WakaFlocka

Hard to say Al`s your keeper when he`s missed this season, a fair amount of last season I believe?

Love his game, but he`s got one more season to prove his ability to stay in the game - just like Jake Locker

Obviously the fact that Al has now torn each of his pectorals is alarming, but the first tear came shortly into the '11-'12 lockout season. Not making excuses for him, but I'd take that into consideration before essentially calling him injury prone now.

[*]Greg Monroe - More of a PF than a center. Detroit will match any offer for him, so no.

[*]Marcin Gortat - Looking for his payday too, but will be the cheaper of the three options. Oldest guy too, so not someone we'd sign looking to build for the future.

[*]Spencer Hawes - The best option, but another guy looking for a payday. Best fit for the Hawks since he can step back and hit a three. Tallest guy mentioned at 7'1". Might be a SnT probable with Millsap going out for Hawes and early 2nd round pick. As long as he doesn't want the max, I say heck ya. Plus, the fine state Georgia loves proud Republicans like Hawes. I see a lot of typos in the future of HS talking about Spencer Hawks.

C - Spencer Hawes

PF - Al Horford

SF - DMC

SG - KK

PG - Teague

That lineup makes us better and Hawes is only 25. Then we could go shopping for a SG and/or SF.

I'm not interested in Monroe at all, but do you really think Detroit would match any offer for him? I think they've seen enough of Josh this year to know he can't play the 3 with Monroe at the 4 and Drummond at the 5. Obviously they'd love to move Josh, but there's not a single team in the league that will take his contract on right now. Seems to me like they'll basically have to let Monroe walk.

Gortat will get a raise from his current $7.7m and I'd bet it comes from the Wizards. Wouldn't mind him as a shorter term solution on the right contract, though.

No thanks on Hawes, he'll get overpaid (nowhere near the max though) and then shit bricks with his new team. Of course he'll put up a few stretches of big games, but then he'll go unheard from - just like he's always done. Plus he's not exactly the defensive presence that the Hawks need inside.

We can still amnesty him. Need to wait until the off-season though.

Why would the Hawks amnesty their best player (when healthy) on a good contract...?

I have a buddy who is a vice principal in a bad part of Philly. He has told me that correcting poor grammar is now considered racist and they have been instructed to not do it.

Then why is New York at the top of his list? Bada-Boom!

Money.

He's been discussed in the trade ideas sub-forum before.

Personally, I have ZERO interest in ever seeing him in a Hawks uniform and I'd venture to guess that Ferry would agree - not his/Bud's type of player at all.

I don't blame him. We are not competing for anything this season. He should rest and be 100% for next season.

Thank you for being logical about this. Seriously.

Look, most of us love Al and want nothing more than for him to be back ASAP, but he needs to focus on getting healthy and being ready for the start of training camp/next season. Some of y'all don't use that thing between your ears.

The Nets get neither pick anyway, if I understand it correctly. I believe the Hawks get the better of the two picks and Boston the worst of the two because of the KG/Pierce trade.

Exactly right.

If any team is going to get an undeservingly high pick, it'll be the Bulls since Rose will probably never be the same. Gotta keep those big market teams afloat!

What would be the purpose of tanking at this point? Even with Al out I highly doubt the Hawks finish with a worse record than Brooklyn, so all trying to lose would do is give Boston a better pick.

I have no problem with Ferry not making any trades to "replace" Al, we were never going to get past Miami and/or Indy this year in the first place. Why trade assets for long term or expiring contract players when it wouldn't even put the team over the edge?

SO... Only one first round pick this year regardless, eh?

As it currently stands, yes.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bynuman01.html

Bynum has played 480 minutes this year and his PER is 15.4

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/brandel01.html

Brand has played 238 minutes this year and his PER is 13.7

Bynum>>> Brand

...lol such an awful comparison.

Brand also makes a third of the money that Bynum makes this year and provides a veteran leadership while Bynum sulks in the corner.

You guys continue to reach on Ferry. Be honest with yourselves we all thought the Nets would be better than us and make the playoffs this year. 2 of Ferry's 3 1st rd picks are on the roster not overseas. Once again, Gortat,Pekovic, Howard, Kaman, etc. were all available this offseason and Asik is available now.

Gortat wasn't a FA. Pekovic was restricted and would've been matched. Howard was never coming here regardless of the money. Kaman is a bum. Taking on Asik's contract, not to mention the "cost" to trade for him, aren't worth it.

Keep reaching.

Bynum is much better at 60% than Larry Holmes Brand.

Again, Bynum will NEVER be healthy again and got paid more than Millsap - plus his attitude sucks. No thanks.

Robin Lopez

Miles Plumlee

Greg Oden

Andrew Bynum

Oden hasn't even seen the court this year and Bynum will never be healthy again.

C'mon, man...

Not even close to what I am saying. If Ferry had been better at identifying and acquiring true talent this loss would not hurt so bad is what I am saying

I know what you're saying, but where was this talent supposed to come from? Dwight and CP3 were never coming here, so who was left that would've significantly helped this team without overpaying (in the form of FA and draft trades)?

Here's why I think your thread has failed. Ferry came in with no expectations of fielding a winning team immediately. We were cap strapped with Joe Johnson and still had Josh Smith on our hands. Ferry's actions were clear from the get go. Rid ourselves of the huge caps and set ourselves up for the future (3-4 years from his initial hiring). So he went out and drafted European guys who can sit over in Europe gaining valuable playing time and when the Hawks are ready, we can call them over. On top of that, we've rid ourselves of the horrible contract of JJ and signed a much more all around F in Paul Milsap in probably the steal of free agency.

