Iman

Smoove is the heart of our team. He probably has the most upside potential on our team. I didn't think Gasol or Jermaine O'Neal were worth giving up Smoove. However, I would give up Smoove for Kaman (or Brand as long as we are talking the Clippers).

With Smoove, Horford, and Marvin we have a unique, athletic frontline. It MIGHT work in the right system or with the right point guard. Doubt we'll ever get either of those. With Kaman we instantly become have a conventional team. I'd do it. The Clippers might also, especially if they lose Brand.

I think we'll get Smoove signed cheaper than most think, maybe even Chillz also. I seriously doubt either gets an offer bigger than we are willing to pay. Most of the teams with money need to resign their own players or will probably want someone other than our players. The bigger likelihood in my mind is that one just takes the qualifying offer or whatever it's called and then becomes unrestricted after next year.

I think we can afford to just lose Chillz and not get anything for him however I hope we keep him or trade him for something of value. Smoove doesn't fit that well with our current team but I'd just as soon have him as most that we have considered to replace him with and losing Smoove without getting anything in return could kill this franchise's future. Aldridge is not much more of a big than Smoove in my mind even if he is much taller. I didn't want Gasol and don't want Jermaine O'neal. I would consider letting Smoove go if that same money could get us Brand or Okafor however. I'm not sure how either would fit with Horford but I think I'd enjoy trying to watch us figure it out.

I bet we try this team one more year with minor adjustments and a major coaching change. Then we make a big move if not at least top 4-5 in the east next year.

I agree with Jack, the loss sucked but it really appears we have turned our playing around, even if it is just because JJ has started playing better.

For some reason JJ got over whatever was bugging him and started playing even better than expected. At first it didn't get us wins but finally it carried us to a few wins and thru the first half of the NJ game. In the second half, we went back to the just throw it to JJ and let him get doubled and still not do anything offense. JJ lost that perk he had and it didn't help that Bibby was cold and our defense was getting shreaded. On top of that, Vinsanity decided that he needed this game bad. Vince even leaned over wincing with knee pain a few times but still played like a man possessed. Honestly, even if we had played better, I don't know if JJ could have kept us in the game vs Vince. Much like I thought we could have beat Houston but once it was close and TMac wanted it, it was gonna be tough to win.

NJ is better after the trade. Philly is playing better. Those early season horrible losses such as to Seattle may come back and get us in the end. But at least we have been playing better. If we keep it up it'll be a fun finish. Then without Woody next year we should be fine.

Thanks, I've enjoyed rewatching this one. Too bad the NCAA is not as interesting this year as the last two. Oden and Conley, the prior year Big Baby and Tyrus Thomas vs Florida were some great teams and matchups.

Many here thought we needed another shooter. We got Bibby who is a shooter and point and so far we are looking worse. I'm sure most of it is just that we have lost our confidence but we do have to turn it around.

I agree that we need to change our starters and that player needs to be a role player that helps our defense. In my mind, that player needs to be Acie. Start Acie with our current starters. He's not as good as Bibby yet but close but with more defense and more attacking the rim. That also will bet Bibby on the court later in the quarter with the backups and maybe give Woody a chance to feel that he can rest JJ.

I actually did like the use of Mario last night on TMac. That's exactly how I'd use Mario, put him in to hound opposing team's SGs and give JJ some rest on defense. I wouldn't play him at all many games so by no means would I start him.

I'd actually use Salim and Solo similarly, give them alot of burn in games where they matchup well. No PT at all many games. Woody not using Salim more in the second Golden State game was ridiculous in my mind after what he did the first game.

I still think Boston will be very hard to beat in the playoffs. I hate Pierce but he is tough in the clutch, as is Ray Allen. KG will be extremely motivated.

Portland plus Oden is definitely the cream of the crop young team. You hear talk that they want to upgrade at SF but I actually like their SF's as much as ours and that's considered our strength.

We all have known for since Belkin and beyond that the Hawks organizationally was weak. They finally made a move strong move and picked up Bibby and a week or so later Sekou comes out with this article. What's the point.

I'm disappointed in the Hawks overall but I'll still enjoy the playoffs the next few years thanks to the weak Eastern conference and still hope Acie will be a solid point and that the extremely young frontline of Horford, Smoove, and Marvin will continue to improve. I'd trade rosters with Portland going forward and that's about it. I'd trade our coach at least half the prospects out there. Alton Lister gave a good interview that I saw a few days ago, I'd probably even take him over Woody..lol.

