Watchman

what caused our initial dilemma in the first place? So now you suggest we overpay QRich and Crawford? And this makes sense how?

If our goal is to lose every game, so that we get more ping pong balls, we ought to field the worst team possible. I'd say lets go for the all-tweener look. Dion, Person, Diaw, Sura and Hansen. That team ought to definitely lose all its remaining games. I'd only put JT and Jax in for about 15 minutes a game. Otherwise, they might get on a hot streak and accidentally cause us to win one.

and yet you think we can attract a top tier free agent? Do you even listen to yourself?

why is McGrady chomping at the bit to get out of Orlando, instead of taking over games and winning single handedly? Garnett, as great as he is was sick of trying to be a one man team. IF we ever get a "superstar", our superstar would be a one man team. Chicago is certainly a more attractive market than Atlanta, and they couldn't sign a "top tier" free agent, even though they maneuvered to gain all the cap space. I think it is fine to make cap space and hope for the best, but all we have now is cap space. There are only so many "impact" free agents, and behind that, there are mediocre level free agents. Probably not as good as the players we gave away for nothing. A better approach would have been to build around what was already good with our franchise, and trade off the crap, like JT, like Theo, like Hendu, etc., etc., etc.

I'm certainly not aware of any? I don't understand the point of your question. I said free agents want a ready made winner. I don't see the relevance of your question in relationship to Denver.

main culprit and the main reason we don't succeed. I do think that Ratliff deliberately played poorly for us so that he would get traded, but I think JT is the reason Reef never "won" with Atlanta. I'm glad to see Ratliff gone because he never attempted to help us win, but I hate to see Reef gone, especially with JT the pinhead still running the point. Maybe we can dump JT next season. Then we might have a chance of improving, though none of us may live that long.

Cap room got them nothing. Why is it that you think Atlanta is more intriguing to free agents than Utah. Money is money. Free agents nowadays don't want to take a team on their shoulders and take it from being a loser to being a winner. They want a ready made winner. We are nothing approximating a ready made winner. That's what draws free agents in this era BHD. Not money alone.

Utah? No one ever answers that question. We gave away ALL of our bargaining chips for nothing but cap room and a protected pick. Now we have nothing on which to build, and no reputation that will attract free agents. What few fans still remained will simply not go out to see the collection of NBA garbage that we have now accumulated. More and more fans will give up in disgust and we further undermine the viability of this franchise in this city. I'm not saying we shouldn't have given up on the roster we had, we just should have gotten something more than cap room and a protected draft pick out of it. Cap room alone isn't enough. Utah can tell you all about how great cap room is. No one in their right mind would even walk across the street to watch the garbage team we now have. This does not bode well for our ability to regain our fan base, nor does it bode well for our ability to draw top level free agents. I am nauseated.

are executed in the first place. Why is Q Richardson worth $6 million? You get cap room and you feel obligated to use it. Next thing you know, you've wasted $6 million a year on Hendu, Wright, Mohammed, etc., etc, etc. No superstars sign with you and out of desperation you waste the money by overpaying mediocre talent. We should have kept part of what we had (SAR), and gotten rid of JT, Ratliff, Mohammed, etc. I truly believe if SAR had a decent true PG, and then you brought in someone like Kobe or TMac, we would begin to be a good team. As it stands now, there is no way on earth we will get a top level free agent to sign here. We gave away ALL of our bargaining chips for cap space. It won't do us any good.

that strikes terror in the hearts of any opponents. Kwame Brown is perhaps the greatest waste of a number one pick that will ever be. He is not even in the same league with Reef, nor will he likely ever be. Reef went to college one year and turned pro and averaged 18 and 8. Kwame will probably never produce at that level. My guess is that Howard will end up approximating Kwame Brown in this league. To me, that ain't saying much.

you for slandering their team. The Clippers look like geniuses compared to us. Sure Kobe's going to want to sign with this franchise. Please. Give me a break.

