Iman

I look forward to watching him more but he looks very good in the highlights that I have seen. I thought he reminded me more of Damon Stoudamire than anyone else. At least he shouldnt turn into a Dickau because he seems to be very quick. I guess if TJ Ford went as high in the draft as he did then Jameer might go that high too.

Unfortunately or fortunately, I dont think this year's draft will have the clearcut top picks of last years. That should make it easier for us to move up if we do decide that is needed and if we do decide we want Howard. Also since the worst record doesnt guarantee the top pick I still hope we play well to close out the season, just not too well..lol.

I guess we'll see how it all pans out. My thinking is that if Sheed comes in playing hard, which is likely due to contract issues and such, then he'll get the ball and the stats. I'm sure Nazr will pick up some of Theo's lost shots but I'd still bet that if we traded just Theo then Reef woulda bumped up his stats a few points per game. Who we gonna bring in to take Reef off the court? With the new players, the first play we'll get down will be the pick and roll with Sheed and JT. I loved Reef, but Hanno Mottolla ran the pick and roll better with JT than Reef did. We also lost alot of defense so now we'll have to try to score more. Overall I see lotsa reasons for a Sheed surge, least of which is some coaching miracle by Terry Stotts, although that would be nice to see..lol.

Hmm, two good second rounders to find a big european center prospect.

I like Diaw, especially for where we drafted him, but I see his potential being fairly limited. I bet he never develops into being a consistent shooter. I'd like to trade him for a Gerald Wallace type player if we had a point guard.

If I were Mark Cuban I'd fire my GM unless this mass of players was by his choice. I think the only way they get better is to risk trading their best player, Nowitski. Maybe something with Portland.

I'd like to know too. I think we have an extra pick coming from Philly but I'm pretty sure it is lottery restricted for a few years.

No thanks Diesel, I'll pass on that one. If I was Coach Fratello or Rivers, that team would keep me commentating..lol. Keep working though, something with picks but without so many lazy, overpaid players.

Good info KB, I didnt know about the Philly connection thing. I agree, Stephen Jackson could be coached into being a very solid player. It's funny too, I could see that team going a long way but I couldnt really see a combo with Kobe and Shareef really going that far.

I agree with Diesel, Sheed's numbers will pick up bigtime, especially if Hendu doesnt come back for many minutes. I'll guess 24/10 with nearly 3 blks. If we can find a good defensive center (is Alvin Jones Jr playing in Europe?) then I think we'll be a better team. I'd still dump him for some picks though cause I doubt we can resign him or make the playoffs.

I wouldnt go as far as to say that it is obvious to everyone, but I do believe a mentally straight Sheed is a slightly more valuable player than Reef. Reef is a little undersized at PF and that makes it easier to shut him down in crunch time. I also worry somewhat about Reef's back problems.

I dont think Sheed is $4million (or whatever the salary difference is) better than Reef. And I dont think player for player the trade is close to even. Overall, all the players involved are overpaid in my book. I guess I can live with the trade since I doubt we were gonna resign Reef or Theo and now we probably wont resign Sheed either. Funny enough, then if we cant get a top free agent we might end up better off anyways. We'd suck next year, get a better draft pick, then resign Reef as a free agent if he better fits in with what we have by then!

I thought Howard showed incredible potential. I've seen no one else that I would draft ahead of him. His defensive and rebounding skills seemed to already be there to me whenever he put in the effort. Offensively he may never be Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan but I dont see him being far behind Kwame, Stoudamire, etc already.

Morris doesnt seem to have that superstar type potential and wouldnt be much help at all now to a pro team. I bet he goes to college, Tech hopefully, and starts early for most teams. Not sure if I'd draft him if he came out so I guess I can sorta see why they dont have him listed. I bet they list him soon though if he doesnt declare for some college.

I think it's hard to say for sure where this team, even over the last few years, went wrong. We can all have our opinions, just like last year when we sorta thought it was Kruger or the Big Log. About all I can say for sure is that at least the owners theoretically saved a little money by dropping Big Dog's salary. Who knows how that team might have came together and how that could have effected attendance, etc. It sorta looked like Big Dog was the problem given our winning record without him. This year it sorta looks like JT is the problem, we have at times looked better without him.

Overall, my opinion is that a upper level Coach is what would turn this team around (and I'm not basing this on the fact that I was an Officer in the Army for 7 years, definitely not a Ranger though..lol). I dont think salaries or other factors dominate strong coaches just like strong soldiers dont dominate good leaders (Dolfan must have missed the movie Heartbreak Ridge...hmm, maybe Clint could come here and coach..lol) I think JT, Reef, and Theo should give you a base for a fairly good team. All are somewhat undersized for their positions but I think a few role players and some creative coaching can cover this up. I dont think our bench, etc is that bad either outside of Dickau, Crawford, and Hansen, and btw, this is not based on skin color, I'm causcasian, I just think they suck..lol.

