sturt

Yes. To both. Problem solved... That Travis Schlenk is genius. And working theory here, fwiw, is that he's not joined the rush to fill what's left of his roster allotment because he has the luxury of waiting to see what fallout there might be from the impending Ben Simmons trade... patience being a virtue. And too, he's waiting to let some vets get cut like Tristan Thompson and Al Farouq Aminu and.... who knows... there's routinely some surprise cut that no one saw coming. Just genius.

I had him getting 2-3 yrs @ something between $3 and $5m per from someone... so nah... I was too far off the mark. Word abroad was that CSKA Moscow was going to give him a big pay day if he stayed in Europe. I'm a little surprised he settled for what amounts to a 1 year prove-it deal. But at least he's going to a team with enough question marks that, at some point, he's going to get some minutes to do just that, prove it.

Yep. And just an observation, compelled by no one in particular.... the only thing that surprises me more than that Travis Schlenk has so reliably admitted to wanting to do what he, in fact, eventually did... is that there continues to be fans who don't really seem to pick up on that, and who either don't pay attention to his words, or who hear/read them but disregard them as-if not actually revealing. In this case, he has told us what he wants to do with that last standard contract slot. (ICYMI... see previous page of this thread for screenshot).

I prefer Aminu just b/c Tristan to me has too much off-court drama going on, too much potential for silly distractions. And I prefer Aminu just because it makes a nice story when guys with ATL ties "come home," particularly as their careers wind down. But under the scenario that the big is more of a 5 than a 4, it insulates JC from having to absorb some minutes there (thus, I was really rooting for that Giles thing to work out after all, but oh well).

Damn. So, he was a valid option then... not one of those demanding a guaranteed deal. But truth be told, there's still too many teams out there that have some minutes to offer someone like him, whereas we really are limited, of course.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryantoporek/2021/09/07/atlanta-hawks-might-be-light-years-ahead-with-their-team-building-strategy/

Can't rule him out, but I've seen enough teams rumored to have interest that it seems more likely that Schlenk would have to get into a bidding war... and when you're determined to sign someone to a non-guaranteed deal, you're automatically at a severe disadvantage, right? One thing that has happened since that TS quote above... Mays signed. So, if I'm not mistaken, he's got a smidge more room under the tax threshold to operate with (~$3m-ish?), since that appears to be a concern until this roster proves itself a top contender.

Answer: Probably Solo-like quality. But better than having an empty seat. And by your own words (and we agree), that's someone who will rarely get on the floor, so again, that's not ideal for the 1st round pick's development. One more thing... major concern? It's a non-guaranteed deal. The team can cut if some other better option arises. Newest thought, same as the old thought... just tweaked a little.... Schlenk would seem to be playing the long game, literally, and waiting to see how a Simmons (or any other deal) might shake things up, seeing if something really unanticipated falls into his lap. And as I've said before, no higher-quality vet is going to take our non-guaranteed minimum contract... unless, that is, he's been bought out, and thus making the same amount of money no matter what. Here's my most pie-in-the-sky wish of those who are even barely in that universe of possible buy-outs (though I emphasize "sky" b/c for multiple reasons, I don't see it happening)... Derrick Favors anyone? Once the Simmons dust settles, and Schlenk can see clearly the options on the table, I look for someone like this guy to be available, and signed up...

A non-guaranteed deal, of course, resolves either of those concerns. And if the season began today, the 5th big is Jalen Johnson... who, it's agreed, will get almost no time in that role, whereas he will get significant time in CP, of course. Then there's this direct quote... So, there's more than decent reason to believe there will be a 15th man... probably a big... who will be signed at some point before the season starts, and probably before training camp.

Not going anywhere. Spurs traded for him. He's not going anywhere either. But either Eubanks or Aminu likely are out, barring another trade--and Thad Young keeps showing up in bloggers' theories. LAC gave up on him. And his summer league performance, or lack thereof, has some thinking CLE will as well. Aminu and Tristan Thompson are veterans who some believe are destined for buyout. A buyout situation is ideal for what Schlenk wants to do since the player is already getting paid what he expected to be paid, and a non-guaranteed minimum deal would seem to be acceptable.

