TomSelleck

When Joe Johnson is your best and highest paid player, there's nothing you can buy to make you win a championship. Shaq is about to join his fourth team in four years. There's a reason for that.

If you sign with a team because they told you they were going to do "X" and don't do "X" and never had any intention of doing "X" then I think its safe to say the player who signed would feel lied to and cheated.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist for Joe or his agent to add his new salary to the Hawks' books and know there wasn't going to be much or any money for additional players, especially with Horford due a raise in a year. Joe knew what he was getting into.

Cheap? Didn't the Hawks just sign the most expensive player in free agency?

Noah also has no offensive game other than put backs. He's plenty content to just bang around under the basket and get whatever garbage points he can. Horford has a decent back to the basket game and can hit from 10-12 feet, too.

They're both done.

These same Hawks got taken to the limit by Wade and a bunch of minimum salary players in 2009.

I'll side with him in the fact that it was a terrible, inflated deal, but he needs to get it in his head, it was Joe or back to the lottery.

The lottery may be the only way to win a championship. Maybe the Hawks get a fortunate ping pong ball and Harrison Barnes is the next NBA super star.

Jamal Crawford comes off the books in 2011. There will be plenty for Horford.

The Hawks are all in with Teague. They're bringing back the exact same roster as last year and Johnson isn't getting any better, Smith isn't getting any better, and Horford isn't getting any better. The only way the Hawks are going to take the next step is for Teague to develop.

I can't blame them though for this though. Almost everybody in the media and almost every NBA fan thought that Joe Johnson will never be a Hawk again.

I'm not sure Joe Johnson thought he'd ever be a Hawk again.

How are the Hawks going to be able to add the "necessary pieces" with barely any cap room and draft picks in the 20's?

Everyone says Josh can't play SF because he can't shoot 3's, but there's no such thing as a perfect player. All are good at some things and not good at others. There's plenty Josh can't do at PF, too. Not all SF's can shoot from deep consistently. For 2009-2010:

LeBron James 33.3%

Rudy Gay 32.7%

Richard Jefferson 31.6%

Carmelo Anthony 31.6%

Caron Butler 29.0%

This is awesome. I would have been happy with Crawford at #24. Now we get Crawford and another pick, probably one of the centers.

Yes!

I don't believe Teague's numbers will tell the whole story. I think if he can quicken the pace and get penetration Bibby couldn't, he'll help break down defenses and create better shots for other players.

No. Coaching would only help them take 6-7 games to lose in round 2 instead of 4.

Whoa Im not for trading our sixth man J. Crawford and neither is Drew and Sund probably....atleast not right now!

New Orleans wants to dump salary and Crawford has an expiring contract. He'd likely be the only Hawks player they'd really be interested in.

Both are viable NBA players, but Atlanta fans don't like players associated with flopping and being soft. I don't think they'd be good fits.

Everyone has been saying Joe is gone for the last 6 months because supposedly he wants to 1.) play in front of a more supportive home crowd and 2.) be a team's #2 while someone else is the team's #1. I don't think Joe leaving has much at all to do with the new coach.

The Hawks were built for the regular season. They have a relatively deep roster that isn't overly reliant on one player to carry them and they play hard more often than they don't. That can get you a nice amount of wins in a 82 game season. But once the playoffs start, they're hurt by not having one dominant player to take over and for the rest of the players to take inspiration from and they don't make game-to-game coaching adjustments.

They played Howard one-on-one and used their other four defenders to stay on Orlando's shooters.

Horford may be built like a textbook PF, but upon farther examination.

1. He has no consistent goto move in the post.

2. He has no consistent midrange shot.

3. He is slower than most PFs.

I watched Rashard Lewis just blow past Horf during the playoffs. I said to myself. Can Horf guard Lewis, Bosh, Durant, Jamison, Randolph, Diaw, Beasley, Illyasova, etc?? The answer came back to me.. NOT RIGHT NOW.

If All Horf can guard is Aldridge, Scola, Randolph, Boozer, and Gasol.. then we might as well keep him as a Center.

1. That may be true but likely speaks more to coaching and lack of development than Horford's actual skills.

2. I think he is respectable.

3. He's slower than the elite of the elite offensive PF's like Stoudemire and Nowitzki, but I think he can hold his own against the rest. And as has already been stated, Durant, Diaw, and Beasley are SF's with Lewis a SF in a PF's body. Horford's direct competition is Jamison, Bosh, Boozer, and Aldridge, and I think he stacks up pretty well, especially for a third year player.

I think the difference between Horford and Smith is that while Smith is a good player and fun to watch, he doesn't have a true NBA position. I'm not sure how far you can go playing him as a SF who can't shoot or a PF who can't post up. Horford is a textbook PF and a lot easier to envision being an important piece on a title contender.

I don't think the Hawks have played bad defense under Woodson, but like with the offense, it was of the one-on-one variety. It was just athletes making plays. The Hawks lacked an overall team defense concept which was good enough for the regular season but really got exposed in the playoffs by teams like Orlando that had real offenses.

Woodson was the architect of that Detroit defense that shut down Shaq and Kobe and won a championship... What has Casey done to be considered better than that?

Isn't being a defensive assistant under Larry Brown like being a defensive assistant under Bill Belichick? The guy at the top is the one running the defense.