RandomFan

No Rondo tonight!

Whoa. Didn't quite see that one coming. Somebody has their fee fee's hurt.

Well this should change things considerably. Chicago is pretty much done as a contender, at least for this year.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/id/12378016/chicago-bulls-guard-derrick-rose-undergo-surgery-repair-torn-meniscus-table-uncertain

Derrick Rose to undergo surgery

Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose has a torn meniscus in his right knee and will undergo surgery, the team said Tuesday. 

Rose reported earlier in the day with right knee pain. An exam and subsequent MRI confirmed the tear.

A timetable for Rose's return will be determined once he has surgery, the team said.

Haha, I keep trying to tell you guys that Bud loves him some Pero - for reasons that apparently most of you don't see.

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/basketball/budenholzer-plans-to-stick-with-Antić/nkHxq/

3:04 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015

Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer has no plans to change his rotation in regard to Pero Antić.

The Hawks reserve center has struggled with his outside shot, particularly from 3-point range, this season. Antić has made 77 of 213 shots, including 35 of 122 from 3-point range (.287), and averaged 5.7 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. Last season, his first in the NBA, the Macedonia native made 123 of 294 shots, including 56 of 171 from 3-point range (.327), and averaged 7.0 points and 4.2 rebounds.

Budenholzer was asked about Antić’s struggles following practice Tuesday.

“It’s the same thing we’ve talked about since Pero got here,” Budenholzer said. “He does so many other things well. I do like it when he shoots it and it goes in. That would be preferable. I do think, (with) some people, there is too much emphasis put on him shooting – making, not making. When you look at his impact on the game and all kinds of different statistical things, he is a huge positive. We tell him to keep shooting. We believe in him and he’ll make shots.”

Good article about some nuances of our defensive scheme and the freedom and trust Coach Bud has instilled.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/72380/the-hawks-defensive-muppet-show

By Kevin Arnovitz
ESPN.com

MILWAUKEE -- Everything you’ve heard about the Atlanta Hawks’ appealing style of play -- the elegant motion, the silky shooting touch, the sharing of the basketball, the beautiful choreography -- not much of that was on display the first three quarters on Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee. What’s been less discussed, though, is the Hawks’ solid No. 7-ranked defense, behind which they locked down the Bucks for a 97-86 win.

“It was a complete turnaround [defensively], a lot better than the past few games,” Hawks forward Paul Millsap said. “The aggression was there. The discipline was there.”

Millsap made a distinction between effort and discipline, a variation on the old John Wooden trope, “Never mistake activity and achievement.” The Hawks aren’t a team predisposed to phoning it in. But in their recent spate of ugly losses, there’s been a lack of precision, which is death for a scheme that relies on being in the right place at the right time, Exhibit A being their 105-80 hemorrhaging at the hands of Toronto on Friday night.

“Last game we felt like there was no discipline,” Millsap said. “We have to have help. We have to have our big -- he’s got to be back there. We got to have guys rotating. We have to have guys boxing out.”

The Hawks nailed their coverages on Sunday and, even better, applied their smarts to shore up what could’ve been some real vulnerabilities. Case in point: One of the better defensive sequences of the night for Atlanta came in the second quarter when the Hawks left Dennis Schröder out on the floor to guard the bigger O.J. Mayo.

Sniffing the mismatch, the Bucks dumped the ball in to Mayo in the post against Schröder. In an instant, Hawks center Al Horford blitzed Mayo, pinning the Bucks guard against the end line. The Bucks aren’t dummies, and they did what any team worth its salt would do in that situation -- send the guy Horford was guarding, in this case beloved former Hawk Zaza Pachulia, on a basket cut.

But there was Mike Scott, hardly a nominee for defensive player of the year, sliding over from his assignment on the weak side to wedge himself between Pachulia and the rim. After Mayo kicked the ball out of the double-team to the perimeter, the grenade landed back in his hands with the shot clock expiring. Another Horford trap, with Mayo losing the ball out of bounds against the pressure.

The Hawks don’t run a lot of traps, which is why I asked Horford if that was a new coverage scheme triggered when Schröder was matched up against a bigger shooting guard. Turns out that was entirely Horford’s call.

“I saw an opportunity, and we can do that because I know my teammates will cover for me,” Horford said. “There’s a lot of trust.”