Teams whose current rosters (as of 9/4) are going to need to make some decisions sooner or later regarding their bigs... barring some fallout from the ostensibly impending Simmons trade (as imagined above), best bet is that one of the bigs on the third or fourth line gets the 15th seat in ATL to start the season. *Yellow = not a fully guaranteed contract *Purple = two-way contract

Had been widely speculated in what I'd read that the previous front office that drafted him thought much more highly of him than the new GM and his crew. Word is that they've already decided to part with Alize Johnson, their lone non-guaranteed contract. With Aldridge coming on board, seems they'll have one more cut to make. Would think it's more likely they'll lose Okafor, but that's just my guess.

Don't understand the term. What foreign language should I tell Google Translate to use? Wait. Maybe if I dig back in the Hawksquawk archives... Welllllllllllll... whaddayaknow... looks like that word was used quite a bit round these parts if you go all the way back to the year 2020. But that's a distant memory, of course, for many of us. Not all of us, though. Not the masochists.

Whoa. Between this and the "create the worst all-time Hawks team" thread, seems we've probably illuminated the masochists among us. Yes? No?

It's decided. This is what I'm going with. Permanently. I think. Pretty sure.

Can't speak for anyone else, but my calculus says, yes, that it was harder, and yes, we did not dominate... but critically analyzing the situation, they were playing mostly without Danny Green who Ice roasted to the point of freezer burn for what time he was on the floor... and we played without a starter and someone who proved in the next series he would have been an asset if he'd been healthy in-time. I like our chances of flipping that script if the boys all were loaded into the time machine, cranked back to June 6 to begin again, and it all got replayed.

Failure is a strong term. It will be a set back... nay... a significant set back (but still not "failure")... if we (a) do not make the EC finals... and (b) if it is also true that the Nets and Bucks ended up essentially being approximately as successful (by virtue of record) and healthy (by virtue of the degree to which their big 3 are healthy for the post-season) as they were last season... and... (c) if it is also true that we also were approximately as successful and also more healthy going into the post-season (ie, not being w/o Dre and Cam, who this time last off-season were widely considered interchangeable starters). What could happen is that a, b and c end up happening, but we find out that the skeptics were correct to not presume we're as good as we appeared to be for the second half of 2020-21 and the post-season... that it was premature to assign to Trae superstar status... that it was an overpay to give Collins $25m/aav... that Dre and/or Cam and/or Kev looked so much more like the 2019-20 versions of themselves than what gave reason for optimism in 2020-21... that BogBog and/or Gallo and/or Capela had plateaued if not declining... that Big2O's skills didn't progress or that he didn't even get on the floor after all. There's a lot that could go wrong, always is, for any team. But/and so much went wrong--specific to injuries--last season, you'd like to think that fate will be at least somewhat kinder. (Would think that's how most of us think about it, but will be interested to read if it's not.)

Kyrie is the one yet to hit 30. His health has almost never been reliable. KD's health has been more reliable, but when he's hit a wall, he's been out for chunks of time (as we all realize, I'm sure). Harden is the iron man of those three, Mr. Reliable. When does the iron man finally have that season, though? That he's been as durable as he has, statistically, would seem to beg for caution that he's going to regress to the mean eventually. I'm anything but overconfident if I'm a Nets fan.

Yes to that part. And the point still remains... particularly in light of the "major caveat"...

For what it's worth... admittedly, not much... A few years from now, I suspect the story will be told that the KD/Kyrie/Beard Nets ended up mirroring the D-Will/Pierce/Garnett Nets, ie, in terms of what they actually achieved compared to what too many had anticipated. And the other part of that story will be how the Atlanta Hawks model of relative youth and greater depth was validated as superior to models emphasizing quick fixes. Hollinger wrote that article about a week or two ago that more or less painted the same picture, so I'm not alone.