hds428

....To get Frye, Butler, and Miller?!?!? Um, HELL YEAH. Look, I'm not saying we aren't gonna give up good pieces here, but we're going to have to do something with all these wing players at some point anyway. You think Billy won't grab a small forward with a high pick in this year's draft? That's like expecting Rich McKay to not draft a wideout. With my deal the only hole left is that one that Billy so loves to draft for, the backup small forward. You really think it's that drastic? To get rid of duplicated skillsets that are either playing out of position or languishing on the bench anyway? Don't get too caught up on the Dan Dickau du jour, theres a squirrelly little shooting guard in a point guard body waiting in the second round of this year's draft too, and next year, there'll be another. Personally I'd take a pipedream of having Frye and Miller on the team than the reality of smurf shooting guards playing point and small forwards at every other position any day of the week.

You're probably right. This deal would leave NY really thin up front, but Isiah has made head scratching moves before and I guess it depends on how true the Francis rumors are. Still tho, the salaries work so a fan can dream right? heh heh.I did a depth chart for the Hawks just for grins and figure we'd look like this: Miller/Ivey JJ/DSmith Marvin/ ...??? Penny maybe? JSmith/Edwards Frye/Butler I donno how well Frye would or could handle center but even if he played forward with Butler and Edwards at C we'd be big and young up front. I think my deal and Diesel's deal too have some pros and cons for each team where you could say 'yeah but...' but at the end of the day you can make good arguments for each team in the deal too... Well except maybe Denver, i accidentally kindof screwed Denver, but getting Al and a first plus loosening the logjam at guard that they have... eh maybe. I'd just be giddy if we could wrangle Frye and Dre in one swoop like that, no matter how unlikely.

I had a similar idea, same teams just with slightly different players: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/trad...8~18~1~1~1~19~1 basically we get what we need, a FC/PG combo plus a project big in Butler and the chance to use this year's pick on the position that Billy will only ever draft for: a small forward; for the trouble we take on Penny's expiring contract. Denver gets Lue and Al, and Watson can switch to the point in Denver,also probably someone's pick thrown in which doesn't show up on the trade machine (Orl??); Magic gets Zaza and Chills plus Nene's bird rights , and NY gets out from under Penny and married to the franchise along with Batman, Salim and Delk as change...

BK is talking to Fro and Ellinger with Jaywalker and Rathbun on 680AM right now. Says he envisions Childress as a 2 and sounds like he could possibly start.

I also suspect something behind the scenes going on. The Insider from yesterday blurbed that "He was upset about losing his starting job to rookie Boris Diaw after the Hawks traded away Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Theo Ratliff. A source close to the Hawks told Insider recently that Glover, along with point guard Jason Terry, were among the most disruptive players on the team..." Which makes me wonder if a)there's any merit to the claim that Dion is a lockerroom disruption, b) considering his 'journalistic integrity' can Chad Ford reliably distinguish between someone being disruptive and being vocal. The fact that according to several different sources, Dion asked to be waved, seems to indicate bad feelings at worst and frustration at the very least.

Honestly I think JT plus a lotto pick would be too much for Pierce, and besides Boston trading one stat padder for another isn't productive for the Celts. I think ORL would be a far better trade partner with us offering JT plus MIL's pick for their lotto. Could you imagine JT playing off of TMac? JT wouldn't have to run the offense at all and could just freelance off of McGrady's game to score at will. Having a strong personality like TMac barking at him might also help JT suck it up a little on the defensive end too, but who knows. Only question there is would we be willing to take on a less favorable contract (or two?)from the Magic? We'd keep some cap spcae for now, have some space in the future and have two lotto picks to develop in the meantime.

Hey Dolfan, is it just me or do you also smell a Billy Knight draft day special in the works? The writing seems to be on the wall to me; dangle JT and MIL's pick to move into the lottery at the last minute. We know he's not afraid to roll that dice, he already did it in '01 when he sent us Reef for the third pick and some change. I'm guessing he's waiting to see how the ping pong balls fall.

I'll give Billy credit in this department. I think he'll make the best of that pick for it's position. If he can make another pick as solid as Boris in the 20's, I think he'll have done a good job with that pick.

I'm not as angry about the trades as some others around here, the fact of the matter is that we turned a broken core into capspace (which could be boon or bane) and an extra pick. What I don't so readily understand is that the spin we were getting from Knight just a week ago was that we did'nt need the financial obligations of of a first rounder when it was PTL's higher projected pick and now suddenly we're supposed to be excited about a more mediocre pick with all kinds of terms and protections on it. ??? Other than that,I think the trades have been pretty good, not spectacular, but things could have shaken out alot worse.

I saw a blurb in SportsLine's Power Rankings talking about Darko to Atl. " ...They still have the third-best record in the East and appear to be a lock to get home court in at least the first round of the playoffs. But to compete with New Jersey, Indiana -- and the rapidly improving Knicks and New Orleans Hornets -- the Pistons need help. They lost five in a row heading into the break, and unless virtually unused rookie Darko Milicic breaks out as a significant player the second half, they won't be serious contenders in the East. It would be a different story with the 6-11 Rasheed Wallace, and Dumars knows his selfless high-post, low-post game at both ends of the court is precisely the versatility the Pistons need. And considering the adoration coach Larry Brown has for his fellow North Carolina alums, it seems to fit just right. All they need is for Hawks general manager Billy Knight to say yes." I'm not crazy about this proposed deal, but I think Darko and some scraps (maybe Hunter and Sura?)for Sheed would be pretty fair to both teams.

In the fans' defense, this team hasn't put a decent product on the floor since 99 and that was shortened by the lock out. That's what disturbed me the most about Reef's comments, that he'd knock the fans and gloss over the management. Sure the fans could've come out more, but let's not forget the many debacles of Pete Babcock that contributed to the train wreck over the past few years. All of that crud with Lon Kruger and trading the draft picks did nothing to endear the fans to the team. It's been a bad situation for everyone involved going from the Babcock era to the Sale-in-limbo era and I don't think anyone could say that the failures of the Hawks rest solely on Shareef's shoulders, but you also couldn't say that the low attendance is all on the fans either. So I'm disapointed with Reef but not really mad but I will say this; cracking on fans while glossing over the management made him look entirely too at home in the Blazers jersey.

Man, those were pretty harsh words he had for ATL and the fans. I'll dig around when I get the chance to see if I can find a link to it. Among other things he said he was embarassed by the empty arena and doubly embarassed that it was his home town, he also said that visiting players AND refs would say things to him about it, then he'd come home and hear about it on SportCenter. He didn't even want to give credit to the few loyal fans who actually DO show up. He and Theo were joking around (at ATL's expense) and generally seemed relieved that their stint here is over. Just wondering if anyone saw it and what reation around the Squawk would be.

Quote: ...Anybody that really believes the Hawks really have a chance at Kobe or a star player is a moron. Ecactly. Brace yourselves Atlanta basketball fans, the second coming of Chicago is upon us.

Sometimes Play burns me, sometimes I burn Play. Noone takes it too seriously (I bet even Play laughed at the kitten) >:-)

I would second Dolfan's post except for Jax, he puts forth the effort alright, just IMO not in the most effective ways. Theo is definitely at the top of the heap as far as bringing it every night, with Diaw and Vaughn tied for second. Crawdad is a great hustle energy guy, but he's not very polished and gets injured an awful lot, still, he makes the list before JT or Reef.