Just as the Hawks run a good amount of read-and-react offense, they're given the same kind of freedom to make intuitive, opportunistic decisions on the defensive end as they are in their vaunted offense. Most coaching staffs in the league won’t vest that kind of trust in their team, either because the sense is there isn’t a collective wherewithal to manage those kinds of decisions, or because they’re control freaks who prefer schemes with no room for errors in interpretation. Not so with the Hawks.

“That’s the beauty of our team -- trusting each other, not only on the offensive end, but the defensive end,” Hawks defensive stopper DeMarre Carroll said. “Our defense is just like our offense. Coach allows freedom.”

With freedom comes responsibility, and for the first time in a good while on Sunday, the Hawks played on a string -- “like Muppets,” said Carroll -- and accountability is fundamental to that process. Otherwise, for example, Pachulia is left alone under the basket, where Mayo finds him for an easy two. Therein lies the difference between good and bad defensive teams.

Even at 44-12, the Hawks aren’t without weaknesses. They struggle on the boards, ranking dead last in offensive rebounding percentage -- though, admittedly, Mike Budenholzer subscribes to the coaching school that preaches transition defense, even at the expense of the second-chance opportunities. But the Hawks rank only 23rd on the defensive glass, which is a cause for concern.

On Sunday, the Muppet Show cleaned up, collecting 77 percent of the Bucks’ misses and gobbling up more than a third of its own. In a game in which Atlanta was outshot from the field and equaled at the free throw line, the margin was crucial, as were the 24 Milwaukee turnovers the Hawks forced with plays like the Horford-Schröder trap.

After the game, the visitors locker room at the Bradley Center was cheery, as the Hawks rushed to catch a flight back to Atlanta, where they’ll take on Dallas on Wednesday night. In front of the locker of Kyle Korver, whose three 3-pointers during the first 150 seconds of the fourth quarter stretched a 2-point lead to 11, sat a large pizza. This for a fitness freak who carries boulders across the floor of the ocean during the offseason?

“Sometimes you just need the calories,” Korver said.

I'm looking forward to that CLE-GSW game. We all know CLE is playing better, but that game will give us a better idea just how much better they have gotten. Pretty sure that is a game both teams will be up for.

Or it could be as simple as what Millsap said after the Bucks win today:

Paul Millsap

On better defense: “Man, a complete turnaround. A lot better than the past few games. The aggression was there. The discipline was there.”

On defensive effort: “It’s a little bit more than effort. The effort is there most of the time. The discipline is not always there. Doing what we do. The rotations. We stayed disciplined in that.”

It's all about them remaining disciplined and doing what they are supposed to keep doing. And they got away from that, for various reasons.

Nobody.

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/basketball/hawks-work-to-put-lopsided-loss-behind-them/nkGRj/

4:27 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015

The Hawks held a video session Saturday as a final postmortem of their lopsided home loss to the Raptors the previous evening.

There were enough ugly details to go around from the 105-80 defeat that snapped a 12-game home win streak.

Coach Mike Budenholzer was asked what the video session showed in particular.

“That we weren’t good,” he said.

There were plenty of issues. The Hawks:

• Shot a season-worst 33 percent (29-of-88) from the field.
• Shot a miserable 21.1 percent (8-of-38) from 3-point range.
• Committed a season-high-tying 23 turnovers and allowed a season-high 15 steals.
• Trailed by as many as 35 points.

“We just weren’t good,” Budenholzer said. “You can make up all kinds of excuses, come up with reasons, but at the end of the day we weren’t good defensively. We weren’t good in a lot of ways.”

The Hawks returned with the lackluster effort after not having played for eight days because of the NBA All-Star break. Fourth-fifths of the starting lineup, and the coaching staff, were part of a whirlwind weekend in New York that meant little rest. Other members of the team vacationed in tropical locales.

However, it’s worth noting that the Hawks have lost four of their past seven games after winning 33 of 35 games that included a 19-game win streak. They blew an 18-point lead to the Celtics and lost in the final second of the last game before the All-Star break. The Hawks have lost two consecutive games, something they’ve done only twice this season.

Paul Millsap said there are issues — especially on defense — that have become a problem of late.

“It’s been for a while,” Millsap said. “Things have lingered around, things we’ve got to tighten up on. It’s really just tightening up a lot of things that made us successful and we’ve gotten away from.

“The last seven have not been up to our standards. Not up to what we are capable of doing. It’s about us getting back to playing close attention to detail and the basics.”

Millsap said the film session was beneficial in showing those details that need to be fixed.

