need to sign newble anymore. unlike mo pete, jt is much better at creating his own shots and would give the raptors a consistent 2nd option, in addition, alvin is not a great ball handler or distributor, by having jt playing the 2, they can compromise each others strengths and weaknesses. jt would be a real great fit for them.

grob for brandon + 25th pick + future 1st rd pick we can unload a lot of salary while the wolves get a lot of talent in grob by just trading two 20+ picks and some cap space that they have. it is definitely worth the gamble for the wolves as they give up very little and grob could be what they need to get them pass the 1st rd next year. thoughts?

For the first time we didn't blow the lead ...... Reef and JT set the tone in the first quarter especially with 2 big steals with about 10 seconds to the end of the quarter. Hendu was doing a great job tonight ........ the attendance was awful ..... I thought it was a PGA game or something ...... anyway, we are at .600 after ten games, we could have done better, but this is still great. Keep it up! Go Hawks!

I saw the halftime highlight from TNT, Big Dog threw down an alley. Very impressive!

The Hornets with all of their starters back but we still beat them 90-69. We were without Reef (I hope he is okay). This is so great! Glover had 16 points in 18 minutes. Another all around performance by Big Dog, 15 points, 9 boards, and 6 dimes. JT, 21 points 6 dimes, 3 of 3 from 3 point land. GO HAWKS!!! WHO SAID WE CAN'T PLAY DEFENSE!!!

Anyone of us can write better articles about the hawks then those guys. They get paid for copy and paste other people's articles. Please! Put in some effort and be original.

It is nice to hear that DJ didn't get into any legal troubles and stuff like that. Lets hope DJ comes back and have the same kind of success (Pierce is having right now). I mean, didn't PP get stabbed and people were so worried he might never play ball again and then he is now an all-star (I consider him a superstar). Lets just hope the same thing happens to DJ.

As Shareef and Theo said, " we will just have to prove it and live up to it ". What other people or mags said is not important, we just have to prove it. prove them wrong and earn our respect this way.

Nice article Jay Glover and Newble both have something to prove, Glover needs to prove that he can actually play solid D, Newble needs to prove that he is not a liability on offense. I think Newble will probably win the starting job just because we have so much scorer on the team plus I think Lon would actually let JT and Dan on the floor together quite a lot when we need more scoring. btw, can anybody tell me what causes DJ's accident? or does anyone know? Thx

Menkee Bateer (i believe he is the only chinese player who actually has a good post game and not a 3 point shooter) i think the EAST needs some stability. Look at the teams, basically only the Nets and the Hornets are really guaranteed to the playoffs. boston - no point guard, chemistry?, their bench is weak too, but there is that Pierce guy, they will PROBABLY make it to the playoffs detroit - can rip carrys the team? no i don't think so. are they better now? probably not. can they make the playoffs? they MAY, but i am not surprise if they don't. philly - is keith van horn really such a big upgrade over matt harpring? no. can iverson get along with van horn? no. can iverson get along with brown? nevermind. can they make the playoffs? same as detroit, they MAY, but i am not surprise if they don't. bucks - losing some of the key free agents hurt, but nothing close to losing glenn robinson. its ray's team, but he is still surrounded by shooters, this team has only 1 dimensional. they are not as talented as they were last year. Once again, they may make the playoffs, but i am not surprise if they don't. magic - the key words is grant hill and healthy. IF hill is healthy, kemp does what he is expected, then the magic is one of the best team in the east, but thats a big IF and we will find out shortly. raptors - vince coming back, they have no center, and they will probably move davis back to the center sport and put jyd on the starting lineup. but then this team will be way undersize but very energetic. the bench is weak. they MAY sneak in to the playoffs, but probably NOT. washington - IF larry huges can play like ron harper at the point guard, IF kwame brown plays like hoarce grant or dennis rodman, IF White or Haywood plays at least better than Luc Longley, IF MJ plays at least 70 games and produce something like last year, THEN they will be around 80% of the championship bulls which is sufficent to make the playoffs with a low seed. but thats a lot of IFs, even though most of those IFs are easily achieveable, but we will have to see. they have a very young but talented bench. they are going to be much more interesting to watch then last year. They will PROBABLY make the playoffs. indy - such a talented them, but they are always too young to do anything. someone needs to step up, reggie can't be around to take the clutch shots forever. isiah thomas, this is your last chance to make some noise, making to the playoffs alone won't save you the job for next year. They will PROBABLY make the playoffs. Here is the east should look NJ,NO guaranteed playoffs Boston, Washington, Magic, Indy, and Hawks are probably going to the playoffs Raptors, Pistons, Bucks and Philly may have a chance These teams can go in any order in the playoffs.

I think it will be a great idea to pay JT a bit less (something 40-42 millions) and give him incentives like what they did to lewis in seattle (lets say if we win 50 games a season, he will get like $5 million as a bonus or something like that). sounds fair to me.

I would say he is an above average, but not excellent. He is the best BU CENTER in the EAST (arguably in the league). but he is definitely not the BEST BU in the EAST. Nazr is a very very good back up player and he can probably start for about one third of the teams in the league.