cowa

Regarding the PG options (in no particular order):

1) Starbury - I still think he could come here and really help guide Law. He'd be able to live at home and commute to games, and he wouldn't have the NY media all over him. He will want something like $3-5M per season, even after the buy-out. Another trade would likely need to happen (or a buy-out of our own, which I don't think would happen).

2) Andre Miller - I really like Miller, but he is having an AWFUL year so far. He's not playing near the level to justify the $9.3M he's getting paid, and the $10.0M he gets next year. But I still don't feel they will take only expiring contracts in return. We'd need to add a PF for them to move on a deal.

3) Watson/Ridnour/West - I would LOVE to get hold of West, but I dobt it would happen. Watson has been moved to #3 on the depth chart for them. He is a good solid defender, but can't generate offense the way we would need. I would want more than just Watson in a deal with Seattle (Petro/Sene/Swift). I don't think they will move Ridnour, or would ask too much.

Lastly, I'm thinking more and more about the possibility of Dalembert instead of Miller. Not a great contract, but he has really been playing well as of late, and would give us SO MANY more options when it comes to Smoove next summer. Sheldon, Lue and Wright would do it.

Excluding Horford (who should be the last player traded), teh answer at this point should be Jsmoove, since his contract is so cheap and we can't get even value back at this point for him. The last person we should trade has little to do with their current performance compared to others on the team; it should be whether we could get equal or greater value based on their contract. No trading Jsmoove until next summer (if at all). After him, Marvin is next.

Not sure about back-dating the proposed date to the last game he played. The only reason I say this is because it's his other knee now that hurts. I realize it was the last game he played (I don't think pre-season games would count), but if the doctor had cleared him to play as of a certain date, I would think that would wipe out that scenario, and would start tracking from when he got hurt this latest time.

But I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express, so I really am just guessing.

It's only blacked out on League Pass when a local station (like SportSouth) is broadcasting the game. In this instance, I would think League Pass would be showing the game.

I know you put that "just for grins", but that trade wouldn't ever happen, as they already have Crit as a PG project. They don't want Acie. Now, a JJ, Marvin, Sheldon, Lue and Wright for Kobe and Kwame might make more sense. The Hawks would have Al, JSmoove, Chills, Kobe and Acie, with Zaza, Salim and AJ to back them up. Not a lot of depth, but that's what you lose to get a superstar. Lakers would then have Bynum/Mihm, Odom/Turiaf/Sheldon, Marvin/Walton, JJ/Vujacic, and Fisher/Farmar/Crit. The Lakers would be a hell of a deep team, and still very young.

But it won't happen.

IMO, I think he will look for something in the $10M starting range. But here's a thought. Just read Thorpe's chat, and says there is trouble in Phoenix with Amare's attitude. Now, the last thing we need is to bring a primadonna (with possibly bad knees) onto our roster, but let's just play along for a minute. Let's say Amare doesn't get along with the rest of the club and they make a 1st round exit in the playoffs. If they decided to make a roster change around Amare, we could offer them Smith and Zaza, and get back Amare and Banks (who they would want to move as well). With Phoenix giving us $18.9M in salaries, we would need to sign Josh to an $11.2M salary, which seems plausible.

The odds of something like this happening are ridiculously small, but the point is that Smith will sign for whatever somebody is willing to offer. And when it comes to S&T deals, the max is the limit.

I TOTALLY agree with you on Calderon. But why would Toronto trade him? Toronto's mindset is pushing for a high seed in the playoffs, so why would they get rid of their backup PG who they highly value? Plus, Calderon is on a one year contract, so you might only be renting him for the rest of the year. If you make a play for Calderon this season, you better be looking for a long term player, not a rental.

Miller, on the other hand, has a two year deal at a MUCH higher salary, which is why Philly would be amenable to moving him for a piece of the puzzle (Sheldon) and some cap space in the off season. And I think Miller would LOVE a chance to be on an up and coming team with a decent shot at the playoffs. He's still going to get his $9.3M this year and $10.0 next wherever he plays. He establishes his market value this year and next with a playoff contender, and then either re-ups with us or leaves as a UFA (if Law turns out to be capable of leading the Hawks).

I'm hoping, just like everyone on this blog, that Law becomes our long term starter due to ability, not default. But I think he could still get his 15-20 minutes a night while a player like Miller shows him the ropes.

Philly won't take just expiring contracts back. What they want is a PF, which we just happen to be loaded at. Swap out AJ for Sheldon, and they might give a 2nd round pick back on top of Miller.

Guys, they both played great - for a half each. Neither palyed poorly in the other half.

Diesel, the problem with pushing Chills to start at this point is that Marvin has played great all three games. Chills stucnk it up the first two games. Wait until he strings together a couple of good games before the "Chills for starting SF" campaign begins!

While I agree that Salim can't play worse than Lue, that is hardly a ringing endorsement. The problem with Salim is that he just doesn't have the handle to be a PG. That being said, you can't put him and Lue on the floor together at the same time due to height/defensive concerns. And you don't want to put Salim with Law either at this point. So how does Salim get in the game? Yeah, he could have played the last couple fo minutes in the third quarter with the rest of the second unit, but that's about it. Salim needs AJ back so he can see some court time, and that may be tonight. But let's face it, Salim isn't going to get any run while we have smurfs running the point (and that includes Speedy if he ever gets back).

It's sad, but I can't remember even one assist by Lue. he was absolutely brutal tonight. Every play down the court for NJ when he was in went something like this:

Kidd brings the ball down, Lue gets caught in a pick, and then just stands there looking for someone to guard as the play passes him by.

It's just so frustrating how Woody just leaves him in there! Especially during the end of the third quarter! They couldn't score with him on O, and Kidd just owned him on D.