The Eastern Conference-leading Hawks (43-12) need to move on, as they play at the Bucks on Sunday afternoon. The teams have split the two games played this season, with each winning on the other’s home court. The Bucks won by 30 points Dec. 26. The next night, the Hawks won by five points despite shooting 36 percent, the season-worst before Friday’s game against the Raptors. The Bucks (31-23) are sixth in the East and have won four consecutive.

The Bucks were active at the trade deadline. They dealt Brandon Knight and Kendall Marshall to the Suns and acquired Michael Carter-Williams from the 76ers and Tyler Ennis and Miles Plumlee from the Suns. Carter-Williams is listed as doubtful with a right foot strain. The Bucks will also play without Larry Sanders (personal).

Budenholzer said the Bucks present problems because of the number of lineups they can use during the course of a game.

“They’ve given us problems,” Budenholzer said. “I think (coach) Jason Kidd has done a great job throwing unique lineups. You have to be on your toes and prepare for different things. … We are going to have to play well and be mentally sharp for whatever it is they are doing. Stay within our normal things, but you have to be prepared and aware of what they are doing.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Seems like similar talk that happened right after the Bucks and Lakers losses that led to us going on a 33-2 stretch. They've lost focus and started listening to everyone tell them how good they are, and forgot the attention to detail and hard work during the games it took to make them that way. These next 2 weeks will go a long way towards determining if they simply overachieved or if they can find that groove again. My money is on them being able to find that groove again.

I like Miller Lite because of its great taste! {/sarcasm}

Less Filling!!!

That's fine if you'd like to believe that Bud is the acting GM or calling the shots. That's contrary to what I've heard but we can agree to disagree on it. I do agree the pecking order is irrelevant though.

What?

I said Wilcox was the acting GM then too, not Bud. But Bud is in charge. It's not a question of believing or not believing who is actually the person with the final say-so; that question was answered from Koonin's mouth himself.

But this is silly. We're arguing over something unimportant at best.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources--teams-starting-to-believe-ray-allen-won-t-play-this-season-213116271.html

Among numerous NBA executives with an interest in signing free-agent guard Ray Allen, there's a growing belief that Allen will not play in the league this season.

Yeah back in September that's how it was but from what I've heard Wilcox is the acting GM now. 

He was the acting GM then too. Nothing has changed. But Bud is still in charge of basketball operations; which means Wilcox still reports to Bud in the grand scheme of things. But again, it's all collaborative. So the pecking order is really irrelevant.

Why no talk about Wesley Matthews?  He's a lock-down perimeter defender and he's one of the very best 3 pt shooting off-guards in the league.  I think he fits us perfectly, and he's not the Blazers future the way Leonard is the Spurs future.

 

Obviously Marc Gasol would be a huge get for anyone, but Matthews seems more signable and far less likely to get max money thrown at him.

He plays the same position as Korver. So not really a need.

Wilcox is the acting GM since that's the job of the assistant when the GM is on sabbatical. Bud is acting president of basketball operations I think someone said, but I'm not sure that's accurate. 

Atlanta chief executive Steve Koonin said Friday that Ferry requested an indefinite leave of absence after making remarks. Head coach Mike Budenholzer will take over the operations of the team. http://zeenews.india.com/sports/danny-ferry-steps-away-from-atlanta-hawks-operations_1469197.html

http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/basketball/q-and-a-with-hawks-coach-mike-budenholzer/nhT3z/

Q&A with Budenholzer

Q. So (CEO) Steve Koonin comes to you and says he wants you to assume the general manager duties, how will you juggle both roles?

A. We have an incredible group here with our management and our basketball operations, scouts, assistant coaches and medical staff. I think it’s what we feel is the best solution in a tough time. I’m excited to continue to fight for our guy, protect our guys and protect what we have been building and continue to move us forward. We have done everything collaboratively since I arrived. So in a lot of ways as much as possible we are going to continue to work and continue to do business. In a tough time, this is the best solution.

Q. With the roster as it stands, there isn’t a lot of do. Will you lean on the staff and are there others outside the organization you can bounce ideas off?

A. With our roster for the most part in place, the players are always the most important thing and so I think if we continue to keep our focus on the players, making sure we have the right group here. (Assistant GM) Wes (Wilcox) and his group will continue to work and we are always looking for ways to improve and get better. I’m open and will lean on people occasionally but the more we work together and move us forward the better we are going to be.

They don't give you trophies for playing well the first half of the season.

