ATLien_

Looking at pure PPG is not the best measure of a scoring. You can simply take a lot of shots a game and score more PPG. This is why you see bad players putting up high ppg on bad teams. Mookie Blayock's highest usage of his career was 22.8 and Dennis's Lowest usage for the last 3 season was 27. I'm on the fence about Dennis, scoring PG's are becoming a dime a dozen. This is the perfect year for us to figure out what to do with Dennis, if he prove he can impact winning in more ways than scoring keep him. If he trumps up his value as a high volume scorer on a bad team then capitalize and move him. I don't love Dennis and I don't hate him; I'm pretty much indifferent to him, and the thing I value most about him is his desire to be great and not being afraid of the moment. I just hope in his mind being great isn't (Kyrie Light) scoring 20+ PPG and bring nothing else to the table. That sort of player really wins you nothing, but get's overvalued by the league and should be moved. You have to move them while the rest of the league still believes they have potential. Brandon Knight, Eric Bledsoe, Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Damon Stoudamire the list goes on and on and on. Mediocre is relative to the time your in. PG stats are inflated because they are no longer playing the same role similar to QB passing stats in the NFL. Go through the list of starting PG's in the league and tell me which ones where Dennis has a clear advantage? I think you'll find he is quite mediocre when you look at it from that perspective. I still think he has a chance to be a top 10 PG, so I'm willing to wait. We are rebuilding anyway, so there's no hurry.

Lon Kruger and Chris Crawford. If whole Squawk want to tank(kill brain cells), than let's do it expeditiously. ATLien_ in the background saying I don't want to tank sir, I don't want to tank. I think this scene captures my thoughts perfectly.

I never said Caleb couldn't play; I said what will he defend? He moves like Kenny Smith running to the board at halftime now. If you hated Dwight in pick and roll wait until you see Caleb. I like everything else about his game, and I think he'll play a long time in the NBA, but as a backup like Mo Buckets. By the way he would was one of my targets at 31.

Bring him home @Dolfan23. #Free J-Smoove. Not hating just laughing at ridiculous number of attempts. Steph Curry would get benched for taking that many 3's.

Good signing, I was disappointed when we renounced him. I can shoot with him well in 2k too so there's that extra bonus. I may have to get a green release every time to hit a jump shot with anyone outside of Belli and Ersan on 2k18. I can splash with Baze too but I'm expecting that to get patched.

Man Smoove still got it . I can hear stinger saying "jump shooter in the house Bob" Then Nique chips in with that's a heat check Bob.

Maybe we can bring Josh in to mentor Collins on being the next 3 point shorty. Will let Bud and Josh be co mentors. John you wasting time on that big man ish, you want to shoot that 3 pointer like your boy J-Smoove. In all seriousness though why isn't Josh on a NBA roster? He's not that old; has he been black listed? How can Ryan Kelly and Muscala make a roster and not Josh?

Good signing. I think he's was the best available center. We desperately needed rim protection, so I'm happy we got it. He also seems to play well in the pick and roll defense. Does anyone know how well he does against stretch bigs and pick and pops? I think we also need a secondary ball handler at the SF or SG position. Dennis/Baze/Prince/Collins/ Dedmon lineup really lacks ball handling. You could start Bembry, but then your shooting is lacking. We need someone we can throw in there to add ball handling. I guess that could come from a second PG, but I'm not fond of two PG lineups. Tyreke Evans probably would of been a good pickup that could have played SG/SF; he got 3.3m for 1 year from the Grizzlies. I think the three biggest weaknesses of this team right now are outside shooting, ball handling, and lack of shot creators. We really don't have a single player that can just ISO and get their shot. This is one of the reasons I wanted us to trade up for Donovan Mitchell because he checked all 3 of these boxes plus added defense. Before people bring up Dennis let me say he really is a straight line driver, that's really fast. He has very little wiggle or deception(change of speed) to his game. I don't consider him to be an above average shot creator.

I think KCP poor shooting percentages are mostly due to poor shot selection. He takes a lot of difficult shots(off the dribble etc..). Perhaps this is because as @sturt pointed out his lack of integration into Stan's offense. I'm in agreement though I would rather have KCP than THJ at the same price point. There's a lot of revisionist history about THJ as a shooter now; you would think he was Reggie Miller or something. THJ has been a below average shooter his entire career up until this career year, and his percentages were still just average. I'm a little gun-shy of guys having career years in contract years(Al Henderson, Chris Crawford). I'm willing to concede the shooting to THJ over KCP for arguments sake, but almost everything else done on a basketball court KCP does better. I think we've seen plenty of players become better shooters over there career. I'm really torn on this, so I would probably pass and try and get Noel for 13-15 million a year. If Dallas matches so be it.

