Iman

I'm with CBA, this poll was clearcut and I think the decision was also, most on this board think we suck and the only way to turn it around is to get Oden. The only way reasonable way for that to occur is for JJ to go down for an extended period. As I stated, I take it if assured Oden would be available, since the poll didnt state that, I'd still take the wins. I'm just not that assured that the other potential #1 picks will be that much better than what we get with the Indy pick or even a better pick if we trade an asset or two. Oden is clear, somewhat like the Pat Ewing or Tim Duncan drafts. But thinking back to most other drafts, the number 1 pick hasnt been that critical. Whereas if our team and players improve they'll be more valuable as trade assets plus have more confidence. The poll was informative to me, maybe the answers would have been more even if it had been 35 wins versus a top3 pick?

Smoove can make some horrible plays but after JJ, he most influences whether we win or lose. Lue is probably next. As Exodus is discussing, basically this team isnt that different from last year's. Replacing Al is Shelden and Speedy is a wash. To get better, Marvin has to do something and hopefully it's just his hand but I'm starting to get worried. I really dont think JJ or Marvin are playing at much more than 85% right now due to recovering from injuries.

Perfect poll as worded. I still chose the wins but it's close, actually if you added the option and Oden decides to declare for the draft, that might have swayed me to take the pick. If JJ did go down, I think we'd battle Philly down to the wire for worst record, but then you have the lottery which might leave us with the 4th or 5th pick.

I'm sure when GM's are hammering out deals, top3 restriction is a common final ending point. If the team giving up the pick thinks they can just tank and keep the pick, it might not happen. Likewise, if a team expecting to improve to near playoff status but then should have key injuries, etc, that team might finish with the 5-8 worst record and still luck up in the lottery and get to keep it's pick. Tanking is not worth it with at top3 restriction level. If BK had gotten the trade to happen lottery restricted or top8 restricted, etc then it would be. As it stands now if we think we seriously need a top3 pick we better start getting ready to trade an asset with some other team that gets that pick in the lottery because there will be only around a 20% chance that we'll have one. We'll quit thinking this way once our schedule lets up and we get out of this slump. 30 wins is still about what I'd expect.

I am still leaning towards thinking that Smoove is the only one of our young players that has a shot at being dominant. He just has to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses. Also he has to work on keeping his mind in the game. I doubt he will ever achieve all that but he'll still probably be the most game influential of our young players and is therefore the last of the bunch that I'd trade. Marvin will probably be able to outscore Smoove consistently in just a few months and should average 18-20ppg during his prime years. I think he'll be a top3-5 SF in the league, in the Sean Marion/Rashard Lewis kinda range, but still not dominant. Trading him right now would be unlikely to bring equal value but maybe we could get a player that fits our team better like Channing Frye, etc. Childress and Shelden are great players to have on a team we just have to forget about where they were drafted. I think Childress has pretty good trade value now so I hope BK is looking for good offers. I'd like to see us play better so we can trade a few assets for ones that fit better. Salim for one of the point guard prospects we've missed the last few years. Childress for a 2007 pick that might get us a center, especially if combined with our Indy pick.

I gotta agree with Walter "the Bulldog" on this one. Btw, I'm now realizing that Walter must have been partially raised by bulldogs, he gets his teach into an idea and doesnt let go until something else comes by to bite into. About all I can see in the next few years that will make us into an eventual contender is getting a very good 2007 draft pick. Think about it, if we sign a top free agent, it's unlikely it will make us good enough or if it did it would take a few years and by that time we wouldnt be able to afford to resign our young players so we'd have to break it up anyways. However, other than lottery luck, I dont see us getting a top 3 pick. Even with all our injuries, we were a decent team 2/3 of the year so far, once we get out of this slump and into the easier part of the season, we will turn it around and probably win 28-35 games. That's assuming Joe doesnt go down to an extended injury. So since I think "The Bulldog's" idea relies on luck and signing a vet just wont do it, I think it's gonna take some crafty moves by BK to get us where we need to be. And for BK to have more tradeable assets our players have to start playing better. Right now Marvin and Shelden probably dont have much trade value. And I think it's gonna be hard to get a team to give up a 2007 top10 pick or so, but Josh Childress will probably do it, preferably maybe we can give up ZaZa and Salim in some sort of deal. Then if we did have two mid 2007 picks, maybe we could move them for a higher pick. Getting back to winning will help our player's trade values so that's what I'm hoping for, and soon! Then I'd like to see some trades, even if it means losing Childress who is my favorite Hawk.