If AJ comes back and plays half as good as he can, he should relegate Lue back to the bench. Hopefully.

There is still a special going on! Use the promo code "friends" to get the 100 level tickets for $30!

To get Andre Miller, the deal would probably be Andre Miller, Shavlik Randolph and a 2nd Round 09 pick for Sheldon and two out of Lo Wright, Ty Lue and AJ. No one is going to take Speedy's contract right now unless the Hawks take back a worse one. Philly wants to dump salary for next summer, when Webber's contract comes off the books. They know they aren't going anywhere this year or next (Miller is signed through next season), so they want to deal him.

They also want to deal Dalembert, which would be essentially the same deal. Dalembert is signed for 4 more years at $10+M per season. So my question is, if the hawks were going to trade with Philly, who would you rather have? Miller or Dalembert? A steady PG to tutor Law until Law is ready to fully take over the position, or a defensive center to allow Horford to play PF and give us options with Josh Smith next summer?

BTW, I love Okafor, but he just turned down $13M/season, as he wants Dwight Howard money (max contract/$15M/season). If Smoove only ends up around $10M/season, we'd have to move somebody else as well. And from what I read, Biedrins was looking for something in the $12-13M range as well.

I'm totally on board with Diesel on this one. If we don't trade one of our two expiring PG contracts as well as Lo, we would just be letting them walk for nothing (except cap space). The key is to look for teams that are over the luxury tax threshold, but have no chance at the playoffs. Since no team feels they are out it now (sans Minnesota), there won't be any trades of these guys until the trade deadline.

Do we really want to trade a PG with Acie having ice on his wrist and Lue just coming back, and Speedy no where in sight? I would trade Lo today, but I don't see any takers.

Sene is a stiff right now, and I'm sure Seattle would be willing to let him go, but not now. They want to see more of him this year, and they have a team option on him for next year. He only costs them $2.1M, so there's no rush. If I'm trading with Seattle, I want Swift, Petro or Wilcox, not Sene. Too much of a project.

The teams that will probably be looking to dump salary are Minnesota, Philly, Indy and maybe Denver.

I don't think PF is the position that the author felt was what Marvin plays, but I think he had to default to one position as opposed to the generic "forward" for his labels. He clearly states that Josh Smith will be at a forward spot, but doesn't say SF. The battle is correct, as it really is Horford vs. Marvin, with Smoove taking on whatever is a better fit regarding who the other forward is.

The author is making the assumption that Zaza is our starting center regardless, and that's not how a lot of us bloggers see this play out (Horford moving to the 5). In my mind, the comparison should really have been Marvin vs. Al vs. Zaza, not Sheldon.

Foster has a player option for next year. If he doesn't want to stay in Atlanta, he just opts out. Then he can go back to Indy if he really wants, assuming there is money left and Indy isn't in luxury tax territory (which they may be with all the crappy long term contracts on their books).

But Indy does this deal if they think they can pass Foster off as a "rental" player and can get him back the following year. If Harrison develops, then they don't sign him.

Just shoot him. Quicker, easier and save taxpayer money.

I agree, but Miller won't be moving, as he's signed through 08-09.

I posted the folowing idea last night on Sekou's blog, but what about AJ, Chills and Lo for Pietrus and O'Bryant? I just don't believe we will be able to resign Chills long term after getting a deal for Smoove done, then having to address the Marvin deal the following year. Pietrus we could get at a moderate price for the long term, and O'Bryant would be a long term project that could pay big dividends 2-3 years down the road.

Memphis would never do the trade as stands. We complain about having 4 PGs, this trade would give Memphis 5 PGs! You'd have to get a 3rd team, but let's face it, this trade isn't happening!

Now, on the Smoove/Sheldon trade above, if you were Memphis, would you rather have either of your two scenarios or the one they currently have in Darko, Gasol, Gay, Miller & Conley? The trade has to make sense from both standpoints, and I just don't see how trading two starters of that caliber for two starters (maybe only one) that isn't as good today as Gasol is alone makes any sense. Yeah, the dollars work, but common sense says it doesn't.

Why do you think they are dreaming? All it would take is a Joe Johnson injury for a prolonged period of time and the Hawks are looking at the basement in the East. Boston is now better, NY may be better. We would be right there with Seattle, Memphis, and possibly Indy and Portland. Portland had the 5th worst record this year and got the #1 pick. Why would Phoenix think it doesn't have potential to be #1? I honestly can name 10 teams that we are CLEARLY better than, and if the breaks don't go our way, we could easily be giving Phoenix a great draft pick.

Can't be a homer when you're looking at the Hawks through another team's eyes.

Just wondering why Washington would give up Navarro and a #1 pick (along with Haywood) for a SF withgreat potential, when they have Butler there already, and they just signed Stevenson to a 3 year deal? I don't see this one flying at all.

I've been preaching this on other blogs. The combo of Jack and Przybilla is exactly what this team needs. And Portland was/should have been looking to move Przybilla and his 4 contract years all along. But they have 3 1/2 PGs, they're probably not looking to bring back any. The best deal from their perspective is actually Chills & Lo Wright. Wright has an expiring contract and is a good locker room presence. Salaries work as well. Best thing to do would be to work in a 3 way to move a PG in the deal as well. If not, we'd be looking at Jack/Speedy/Lue/AJ/Law, as well as Salim part time at the point! Would add a lot of D though, and would give us a lot of tradeable assets.

On top of this, we could sign Jarvis Hayes into Chills slot and not have to worry about overpaying Chills come next year.

Bibby will make $13.5M next year, not $17M. Still a ton of money. Also, Bibby is a PG for a ahlf court offense, not a run and shoot offense, which is what the Hawks should be using. Of course, Woody likes to walk it up, but hopefully that will change with a somewhat healthy Speedy pushing the tempo this season.