 

You can run to biased sites like peachtreehoops to find your Confirmation bias conclusions. That's fine.

 

That you accuse others of confirmation bias is beyond the pale.

I feel like right before the break teams started keying in on the Hawks lack of rebounding and it came away with a few losses for the Hawks.

 

I'll be very interested to see how we come back from the break with teams continuing to try and exploit that.  It would have been the difference between a Win and a Loss in games like at Boston where we could not hit a single shot.

 

 

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say they took our offense away.  They played decent D but  Pero couldn't hit a shot to save his life, many of them open.  We had our chances.  I think the bigger question though is what are we going to do when we aren't clicking on offense?  We'll need to run our offense with extreme precision to void off all the rebounding battles we will lose.

"I think the bigger question though is what are we going to do when we aren't clicking on offense?  We'll need to run our offense with extreme precision to void off all the rebounding battles we will lose."   --- No offense, but isn't that kind of as obvious as saying something like 'we need to score more points than the other team in order to win the game?' If the offense isn't clicking, it's hard for any team to win any time.

We must look at 3 different levels of offensive performance:

1) Way above average

2)Average

3)Way below average

When you get #1, that's when we get the 20+ point blowouts.

#2 is what we usually get, which usually means we win the game when combined with our outstanding defense. This is also how you lose games when you miss a few crucial buckets down the stretch, or you run into a team that is playing way above average on offense. (This is what happened in the Memphis loss, we simply missed a few crucial buckets down the stretch, and they didn't).

#3 is what leads to losses, no matter how well you play or rebound. Reducing the amount of times #3 happens is what makes good teams good. But it IS going to happen from time to time. (This is what happened in our loss to New Orleans to break our streak).

The Boston loss wasn't any of the above. It was all about us just losing focus and not trying hard: as admitted by both Millsap and DMC.

Here is another good little article with some numbers that will make Hotlanta's head continue to explode. 

http://www.peachtreehoops.com/2015/2/20/8070939/nba-stats-atlanta-hawks-success

How did this team tear up the first half of the season?  It's pretty simple, and during this slow week before starting back tonight, the Stat Geek Five will give you the overview of just how.  In Atlanta, first and foremost, there is one philosophy:

1. Defend!

"Defense wins champsionships."  In the NBA and with the Hawks, it all starts with great D.  Sadly, I hear a lot of detracting around the frontcourt, but that is one of Atlanta's strengths.  Don't bother with your "Al Horford isn't a center" comments.  He is, and he's one of the best in the league.  Don't bother with your "The Hawks could never have a defensive wall like Memphis does inside."  Not true!  In defensive win shares, the Hawks have the player at #2 (Millsap) and #19 (Horford), one above the Grizzlies' pair at #3 (Gasol) and #20 (Randolph).  Which brings me to another criticism of the Hawks, which is actually a strength:

2. A lack of rebounding

That's right: a lack of rebounding is Atlanta's strength.  That stat is by design in Bud's system.  The Hawks are more concerned with getting back to prevent easy transition buckets than grabbing offensive rebounds, and it has worked.  Only Milwaukee allows fewer transition points per game.  Don't worry about the rebounding stat.  It is overrated in today's NBA game.  In the past three seasons, the team with the worst rebounding per game won their conference, won the championship, and went to the conference finals, respectively (thanks to my buddy Nate for pointing that one out).  Even if the Hawks were to finish last, they'd be in some pretty good company.  They aren't last, though - Atlanta occasionally grabs a rebound, and when they do, it starts up the offense, which for the Hawks means:

3. Crazy good passing

It is well documented by the Stat Geek Five as well as plenty of others:  the Hawks can move the ball.  Only the Warriors have better assist per 48 minutes numbers and Jeff Teague is fifth in points created by an assist per 48 minutes (minimum 20 games).   All that passing leads to great opportunities for the Atlanta shooters ...

4. And holy crap are they good at shooting off of those passes!

The Hawks dominate the league in catch-and-shoot scoring.  Pick a category off of catch-and-shoot instances:  points per game, field goal percentage, three point percentage, effective field goal percentage, etc - the Hawks lead them all, and by a reasonably wide margin.  Horford and Korver are in the top 20 in field goal percentage.  Korver and Carroll are in the top 20 true shooting percentage.  Korver, Carroll, and Horford are in the top 20 in effective field goal percentage.  How do they get such great looks?

