Iman

Last time I saw BK at a game was the night they awarded Marvin with the Collier Award, not sure what game that was but I think it was a few games before the playoffs. He was amazingly friendly and smiling that night.

Yup, that's what I said. We trade for Crittendon since Memphis has too many points. We get Petro as a backup. Tony Allen or a similar SG would be another good signing.

I like the Woody for Fratello stuff and the resigning Smoove and Chillz part, the rest doesn't look good to me. Marvin and Acie need another year or two to prove what they are or aren't worth, giving them up for Maggette makes no sense to me. From what we've heard, BK is gonna make a large enough contract offer to David Anderson to get him to not renew in Moscow. We also need to add another bigman. I don't see alot of better centers being available, maybe we can get Petro someone similar, I don't really like Diop btw. I assume Salim and Solo will be gone, maybe we can get a little something for Salim. Mario really doesn't have NBA level skills, he'll probably be gone. Jeremy Richardson probably stick just because we need bodies. We'll need another PG and another SG. Tony Allen and one of Memphis' points would be nice pickups even if it took Chillz to get one. Acie, Bibby, Crittendon JJ, Tony Allen Marvin, Richardson Smoove, Anderson Horford, Petro, Zaza I like that team, lot's of multipositional players. Anderson could be the first man off the bench and slide Horford and Smoove down a position. Crittendon or similar would be an important pickup in case Acie doesn't pan out and so we could trade Bibby's contract for at least a good pick.

The funniest Cassell moment I saw was late in the game, Chillz was preparing to receive the inbounds pass to bring the ball up the court and Sam came up and got into him and starting trash talking or something. Chillz was cracking up, I'd love to know what Sam said.

That's the only negative I see from these playoffs, Woody probably gets extended now. He better at least get some better assistants that will remind him when he screwing up.

I agree that Chillz isn't gonna get much if any better. The rest of this discussion has just been hating IMO. Chillz was rated the 9th best SF in the league this year if I remember correctly from a previous post. He's a versatile role player. Iguodala and Deng probably are a little bit better so the pick wasn't the greatest. I'd still take Chillz for what we'll be able to resign him for vs what it will take to sign Iggy or Deng.

Some of y'all just don't understand the value of role players. Chillz does need to go ahead and take a few more jumpers. He mainly will only take a wide open 3 here and there and is doing even less of that in the playoffs. Otherwise he's pretty much been a normal Chillz which is pretty effective just in an ugly way. He's blocked or altered many shots and passes (especially coming behind for blocks). He practically turned around the 1st quarter of game 4 with his rebounding surge (go check the stats, for a 5-10 min period he might have outrebounded both teams combined). His slam in game 4 was a top5 highlight of the day and really solidified our crowd backed run to the win. I agree that is defense is effected by his lack of foot speed but his length does make up for some of that. If we had no shooters, his lack of being able to generate his own shot would be a problem, but in my mind we have plenty of other players that can, including Marvin. I'd gladly resign Chillz assuming he can be locked up for $5-7mil per. The Chillz, Marvin, Smoove, Horford combo to me kinda reminds me of a smaller version of what we had in the 80's where we just kept bringing good forwards into the game. It's the basic strength of the team even if another player (JJ now, Nique before) was the by far the key player.

There were a few Celtics fans sitting down low behind the Hawks goal near Josh Smith's family in front of me. During the early Celtics eruption, one guy got a little two happy and some of the ushers had to intervene to keep a couple of Hawks regulars from kicking his butt. Really they were unfair to him, but it worked, after a few squawks, he was pretty quiet the rest of the game.

I wasn't there in person, but to me the Braves in the early 90's were the most exciting, maybe just more nerve racking since baseball really isn't very exciting. I was at both the Falcons wins over SF the year they went to the Superbowl, to me they were more exciting than both these Hawks wins. The crowd was weirder, louder, and maybe had more fun, but they really didn't seem as excited. Mainly because you still don't really figure the Hawks can win the series. If we some how win game 5 and get a home shot at winning beating Boston, I think that game will top them all for me. Even if we don't, game 6 may still be more exciting to me than 3 and 4 were.

Chillz was exceptionally huge grabbing rebounds to help turn around Boston's early momentum and get us back in the game. At one point I remember Chillz grabbing like 4 huge rebounds in a row for us. I think he had 8 rebounds in the first half. Honestly, that nearly made him the most valuable player in the game, for sure that and Bibby's 18 pts carried us in the 1st half.

I'd wait and see what he gets offered. I doubt he gets offered anywhere near the max. We match either way. If he gets no offers, I'd throw out 6yrs at $60mil, he'd take it I bet.

I'm a 44 y.o. single optometrist ("eye"man) originally from Cartersville and now living in Buckhead. I went to Berry then UAB so I really don't have a college to root for so I'm a fan of pretty much all Georgia sports. I guess I'm a bigger Braves fan but the Hawks games are much more fun to attend to me so I have a half season package.