This year is over, all I hope to gain is some good draft picks and maybe if we are lucky a drop in ticket prices next year. Bring in Fratello after the ownership changes so he can figure out what he has and I'll be ready to reinvest in a ticket package next year so I can watch some good leadership and a competitive team.

I especially like this deal for Phoenix. Last year the Suns showed unexpected promise but after this bad start we can see that really that team would need a major jump to ever have any chance out West. Why not just dump this year and some salary. I bet they resign McDyess and draft a center type prospect. Then if they get lucky and this Yugoslavian point guard comes over they could be better next year while still sitting on tons of capspace and tons of young talent.

NY may be a threat in the East now but they still have tons of cap trouble and now no draft future.

I'm with the "D" on that one. JT can still be my favorite Hawk coming off the bench the rest of this year. I really think it's about to late to try to win more games but either way I think we'd be a better team with Vaughn starting with our current starters. I also think JT has the perfect mentality and game to come off the bench but still want to be a leader, even to the point of still being our number two scorer.

Unfortunately until we get another coach I dont see that happening. And actually I think just as good an option is to continue to develop Diaw as a point forward once his injury heals and start him with JT in the backcourt.

I'm sure Billy Knight or whoever we have at GM will take whoever they think is the best player available with our early draft pick. PF is the only position where we are solid but you figure most players take a few years or more to develop and who knows who'll we'll have where by then. I doubt we'll trade the pick either although I still think the trade we did to get Reef was very smart for us at the time. The big problem we still may run into is suddenly starting to win or a bad lottery drawing.

I was optimistic with our play early in the year. Who knows, maybe if we had held on to our leads and won some of those close games we might have been borderline playoff team this year. But it didnt happen and it's getting worse. Terry Stotts shoud give up any thoughts of being a head coach for a while after this year and try to showcase some of his other skills so he can find another good assistants job next year. He should play a combination of his younger and smarter players and just use JT, Dion, and Jax off the bench as sparkplugs. If he puts them in they'll launch a few quick shots he'll know if they are on that nite and if not then sit them back down. Start JV, Diaw, Nailon, Reef, and Theo. Then bring JT off the bench early for Nailon so he still gets more minutes than Nailon and as many as JV. Then by midseason I hope Dickau might surprise us and be able to start.

With ownership transition in the wings I see Stotts as an adequate option until around game 60 or so. Then new ownership should be able to make a splash with a big name and let them finish out the season in preparation for next. My vote is definitely for Fratello with Nique somewhere in the mix as GM or top assistant, preferably the latter since Knight seems to be a good judge of international talent and we will have some nice draft picks coming up. Before next year I'd try to signup Reef at around the same or slightly less money for 5 years or so and build around him and our drafted talent with plans for JT as an expensive but useful bench player. I'd lean towards drafting bigmen and signing secondary free agent scorers with Theo and Hendu's freed up cap space.

I'm starting to swing more along Diesel's way of thinking on JT. Even back in the Kukoc days he seemed to be a very nice player. He is a great shooter even if a little streaky. I dont know if anyone in the league is faster or much quicker. He dribbles well but overall as a ball handler I'd just say he's around average for a guard, definitely not on the level of a normal point guard. He can get assists by getting the ball to the open man but he rarely makes any of those nice thread the needle type passes. Shoot, lots of times he cant even make good passes into the post.

It seems that we had plenty of time to find some ballhandling helpers but we practically went the other way, Dermarr, Dion, Jackson, Dogg, were all exactly the opposite. Even just picking up Jacque and Dickau hurts due to their similar size problems.

I'm glad we finally found someone that fits in Diaw and hopefully we'll continue smart moves like that. Maybe we can move Dickau for Reese Gaines and then drop JV by next year. But overall really it doesnt seem worth it, all this struggling just to make a player fit, I guess it woulda been better for us if Andre Miller had slid to us during JT's draft. We coulda fixed it by now with a trade but now I doubt we ever will.

I'm going cause I like the hotdogs. And Lebron will be interesting but I'll still root for the Hawks to win. I think Ricky Davis and to some degree Darius Miles are the keys to Cleveland. If they are hot we might be in trouble, otherwise I look for some hard play after taking last nite off on the court. And Sevendust might be worth staying over for too.

I guess I should be easy to spot if your looking for me, I'll be one of the few Hawks fans plus I'll be eating a hotdog..lol.