I'll be there also, probably gonna drop off my order for playoff tickets while I'm there also! Funny enough, the playoff ticket package I received talks about how they'll go ahead and charge you for the first two rounds automatically then for the conference finals later..lol.

I'd be shocked if we don't slide into the playoffs, the key to me is finishing 6th or better and playing well so we have a chance to win a few games.

The lineup last night worked but it was killing me when GS went on that run taking the ball down the lane on us most of the way. Just 5 mins before that we were killing them on the boards then Woody went small the rest of the way. I understand matching up and I'm glad he didn't put ZaZa back in but I think Solo woulda changed some shot and had an effect in a game like that and I definitely woulda put Horford back in when GS put Harrington and a few other semi-bigs back in.

We lost to Utah last December in ATL. That was the game with the Salim 4point foul play,etc.

Thanks for the update, this capspace stuff confuses me. Brand and Okafor should both get more interest at PF than Smoove. Deng, Gordon, Jefferson? should be hot comodities too. Another issue with Smoove will be that most teams will probably assume we'll match since he is becoming the face of our franchise. I bet we get him extended starting at 10-11 per yr for 7 yrs.

I've been impressed with Petro the few times I've seen him. No doubt he's athletic. If they really are dumping what salary they have left maybe they would give us Petro if we'd take on an unwanted salary which might be Ridnour. How bout that for a pipe dream, Zaza and Salim for Ridnour/Petro. Doesn't Zaza'a deal expire this year?

Chillz does not have an NBA SG/SF level jumpshot, I'll agree on that. His jumpshot (which is practically a set shot) is very ugly but goes a decent percentage of the time as shown by he decent career 3 pointer percentage. On a team like Phoenix where he'd mostly cut to the rim or take wide open jumpers, he'd be nearly as effective as Shawn Marion who's stats sometimes were nearly MVP approaching.

Yup, Walter the Bulldog bites into a subject until the next good one rolls around. He may be right. And then I'd just point him back to the recent poll which seemed to say most of us just want the playoffs this year. I think Bibby pretty much assures us of that. He's even good insurance that we should make the playoffs even if we lose JJ to any injury.

Chillz on a running team could be special. He's my favorite Hawks actually. If we could have moved him and Shelden for Ridnour/Petro that might have been wiser given we'd still have capspace left vs with Bibby but who knows if a move like that was out there.

This is actually a little like the Braves Texiera trade (except we directly gave up the farm for Tex). We got a good player for a few yrs to get us into the playoffs again but it may hurt our future. I still like both trades and think we'll figure something else out if this doesn't work. Speedy's capspace, Smoove getting signed for $10mil per, etc will help. Then we'll have Bibby's capspace for Marvin and most importantly Horford who we better not mess around with waiting to extend.

How I see it panning out. We sign Jelani McCoy and Mike Wilkes (is he still available?) the next few weeks. We make the playoffs, 6th seed, lose to Cleveland in 6 games. Offseason, Speedy retires, Zaza is gone, Salim is gone, giving us $9mil? total back. Chillz take the qualifying offer, Smoove is extended for $10mil per. David Anderson comes over and we pick up a few others to round out the team. We still are only in the low the mid $60mil overall and then we drop Bibby and extend Marvin starting at $8mil. By then we better be contending or else we won't be able to afford Horford without dumping JJ, etc.

I don't understand trade rules but I do know that Chillz and Smoove are still restricted and unless either gets an offer that we don't want to match, we'll still have them both back next season. There are alot of good players out there from that draft that haven't been resigned that will occupy bidders with money available. Someone recently mentioned JJ's year and who go max contracts, this year has way more talent out there better than Chillz and probably enough to keep anyone from offering Smoove the max also.

However, we do need to fill out our roster and it would be nice to have a draft shot at an experimental big like Thabeet or Hibbert. I'd rather go after Petro, Diop, etc though.

I think Speedy is retiring, he barely even shows up at home Hawks games. When he does show up he's always wearing the same purple velvet jacket so he's already trying to save money..lol

I agree with the logic, however, if we'd have taken one of the points, no doubt BK comes back and take Rudy Gay assuming we didn't improve more than that which I doubt we would have since we probably would have taken Deron who took a little longer to catch on. Plus, Woody probably would have at least kept Deron and us that bad. We wouldn't have gotten Horford but we'd still have our 2008 pick. We would have still gotten Indy's #11 which given that BK would still be considered a good drafter he probably would have taken Al Thornton.

