niremetal

This is the preseason, for crying out loud. Coaches are SUPPOSED to use a 12-man rotation. They are NOT supposed to play anyone 34+ minutes. There is no freaking reason to play JJ 34:30 in a preseason game. Wade played 29:12 because even freaking Spoelstra is smart enough to realize that these games mean nothing. I mean, come ON. If he's not going to even give the man 14 minutes of rest now, do you REALLY think he'll be able to keep him at under 38 minutes per game in the regular season?

Exactly. 34:30 on the floor for JJ, before the preseason is even out. And so it begins...

And as I said, tell that to any Blazers fan, and you'll go deaf from the laughing that will ensue. And frankly, tell that to anyone that isn't a Hawks fan, and you'll at least lose your hearing temporarily.

Uh...to turn that around, I think that if we asked Portland or any of its fans if they would take Josh Smith for Aldridge, they'd laugh. And laugh. And laugh. As for the numbers, Aldridge scores more points and gets more rebounds on a team with a better offense and better rebounders.

I was wrong. He predicted us to go 43-39.

It is no secret to those of us who follow the NBA blogs around the 'net that most pundits do not like the Hawks. But perhaps few people have more pent-up wrath for the Hawks than Kelly Dwyer at Yahoo. It's pretty clear that Mike Bibby beat up Dwyer and took his lunch money at some point in the past, because Dwyer has been writing condescending posts on Bibby pretty much from the day he started blogging. He most recently blasted the Hawks for re-signing Bibby, saying that it was "a cop out, a lazy move, an uninspired turn" and that we "bid against" ourselves (nevermind that we re-signed him to contract that ends when he's 33 for well below the going rate for a starting PG) to keep a guy with the "league-worst" defense (has he met Jason Kapono, Sam Cassell, or Luke Ridnour?). He also has called JJ overrated on a couple occasions, and generally seems to think that no good can come from Atlanta. He should take a cue from his co-blogger, the seriously hilarious J.E. Skeets, who sticks to chronicling the odder goings-on of the NBA world. But Dwyer, for reasons his mother probably only knows, fancies himself an analyst. He's really, really bad at it, but that doesn't stop him. Last year, Dwyer predicted the Hawks would go 36-46, and said that "even seems like a stretch." He capped it off with this: In case you forgot, the Smith-Woody feud seemed pretty much gone except for one incident about 2/3 of the way through the season, the ownership group seemed to mind their own business, the GM and coach seemed on the same page, and the Hawks improved by 10 games to take the 4th seed in the playoffs while feeling like a team that should have won even more. Oops. So what do you think he'll say this year? My guess is he'll peg us at 45-37.

Score 10 for Crawful :lol6:

You answered your own question - Mario. If we're only keeping one person (and according to Sund, that's all we're doing), it should be him. I only mentioned PG to make the point that we actually have less depth there than we do at PF/C. Just given the number of bodies on our roster at each position, our greatest need for an extra body is at SG/SF, since the only way the 13th man will see any action is in an injury emergency. If any two of JJ/Marvin/Jamal/Mo get injured, we will literally have NO ONE available to come off the bench to play those positions. At least 4 people would have to go down injured at PF/C before the same is true there. Thus, we need a swingman like Mario before we need a combo forward like Othello, and we need a combo forward like Othello before we need a "true big" like Sims or Siler. So assuming we keep only one player, it should be Mario.

I'm sorry, but again - we have plenty of big men. We have five under contract who can play center, in fact: Horford, Zaza, Collins, RandMo, and Joe Smith. That's 30 fouls, right there. Hell, even Josh played some center last year. And even if that weren't true, we're only allowed to dress 12 players per game. We're always going to dress Bibby, Teague, JJ, Crawford, Marvin, Mo, Josh, Joe S, Horford, and Zaza. And Collins and RandMo's fouls are just as good as Sims's and Siler's. So when will we ever "need" one of these guys? And don't say "if someone gets hurt," because we have a hell of a lot more need for an extra PG, SG, or SF in case someone gets hurt than we do a C. The PGs weren't cut to make room for a big man. They were cut to make room for a 13th man, whatever position that may be. And that's why I say you can't look at our roster and say that we have more need for an extra body at PF/C than we do at ANY of the other three positions.