Nobody expected the Hawks to contend for a title. Every reasonable and understanding Hawks fan knew that from the get go. We now have an incredible amount of cap room, with some insanely great draft picks (if we lose out and the Nets continue to lose),we could POTENTIALLY wind up with two top 5 draft picks in this years class if the season goes South for the Hawks with Horford out. As long as the Nets continue their losing ways, the Hawks will become instantly better after the draft.

I agree with everything you're saying, but the Hawks only keep the better pick between ours and the Nets. They don't get both, it's a swap.

The Hawks best player goes down with a "freak" injury and it's all Ferry's fault.Gotcha.

I think we can take the Pacers. I wouldn't have bought tickets yesterday if I didn't. First team to 90 points wins, I think that's us. Teague can create just enough havoc inside to get under Hibbert's skin after he blows by Hill 10 times. Oddly enough, I think their current trend is they go as Stephenson goes. Hold him down and we got a great chance. Bud has to come up with some inventive ways to get Kyle open, because Vogel showed last year in the playoffs he's hell bent on bottling him up. We can forget it without Al, though. Patiently waiting on the diagnosis...

If Carroll is out the Hawks are screwed, too. Who's going to guard Stephenson and George? Korver and Martin...?

You went and jinxed it now.

They would trade him because they are trying to win a championship where they would have more faith and trust in a veteran like Sap.

I know, I was being facetious because of all the Jones-jocking on the first page.I guess everyone's forgotten about his arrest for stomping on a hobo's legs for absolutely no reason? I'd prefer to not have a kid like that on the Hawks.

I just find it amusing that the Rockets are apparently so high on Jones, yet the Asik-for a stretch 4-rumors still run rampant.

They already have their stretch 4 and he's on a rookie contract, you're not going to do much better than that.

At this point, if the Rockets want to get rid of Asik as badly as it seems, they're just going to have to take what they can get and be glad they don't have to shell out ~$15m next year for a backup C. They've completely lost the upper hand in potential trade talks and every other team in the league knows it.

If Jones is so good and perfect for the Rockets, then why would they trade him?

Good Q&A, Korver is such a good dude.

Does anybody have access to this:

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/nba/rumors/post?id=18882&ex_cid=espnapi_public

Most serious fans of the Denver Nuggets and Atlanta Hawks are likely well aware of this, but the rest of you may need a little catching up ... Denver gets the New York Knicks' unprotected first-round pick in 2014, while Atlanta has the option to swap its first-rounder with Brooklyn. So with the Knicks (3-13) and Nets (5-13) off to the type of starts few could have predicted, the Nuggets and Hawks both could be in a position to wind up with a high lottery pick and a potential star in the 2014 draft. Here are some of the players each team could target if that winds up being the case: Nuggets According to 82games.com, point guard and small forward are the two positions where the Nuggets are playing their best this season. That figures to remain the same in the years to come, with Ty Lawson/Andre Miller and Wilson Chandler/Danilo Gallinari locked up to long-term deals. With Denver also being invested at center with the multi-year contracts to JaVale McGeeand Timofey Mozgov, expect them to focus on shooting guard and power forward with the pick they get from the Knicks. That could open the door for a number of highly rated targets, from Andrew Wiggins and Dante Exum at the guard spot to Julius Randle and Aaron Gordon at power forward. While the Nuggets wouldn't likely be a destination for PG Marcus Smart or C Joel Embiid, one other player they could have a hard time passing up on is Duke's polished small forward Jabari Parker, even though he doesn't necessarily address a big need. Hawks Like the Nuggets, the Hawks are set at a couple positions, with Jeff Teague/Dennis Schrödersigned long-term at the point and center Al Horford inked through 2015-16. With Kyle Korverand Louis Williams also on the books in the coming season, the need at shooting guard isn't as great as it is at small forward, which is one of the positions the Hawks have been weakest at this season. Though it's hard to imagine Brooklyn ending up with one of the worst records in the league, particularly with so many other bad teams in the Eastern Conference, there's a decent chance the Nets' pick could end up being somewhere in the 10-14 range of the lottery. While that would almost certainly put the Hawks out of the range for Parker, they could be in the running for a small forward like Kentucky's James Young, Florida's Chris Walker or Syracuse's Jerami Grant. Or if they elect to go for the best player available regardless of position, that's where guys like Indiana power forward Noah Vonleh, Michigan State shooting guard Gary Harris and the aforementioned Embiid could come into play.

Lionel is on the clippers staff. I don't think I have ever heard of an assistant from another team take over as head coach in the middle of a season.This is such a great disaster. How have GMs named Billy been able to steal money from the NBA for so long?

I think you're confusing Hollins with Alvin Gentry...

Besides, Hollins wasn't exactly great shakes as a coach before his last little run with Grizzlies after being there years. George Karl is the only candidate I could think of as an outside coach that could step in and reasonably shake up that roster. Look no further than what he did when he took over Denver out of nowhere during the middle of a season.

Karl is great coach, no doubt, but I'd be surprised if he'd even take that job considering the roster he'd have to work with. Doesn't fit his style at all.

Can't offer any assistance regarding autographs, but the reason the ticket prices are higher vs. other games is because of the player your son wants to see, Kevin Durant. Ticket prices soar when superstar players come to town because it's much more entertaining to the casual fan to see a big-name player/team rather than a team like the Orlando Magic.

A regular season Hawks game is never going to sell out, but if you and your son are set on going to this game, I'd go ahead and buy the tickets just to be safe. Enjoy it!