I agree with comments from other posts that we need to wait longer, maybe until around midseason or so. I looked at the early schedule before the season started and kinda figured we'd be around 4-9 or maybe even 3-10 before the schedule let up and I was pretty much right. Now let's see if after San Antonio we can get on a little run and get back to around .500.

Moves that I would like to see would be maybe deal Dickau for some other point guard type project that happens to have size. Tracy McGrady needs some shooters to help him bust the zone and while Orlando is making moves let's go for a Dickau for Reese Gaines trade! He's not looking good at all so far but if he did come around he does have size.

Then I'd play Crawford a few more minutes until he gets hurt and then pick up a rebounder for the bench. Where is Alvin Jones Jr? With our good coaching staff's help, Jones might finally play up to his potential!

I think something was/is going on in the Omni/Phillips this time of year. I'm pretty sure it's the Ice Capades.

Interesting stat Hotts, I like how you dig this stuff up for us. We're way below the other teams too but then again all teams are within a few inches. I bet we'd be on the bottom if they factored in weight too, no doubt we are small.

I'd still bet that by the end of the year our rebounding stats are fine. The Clippers killed us and then some home games and Hendu will help. Plus I doubt Jacque will get so many minutes as Diaw matures and he seems to be a good rebounder. I'd still like to see us go get Alvin Jones for the bench though.

I think the only way Stotts will start Diaw over Dion or Jax is if we go into a slump, especially a slump of bad play, like 3 Golden State games in a row. I think Jax and Dion are fairly similar players and either could be benched whereas Diaw brings a completely different game. I think Diaw fits much better with the starters than either Dion or Jax and I think Diaw fits horribly with the other bench players. But I think Stotts will favor the more traditional balance and experience of the current starters over bringing in Diaw and his roleplayer style. My actual guess is that Diaw wont truly be a starter for the Hawks until next year (excluding injury replacement type starts).

I like Diaw's game. I hope he learns how to shoot a consistent set shot and free throw but then still only takes his shot as a last resort. He could be very valuable to us if hat was the case, especially when he figures out the NBA game and his teammates a little better.

I think Ratliff's poor shooting has pretty much cost us the first two games so I cant say I'd agree that's he's playing great. He is playing great defense. Mohammed has looked a little better than usual and Jackson is doing about what I'd expect, not great but a solid player. Dion needs to play a little smarter and then if Reef and Ratliff get a little offense going we'll be fine. This early road schedule may break us before we get going however.

Yup, you heard alot of commentary about point guard needs last nite. They were suggesting that Francis and Mobley dont fit together since both have scorers mentality, especially if you add Yao Ming to the mix. They also suggested that Cleveland needs a point guard. I'm not so sure on that one myself. Paul Silas has gotten Darius Miles under control and now if he can just control Ricky Davis a little then Lebron will be able to control the pace of the game and the others can help him some with ball handling.

JT will never be much at controlling a game but at least he wont look so bad as long as he isnt playing against a few of the hard pressure defenses, especially ones with more than one quick player. I even remember JT having problems with Speedy Claxton a few years back, otherwise he's not so pressure defense susceptible. We just need to add a point forward type player on the court to supplement him a little, like when we had Kukoc, and maybe Diaw will be able to do that.

Oops, just realized I called the topic King as opposed to Knight, I always do that, Billy King is just more of a basketball name in my mind I guess..lol. Yup, they kept the talk very politically corredt. I liked how Stotts kept apologizing to Big Dogg and his skills about how happy he was about the current roster.

I guess the most interesting topic for those who missed the show were the comments about Dermarr. A caller asked how we let an athlete/draft pick like that get away and Billy Knight explained that they didnt offer Dermarr a contract extension offer and he went to another team (Memphis) and basically they just planned on not having him. Matt Stewart, the host, mentioned that Dermarr had now been cut by Phoenix and that was it, they went to another topic. Basically it sounded like they figure what we have (Dion, Jackson, Diaw) has about the same upside as Dermarr. I really liked Dermarr but I have to agree.

Other topics were how they liked players that could play multiple positions and even mentioned that to be a strength of JT. They mentioned how Shareef's back would have kept most players out of the last 20 or so games last year. They figured Crawford may get some minutes at PF but they didnt think he had the same explosiveness he had before the injuries. Knight wouldnt say that Ekezie would have made the team if not injured or that he would have even helped much.

Overall they seemed to be trying to hide their optimism. Coach Stotts even had a nice analogy that we really didnt lose 20 ppg losing Big Dogg, we just lost about 5ppg because Jackson will probably give them about 15.