Amen.

I disagree. I think our biggest need in terms of adding an extra body is on the wing - if any two of JJ/Marvin/Crawford/Mo get hurt, we will have literally no one left on the bench who can play SG or SF. And even if I agreed, there is pretty much no chance that we can address the concern about weak post defense by signing one of these two undrafted rookies who won't get any PT...

We're not keeping 3 guys (thank god). And I think Sims is toast.

Chris Paul and Eddie Gill also had virtually identical measurements. Just sayin'.

All I'm saying is we might be able to say with a straight face "we won't go higher than 5/$80" and mean it if we have the prospect of Crawford next year and a top SG prospect ready to come over the year after that. Right now, we can say it, but might not mean it...

Oh trust me, I didn't mean that Gladyr's emergence wouldn't mean we wouldn't have to pay to keep JJ here. But it might mean that we don't have to overpay to keep him.

Happy 20th birthday to Sergiy Gladyr. He’ll be playing with Bàsquet Manresa over in the Spanish Premier League this year. He’s actually tearing it up in his first games over there – he averaged 15.5ppg in his first two games and shot 8 of 16 from deep (and the Euro 3 is now identical to the NBA 3). Here’s his profile: http://www.eurobasket.com/player.asp?Cntry=ukr&PlayerID=69279 The kicker is this - he led the team in scoring both games (tied with others in one, and stood alone in the second) and his team won both games. Here's the link to the team box scores for each game (click on the right-facing arrows to see the box scores for each game): http://www.basquetmanresa.com/php/plantilla2.php?location=estad.php&idioma=cat The Spanish Premier League is nothing to sneeze at either. Barcelona, Madrid, and Baskonia play in that league, and those are three of the best non-NBA teams in the world. If Gladyr can keep this up for a full season…well let’s just say we’ll be in a better bargaining position with JJ. No joke - Gladyr might be for real.

It is my impression that that non-guaranteed contracts that don't count against the 15 roster spot limit can only be used before the season starts. After that, I think the player has to be guaranteed to receive at least the minimum salary for the year and must be waived in order to create roster space. The importance of the January 10 date, as I understand it, is merely that the full base salary becomes guaranteed on that date. Thus, January 10 only makes a difference for players who are signed to a contract that pays more than the minimum. I'm definitely open to being shown wrong, but that's what I get from Larry Coon's FAQ.

If that's a sign of things to come, color me unimpressed. Adding a few ISO Marvin's and Horford mid-range shots won't move the needle much for the Hawks' offense when it counts. The problem with ISO plays is that they by definition entail little-to-no ball movement and little-to-no off-ball movement. That makes the play ridiculously easy for an opposing team to defend (unless the guy handling the ball is named "Kobe" or "LeBron") because you can afford to double the guy with the ball and not worry much about the others when those others are 15+ feet from the ball and not moving. Simply changing the isolated player won't do much for too long in terms of breaking down opposing defenses. It will get Marvin a few more points, but that should be a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself. As for Horford shooting mid-range jumpers...well, I like that slightly more than Josh chucking 3s, but that ain't saying much. Unless Horford starts hitting them with the consistency of Ilgauskas, that won't do much either.

So I have been kicking up some dust about this on the AJC blog, and I figured it was time to start a two-front war. "Daniel" from the AJC blog suggested that Jeff Teague be given the nickname "JT-0" in reference to his initials and uniform number, as well as in homage to the fast little classic Pontiac sport car the GTO. Here is a pictorial representation of JT-0: And here is the pre-made, classic theme song, just needing a little tweaking of the lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44kg0IENTPU Thoughts?