5. Running!  Lots of running!

Per the NBA's SportVU cameras, the Hawks are seventh in total miles run throughout the season.  Korver is seventh in that category for one player at 126.9 miles, and every player above him averages more minutes than he does.  The whole team averages between 3.1 and 3.6 miles per 48 minutes.

Perhaps most importantly to all of this, I'd like to point out that while I mentioned all five starters in the top 20 players of some category, none of the Hawks are in the top 20 in scoring.  Not one.  The constant ball movement rewards all players in the system and it was great to see four of the five starters selected to the All-star game as well as all five starters recognized as co-players of the month.  Both of those awards really acknowledged the team play behind the Hawks' fantastic season.

You're one of the better new posters. You're an older head, huh?

Thank you, and yes. I've read the boards for years, just don't post much. I do the same on a lot of boards. I'll end up posting a while, then move on to other things and stop posting. Then maybe post more later on. My focus switches at the drop of a hat, unfortunately.

Good article. One thing it fails to take into account though is how having good mobile bigs in Horford, Sap, and Pero step out and hedge the opposing PG on the pick and roll helps give our defender time to fight through the screen. Just another of the underappreciated nuances of what our bigs actually contribute, while some complain for more rebounds and/or to bench Antić.

I'm working on a piece about the importance of rebounding to winning teams but it'll probably be another couple of days or so before it's ready. It started off being Hawks-focused but I realized half way into my research that the data shows some very obvious trends that are relevant regardless of what team you root for.

 

Stay tuned!

Do you mean the lack of importance of rebounding to winning teams? Since that is what the data shows.

Looking forward to it.

http://www.foxsports.com/south/story/atlanta-hawks-face-tough-stretch-rebounding-concerns-after-all-star-break-021915

ATLANTA -- There's no easing their way back from the All-Star break for the Hawks.

Fresh off a weekend in New York that seemed more like a takeover -- Atlanta had eight representatives take part in five different events -- the Eastern Conference leaders face a stretch that includes six of seven games against teams in playoff position.

"I think it's great for us. I think any time we're challenged or tested, I think our group looks forward to that," said Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer after Thursday's practice.

It starts Friday night at Philips Arena against the Raptors, who sit second in the East and are winners of nine of their last 11.

They're also the only team to beat the Hawks twice this season, as the Raptors won the season opener 109-102 in Toronto, then beat Atlanta again 126-115 on Nov. 26 in Philips Arena.

After the Raptors, Atlanta heads to Milwaukee, (sixth in East) then hosts Dallas (fifth in West), and after a respite vs. the 17-win Magic, heads to Miami (eighth in East) before back-to-back home games vs. the Rockets (fourth in West) and Cavaliers (fifth in East) to open March. The Heat retooled, adding Goran Dragic before Thursday's trade deadline and the Bucks landed Michael Carter-Willliams, Miles Plumlee and Tyler Ennis in a three-team deal that cost them Brandon Knight.

"We want to get another 19-game win streak going," said All-Star forward Paul Millsap. "We know the level of focus that takes. It's going to be tough but we feel like we're capable of doing that."

While the Hawks have already beaten each of those teams, including going 2-0 against the Heat and 2-1 against Cleveland, that group is responsible for five of Atlanta's 11 losses.

Along with the two defeats as the hands of the Raptors, the Hawks fell to the Cavaliers 127-94 on Nov. 15, the Magic 100-99 Dec. 13 and the Bucks 90-85 on Dec. 27 in the game that preceded their 19-game winning streak.

But three of those losses came on the road and the Hawks are winners of their last 12 home games

Atlanta boasts the NBA's best record on their floor at 25-3, though this upcoming run does include a team that is tied for the most road victories with the Mavericks, who have 19.

"That's what we signed up for," said shooting guard Kent Bazemore said. "Thankfully, we did our work early and created a little space for ourselves. That's no excuse to slack off any."

With 28 games to go, losing the East's top seed would require a collapse.

Conceivably, Atlanta could play .500 the rest of the way and even if the Raptors won at their current pace (they'd go 19-9), the Hawks would still claim the home-court advantage throughout the playoffs by a game.

Not that the Hawks are thinking mediocrity after having already eclipsed last season's 38-win total.

The pursuit of the franchise's first division title since 1994 and its only 60-win season is about regaining consistency and getting off to a fast start after the layoff.

"It has to be this game, it can't be the next two game or three games" Millsap said. "We have to find our rhythm early. We've got to get our chemistry going back early."

