nitte

You poor guy. We traded Joe because he was getting batman money but playing like Robin. Joe Johnson and his ISO play was NEVER going to get us anywhere close to the finals. That's why he is gone.

We are looking into trading Josh because Josh has expressed his desire to be re-signed to a max contract. Again, he is not a max player. He can think that all he wants, but at the end of the day, this is a business and a business decision needs to be made. Let someone else pony up a max deal for him so he can quit on them even more.

We are clearing cap space becuase outside of the Lebron, Bosh, Wade free agent class, this one is going to STOCKED with talent. We could easily gain a big three in the off-season with all the cap space clearing. IF Howard were to come here in the off-season, and we could lure Chris Paul, we would have Howard, Horford, and Paul. That would be an extremely talented big 3.

All of these moves were set up for this up coming off-season. Just wait and see.

Poor guy, really?

If you believe CP3 is leaving LA, I won`t call you a poor guy but I can say that you are being too naive. Anyway...

Josh may ask for the max deal all day long. It doesn't mean that he is going to get it. You talk about financial flexibility but Josh is already an expiring. Funny thing is some candidates like Gortat, Ilyasova, Udoh are not expiring at all!

I can't understand why we trade Josh Smith unless we get a really good value in return (unlikely). I thought the whole plan was to try pairing Josh with Dwight in here. That is why we traded Joe for scrubs, Marvin for an expiring, etc. Why did we abandon that plan all of a sudden? Did we hear anything from Dwight which strictly says that he is not coming to here? Did Josh say to Ferry that he is not resigning?

If we were to trade him, Ferry should have done it in the offseason. We kept him for months for this meaningless season and now we are gonna get trash of other teams. We hope Gortat or Ilyasova will make us a playoff team next year. The thing is: WE WERE ALREADY A PLAYOFF TEAM. Seriously why did we trade Joe?

I say keep him this season, let`s make one more run in the playoffs. See what happens with the circus in LA and try to bring Dwight to Atlanta. If it happens, cool. If not let Josh&Teague walk (or S&T). Even trade Horford for good draft picks. Tank for a couple of more years. Start from the beginning and hope not to make the same draft mistakes again.

My take on a Josh deal has always been that Al Horford and Jeff Teague will elevate their games. But the biggest beneficiaries of the trade may be Zaza ( who will almost have to start now ) and Ivan Johnson ( unless we trade for someone who is better than Ivan ).

If we didn't have Al Horford, we'd be stupid to make this move. But because we DO have Al Horford, the impact of Josh leaving won't nearly be as catastrophic as people think.

-----------------------------------------------

Some of the offers we receive are almost disrespectful. What I don`t understand is we could have traded him in the offseason when his value was high (due to good performance last year) and he had a full year of contract. If we did not do it at that time, why do we do it now? I say keep him and try to use him as a bait to lure DH12 (slim chance). Otherwise let him walk. All we will lose is Ilyasova or Dalembert :-)

In the mean time Joe Johnson won the game for Brooklyn. Just like the Cavs game last year: he forced the game to OT with a 3 and then hit the game winner at the end of OT. Good old JJ.

The way Golden State played this year, even when Bogut was out, tells you about how beneficial he is.

This is turning to a nightmare. Monta Ellis are you kidding me?

Leonard would be amazing but San Antonio worked hard to get him last year, they are not giving him.

Horford is already 26-27 years old. Unless he has a MIP season, which is unlikely, he is not going to be a 20-10 guy. But he is a good player on a friendly contract; I would not trade him for a pick.

I really don`t like what I see from Howard this year. Of course it may be due to the circus in LA or he needs more time for healing but what if this is who he will be for the rest of his career?

James Worthy with a jump shot; yeah, right. I still remember Vitale going nuts over the Marvin pick when Williams, CP3, and even Felton were still sitting in the green room available. Makes you wonder where this team would've been had a competent guy been running the show when this team had lottery picks to burn. With guys like Paul and Deng riding shotgun with Smith, you really think that they would've gotten embarrassed the way they did to Orlando a few years ago? You think Dwight wouldn't be all but publicly announcing his desire to return home? And I guarantee that there would've been no Chic-Fil-A giveaway nights when Kobe, NYC, or Team Voltron weren't in town because they would sell out every night. Makes you really wonder about thus star-crossed franchise. Makes you really wonder...

Comments of Vitale you mentioned starts at 2:40. The whole video is very depressing to watch though.

This thread goes to Hawksquawk classics section. Simply epic fail.

I know it is just one game but Horford needs to show more heart and hustle.

Always liked him, I hope he keeps up the good work.

Unfortunately I agree with this. I expect us to offer something similar to what OKC offered to Harden (4 yr - 53 million) and I doubt he will take it. He will push for the maximum.

Harden, Gibson, Holiday, Curry and DeRozan signed extensions with their teams.

Magic is such a pathetic franchise. Seriously what is their purpose in this league?

I don't why people include Teague... There are so many PG's that are better than him.

Obviously there are many PG`s that are better than him but the problem is that they are not playing for us :-)

I think we will hope Smoove, Horford and Teague to elevate their games now that JJ is out of town.

Whether or not Love leaves the Wolves depends on this season. If they start having success and the Wolves are smart enough to extend him soon, he's off the Lakers radar. He's already disgruntled, but with all the moves made the Wolves might have a chance of keeping him. If he leaves though, I agree that LA will be a top destination for him. Though, unless Kobe changes his mind, a Howard/Love frontcourt doesnt guarantee a whole lot of success either.

Love has already signed an extension (4 years 60 M) last year. His 4th year is player option and Love has already began to complain about Wolves FO. Wolves are not winning anything. They wasted their lottery picks for Wes Johnson, J-Flynn and Derrick Williams. They will be like us in the West: playoff team, second round at best.

Bynum is a max contract guy (even though he does not deserve it) and we are not going to sign a max contract guy from free agency, period. 25 million is a lot of money to leave on the table for an injury prone player like Bynum and he will certainly not do it for Atlanta. He will go ahead and sign with Sixers for maximum like Howard signs with Lakers. That is why I thought the only way to get Howard was through Horford trade. 25 million extra would probably keep him here like the D-Will case.

Time to come back to reality and move on...

I think Orlando winning the draft lottery next year is almost a lock (like New Orleans). I don`t think that their winning percentage will even matter :-)

If Dwight signs an extension there based off this current roster, he's going to regret it. Nash, World Peace, Bryant, and Pau got about 2 seasons tops before they are all done. In Lobes case, I think he plans to retire soon, but could play until he's 40. Steve Nash after 2 more seasons will be absolutely horrific defensively and will probably be reduced to being a spot up shooter. Pau might be too expensive to keep. World Peace isn't that effective now so I don't see him getting better.

Well, 3 years later they will have a lot of cap space to build around Howard. Guess who will be FA in 3 years ---> Kevin Love (UCLA).

Pietrus would be a good option. A good defender, athletic, can hit open shots. If he settles for vet min, it would be great for us.