RandomFan

Well, first off that he's shooting 42% from 3 this year. Thabo was just starting to get his stroke back in January, where he shot his highest per month % at 40. Not really sure why you would be bemoaning the lack of trust in Baze making a clutch shot when we surely would never rely on Thabo to do so? Especially when Thabo is actually shooting worse overall, even in his best month. We have plenty of other guys to hit clutch shots. I will grant you that Baze definitely needs to work on his FT's. It's a huge negative. But it's not like he's going to be going to the line 10 times a night. Since you brought up the mid range game, does Thabo have one? If so, I haven't seen it. These guys are here to 3&D, and Bazemore can give us that while Thabo is healing up. But what I do like about Baze's offensive game is he can drive to the basket with his superiour athleticism much better than Thabo ever could. He can break the D down and kick out. And I like that he is young and has so much athletic ability that needs more seasoning and experience, which we can now give him for the next 6-8 weeks. And we'll still be in a great position come playoff time because Thabo should be back and fully healthy, along with a Bazemore who has hopefully grown even more with us.

Don't agree. I'd take Bazemore's offensive game over Thabo's. And he still has a LOT of room to improve. Thabo is a more experienced player, which is why I want him for the playoffs. His outside shot is improving, or was, but he's still a long way from a consistent spot-up 3pt shooter. Baze has much more offensive potential and needs more gametime to continue to develop it in our system. He also plays elite defense too. Where Thabo is better than Baze is in experience and consistency, along with 2 inches in height. It does hurt us by moving Baze from Korver's backup to a less talented player defensively there, I'll give ya that. But I suspect that will probably be offset somewhat by Baze getting closer to starter type minutes, say maybe 28 minutes per game, backing up both DMC and Korver.

I don't see it that way at all, sorry. We don't really need to trade for anyone because we have Bazemore and Jenkins on the bench who I would like to see get some more playing time. Once DMC gets back, this just gives more backup minutes for Bazemore, which is well deserved IMO. Don't get me wrong, I love Thabo for his D and what he brings to our team and most definitely want him in there when the playoffs roll around. But getting Baze some more minutes to help in his development is a very good thing with how well he's coming along. And his defense is elite level also. And I know a lot of people around here want to see what Jenkins can do. We will finally get to see it now, perhaps. I have a feeling Mack will eat up some of these minutes when he's finally healthy. But Jenkins should be able to get some minutes and hold things down until Thabo is healthy. At least we'll finally get to evaluate him in some games to see if he's worth trying to keep around next year. Scott can log some minutes at SF also, which would probably mean Brand getting a few more minutes than he's been seeing. Or perhaps even Moose or Payne... We've got enough options without having to make a trade right now.

Is this entire paragraph a joke?

I'm wondering if some people are forgetting the inflated contracts that started getting handed to 3&D players last offseason? We lucked out and picked Carroll off the scrapheap two years ago for 2 years at $2.5m per year. Then after the Spurs pounded their way to the Championship, combined with a lot more teams emphasizing spacing-style offensive systems the price for those 3&D players skyrocketted last year. Heck, Deng got $9m even at his age. And we had to give Thabo $4m per year ($1.5m more per year than who he is backing up) to a guy his own team had written off as washed up. It's just a recent trend that those guys are becoming much more valuable, and have more suitors than in the past. Like I mentioned before, Draymond Green is being legitimately talked about being offered a Max or near-Max contract next year when he's a free agent: he's not a superstar. He's merely a better, and younger, version of Carroll. Anyone offering him that kind of money before the recent interest in some of these 3&D players would have been considered insane. It still is, yet a lot of people seem convinced it is going to happen. We'll see how it plays out and I hope we get the hometown discount from Carroll. But I'm thinking to get him resigned with us will take at least Korver type money ($6m per year) and quite possibly as much as $9m per year depending on how much other teams offer him. You've got to keep in mind at his age, this is his last chance to get a decent payday. I'm sure he would take a little less than his max offer to stay with us, but we've got to be in the ballpark for that to happen.

I don't feel this deserves it's own thread, so I'm just stashing it in here. After last nights game when they were talking about our streak on ESPN they brought up some kind of statistic from some "index" they use that predicted we only have a 3% chance to win all of our next 6 games. So keep that in mind after we win all 6

This. I'm not even remotely scared of either Washington or Toronto. Cleveland is likely to be our biggest threat to get into the Finals. Chicago I'd say is the 2nd biggest threat. But they are likely to be some combination of too injured and/or too worn out due to all the minutes the starters play.

Not so fast. Lets remember that we chased after Luol Deng last year to be a starter at Carroll's spot. Thabo was Plan B after Deng spurned us for Miami. While I love me some DMC, and I'm sure Bud and Ferry do as well, I'm still not sold that as of this past offseason they viewed him as a longterm starting option. That has probably changed due to his play this year, but lets not forget the past so quickly. I still think Millsap is our most important free agent to sign, by far. I just hope we don't have to break the bank for him. My fear for Carroll is that after Draymond Green lands a max or near-max contract for being a better version of Carroll, it will drastically inflate the value of Carroll's next contract. Let's hope not because I would hate to lose him.

