Brokentree

You are comparing the people that built this country to Jason Collins? People that risked everything and came here in hope of bettering their lives and the lives of their children... to Jason Collins? If the Hawks approach to free agency was anything like this then we'd have the hardest working most driven bench in all of the NBA.

HHAHAHAHAHAH.... so diplomatic.

See the problem is they already think the Hawks are elite.

Bibby as an older vet guy seems to be entering that "feel no pressure and enjoy myself" stage of his playing career. Seems to be willing to give up some minutes to Teague and help where he can. That being said.. I think he'd be cool to hang out with. Doesn't seem to have an ego and probably isn't too stressed about his day to day life. A guy you hang with and not end up in jail with later in the night.

There was the big exciting news about Randmo possibly going to Israel as well. News actually broke on the 18th but it takes time for the word to get out. The biggest reason to be on the board on the 19th though was the Diesel hat and Marvin tattoo in the banner.

If there was an optimism award you'd win it with this thread JTB. Jason Collins has perhaps the worst FG% (41%) of any 7ft player I have ever seen. It is widely considered one of his biggest flaws that he doesn't have any sort of inside game. The purpose of a Jason Collins (7ft fatty) is not to spread the defense. It is to rebound and defend and he has never been a good rebounder. Joe Smith as a vet signing for the minimum I'd never have a problem with. Mo Evans will probably see even less playing time this year with the addition of Jordan Crawford. He is a capable bench player but his defense while playing sf is a question mark. I think everyone would rather see JJ playing the backup minutes at sf and the Crawfords playing more backup minutes at sg. His most value is perhaps as a veteran presence for when alot of the 2nd unit is on the floor in garbage time and when we need an extra 3pt shooter on the floor. Zaza.. I love Zaza.. but man I cringe alot when he plays. He is no Kwame Brown but the man certainly lacks grace. Jordan Crawford showed flashes in summer league but lets not get ahead of ourselves as others on this board seem be doing. He shot 42% fg and 30% from 3pt range against teams comprised primarily of different sized Randolph Morris clones. I agree that Woodson didn't use certain players as much as he should have and that our bench last year probably wasn't as bad as it was made out to be, but our bench is not good. Sure there are a few that can take a jump shot.. but that is about all they can do. We don't have a lock down defender coming off the bench. We don't have a 3pt specialist (just because they can shoot 3's doesn't mean they're that good at it). We don't have anyone that can score effectively as a backup at pf or center. Zaza barely passes as a good backup for rebounding because he has a knack for getting his share of offenseive boards and thats limited primarily to the center position, we lack true pf depth. We don't have any high energy athletic bench players other then guards.

San Antonio has paid a luxury tax of some amount in 3 of the last 5 years. Granted 2 of those 3 years was in the hundreds of thousands and not in the millions. Last year they paid 8.8 million. I have a feeling the ASG is more concerned with receiving payments like the 3.7 million they got last year from other teams luxury tax payments. If they pay the tax they are not eligible to receive a tax share.

I can picture it now. An israli and a palestinian are both reading newspapers in a quiet shop somewhere when they both let the words "Randoph Morris? Noooo!" escape from there lips. They both look up and they realize, hey, we're a lot alike. Thousands of years of hate ended. Randolph Morris... where peace happens.

Lets go into the world of make believe and create a Hawks team that would be a real "dream" team. Think of a character, living or dead, real or not. Pick 5 starters and give them a position they'd play. Explain your choices and reference where they came from. Best of all? No salary cap or luxury tax!! C- Optimus Prime (Transformers cartoons/movie) - Good length, durable, paint scheme kinda similar to hawks unis, ages well. PF- Superman (Comic book/movies/television) - Sure he can fly and he's really... really strong, but the real reason? Picture the stares he would get from Dwight Howard. SF- Dominique Wilkins (Real nba player, retired) - Skills well known by people on this board, deserves to win a championship. SG- Megan Fox (Actress) - Its my fantasy, leave me alone. PG- Eli (The Book of Eli, movie) - Great court vision, good reflexes. ( I just watched the movie the other day and at the end I thought to myself "man he'd make a good pg" which is where the idea for this thread came from) That is my dream team. What's yours?

I went Carmelo assuming that Shaq would then sign cheaper.

Twitter Link Servicable backup big. How much would he expect to get paid with the little experience he has? Is he worth the MLE? Would Golden State sign and trade for the TPE? Links 1 Me 0

That is true. They also had 3 days they could have sat on the offer before making a decision. They could have forced Childress to either sign an offer sheet or go back to Greece before working out the S/T details. Seems to me if he had already signed it the Hawks might have had more leverage.

At least we're not Cleveland.

It's not all doom and gloom. Lets say the Hawks send Bibby and Marvin to the Hornets for Okafor and Collison. We could then, in a separate trade, send the TE to them for Julian Wright. (This scenario is based purely on the fact that he refused to play on their summer league team and that they might want to get rid of him) This example isn't very good but the basic idea is that we do a trade that is in our favor and then do a trade that lets the other team dump a player they may not want.

From what I understand a TE can only be used to aquire a player by itself. If its a 3 million TE then we can only use it to trade for a 3 million dollar contract. We can't package it with the MLE for a player and we can't package it with another player contract.

TE's can only be used to trade for players on other teams.

I'm beginning to wonder if he will get more then the MLE from any team now. Miami could still sign him to a minimum but do the Hawks have any other serious competition for Shaq's services now?

I'm just glad the whole ordeal is over with. I got the impression that he never wanted to play for the Hawks and we don't need those types of players on the team. Good luck to him on a team he wants to play for.. but don't let the door hit you on the way out a the same time.

AV can also hit the big three. "The" being singular.

Is it a question of "should we" or a question of "can we"?

You can't take someone that CAN play Center in the NBA and just play him at PF. It is just too hard to find a good Center that doesn't foul out in 10 minutes. You could put Dwight Howard on the Hawks and I still think Al would have to play Center for 5-10 minutes a game. Having a flexible lineup and being able to play different positions is a strength. That being said.. if.. Josh Smith is traded to N.O. along with Bibby (and draft picks?) for Chris Paul. (not likely especially considering they'd have to trade West or play Smith at sf there) Josh Childress and Jamal Crawford are traded to Cleveland for AV and Shaq. (AV is one of their better players but if they want to make changes then getting an expiring contract for next year might be a plus. Jamal's scoring ability might be able to distract some of their fans from the Lebron saga as well) PG- Paul 30m+, Teague 10m+ SG- JJ 30m+, Jordan Crawford 10m+ SF- Marvin 30m+, JJ 5m+ PF- Horford 30m+, AV 10m+ C-Shaq 20m+, AV 10m+, Zaza 10m+, Horford 10m+ Sprinkle in the rest of the bench as needed. Less overall flexibility but a stronger and more mentally tough starting lineup. It's not likely that this scenario would play out, and I'm more 50/50 that I'd even want it to, but it's this type of scenario that would have to play out for Horford to play PF minutes.