After the franchise-record streak, they went 3-3, culminating in an 89-88 loss at Boston, a team that has one of the league's worst defenses. Only five clubs have given up more points a game than the Celtics' 102.3.

"We know what we did wrong," said Millsap. "Our mental focus just wasn't there. Now that the All-Star break is over with we've got newfound life."

But where the Hawks truly need a boost is on the boards, where Millsap leads the way with 7.8 per game, with Al Horford just behind him at 7.4. Those figures rank 28th and 32nd in the league, respectively.

They were outgained 305-233 in that stretch, besting only the Wizards 46-41, and allowed 56 to Boston, 55 by the Grizzlies, 52 via the Pelicans, 51 by the Warriors and 50 to the Timberwolves.

"That explains rebounding drills today," Bazemore said. "That's definitely a priority of ours to hit the glass a little harder."

Averaging 40.9 rebounds a game (27th), the Hawks have a minus-2.7 differential. They didn't address the area before the trade deadline, but it hasn't hurt them that much as they've have been able to overcome their rebounding deficiency by shooting an NBA-best 38.9 percent on 3-pointers and 47.1 overall (third).

"That's one area that we need work on," said Millsap, Atlanta's top rebounder at 7.9 per game. "We don't want to be last in rebounding. It's kind of tough to be on top in everything. You're going to have some weaknesses and you have some strengths. We can't let our weaknesses hurt us though."

But Budenholzer stresses he also don't want to overemphasize the need to get better to the point where it's taking away from what's been the recipe for the Hawks' success: ball movement, shooting and defense.

"We can find ways to compete and win and be successful without making this rebounding thing into some monster," he said.

Paying close to the max for Millsap is a horrible idea. He's a dime a dozen PF.

That's ridiculous. Wait and see how much money gets thrown at him this offseason if that's what you really think. You're gonna be shocked. 

I predicted Leonard would be a Hawk in '15-'16 a couple of months ago. I'm standng by that. Especially after the Spurs don't make the WCFs, Hawks make it to the Finals, Bud wins COTY, Ferry wins EOTY, and retirement talk starts swirling around Pop/Duncan. Teague, Threezus, Kawhi, Sap, and Horf is sick. So is a bench with Shredder, DMC, and Edy on it.

I think you might be forgetting one important issue trying to put that team together: the salary cap. It's a 100% certainty that it will not be possible to put that team together and stay under the salary cap. We are under the cap right now, yes; but Sap and DMC are both due for very sizeable raises. And we aren't under the cap by that much.

The post hawksfanatic did a while back about Sap's early Bird max contract is likely an accurate number for what it will take to get him. That number was around $17m per year. We might be able to get a little bit of a discount since everything is working so well for him here; but don't count on paying him less than $14m per year. 

And DMC is going to get his salary bumped up to at least the $6m per year range that Korver is currently getting, and maybe more than that. As much as I would love to have Kawhi here, I think it's pretty obvious the days of us being able to put DMC in a backup role are long gone. He'll be a starter somewhere; and somewhere else if not here. The question is, do we really want to mess with our chemistry and somehow find a way to pay another max contract for someone like Kawhi to take his place? And the max contract will only happen if the new owners will approve going over the cap and paying a sizeable luxury tax. But we aren't going to be able to sign another starting SF and expect to keep DMC. That's not gonna happen.

And remember, we have to keep some cap space to reward Horford with a new contract after the 2016 season is finished. Oh, and also Schröder will be up for more money that same year. Same with Bazemore. And another thing, Kawhi is only a restricted free agent this coming offseason: meaning SAS can match any offer he gets, and you can bet they will too.

I think it's time we start considering this is most likely the core of our team going forward for the next handful of years. Paying the good guys we have is going to be hard enough as it is. Much less adding another high quality player. That seems pretty much impossible, to me at least. We'll most likely have a good high pick from BKN this year. But after that, our future roster will probably be us trying to keep as much of our core together as possible, continuing to develop our current young players, drafting high 20's draft picks and developing them, and possibly snagging some Bazemore or Carroll type steals as free agents here and there.

Kawhi or any other big name free agent is a pipe-dream, as long as we are able to resign Millsap this coming offseason. If we aren't able to do that, then all bets are off and obviously we'll need a new PF to take his place, or a C to bump Horford down to PF.

Pretty sure it's DeJesus you don't mess with...

What about Texas?

Haters gonna hate.