JJFAN4LF

Here is what Stephen A. Smith said on his Twitter about Shaq: "Btw......Shaq would not mind ending up in Atlanta at all. He'd love it. But they'll need to do better than a mid-level offer."

That was in the article as well. It sounds really good for us.

Yes, best part is that Shaq is SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING IT. :thumbsupsmileyanim: He may be old, but he's one of the few people that won't back down from Dwight.

Because some people, like myself, hate LeBron so much that they're unsure if they can cheer for him if he was in a Hawks uniform.

:thumbsupsmileyanim: Good job by everyone sticking to baseball terms. I love it. :laughing5:

They might want to start Ekpe Udoh right away and develop him as fast as possible. I wouldn't do it for Golden State's sake, but if they do, I'm not complaining. Heck, we should look for more trades with Golden State if this happens. We would get two players that really help that were in Golden State in Jamal Crawford and Biedrins with giving little value.

+1. Totally agree with everything Diesel said here.

Joe is just like any other Free Agent. They have the right to wait and see what other offers are, and it's the smart move to do. Atlanta isn't the only team that can offer him the max, other teams can give him a 5 year max as well. If anything, I take it as a sign that Joe wants to win and is looking where his best chances are to win. It's not because he doesn't want to play here, it's finding the best opportunity. Atlanta may give him the most money but is this the best chance of winning a championship? That's iffy. It's business. Deal with it.

That's why I'm not opposed to it. Shaq is better than nothing. There are very few (if any) Dwight Howard stoppers. Shaq is one of the few that won't won't get pushed around.

I don't think that because Memphis declined the deal with Jefferson and Z-Bo, that Jefferson has a red flag. Memphis is high on Zach Randolph. He was an All-star and he was a big part on them having a semi-successful season last year. The way Zach played last season, I'm not surprised at all that they declined it. Memphis had a successful year because of Zach and I don't think they are willing to take the risk of trading the biggest reason why they won games for a player that hasn't seen the playoffs. But to answer it, No. Smoove has better trade value than just to get Jefferson. If we're trading Smoove, it better be for a true big man like Chris Kaman or a Yao Ming or something.

I've never respected ESPN analysts and I never will. When it comes to the Hawks, they don't know sh*t. I don't even watch ESPN unless they are showing the Hawks games....and sometimes I don't even want to watch it because of their horrible announcers. 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 just glad it's over with and we have him back. I'm confident that we can win a championship here in Atlanta with Joe leading the way. I'm personally happy. Do I wish that he got less than what he got offered? Yeah, but I'm glad he's back and will get a standing ovation from me in his first game of the season when they announce his name. Let's move on and hope that we make some big moves that improves this team and makes us LEGIT contenders.

Nope. I believe this too. Honestly, we had the worst coach in the playoffs with one of the best talent in the playoffs. I'm not saying all we needed was a new coach for us to win a championship, but I truly believe that our players didn't play with the best of their capabilities because of the lack of coaching ability. I think if we keep the whole squad (not suggesting that we SHOULD), we would(will) be in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Marvin seems like a guy that everyone gets along with. He has good personality and knows all the right things to say. I've actually been watching recorded Hawks games and other recorded Hawks related special edition episodes they had on NBA TV, and Marvin looks like he has a good relationship with everyone. You'll see him laughing, talking, celebrating, smiling with everyone in the team. He's a team player, give him credit for that. I just hope and wish that he shows aggressiveness and willingness to score out there. He's fundamentally a good defensive player, he just needs to get it together on the offensive end and have a consistent production going.

If I have to take a guess, Joe stays here in Atlanta with slightly less than 6 years and max. My alternate destination for Joe is Chicago with 5 years, slightly less than max. I just don't see him leaving this team. I really don't.

Joe was just here in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago for Josh Smith's NBA Draft Party @ Opera Night Club.

Happy Birthday Joe. 29 years old and still going strong. I'm still hoping you re-sign with us. You've given us so many good memories in your tenure here, and I hope that you will continue to give us more. My favorite moment of you is still the 4th quarter of Game 4 of the 2008 playoffs vs the Celtics. Amazing. Let's try to keep the comments POSITIVE in this topic. You can post your negative thoughts(if you have any) about him in the hundred topics going on right now.

I believe Joe does his Santa-Lanta every winter time ever since he got here. He even won the charity award for our team one time(maybe multiple times...not sure). Joe does his part in the community. Joe does his share of charity work in Atlanta.

My #1 wish is for Joe to sign but if this does happen and we do acquire Kevin Martin, I'm okay. Martin is a good scorer that actually gets to the line and make his free throws. He showed great scoring ability in Sacramento...not sure about last year since I didn't get to follow Houston at all. I remember he used to give us hell of a hard time whenever we faced him.

No, it's not the fans' fault but it's not entirely Joe's fault either. Woody isn't exactly the most creative coach in the offensive end and that didn't make it any easier for Joe to perform. You act like Joe is the reason why we don't win when it's the exact opposite.

I remember Theo Ratliff giving Dwight a hard time 2 years ago in the playoffs. If we can sign him cheap, welcome back to Atlanta sir.

I blame Mike Woodson for that. I think Joe has a lot more skills than what he showed last season. We were the most predictable team in the NBA last year, everyone knew the ball was either going in Joe Johnson's or Jamal Crawford's hands. It's kind of hard to score when the whole defense knows what's going to happen. Joe has become less and less effective as his tenure here continued because teams started to figure out what the whole gameplan is. I want to see Joe in LD's offense....or any offense.

What does Joe offer that can't be replaced? Everything. If we don't sign him, the best player we can get is John Salmons with the MLE....and I'm not sure that would be enough to get him. Without signing Joe, we're taking a step backwards. Plain and simple. I want him signed. I also don't agree that we know what the ceiling is with the players we currently have right now. Woody was a terrible coach and I don't think he utilized the talent we had in this team. I think Bibby and Jamal were the only two players on the team that worked with Woody's coaching. I believe that Joe would be more effective if we actually ran an offense.

I don't care about one stupid comment that Joe Johnson made. Joe has said everything right in his tenure here in Atlanta except for that one comment he did in the playoffs. He never bashed the fans on their attendance to their games even when they were winning. He never bashed our fans when the other team's fans outnumber the Hawks fans in Philips. Joe just plays his game and doesn't let his emotions get the best of him. Unfortunately, that's what happened in the playoffs. I just don't feel right judging Joe as a bad person when he hasn't done anything bad off the court except for that one comment he did. All I know is that Joe was and still is the most valuable piece we've had in our success in the regular season and the little success we have had in the playoffs. He's done so much for the city of Atlanta, taking us from the laughingstock of the NBA to now being a dangerous team to play against. I'm rooting and hoping so much for him to sign back with us and I think all Hawks fans should. And it's funny how the fans who care so much about winning is bashing the guy that helped us become a winning team and the most valuable player on our team's success. Yeah....that's really going to make Joe Johnson sign with Atlanta....."Hey Joe, come play for us so we can win but I hate you so much and have no respect for you." I think it's a good sign that JJ did call Drew. I don't care about the timing of his call. All big named FA this year isn't in contact with their team this offseason.

Hawks Insider: I will say that seeing Alabi in person, he definitely has the body to handle the physical play in the NBA . From hawks.com draft chat.