crimedog

love it, you got game Dol.

Yeah, as much as people talk about depth in the playoffs, you really only need 3 good bench players in the playoffs and most hopefully they won't be playing as many minutes. Anyway, if we're talking about the Hawks, a 48 win team (yeah, I'm giving us a win even if we lose tonight), making it to the playoffs instead of one of three 60+ win teams, why wouldn't we be nice and let Dallas be our presumptive finals opponent instead of LA?

Haha, this is exactly what I thought when I saw the title. Troy hates the media...

No, getting to the second round is an end in and of itself... and losing in the first to a lower seeded team is something to be avoided regardless of the next round(s), so it isn't a moot point at all. We'll play Cleveland anyway if we do beat Miami and increase our revenue, exposure, and experience in the process.

Give Wade a little bit of credit. What you believe about the refs or not, Wade will easily be the most talented player on the floor during our series. What I worry about is him hitting his J with a lot of frequency and dropping ~50 in Atlanta because we can afford to lose in Miami but not at home. I also worry about the way Beas has turned it on lately because if he can be Wade's 20-10 counterpart in this series, we could be in trouble, I think Smith will do a good job on Beas though and I'm not sure Beas can handle Smith yet.

Chicago, almost certainly. Cleveland, almost certainly not. How the hell do you put those two teams on the same level?

I wonder if playing off the ball so much in his first two years will ultimately help Conley. His J looks phenomenal and becoming a 3pt marksman can only help, the fact that he's turned himself into a good FT shooter after being a comparatively poor one in college is what really impresses me.

kid has some game. He's like Pistol in that he's flashy with his dribble but I think his game is pretty similar to Jason Kidd - great at running the floor, good size, good D, great vision, not a natural scorer as much as a passer...

There is no "weak link" although Woody is bad at his job. This is a team without a superstar and it subsequently isn't elite. Joe isn't a "weak link" because he's not a superstar... if you want to be a true contender, your best player should be a superstar, but the fact that he's not one isn't his fault.

His two closest friends on the team were/are Josh and Marv. He and Marv were best buds and he and Smith have continued to have contact. I doubt Joe had a problem with him per se, although I doubt Joe was tight with him either... not really Joe's style either way. Who else would he have disliked? Bibby wasn't around for that long, Al was a rook, and Zaza seems to keep to himself or joke around with Smith a little.

If he fell to 19, I'd take him unless another similarly talented guy fell too. Saying he's like Shelden is like saying Gerald Green is like Drexler because they are both 6'6 with hops. Blair is a MONSTER rebounder, the best offensive rebounder since they started keeping track of offensive rebounding. He has a sky-high bball IQ - smart passer who rarely turns it over. He was the best pick-setter in basketball. He has much of his ~270lbs concentrated in his lower body unlike Shelden who was big all over but didn't really take up enough space. Most importantly, and this should be pretty obvious to anyone, Blair's biggest strength was Shelden's biggest weakness - Blair has amazing hands and Shel has terrible hands. Since much of Blair's offense comes from his rebounding, I worry less about him than about someone like Shelden.

Hondo was one of the most athletic players of his era.

Why is he an option if he can't be voted for?

How did you come to that conclusion? Are you basically saying that you like Horford over Conley and you think they would too?

Problem I see, aside from their lack of talent compared to Boston/Cleveland, is that they don't do so well on the road. 2 road wins in March, against Washington and OKC, and 6 road losses.

We don't know what we would have had. We know that we would have had Conley with the 3 and then the rest of the assets we used to get Bibby + the 11 pick. Granted, we might not have eked out those 37 wins last year, but we have no clue what moves we could have, or would have made had we taken a different direction with that 3 pick. Additionally, had we taken Conley at 3, we would have had 1-4 set for the future and we could have used our assets on finding a 5 to fill in there instead of having to worry about positions 1 and 5 and wonder whether or not we have 2 PFs on the roster or whether Al and Josh can co-exist. Its still too early to tell because we don't know how good either Al or Conley will become.

I was a big Conley fan and I have been very pleased watching him play since Iavoronni headed out the door. His shot looks better than Acie's though. As far as whether he was the "right" pick, who knows? Waaay too much speculation to say that we're better off long term with a guy who could very well end up being the worse player at a position where we already have a guy.

Solo isn't a 4, at least I don't see it if he is. He's not very good and while there is a chance he could work with coaching and the right environment, he isn't a better option than any of those guys with the possible exception of Swift and thats only because Swift is a big enough injury concern that his potential for getting hurt outweighs his potential for basketball. Also, I love that this is the "real" question.

They all need to be scouted extensively, that doesn't mean that they will be good though. The reason those guys go late in the draft is because they are more likely to be nobodies than real players. Even bigs that go early can, and very often do, bust.

Yeah, the Hawks would definitely be better with a young Mutumbo... Just realize that Deke is a possible HOFer, 8 time all-star, 4 time DPOY, 3 time All-NBA, 6 time All-D team player who would be the best player on our team right now.

I do agree that this team is unlikely to be a perrenial contender without a talent upgrade. I also agree though, with the common sentiment on here that we aren't getting a top 2 pick. I would trade any player on our team if I thought it made the team better though, so I guess I'm with you there.

That isn't the question, he's scoring very low compared to his body of work this season over the past 6 games.

I would limit Joe and Bibby's minutes. Additionally I'd try to get Josh and Al really comfortable and run the offense through them the last few games. I think Joe would benefit by just taking open shots and I think Al and Josh would benefit by getting into a groove before the offseason.

Here you go! For one year after exercising the right of first refusal to keep a restricted free agent (however, the player can consent to a trade to any team except the team that tried to sign him). http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q85 Could still do it after that period is up though.

What happened to his offense? Over the past 6 games he's averaged 6.5 points on 35% shooting... only 1 double digit effort in the mix. Is he hurt, having bad matchups, or just in a slump?