Deron, JJ, Gay, Smoove, (center acquired vs Speedy/Lo)

vs

Bibby, JJ, Marvin, Smoove, Horford.

Hmm, very close short-term and longterm, but basically BK got lucky to keep the Horford pick or this wouldn't have worked out close at all.

You really have to compare thinking of Ben Wallace as center if you are saying he's undersized but stronger and outhustles opponents. When you do that, the centers are around equal, maybe favoring Detroit. Smoove may have more upside, but he can't coverup for Horford's undersizing like Sheed can. So really, we probably win the SG comparision, lose the rest. Defensively we are WAY weaker. Still, good post and it's interesting when you consider Woody's relationship to Detroit.

Lol, I like the poll and results too Northcyde. I voted yes and like others agree that it'd be nice to just make the playoffs and then not look bad. If you said get swept first round the poll probably would have tilted for the no's. Another thing that would get more no's would be if you said Acie still won't get any PT.

I can see the scenario you mentioned panning out and then Acie getting equal minutes to Bibby next year then signing even siging Bibby to an extension. Bibby's overpaid but fits our needs well at this time to me.

I'd pass on all three deals. Curry would kill what little scrappyness this team has left. Gordon is gonna be overpaid for what he provides. Same with Carroll.

I'd try to move Childress for a point that would get us running or an athletic backup center. Some deal to get us Ridnour and Petro from Seattle would be great to me.

This does look outta balance. Candace is relatively better in her sport, better looking, etc. But realistically, it's easy to see a girl in her situation doing much, much worse. Shelden is a very successful basketball player and will probably earn $30+ million during his NBA career and who knows in a following career.

I still think we should have traded Shelden for Brendan Haywood if we ever had a chance though. Now maybe we could get Petro from Seattle for Shelden and Salim or one of our old PG's.

We're currently not a very good road team so probably couldn't win any series where we're not the home team. Still, it would be very big to get to the 6th or better seed.

Big Al had his best dunk of the season on the break during this game too. I think the team might have liked that dunk the best actually.

Marvin was funny after Chillz dunk, he just stood and looked at Chillz, like "I can't believe what you just did", finally Chillz came over and they bumped chests.

Actually on the road we did play about this good against Portland, except when Zaza was in and then Joe's last few minutes of one on one blunders.

He does sound frustrated, so bad that he made a spelling error in line 2. He was trying to type wiener and accidentally typed winner..lol.

Imagine the response to a more critical email.

The most likely way we ever contend for a championship is if Smoove, Marvin, and Horford all live up to their potential, I'd only trade one of them for someone with equal potential at this point. We might be as good for now with Jason Kidd and Childress as we would with JKidd and Smoove, but in the longterm it seriously kills our potential.

I also wonder if NJ would want Childress. I think they might rather have Acie, Shelden, and a pick. I'd do that but make them throw in Marcus Williams and then follow-up with a move of Chillz for new starting future PG.

I think we'd be shocked how good the Hawks would be with JKidd. I think we'd easily move up outta the 7th playoff seed and probably win one round. In my mind, the JJ/Marvin combo is equal to if not better than Jefferson/Carter, especially when you factor in defense. Smoove and Horford are perfectly suited for a JKidd type team. If JKidd stayed injury free, I could see even see us scaring the top teams by next year. The problem would be finding that next PG to replace JKidd. That's why I'd also move Chillz, plus we'd have a hard time affording him with JKidd's contract.

Would NJ take Acie, Shelden, and our 2010 unrestricted 1st rounder (and Speedy, etc) for JKidd and Marcus Williams? Maybe Acie and Chillz? Then maybe we could trade ZaZa and Salim for a Portland point?

Sounds tricky, I bet management would nix it also. We'll be lucky if we get Ridnour from Seattle or something like that.

I'd go:

AJ B-

JJ B-

Marvin B

Smoove B

Horford B

Acie C

Chillz B

Zaza C-

Shelden C-

Lorenzen C

Solo C+

Salim C

Woody C-

Dance Team B-

Harry/Sky Hawks A

Ryan Cameron A

Mike King A

Smitty B+