It's interesting that Bosh and Al Horford picked up threes later in the career. I haven't looked at the numbers, but using the eye test I would say they both became worse players because of the three. I'm sure they spaced the floor better, but neither was as impactful as before the 3. They both became really soft too; Kevin Love the same.

We got him because the NBA has become foolish overvaluing floor spacing too much. Collins should have been a top 10 ish pick based on his production and youth, but he didn't take a single 3 college, so they assumed he couldn't shoot. There stupidity our gain. Our scouts had him ranked properly on their board. Secondly, when Collins threw down that hard dunk on the break, I saw the first genuine smile from a normally stoic Schlenk. It scared me a little bit.

John Collins has crazy strong hands. He can snag rebounds outside of his area. Did you see the one hand catch he made on the break? This guy has a huge catch radius and he'll need it because putting the pass on the money is still not a strength of Dennis. His defensive awareness on switches and off ball has been better than I expected too. Loved the pick when we made it and I'm loving it even more now. I would like to see a jumper though. It's almost like they told him not to pop; Everything is a roll.

Bobby Portis posted 19 points 8-10 shooting 9 rebounds 3 assist 2 blocks in game 1 of the playoffs against the Celtics. A game the Bulls surprisingly won. He was the second highest scorer and rebounder. I didn't see anything like that from THJ in the playoffs. Again Portis first two seasons per is 13.8 and 14.9. THJ was a sub 13 per guy his first three seasons; he was sub 12 per just last season, and barely cracked 15 in his career best contract year. It seems to me Portis' career trajectory is on a higher slope than THJ's and he's almost caught him in year two. If your going to compare players doesn't it make sense to compare their progressions at congruent times? By your logic we win the Sar for Gasol trade because Sar was better in the first couple of years. I'm thinking Portis may start this year, so it will be interesting to see how he does with more usage. His career per 36 projects him to be a 15 and 11 guy at 20% usage which is pretty good.

Where are the defensive stats? How do they rank there? Assist are non existent for THJ. I liked both players, but if they are going to out played every time we play an upper tier PG our SG aren't we treadmilling again? People crap on Joe Johnson around here but at least he was a two way player. I need one of these guys to become a plus defender, because most NBA scoring comes from the guards and wings now. If you're going to try and compete with Golden State you can only hide one minus defender in your starting lineup.

Man I accidentally deleted all my summer league games trying to delete one on my direct tv dvr. The Hawks game is not being replayed either. I checked the ESPN app on my Roku and no dice. I'm so bummed right now, but I know my man Collins represented. 4 shots is just sad. I guess will be shipping him off when he complains about touches too in about a year. Where the hell can I see this game?

Lol. At this price though I'm not going to complain. I still would have rather taken a flyer on Ben McLemore.

Lol the way money is being thrown around who knows, but Taj Gibson is a good comparable to Portis and he just go 14m at 30 plus. Dieng just got broke off too. At the end of the day I never believed in THJ upside. If they believe he's going to breakout they'll match. If they believe he'll continue to be average why match? To your point if all outcomes are about the same why not keep the younger cheaper asset? At the time of trade our team was full of in prime players that we're due big pay days. Cheap assets are the life blood of those teams and we sacrificed 3 years of cheap.

I believe in general all rookies are bad defensively. LeBron was not good defensively in year one. Taurean Prince was not good defensively early. There is nothing physically keeping Collins from being a good defender other than elite length. Length helps you block shots doesn't necessarily mean your a good defender. He doesn't have poor feet or athleticism like Kanter or Okafor. He was the primary scoring option on his team. I expect he will become at worst a average NBA defender. His defensive awareness is very poor, but that's what coaching and the bench is for. Lets not plan around his D until we know what he'll be.

What cap space are you saving by not having rookie deal? It's literally the cheapest and one of the greatest value contracts in the NBA? Portis is already an average NBA player whose 2 year per 36 puts him at roughly 15 and 11. HIS first two years per is almost 2pts higher than THJ first two years and the win shares are a wash. The Bulls are just as dysfunctional as the Knicks too. Stand to reason he could be even better here. I'm not quite sure what you think we got from THJ because in year one we got zero and year two we got a flashes and disappearing in the playoffs. We'll now lose him for nothing as we tend to do. In short, we gave up the highest pick we had in years for a one semi productive year then lose the asset for nothing. You may not like Portis and I never liked Oubre ,but in either case we would still control a cheap movable asset. We also would have one less roster spot to fill and have another piece to our young core.

