Randy

Thanks for all the coverage lw3, esp. the story about Rink-o. Looks like you nailed in figuring out who was the logical pick. I've been out of town and didn't have the web access I'm used so missed this, but at least got to see the first round of the draft on TV. Drafting 3 guards and trading Jasmine doesn't seem like a vote of confidence in Shoney (pun intended based on what we saw of her at the celebrity game) and Celine. Hope they got the message. I think Jasmine will help the Sun. Guess her and Alex Bentley will be fighting over minutes again. We will now have 5 pgs fighting for minutes, though some of them look like they could play sg as well. One thing we've seen in the past few years with Tip, Alex, R. Williams, and some others - there are good guards to be found past first 9 draft picks - you just never know for sure who they are. We've got 3 chances now to find a winner. Who knows maybe Okafor can apply her smarts to making the team as well. Getting excited about this upcoming season.

Awesome writeup lw3. "Joe Johnson’s Dribblympics" alone is worth a like! You raise some really interesting points - 1.) the Hawks is now almost the polar opposite of the team we had in the JJ era - instead of one guy holding the ball, we now have 5 moving it around. 2.) I'm wondering how much of Williams success in the beehive state (yes - Utah is the beehive state) was due to being surrounded by Milsap, Korver along with some others that the Jazz have let slip through their fingers?

So they were trying to shield Copeland from the crowd and people taking photos. Reminds me of my credo - no good deed goes unpunished.....

Yet another second round (or later) pick who exceeded expectations. We've got quite a pack of them now. I've always had high hopes for Moose - glad to see he's getting to play some now, in a Hawks uniform, rather than Mad Ants.

Other than Seattle, I don't see any city w/o and NBA team that would be close to Atlanta in terms of market and potential. Seattle may have supported its team pretty well, but they don't even have good arena and its a smaller market anyway. Louisville has a 22k seat (+ or -) arena, but its a much smaller market, and there's plenty of competition from college bball. idk -- there may be other cities that don't have a team, but how are they better than Atlanta? St. Louis? Omaha? Mexico City?

Looks like the devils we know v. the devils we don't. I really wanted to join in the bidding since I won the lottery, but I only won $15 million......

Great writeup as always. GO HAWKS!

Could be he just checking to make sure some of these players don't really belong in the WNBA.

Well, a lot of players have played with broken noses. Wear mask, and it can be ok. I think it might work well with Kyle - he can be the masked assassin........He should get a black one like Zorro.

The article basically said he wasn't hitting his shots. If he makes em - he's a hero. He misses em - its probably a round trip ticket to Erie.

Saw its the big toe. That sucks.

Wouldn't it matter what toe it is. I mean, maybe its the little toe. Do you even need that one?

ZaZa head butting KG and staring him down. Gearon - tape recording a phone call.

Pretty good points Diesel. I thought the funniest comment last night was when Nique said "You want Josh to shoot from out there" after a miss. Kind of reminds me of the games when Josh would brick a bunch of 3's and he Nique would say "Well, not really the shot you want."

The one stat that really stands out between wins and losses is PIE. I never heard of that one, so I looked it up. Its something like '% of game events (pts, rebounds, etc) player (or team) participated in." Not clear if that is a "predictive" or "descriptive" stat, but sounds a bit like a measure of hustle plays. Anyway, its the one that differs the most % wise between wins and losses.

I'm with Ryann - only team I don't want to face in round 1 is the New Jersey Nets. (Take that Brokelin.)

There's a simpler explanation. (Note this is from RandyInsider. You have to pay extra to read this.) Bud thinks he's better than Moose or Elton.

Bids up to $900 M. Kind of makes it hard for me to see how the Hawksquawk ownership group I'm trying to form will be able to raise that much. Says ASG bought the team for $189M in 2004. Pretty good deal for them. Guess they should be glad the NBA killed the deal with the PIzza guy.

Yeah - a second round pick for us, is really our first round pick. Or like we say "Second is the first."

I think hazer might be on the right track. They bent and twisted the d-league rules to get him down to Austin to learn the Spurs system, but seldom played when he came back. Or maybe, he is just a bust. For young players fit is probably the most important thing in making it. Looks like the Hawks just weren't the right fit.

Nique

I've thought of that. But then I have a lot of surreal thoughts. Like for ex, say the sale doesn't go down in time for the finals and the Hawks win it all. We will have to watch those guys get the trophy and hold it up in the air. Kind of take the bloom off the rose, don't you think?

Looks like, winning fixes everything, except the Hawks clownership.

Great analysis. Go Hawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwks beat the T-wollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllves.

Its sort of funny - sports fans always end up saying "wait till next year" when things don't go the way they want. Now the talking heads are all saying "wait till the playoffs" because things aren't going the way they want. They want to talk every night about how great LeBron, Derrick and the other big names are. So they just don't like the way its going.