Watchman

I never said anything about JT's salary. I quoted from the Hawks news AJC article on 2/20/04 that stated that BK approached JT and "told him he wanted him around for the rebuilding process." It doesn't sound like BK plans on trading him if that is true. Perhaps you were replying to someone else's post re: salary issues.

"rebuilding process" it seems like a moot point to me. We're stuck with him.

Looking at Mamadou's past statistics, he is a very poor rebounder to be a 7 footer.

put the scrubs' pictures at the top of the page?

written by Mike Lee that stated that BK approached JT and told him he wanted him around for the rebuilding process. BK still doesn't get it does he? JT is the problem not the solution. So I guess we will still have JT's stupidity to look forward to year after year, while we endure our NBDL talent. So exciting!

Must be yours. What motivated this little tirade of yours anyway? Your opinion means as little to me as mine does to you. I never wanted us to keep Babcock. I was certainly glad to see him go. I have no idea where that came from.

what I consider a top-tier free agent. He's about a half step above JT, which to me ain't sayin' all that much. 6 assists a game this year. JT's almost that good.

"The Hawks finally have a GM that knows how to rebuild the right way." You don't know that "he knows how to rebuild." Nothing has been rebuilt, only torn down. We don't have a clue what Billy can or will do. We only know that there is some potential, which may or may not pan out. We also know that in the best possible world, it will probably be at least another five years before we can be competitive, to say nothing of actually contending for anything.

Try telling Isiah Thomas that. Why couldn't Knight have given away our garbage the way New York did, get something of much greater worth back, and produce immediate results? Why is it that it's always everyone else who pulls this stuff off. We get excited because some other team took our best assets away, and gave us nothing in return. Years of mediocrity have jaded us into accepting whatever garbage comes our way.

He's a good player, but has shown no real improvement in three years. Nor has he shown that he can take a team any further than the one we gave him up to obtain.

for nothing. I don't see Knight's last 10 days as something that just about anyone couldn't have done. Knight bent the team over and got nothing meaningful in return. Couldn't we have gotten a prospect? How about, as someone said, Randolph. Clearly, he and Rahim get in each other's way, and probably one of them will be dealt. Why couldn't we insist on him and his cheap contract? Why no draft pick? If that is displaying Knight's "genius", then we truly are doomed for at least 5 more years of rebuilding and excuses. I have been a Hawks fan since 1970. In all that time we have never sucked like this. We have never been the absolute worst team in the league. We are now. Prospects don't look too good for that changing in the near future. But hey you guys are excited about our NBDL team, and that's all that's important.

We have blown a lot of good draft choices. Knight's only claim to fame thus far is Diaw. Nice player but nothing to write home about. Basically we drafted a clone of Ira Newble. Again, nice role player, nothing to write home about. It's the high picks that trouble me. We might do all right with the # 15 pick, but top 3, that's scary. Ask Washington how they feel about wasting a #1 pick on Kwame Brown. How about us wasting a #6 pick on Dermarr Johnson? Sometimes the kids develop. Sometimes they don't. But, I'm over it. We suck, and we're going to continue to suck for a long, long time. We're on our perpetual five year rebuilding plan, starting over again at square one. As someone else said, we're an expansion team without the benefit of an expansion draft.

in 28 mpg after three years. But hey, if that excites you, I hope we waste all of this beautiful cap space and go get a team full of them.

me. Kwame Brown is the biggest bust I can think of and you want to bring him here, and waste a top three pick and get his clone? I have always respected you in the past, and I still do, but this is just brutal to me. We were bad with Shareef, et al, but now we are just embarrassing. Furthermore, these 18 year old kids take years and years to develop, and sometimes they never do. We have been losers since 1999, and it doesn't sit well with me. Be patient? We have been losing since 1999. That is way too long to suit me. Other than Kobe, the other free agents that might be decent next year will require us overpaying them to get them. That was our problem and has been our problem over the years. We overpaid Mohammed, even though I was all for it at the time. We overpaid Wright, even though I was all for it at the time. We signed Mutombo to a max level contract, and it handicapped us from that point on. I guess what I am saying is we have a history of wasting our resources on less than deserving players. What convinces you that Knight will be any better than Babcock was? He hasn't done anything to prove it thus far.

You didn't say anything about Jax leaving for more money. You just said you doubted he would stay here. Obviously you think that with our cap room we will sign some meaningful free agents. I don't think so. If we don't get Kobe, then we will have overpaid for someone else, of considerably lesser talent. You have your opinion and I have mine. You are excited about fielding quite possibly the worst team in the history of the league. I find it embarrassing. I guess we just value different things.

Might be great. Might be a bust. Make be decent after 6 or 7 years. Will be long gone from our roster by then. Don't quite see it myself.

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.