The irony all of this is @AHFand I both predicted this when we crapped on the original THJ trade. Him becoming an average to slightly above average player under Buds tutelage and getting overpaid was honestly the best case scenario for that terrible trade. We compounded the issue by not picking up THJ 5th year option which shows how little faith we had in him after year one with us. So now instead of having Bobby Portis Or Oubre(most on squawk wanted) on a cheap deal for 3 more seasons we have this. The Portis Collins front court would look pretty good right now. I would much rather have KCP at this price point than THJ. I would like most of all to let Bud Coach up Ben McLemore on 2 years 11 million. Let him get his hands on a guy with top 5 talent that you guys all want to tank for. There's no worse situation for a young player than Sacramento. I can't believe we didn't take a flyer on him. This would be like the THJ trade without giving up a 1st. This team does mind boggling inconsistent things, and lacks foresight on how to manage assets.

The Utah situation is scariest of all. They were doing it right and their best drafted player just left and set them back. I really think the league is broken. There is really no way for certain markets to compete. Too many teams are trying to lose for very unlikely chance of drafting the next generational talent. Drafting all stars doesn't get you rings in this league. I honestly think the NBA should get rid of the draft which removes the incentive to tank. Make all Rookies free agents and give teams outside the playoffs first dibs negotiate with the rookies and get rid our the rookies salary scale. Like major league baseball you may have to give the top prospects a huge deal, so signability matters. Limit each team to two signees. This will allow teams to compete on price, organization, development etc.. for young talent. If you get it wrong your stuck paying a bust 20m a year. Contending teams will likely be near capped out, so unless a Rookies willing to forgo big money for a ring then I doubt they'll go to contenders. I think this gives more teams a chance to compete sooner. Maybe the league would have less bust too if players could pick teams they fit with. It seems certain teams can never develop players properly. My overall point is let's not reward teams with top talent for being bad. Alright I'll put the down now and go back to reality of the bad product that is the NBA.

Ah black on black racism. How did, I know this would emerge. If you're black and have different opinion, skin tone, or background, then you're not real brother. Ironically these people are usually as racist as the people they claim are racist if you get to know them. Discrimination is everywhere and exist even in predominantly monotone societies. When humans can't discriminate on race they find something else . Class, ethnic, background, education, income it's the one thing that seems to be a laggard in terms of human social maturation. I have a couple theories around why this is still in the human nature. Like groups based on distinguishing factors tend to think a like and intermingled then produce more people that have their values. I sometimes wonder if this isn't a side effect of the drive to proliferate our genes, culture etc... In short are we wired this way through genetics and the need to want to see our way survive. My second theory is tied to the first but relates more to scarcity and economics. The rise of the KKK's primary platform was related to give jobs back to whites and bring our values back. The Irish and Chinese faced tons of racism when they migrated here looking for job's. Is a large portion of this economics driven due to scarcity of resources and wanting to keep them "in your group"? I don't know it's probably a combination, but I can tell you the only way to combat this is via interaction. Stereotypes and prejudices are broken down when you live work, fellowship and pray with people of a different mind. That's why I still have hope for future generations. You can still live silohed, but it's becoming harder and harder. Oh yeah I forgot I'm a brother, which is probably the least interesting thing about me, but know this will help some agree with or ignore my post.

Horford was right about this team, so how can you blame him. You want him to go down with the ship and keep playing like the band on the titanic? Every player from that starting 5 of the 60 win team is in a way better situation than the Hawks right now. Hell even Dwight is in a good situation. I'm watching huge movement of Stars and we can't capitalize because we are not prepared. I'm watching assets leave with nothing in return *Iverson voice* we sitting here talking bout the next lottery. We talking about the lottery. We talking about the 2018 lottery. Yet I'm here getting sold hope with no assets.

I had Malik Beasley 1 Caris Levert 2 and Prince 3rd on my board. I was targeting Prince at 21.I really like Prince but I think these other two will be much better scorers and we had a ton of defensive wing role players already. We lacked scoring.

I thought he had a better freshmen year then Devon Booker with a lot less talent around him at Florida State. He's a better athlete then Booker too and shot just as well. I think he's prefect for Buds system.