You obviously can't remember how much "good" it is to have all the cap space in the world and have an undesireable team image. Check with Utah. Check with Chicago. All that cap room did them no good. Utah had to take on bad contracts (Keon Clark) just to meet the NBA minimum salary requirements. No one (except for our own "all-stupid team" member JT wanted to sign with them. Certainly now, our "crowds" of 5,000 per night will probably realistically drop to 500 to 2,000 per night. Free agents just love to play in front of "crowds" like that! Oh well, we now lead the league in 6'5" to 6'8" mediocre-to-less-than-mediocre swingmen. Knight must be so proud. We don't even have a power forward on our entire team. (Unless you count "DNP" Henderson.) This is so embarrassing. At one time having the first pick in the draft was a good thing. Not anymore. I'd bet Howard is closer to Kwame Brown than he is to LeBron James. Kwame Brown may excite you, but he does absolutely nothing for me.

Oh, is that before or after Kobe and Rasheed fought to the death? Kobe doesn't make the Lakers winners. Shaq does.

Van Horn's contract is similar to Reef's, with an extra option year, and he is no where near the player that Reef is. Why undo all that was done in this trade, if you paint yourself into the same corner, but with a less talented player? That doesn't make any sense.

extend to his own team. He wants to send Reef to a "championship team" but nothing was said, or done, to bring a championship team to Atlanta. JR Rider trade all over again. And stupid JT is still here.

we don't need any more perimeter players. Reef was the only inside player we had. Now we have a PF who likes to jack up outside shots. He and Jackson will stand around out on the 3 pt line, while no one goes inside and no one rebounds. This was an unbelievably stupid trade.

Can't disagree with you on that one. This trade stinks. We didn't even get a draft pick out of it. This is disgusting.

Reef scores better than Sheed, rebounds better than Sheed, is not constantly in trouble with the league and/or law enforcement. Wallace is a better shot blocker. That's it. In every other aspect, Reef is a much better player.

Get rid of both "Terry's." Terry Stotts is clueless as a coach. Bad team or not, you at least try to make adjustments. We just do the same stupid things over and over again. His substitutions may be worse than Lon Kruger's. JT is without a doubt the biggest waste of speed I've ever seen. All that athletic ability wasted on someone without a clue of what to do. Never learns from his mistakes. I was all for us doing whatever was necessary, within reason, to keep him. Boy was I mistaken. The guy is absolutely clueless. Unfortunately JT is BYC, so we're probably stuck with him for the rest of this year. I was looking at Real GM the other day to see if there is another BYC player we could swap JT for. The only one I saw that had a comparable salary was Wally Z. I don't know that that would help us. Anyone aware of any other BYC players we could swap for JT, assuming we could find some team dumb enough to take him.

The reason he was in Europe is because he was banned for life from the NBA for numerous drug violations. He was truly an awesome talent, but he couldn't get it together personally.

That's not that old. However, I'm not saying it's got to be NVE, I just never recalled NVE being careless with the ball. He has similar offensive skills to JT. I frankly wish JT would wake up and start playing with some brains, but I've been looking for that for the last three years.

would I have any takers on trading JT and CC to Golden State for Nick Van Exel? This will work as far as salary cap according to Real GM. JT certainly has talent, but exhibits poor decision making skills over and over again. Poor coaching strategy may contribute, but to stand out on the perimeter and dribble until the inevitable steal and fast break layup takes place is just unfathomable to me. I have never really noticed many PG's in the league that can't learn from previous mistakes the way that JT seems to. I really can't comprehend why he can't figure out what it is that he keeps doing wrong. As to the coaching, we still stand around on offense waiting for someone to go one on one, or JT & SAR to run the pick and roll. We still only rarely have any movement without the ball, and when players do move without the ball, they are not rewarded for their efforts. I certainly wanted us to re-sign JT, and I'm glad that we did. I hope that he will begin to learn from his mistake, but if not, perhaps we could trade him for someone else; someone who has a clue about what running the offense is all about. I don't have a problem with PGs that score, I do have a problem with PGs that make stupid decisions late in the game over and over again, and never learn from them.

He has no jump shot, but he is fast, and he can beat a press.

I remember (although I can't remember specifically who they were) quick little point guards running circles around Dickau as he tried to bring the ball up court. On defense, he was constantly beaten by his man. He is slow.

If Dan Dickau is our future, then it's a bleak one indeed. I know the similarity between Nash's rookie stats and Dickau's, but beyond that why you insist on comparing the two is beyond me. Well, they both have bad hair. Dickau is terrible on defense, has a LOT of trouble bringing the ball up against a press, is extremely turnover prone, and might possibly be the slowest man in the NBA. Referees are faster than he is. If we don't resign JT and we depend on DD for our future, we might as well try to transfer the Hawks to the NBDL.