Hawks05

Opinion or did you see that somewhere?

This strikes me as someone making up a rumor. Pek is one of the top free agents left and hawks are one of the few remaining teams that can offer max money. The new hawks front office does not leak rumors thus far. I do think the hawks should and may be interested.

Could he be waiting on warriors to clear the space...?

Warriors wouldn't trade Barnes and bogut for josh. They want cap space this year to sign Dwight outright since the Lakers won't agree to a SNT. That means no one will view their expiring as assets as usual because they would be using cap this year for cap next year. They will have to trade one or two of the expiring plus an enticing asset to a team that can absorb it.That's a small grouping of teams. Hawks should try for klay if Dwight says no to us. Klay and bout for two seconds would be awesome if agreeable to them.

If Dwight does not come, then I'd be fine with a Bynum as a plan B option at 1 year $13 million (got to use our cap space somehow) with 2 team options. Or 2 years $26 million with a third team option and only the first year guaranteed if you can't stack team options. This way we use this years cap space while preserving next years. If Bynum doesn't work out then we're essentially tanking without his services and have the cap space in 14'. If he does work out, then we have a bargain with 3 years of an elite center paired with Horford, both being paid combined close to what Joe Johnson will be making.

Thanks. I was basically looking to see if this move (from a salary cap basis) insinuates Dwight is not coming here. It probably does not, but precluding us from adding a 3rd all-star in addition to our core and Dwight may hurt us. To date it was our largest selling point. We hopefully will know something by Friday.

I think an important point to make is that Korver is the exact type of player that we want to build our culture around. High BBIQ, great work ethic, team-first guy who knows his role and limitations. He is a Spurs type of guy and that can't be overlooked here as we build this team.

That is fine. I seriously doubt under any circumstance does Josh sign for less than $12 million/year. I'll put it another way though. What is the amount we have available to offer Josh if assuming $7MM for Teague and Max for Dwight? I'm going with the assumption that Dwight would want Josh in addition to Horford since he implied another star would be desired to play alongside Harden in Houston.

Any one have a recap of where this leaves us cap wise? Do we have the ability to offer Teague around 7 mill a year, (Jrue Holiday signed for about $9MM.), Smith for ~14-16 million and Dwight to a max?

If the key to getting Dwight is for him to play with an All-Star caliber player and Josh Smith then why not Atlanta? For the Rockets to sign Smoove, via either SNT or trading Asik and Lin for picks to sign him outright, would leave them with no point guard at all. A team of Teague, Lou & Jenkins, Smoove, Horford, and Dwight is just as good as a Harden/Parson/Smoove/Dwight combo. I would even argue it is better. I just don't see why Atlanta isn't the leader if Josh Smith is the key. We're the only ones that can offer Dwight an All-Star Big and Josh + adequate point guard play. The Mavericks, Rockets (with Lin gone), Lakers all have terrible Point Guards. What gives?

Pau Gasol is injured and out for 4-8 weeks. This would seem to have some domino effect as far as the Hawks are concerned. Primarily the Lakers likely won't be able to move Gasol at the trade deadline thus reducing their ability to move significant cap space for next offseason. They can still sign Dwight to a max contact since they hold his bird rights, but they now will have another season significantly over the luxury tax (they may not care being the Lakers). Second, this should seriously hurt their chances of sneaking into the playoffs. I would think not making the playoffs plays in the Hawks favor of getting Dwight. He is more likely to resign with the Lakers in my opinion if they finish the season hot and make a decent run in the playoffs. Third, this means no Josh Smith or collection of expiring to the Lakers for Pau Gasol. I think the net effect is that this has some small positive impact on the Hawks chances of obtaining Dwight Howard. How does everyone else see the Gasol injury impacting our Hawks?