ATLien_

This is going to be huge against the Cavs. I think he'll have Tristan Thompson in alot of foul trouble. This is one benefit of Dwight I over looked. Despite his horrid free throw shooting; he'll get us in the bonus early and often. Hell keep opposing bigs in foul trouble.

Not a fan of this move. Not sure why everyone is saying Walter showed nothing. He played well the last two summer leagues and I thought he played well in pre season. He's been given very few regular season minutes, so it's hard for me to judge him on that. Moose has been around with little contributions much longer and has looked terrible in the last two summer leagues. It seems the light has come on for him, but this Edy move seems odd to me for the very same reason. What the F do we need Ryan Kelly for? He's a duplication of Moose and Mike Scott. IMO given the minutes I do believe Edy can rebound and block shots at a NBA level. I've seen enough to believe he can do that. That's essentialy all Rudy Gobert does. Any offense you get is Gravy and I think he has a chance to be a decent catch and shoot guy unlike Gobert. Mutumbo was in this mold too. Maybe the game has passed these guys by but I disagree. Steven Adams, Kendrick Perkins the list goes on. Who plays the Dwight rim protection role if he gets hurt? Ryan Kelly ain't walking through that door. Edy was the other shot changer on the team.

You guys are really overrating Millsap. I like him but he's not stopping a LeMarcus Aldridge level offensive player despite you guys trying to make him into Dennis Rodman defensively. His defense was not good against the Cavs and he was responsible for many of the open threes given up to Love and Frye. At the end of the day we have to beat the Cavs. I think we would have benefited more from having a go to scorer and rebounder like LeMarcus last year versus the Cavs. Our defense was not good against them and we were still close at the end of games but couldn't score or secure rebounds late. I have a bad feeling about Millsap without Al; he benefited greatly from the spacing Horford provided. He depends dribble penetration quite a bit and the opposing center will now be planted in the paint giving him less room to operate. Not saying he'll fall off completely, but I can see his efficiency taking a hit. Maybe a mini Josh Smith post Al effect. I would love to eat crow on this and he have his best year though. The good news is our bench bigs can space the floor for him.

Fair enough. It will be interesting to track. If they ask Millsap to play the role Al did his rebounding will definitely decline, but I don't expect us to play that way anymore. We have better wing defenders and I expect less helping.

I saw enough of Sap guarding Love and Channing Frye in the playoffs. After record setting 3 point shooting I'm not convinced this is good either. I like Sap much more against guys that try to out quick or physical him. As to your second point I think there's some truth to it, but I think what your asked to do can change your mentality and set the tone. I'll give a football analogy. Have you ever seen a spread offense team that passed 65%of the time be physical on the goaline? There all about speed and fooling people, so when they have to just lineup and bang out a yard on the goaline they can't do it. Oregon was notorious for this and would run into an SEC school and get dominated on the line of scrimmage. Oregon had great talent but their style made them soft. My overall point is you're only as good at what you practice and what you practice against. Alabama wears people out because the practice man whoop a man all day everyday, and probably face better competition in practice than in games. What did we ask Al to do and who was he practicing against Muscala? Then Tristan Thompson shows up and you want him to turn into a banger. By the way Tristan dominated Sap too when he was on him. I think Boston will ask Al to be in the paint more and are a blue collar physical team. I expect him to adjust just like he did with Woody and just like he did with Bud. Al is an amoeba.

Not sure why the Spurs would do this for an older Millsap on an expiring deal, but the Hawks would do it in a nano second.

Before this river becomes an ocean; I got just the thing to pump up your faith. :)

1 - 51-31 2 - 3rd 3 - Lose in ECF in 7, ref screw job 4 - 975 minutes

No I said having two sieves on defense at guard kept him out of rebounding position because he was the designated help man. He also played more of a shot blocking role than in the past. Hence the career highs in blocks. No need to argue the proof will be in the pudding. When his rebounding goes back up with the Celtics the butt hurt among you will claim a 4 time Allstar mailed it in despite being universally lauded by NBA coaches over his career for the type of pro he is and his work effort. We will get killed by stretch bigs and on switches with Dwight. Certain teams will able to exploit this. Bud is going to have to come up with a way to run people off the perimeter and funnel them to Dwight. That's the only way our defense can be as good. It will be the opposite of how we played defense before which was to increase opponent shot distance as much as possible by pressuring and switching.

I strongly disagree; he will average close to 9 rebounds a game and it will be because he won't be asked to be on the perimeter protecting Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver. All the hedging and trapping he did here had him out of rebounding position. He was the anchor of our defense that made opponents shoot further away from the basket than anyone else. There should also be more rebounds available with all the bad and volume shooters the Celtics have. Thomas will be the only weak defender on that starting unit, so I expect to see pre Bud rebounding numbers.