I can see valid points behind both the argument that we suck or that we still have a shot at the playoffs. We actually were playing well but not closing out games until our recent slump which I think is a direct result of JJ not being back at full strength and our secondary scorer Lue being out. We arent like many teams that play harder when they lose a star, we are so young that we overpressure ourselves and look bad. In my mind, we win at least 30 games this year unless JJ goes down. Even with just 25 wins it's unlikely we'd get to keep our pick so tanking is out. But I do agree with the tankers in that we have to pick up a few more good players to ever be a top5 team, even in the East. Given BK's mentality it appears we are gonna have to get lucky in the draft with the Indy pick and maybe get Splitter or someone like that. Bringing over David Anderson is a possibility too. Plenty of dominant PF's have been shorter than Marvin (have you noticed Smoove is taller than Marvin). Shelden wont be one of those and you would like to get that with a 5th pick but who would have been a better pick last year anyways. It was just a crappy draft, much like the year we took Dermarr. That doesnt make BK a bad drafter. Anyways if we all keep arguing that BK only takes certain player types, why keep blaiming him on this pick. Ownership, etc must have seriously influenced the pick, otherwise there is absolutely NO DOUBT that BK would have taken Rudy Gay. With all our injuries I bet BK slips it in on ownership all the time about how Rudy Gay would have helped! BK can be blamed for not getting more restriction on giving up our 2007 pick, that might end up being very stupid.

Marvin's value is at it's alltime low right now, it's not the time to move him. With Smoove out, we have to hope Marvin's hand comes around and he suddenly starts scoring. If we keep losing it actually might bring Smoove's value up. Other than maybe moving Salim, I think this is our team and Coach for the rest of the year.

I think we are a pretty strong team from the SF down. Speedy/Lue isnt as good as Deron or Paul but that's old news, they are still nearly NBA average. JJ and Chillz at the 2 is very strong, nearly tops in the league. Our SF's are young but should come along. Smoove and Shelden are both undersized at PF and provide very little post offense. ZaZa and Lo is a bottom third of the league center rotation, maybe absolute bottom. Zaza puts up decent stats but he is not an efficient player. We dont really need Salim so he's tradeable and the quickest way for us to get good would also be to trade either Marvin or Smoove with Salim for a center or good PF. Probably wont happen and neither Marvin or Smoove is at peak value right now anyways. Probably the easiest thing to do soon is move Salim for a young point prospect like Rondo or Marcus Williams.

With just a break or two or an extra free throw or two, we would have been around 12-11 after winning at least either the Chicago or Utah game, or both. JJ doesnt seem to have gotten his outside stroke back yet, I bet his leg is still bothering him. That combined with losing Lue cost us closing out some wins. Now with JJ still slumping and no other scoring options and some tougher opponents, we look like we have no chance to win. Everyone knew our December schedule would be difficult but compounded with all these injuries, what do you expect. I doubt we can recover enough to make a playoff run, but I do expect us to start playing .500 basketball from about the midseason on. Actually it will probably start in a week or two when the schedule lets up and we have Lue back. It's just a slump caused by injuries, come on people!

I think most of the board liked the JJ deal. We knew BK had to overpay to get a star. However, what we all worried about was the minimal restriction on the 2007 pick. I'm sure Colangelo pushed for this lack of restriction but I bet it was BK's arrogance that allowed him to not push back and get the pick top8 restricted at least. BK was sure we'd be a borderline playoff team by the end of this year, as were most of us. We still may be but with all these injuries and our lack of picking up another good player for AL or a free agent, we just might fall somewhere in the 4th to 8th pick range. If that's the case, I'll blame BK, not JJ.

Hawksfan didn't quite operate his calculator correctly. Anderson translates to 83.5 inches which is 6'11.5 (84 inches is 7 feet, a bad calculator user would get 6.95 feet and not realize the error). He's 235 lbs, I saw him live a few minutes and he looked a little tougher than I had heard but in general he's usually described as more of a finesse center. Not what we'd need and he wont be cheap but we should still pay and get him over here. If he's as good as it appears he is at the very least after we had him we could move him for more of a defensive center. Or at least we could play some pick and roll with him and JJ.

It wont show up in the box score, I havent looked at how many steals were credited, but I'm sure Speedy and Smoove EACH deflected 6+ passes the first 3 quarters last nite. Unfortunately they didn't tip very many in the 4th and the Jazz deflected and stole plenty of ours.

I'm in shock after attending these last 2 Hawks losses. As a huge optimist I'm trying to just say this is part of learning or if we had just had a couple of our injured players we would have won. Either way, as I've seen posted by others the key is what do we do after losses like these. It was a good sign that we came out strong after the Chicago loss and then an even worse flop occurred. Well I dont think this team will fold. Our next 5 games are against probable top 4 seeds from each conference including Detroit, Houston, and then San Antonio on the road. I think we'll hunker down and win the two tough home games against Indy and Cleveland and then win one or maybe two of the road games. We should be back at near full strength so we'll have no excuses. Even 2 outta 5 with good showing in the other 3 would be tolerable. One or two blowout losses even against tough teams like these and I think we never get enough confidence back this season to go on any sort of run. What do ya'll think? Will we fold and Woody be fired or do we "Rise Up"..lol. I'm predicting 3-2 for our next 5 games.

Not to make excuses, the last two losses were ridiculous, but no way we lose either game if Lue was available or Joe was at full strength. You could see all during the game that Joe had to drive the ball because his outside shot was off. Corey Brewer hounding him during the comeback didnt help either. As posted earlier we just needed someone who could break the momentum. I cant even blame the losses on Coach Woodson although I hope he is replaced this offseason. Salim is what he is, an offensive spark that is nice to have available but not nice to have to rely on. He has made some questionable moves thoughout his basketball career. We dont really need him once Chillz and Lue get back. Hopefully he'll shoot well when we give him minutes so we can package him in a trade. Also as mentioned earlier, as long as we continue to come out and play hard after these losses we have a chance. One or two bad performances after losses like these means we've given up and so far that's not been the case. I actually see us winning 3 outta our next 5 killer games.