There is some good stuff in here. Maybe everyone else saw this already, but I missed it before: a very good point here: I've never really framed it that way before, but it definitely makes a lot of sense. Even considering there are always "snubs" every year. Even if you extend it out to the top 30 or 35 players, that's still very very good. Another excellent point:

Thanks. While I'm interested in some of the things analytics can tell us, I'll be honest and say I'm not overly interested to the point of delving that deeply into it. That's why I figured I'd ask the expert if what this guy was spewing was hogwash or not. =D Thanks for the clarification. And yeah, he spent the first half of the video setting things up too much; the 2nd half is more talking about individual players and teams. The points-per-possession stat he kept hammering on did make me think it is something that ignores defensive efficiency, so I suspected it was fairly inept at being much of a predictor.

Since we're on the subject, what does everyone think the dollar amounts are going to be for Milsap and Carroll? Ballpark of course. I'm worried the new impending TV money and expected salary cap increases coming in the next few years are going to greatly inflate the next batch of contracts. But assuming that isn't the case, I'm guessing Milsap is going to be around at least $15-16m per year to bring him back. Carroll is a bigger mystery due to how in-demand he might be. I'm going to say at least $6m per year but probably closer to 8-9m per. That's a huge jump from the $2.5m we got him for initially. Pero will probably due for a sizeable bump on a 2 to 3 year deal as well. And as someone else said, Horford will be due the next year at probably close to a max deal...sigh. Throw in our likely lottery pick and it looks like we'll be doing well just to hang on to our current pieces, and forget about adding anyone of significance. Lets hope Bud/Ferry already have their eyes on the next DeMarre (underrated cheap signing who greatly outplays contract).

@hawksfanatic Since you seem to be the resident analytics guru, I wondered what you thought about the breakdowns in this video done by David Locke, the radio announcer of the Utah Jazz. He talks a good bit about the warriors and also the Hawks and some of the reasons we are having good seasons. Also very high on Korver. You can skip the first 2 minutes of the video.

Since the rumor is new ownership wont be in place until at least April, it would be in the offseason by default.

Exactly this, in addition to several other factors. Ferry is a smart guy. He knows he messed up, and from all reports he's working hard to not only acknowledge his mistake, but to make amends by doing the diversity training and reaching out to as many people as possible that were rightfully offended by his mistake. True contrition and time are what it takes to heal these types of wounds. As was said, if it weren't for the Gearon's he might have returned from self-exile already. But what complicates this further is the possibility of new ownership. I would guess that Koonin, Bud, and Ferry, and possibly others, have mutually agreed that the best course of action is awaiting new ownership and allowing that person to make the final decision regarding if Ferry should be welcomed back. It's only smart business from Koonin's perspective, to make the Hawks more attractive in a sale if a potential roadblock in Ferry isn't already back in the mix. Just imagine this scenario - Ferry comes back, takes the initial PR backlash that is going to be inevitable when/if he ever does return, things finally smooth over (not with everyone of course), and he gets back to work as the acting GM. We don't know what the Gearons would do at this time, so who knows if they would try to get him fired then (Ferry being in exile kind of reduces that risk). Then the Hawks are sold and it's one of three options. 1) The new owner is open minded, acknowledges how contrite and remorsefull Ferry has been, and agrees to keep him as GM. Or 2) the new owner is like Chris Webber and want's Ferry fired months ago and doesn't care about atoning for mistakes. Or 3) the new owner isn't quite sure. On one hand he might want to forgive Ferry, but on the other hand he simply might not want to have to deal with all the distractions and start with a clean slate. In this case, you are putting a potential new owner in a difficult place forcing him to make that decision: which makes the Hawks less marketable for sale. All these things combined are why Ferry is still remaining in self-exile until new ownserthip is in place, I feel. My gut feeling is that Ferry will return unless we get an ownership group with someone like Webber who is too spiteful to forgive him and 100% wants him fired immediately. If it is someone on the fence, I think Ferry, Bud, and Koonin will be able to make them see the light and continue to work with Ferry.

I would absolutely love that, but it's probably not possible with Young already making $9m per year - which is only half a million less than we are paying Milsap. Just another example of how lucky we were to get Milsap for the contract he got; don't kill us on your next contract Milsap, please. IMHO I know there is a resistance to messing with the team chemistry, and I completely understand that. But if we were to make some move to improve the team I'm thinking upgrading the backup PF in place of Scott would be where to do it. It's between him the Bazemore at backup SG; but the way Bazemore has been coming on as the season has progressed and he's getting more comfortable, and as long as he can keep playing insane defense like last night, then Scott is the weakest link. He's just so maddeningly inconsistent. When he is on, he's absolutely amazing. But it seems like he's only on about 1 out of every 5 or 6 games, which just isn't enough. It's more than just him missing open shots. It's missing easy layups, misshandling passes, turning the ball over, and just genereally disrupting the flow of the normal offense or defense. I dunno, maybe I'm being too critical, but most games he just stands out to me like a sore thumb. But if he's the biggest thing I've got to complain about, we're in pretty darn good shape overall.

http://www.startribune.com/video/289745511.html I thought some people might find that video interesting. It's the postgame of Flip Saunders where he is giving major props to the Hawks. Something along the lines of you don't really get a sense of just how good we are until you get out there and play against them. Says the Hawks are the best combination of offense and defense they have played this year (and this is coming on a night when we were lackadasical on D).

Goos fraba

That is the full quote. Doesn't sound so disrespectful to me. Sounds more like reporters trying to blow things out of proportion to stir controversy.

Apologize for the above twitter fail. Can't seem to edit that post.

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