Happy birthday Gray Mule. You've been around a long time and seen the good and the bad of this team and this country and remained filled with Joy. Much respect for keeping it positive all these years and seeing the best in life and people. I wish there were many more people like you. May you have many more blessed years. One of my favorite quotes that describes @Gray Muleperfectly. C.G. Jung Quote: "We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them." The original version :) For the bible scholars. “Behold, we count them happy which endure” (James 5:11)

Bingo if we try to play the same defense we did with Al we will be worse. I think shedding olay Teague improves the defense if Dennis is focused and not gambling too much. Last year covering for Teague and Korver left Al out of rebounding position too often, and got us exploited in the playoffs. I'm really hoping Korver is on the bench, so we can play straight up D, We should be fine with him starting because we only have 1 weak perimeter player now. I suspect we will funnel his man to Dwight if he gets beat instead of trapping and hedging. Will see our old defense some, but situationaly late in shot clocks when teams won't have enough time to take advantage of Dwight's perimeter foot speed.

There's something different about this team I can't quite put my finger on it. Lots of high basketball IQ players with deceptive speed, you know gritty guys that do all the little things. I know this is the all intangibles team . Lethal you're slipping how dare you leave Chris Crawford off this ABC team and put Cal Bowdler at SF? Cal Bowdler makes Walter Tavares look like a Gazelle. Captain Kirk and Mike Bibby probably deserve honorable mention too.

I too am intrigued by the Westbrook experiment. I think he's on the edge of what I call a superstar. Yes, I throw around the Superstar tag like manhole covers. It will be interesting to see how impactful his play is with the poor spacing that Roberson and Olidipo will provide. That's slightly different than having KD and the driving lanes won't be what they were. Can he shoot well enough to keep defenses honest, and if not can he get others involved? Maybe he'll go into full AI volume shooter mode. Whatever happens it will be interesting.

I'm not hating on Kyrie. He's a top 10 scorer no doubt. I just don't see him as the center of a championship team. He benefits greatly from all the attention Lebron gets, so he rarely sees double teams. If Lebron wasn't there he would get much more attention and hasn't shown the ability to make the right play with the ball when not scoring. People would double and trap him and his inability to consistently assist would be very impactful. He did play better defensively in the finals, so maybe he can become better there. He's been a very poor defender to this point in his career. Anybody that thought Teague was better than Kyrie is delusional. More healthy yes, but Teague is a poor man's dogs version of Kyrie. He played well head to head but it never translated to the rest of the season because Kyrie wasn't guarding him everynight. If Carmelo or Glen Robinson had Lebron covering their flaws people's opinion of them would be vastly different too. Carmelo in the Olympics is a great example.

Kyrie is an elite scorer and not much else. He's Carmelo in a PG's body, but at least Carmelo can get you 10 boards. I honestly believe the Cavs would miss the playoffs without Lebron just like they did consistently before he got there. Kyrie would average 32 and the Cavs would be terrible. Love and Kyrie the ultimate empty calorie players.

Never heard of them do tell.

Seems to be working now. Maybe my old post was cached in my in my text window. That's saved me a couple times when I left the page on accident while constructing a post. Trading for Rudy Gay would be essentially a Jeff Teague to the Pacers type trade for the Hawks. Low risk high reward. He's on a good contract now with the salary inflation. You get a one year rental because he will opt out, but you gain his bird rights. If it works you have the flexibility to sign other free agents and sign him over the cap. If it doesn't you let him walk and gain 12 ish million in cap space. I really don't see a downside if we don't blow it by offering to much a la THJ. The Pacers have the same situation with Teague.

Side note is something broken with the quote feature? It's copying my old post even though I only quoted AHF.