I dont like Thabeet much and I doubt BK does either. He seems to have a very low basketball IQ to me and questionable killer instincts as opposed to Dikembe. He does have tons of potential and probably wont be an option anyways. I see BK still looking for that mythic tall point guard so he'll be most likely to want Steele or Crittendon and he might make a move for a player like that but not Thabeet. More likely BK cant moveup to get who he wants and he goes back to BPA and takes Thaddeus Young or a similar type player. Outta bigs that might be in our range especially if we can move up, I'd bet BK likes Tiago Splitter. BK seems to like caucasian centers for some weird reason and at least Splitter is reported to be a defensive specialist. If we dont take a center in the first, Jemareo Davidson outta Wheeler and now Alabama is looking like a BK favorite with our second round pick. I like him but he's pretty much exactly like Solomon Jones.

I dont like Zaza much as a player, but I'd still start him until we sign a better center. You could start Shelden against some centers but I like refining roles and changing starters based on matchups go against that. I would like to see Shelden as the first man off the bench. Sub him for whichever frontcourt player is having problems, just screwed up, etc, preferably usually Zaza. Then you have Chillz to bring in for the SF and slide him to SG a few mins as JJ rests.

We still havent seen our team intact on the floor yet this year. Chillz being available will help tons when JJ is off the floor and he'll help us get running too. Once we get JJ back and Marvin, Speedy, and Chillz get reintegrated, we will be a much better team. Whichever of our forwards is playing well at the time will be our second scorer. Gradually one may step forward. The biggest area that needs improvement that doesnt seem to be imminent is our paint defense. Shelden helps with some players, get burned by others. Same for Solo. Zaza and Lo really dont make up much of a center duo, it's obvious that that is our problem. We might make the playoffs this year or next but we wont go any further until we get a center.

I hate it myself. Somehow a better feed is available because highlights of our games on other channels are much clearer, especially on NBA TV.

He looked bad again during most of the Sacramento game. It further confirms to me that most of his problems come when he thinks he has to make things happen himself. Even with Joe he forces things if he thinks he has to be the prime second option. Once Marvin and Chillz get back I think Smoove will be fine. Gradually as he matures I think this forcing problem will go away. He needs to just work on basic basketball, blocking out, dribbling, post moves, etc until he gets under control.

I completely agree Cody. I assume Paul's star will fall somewhat and I bet BK would have taken Deron. Marvin has to prove that's he's better than Deron for me to be happy. The other option as long as Marvin pans out is to move a player or even two for a dominant defensive center. I still hope Dwight Howard will force a trade back home. The next option is probably getting lucky in the draft. Another option is taking on someone's overpaid center's contract just to improve. Chandler, Ben Wallace, Dalembert, Brendan Haywood, Kwame...all would be improvements over what we have and really arent worth what they are paid so we could get them for very little if a team decides to dump them. Doubt BK would take them though.

When we are at full strenght with our forwards, what we need is a good defending point that can get us running and who likes to penetrate and kick out. That's Speedy. He has taken a long time to get into any sort of groove this year but missing camp after signing a big contract probably contributed to that. I doubt he was as lazy about running as people seem to say, he probably just is prone to knee pain just like this rest of his body. Get Speedy out on the court for a few weeks with our running forward team and it'll be a different story. But he still wont be a shooter, I guess Marvin or Joe will shoot technicals. Lo is worse than I remember. I think Woody will play Solo more in certain situations. LA had some big bodies down low, he probably thought Lo was the better option. My take on Louis Williams is that he's pretty much a Salim without as much experience. I only know of one great SG that size and he's on the trading block now and no ones really wants him (Iverson).

We got lucky to win this game and the road game at Cleveland. But we got unlucky to lose a few game early like Seattle and Milwaukee at home. I'll take it. I'm still worried at we go into a slump the next 5-10 games until we get back to strength. Bet we lose the next 4 outta the next 6.

Smoove can defend soft PF's like Nowitski or KG if you classify them as PF's. He cant defend powerful ones due in part to his natural tendencies but moreso I agree with EDS, he's put on upper body muscle but I bet he hasnt put on much leg/core strength. He's very young and will develop more strength but I doubt he'll ever be near as strong as Shelden or Wilcox. Actually, Wilcox, Collison, and Amare are much stronger than you think. What I really dont wanna see is him trying to defend Tim Duncan. But Smoove is much faster and more explosive than most PF's, he'll just have to learn minimize his loss of post position and then out athletic them.

I dont think the trade helps us much, I'd pass. I dont think a Nelson/Lue point tandem brings as much flexibility as Speedy/Lue. Darko with Shelden or Zaza isnt a very scary frontline. Smoove gives us more depth and longterm potential. Darko with Howard is a good frontline, I dont think Orlando does it anyways.