I'd for sure take the 15 points before I went 8 to 1 that we'd win in Boston.

Yup, I'm very glad to see us make the playoffs and I'll be there watching. However, I'm just hoping we don't get blown away in more than one game, and one win would be nice in my mind. Two or three wins and I'd still probably be just as excited thinking about next year than the playoffs. To me the bigger deal than the new coach is what we do with our players. Is Anderson really coming over? Do we also find another center? How much will Smoove and Chillz get? Who do we get for our bench to replace Salim etc? Was Acie injured or will he play much more next year, especially with a new coach?

To me if you think like an owner, no way Woody comes back. The plan is to take the Hawks back to being a solid franchise. You started over, developed some new talent, and now you just need a vet coach to move your team to that next level. You even brought in a vet PG and still don't see a very consistent offense and you know that much of the fan base doesn't think Woody can coach. You even had that rumor that the GM wanted Woody gone but as owners you wouldn't allow it and you'd like to get rid of that controversy. It's an even easier decision since Woody would have to be given a raise anyways and you aren't firing him and having to pay two coaches next year. The only thing that should stop us from getting a new coach is if none of the vets you want will come here. Fratello, Brown, Van Gundy, I'd bet they'd all love a chance with our roster. In my mind it's a done deal even if we play solidly against Boston.

For the Knicks to be a threat, Jamal Crawford is the key. If he plays well and Bibby is still slumping, it'll be a tight game. I think the Hawks are okay with some types of pressure. They mainly have a problem with the pressure that comes from closing out things that they should close out, which is a normal thing for young teams. I wouldn't be surprised to see them have a horrible first or second game in the playoffs against Boston, then the other 3 or 4 games they holdup fine under the pressure.

Not that I'm trying to excuse Woody, but I think his thought is that he has to have his best players available to close out the games. Being defensive minded, he also figures players in foul trouble won't play hard on the defensive end. He'll sometimes leave a bench player in or a non-essential player in, or maybe even a vet, but he never lets Al, Smoove, or Marvin play until the 3rd qtr if they get 2 fouls in the first half.

If I remember correctly, both Smoove and Brand are free agents. Smoove is restricted as is Okafor, all of who will be the top PF's taking bids this summer. I'm betting Brand and then Okafor will get offered the max before Smoove. If the Clippers match then someone might offer the max to Smoove but it's not like hardly any teams will be able to make that kind of offer anyways. So that means we'll probably get Smoove for a few $million less. So I'd keep Smoove. If the salaries were the same I'd take Brand. Another factor to keeping Smoove is the hometown thing. I don't think Kaman is as good as Smoove or Brand, but I would trade Smoove for Kaman and Livingston or their first this year.

It's always seemed to me that it takes great jumpers longer to get consistent on their jump shot (Webber, Carter, even Nique). I guess they have to control the explosive jump to control the shot. Still though, I doubt Smoove will ever be a great jump shooter, maybe NBA average eventually which combined with this other skills will make him great overall.

I'd move Chillz for Biedrins, wouldn't do it for Marvin and definitely not Smoove. I just don't think Biedrins is that good. Players I'd realistically consider "moving" Smoove for includes Kaman. If Smoove is offered the max I might throw out and similar offer at Okafor or Brand and let Smoove go. Other players I'd like to have are probably overvalued by their own teams, much as we probably overvalue Smoove. Like the Lakers Andrew Bynum, no way I'd give up Smoove for him even if he is the true center we need, I just feel the talent disparity is too great. I'm just guessing but moving Marvin, Chillz, Zaza will probably match up better in move we try to make.

Thanks for the update Traceman! Yup DC, I'm sure these are Traceman's notes from the season ticket holder meeting they had before the Chicago game. I also have to add that this meeting must have fired up Traceman. I sat near him during the Chicago game, and he was very vocal and supportive, especially for Smoove. I'm still hoping we go after a trade for Kaman this offseason (Bibby and Zaza for Kaman+?). If not then at least I'd like to see us pick up a good backup center like Petro.

I'll be there. The seats by me are usually open if you decide to slide down. Last week you couldn't go all the way in on Marietta St, glad to here that's fixed. Leaving they turned the one way south Spring St into a one way north street and got us out decently. You know after the game Friday night is when they begin work on the North bound side of the I75/85 connector also, so leaving out Marietta to Northside will be wise also.

I'm a fan of seeing Marvin succeed. I didn't mind drafting him since to me it wasn't obvious that the points would be good. Marvin might make an all-star game just due to numbers some day but that's about as good as I see him ever being. Best upside to me is Carmelo Anthony and I don't see that happening. Still, Marvin is a valuable team member, trade asset. I think he's tradeable for a late lottery pick this lottery, Chillz for a mid first rounder, not that I want to see us do that and get younger.

Good call Skyhawk. I really didn't think we played well against Orlando, way too many turnovers. But maybe some of the sloppyness rubbed off on Orlando and the final result was a win. I'd take just a win in some of these close games whereas we need good, easy wins against the NY's, etc.