I swear I don't understand the Rudy Gay hate on this board. Did he sleep with someones mommy or girlfriend? His teams have lost in the past and some how that's all his fault? I've never heard any coach or teammate complain about Rudy Gay being a malcontent or ball hog. We clamor for Demaree Carroll, but say Rudy Gay sucks. Rudy Gay is a much better player than Carroll and can do everything he can do defensively and much more offensively. Hey I know let's Jamal Crawford that's a one dimensional chucker that's better than Gay. Wrong again. What did Demaree, Millsap, Bazemore, Jamal Crawford win before getting here? None of those players were considered better than Gay, and they've all contributed to winning here. Everyone likes to talk about the Grizzlies getting better well that was a poorly constructed team with no shooters or spacing. That has more to do with them constructing a proper team than Gay. The kings have been losing and disfunctional 12 plus years and somehow the fairly recent addition of Rudy gay is the root cause? Bottom line if Gay is available for right price he should be here, and not as a freaking 6th man. I agree with this sentiment. He's not Lebron hell he's not even Carmelo, but that's not what we need. Noone is averaging 22+ points a game in this system. Because of his talent people want him to be a savior, but he can be a 17ppg 3d guy here and have great success. He is at a minimum the same tier scorer as Millsap and his big scoring nights will be more prolific. I'm not worried about what he did with dysfunctional Sacramento or the anemic offense Grizzlies. I think he projects well in our system and that's what the Hawks should be focused on. This is why the Spurs get a Boris Diaw and turn his career around. In Atlanta in our ISO system he was a bust. Using the logic here Pop never picks up Diaw. The same madness that drove coach Bud to trade the 15th pick in the draft for THJ should be compelling him today. He believed in THJ projection into his system. I just wish he would be compelled by a player with real talent for once. I'm all for it if the price is right. We should not give up any of our core, and any pick should have top 18-20 conditions around it. I would prefer to shed Tiago and some fillers. Lastly Rudy Gay is a born killer. All those end of game shots prove it. You could take every game winner from this entire team even with Al and I bet Rudy would still has almost 10 more. This is the # one reason he needs to be here. You have it or you don't. Rudy's not afraid of the moment and was the end of game guy even with Derozan and Lowry.

I swear I don't understand the Rudy Gay hate on this board. Did he sleep with someones mommy or girlfriend? His teams have lost in the past and some how that's all his fault? I've never heard any coach or teammate complain about Rudy Gay being a malcontent or ball hog. We clamor for Demaree Carroll, but say Rudy Gay sucks. Rudy Gay is a much better player than Carroll and can do everything he can do defensively and much more offensively. Hey I know let's Jamal Crawford that's a one dimensional chucker that's better than Gay. Wrong again. What did Demaree, Millsap, Bazemore, Jamal Crawford win before getting here? None of those players were considered better than Gay, and they've all contributed to winning here. Everyone likes to talk about the Grizzlies getting better well that was a poorly constructed team with no shooters or spacing. That has more to do with them constructing a proper team than Gay. The kings have been losing and disfunctional 12 plus years and somehow the fairly recent addition of Rudy gay is the root cause? Bottom line if Gay is available for right price he should be here, and not as a freaking 6th man.

Dennis looks alot more explosive. He's been working on his leaping off of one and two feet. In the words of the great orator Jar Jar Binks "Mesa lika that!"

This guy is a F in beast and looks even better this year than he did last year. Why o why did we not just draft him? Why do we have to get cute. He would easily be our best big off the bench and would give us very good insurance if Millsap ask for to much money. If I had drafted for the Hawks the last 4 years our depth would be crazy good. I said they should draft Gorgei Dieng they take Bebe. I say Gary Harris, they take Adrien Payne. I say Bobby Portis they trade the pick for THJ and two 2nd rounders. I say take Malik Beasley, Caris Levert, Taurean Prince in that order we get Prince and Bembrey which I'm happy with. This is the first time and drafted well since the Schröder pick. I still think Beasley will be the better player, but Prince is a safe pick. This really bites you in the butt when a guy like Baze is a free agent. Do we pay Baze 17 million with Gary Harris in the wings? I don't know but at any rate you don't feel pressured to resign him. Getting these picks right is critical when you have multiple max players. It allows you to field a deep team. Oh best summer league final ever. Rant over.

I think backup power forward is our weakest bench position, and Josh is better than Mike and Mike. I think I just talked myself into it? Yes. Can't believe I said that.

Based on his comments about it having meaning to him and being biblical my guess is 15. The parable of the prodigal son is Luke 15: verses 11-32, so I'm guessing it will be one of these numbers. The hint that his father didn't like it until he explained leads me to 15 because it shows up Horford. For those of you that are not religious, the parable of the prodigal son is about a rich man's son who leaves home and squanders all his inheritance wylin out (no wylin is not in bible ) . The son returns hoping to just be a servant in his father's house, because even his father's servants have food to eat and even the dogs get the table scraps. When he returns his father forgives him and throws a big celebration and slaughters the fattest Cav (not a Kevin Love reference) I mean calf which is a great honor. This parable is a metaphor for Gods true nature and capacity to forgive those who turn away from him. The younger son in the parable represents "the haters". He's very upset the father accepts him back and chronicles all the things he did wrong to lose his inheritance. To that the father simply says my favorite verse of the parable. “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” If Dwight truly feels like this be ready for the best years of his career.