niremetal

With the beard and his pockmarked face, you can't tell what Trejo's ethnic background is. Frankly as soon as I heard that they were making a movie based on this, the first thing that came to mind for me is that Trejo would be perfect for the role.

Uh....thanks for clarifying?

/thread

It's hysterical that people think Smoove is even in the same universe as Blake Griffin. Outside forums run by Hawks fans, no one would even think of this as a topic worth discussing.

There was a salary cap back then. The "Larry Bird exception" to the salary cap is so-named because the prospect of the Celtics being unable to re-sign Bird is what pressured the league to create that exception.

It's almost impossible for a team to win a title if their best offensive player is the PG. It makes it too easy for the opposing team to focus their defensive attention. You can get around that if your team relies on its defense (see: Bad Boy Pistons) or if your PG is so freakishly tall that he can pass out even once a trap closes in on him (Magic). Neither of those applies to Paul. Having a Hall of Fame quality low post threat makes it easier (see: Stockton/Malone) because that forces frontcourt help to stay at home longer. On that front, the best the Clips can hope for is that Paul and Griffin develop an offensive chemistry on the level of Stockton and Malone. Problem is, we never had a Blake Griffin. Josh Smith isn't even in the universe as an inside threat compared to Griffin. For all the accolades Josh is getting this year, he has only accomplished it by becoming one of the least efficient scoring PFs in the league. I just don't see the path to a title that we would have had with Paul. I can see multiple paths to a title with the ability to add a couple solid free agents instead of keeping Koncak. That's the difference for me.

I voted for Koncak. That contract hamstrung our ability to round out the roster with a couple more solid players. In 1989, the team had some obvious holes (perimeter shooting, frontcourt depth) that kept it from advancing in the playoffs. The huge extension granted to Koncak, who was averaging 5/6 at the time, killed our ability to fill those holes. If we let him walk, we wouldn't have lost an All-Star or even a solid starter. Nope, we mortgaged the farm to keep a BACKUP CENTER. And a subpar one at that. And one who was getting WORSE as a player, not improving. Comparing Cak to Zaza is an insult to Zaza.Jon Contract made the Manning/Nique trade irrelevant. The team was already stuck in neutral and not going anywhere. Similarly, the Smitty deal came at a time when the team had clearly reached its peak and wasn't going to make it any further with the core it had.If we're taking the benefit of hindsight, the Marvin pick "allowed" us to be in the position to draft Horford, who soon became an All-Star in his own right. The Koncak signing didn't "help" us in any such way. It hamstrung like no other move has. It kept the team stuck in neutral, unable to make moves necessary to take the team past the second round in the playoffs or give the Bulls or Pistons a serious run for their money. And unlike with Marvin, who was a consensus top 2 pick at the time he was drafted, no one thought our backup center was worth a contract that would pay him as much as the league's superstars.It actually caused the team to regress, because it forced us to rely on Pete Babcock's drafting as our sole means of adding talent without having to give up talent. And Roy Marble, Rumeal Robinson, Adam Keefe, Doug Edwards...yeah.Come to think of it...the only thing I can think of that compares to Koncak was Babcock's overall record of drafting. The number of guys he picked in the first round who were out of the league before their rookie contracts expired has to be some sort of record.Anyway, yeah. The Jon Contract memory makes me sickest of all.

That was awesome - thanks for sharing!

Just to revisit. I'm having the good fortune of watching my first JC2 game of the season now. Forget the inefficient shooting and total lack of court vision or shot selection. The man doesn't even pretend to care about defense. I don't care enough to check, but I'm guessing that any lineup with him, Andray Blatche, and Javale McGee all on the floor at the same time ranked among the worst defensive 5-man units in the league.

JJ was covered like Waffle House hashbrowns last night.

I wasn't aware the front office had valid excuses before. I think roster shake-ups were necessary in 2009 and especially in 2010.

Fixed.

Thanks.I wrote a reply to this and thought I hit "post," but it seems to have disappeared into the internet ether. Short version: I get that the quality of coach and personnel management matter, but I still haven't seen any report that a player turned down/didn't look at a team simply because he didn't like/believe in the owners. Just speculation by third parties that the ownership may have played a role. And not for nothing, but that article hit the quality of Atlanta fans at least as hard as the quality of the owners...

I read that article. It said the owners sucked and that it was ironic that Gearon got the tampering fine for LBJ because free agents didn't want to come to Atlanta anyway. It didn't say why free agents didn't want to come here. Frankly, I always thought it was because of the ultra-humiliating way we lost to Orlando, combined with the team's bloated payroll thanks to the contracts for Marvin, Josh, Al, and Joe - made it pretty unlikely the Hawks could land any of them in a S&T. Link?

I've never seen that.

NBA coaches don't put guys on 6 straight All-Star teams who are "doing just enough to get by."No one has ever argued that JJ is LeBron or Kobe. I compare him more to a guy like Garnett, Pierce, Allen, Gasol, Pippen, etc - guys who can be part of a Big Two or Big Three. Hell, put him on the 2008 title winning Celtics team, and he would have been the best player on the floor. Same with the '04 Pistons. The idea that he doesn't care or could never be a part of a contender is absurd.If the Hawks had decided to do a firesale last month, every contender with the exception of Miami would have scrambled to put together a package that would land him. You think that's true about your boy Josh? Listen to the way opposing coaches and players talk about Joe and you understand the respect he has around the league. He's a guy who quietly averages 20-5-5, plays hard on both ends of the floor, and has no real weaknesses in his game (which is why he's always cited as one of the hardest guys in the league to stop 1-on-1).It's only fair weather fans and people who only consider someone a star if they showboat that hate on Joe.

Fail.

(Sigh) benhillboy

My guess is that JJ slides to SF and either Kirk or Green starts at SG.

Or maybe the people who selected him - you know, NBA coaches - realize that he's still the only player on the team worth gameplanning around. He did this year what he's done his whole time in Atlanta - been someone who can never be left open even from 25 feet away, is basically impossible to defend 1-on-1 and thus must be doubled as soon as he has the ball within 20 feet of the basket, has great court vision, has one of the best floaters in the game, and plays excellent perimeter D. Congrats to JJ on selection number 6.

Please tell me you don't mean the 51 year old guy who hasn't played in the league in over a decade...

So wrong, but hilarious: And my favorite of the GEICO commercials it parodies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDddVBg5K8Q

I'm not one to defend Josh, but it was our bench that mostly blew this one.

You can't double zero, Dolfan