HawksFanInMiami

Most of the stuff that I've read indicates that Monroe's reason for wanting out is Smith also. ..but both the Pistons and Monroe should be motivated to put each other in a better fit with another situation. The pistons will still have the same issues with monroe and Drummond playing on the floor at the same time - not enough spacing. If you are Monroe you might be a little butt-hurt that the Pistons are without a doubt considering Drummond option 1A. There are still myriad reasons why a separate deal involving Monroe could happen. I haven't even looked at this in terms of salary or logistics so just speculating.. SnT or something maybe?

This is amazing.

Interesting. He looks good. I don't even think he's hit the rim on his made threes. Really good looking shot. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Man, I'm really not impressed by Jenkins. Holt looks solid. He's leading us in points (tied with Patterson). Where did he come from? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some of you guys sound like a 12 year old kid who just made $5 mowing the front yard. Can't wait to blow it. So far the only first or second (or third, whatever) tier free agent worth his contract is Lebron James. These clowns paying $15-$16 mil per for hayward and Parsons? 5 year $118 mil for Bosh? I think Thabo is looking like a really good signing and Sap last year? brilliant... unless you'd rather have Jordan Hill.. for the same amount.. please try to convince me that Jordan Hill has a shot at ever playing in an all star game. This season is a bunch or Charlie Villanuevas and Ben Gordons... and we just picked up Thabo at the flea market.

yeah... because most players dominate the league in their first 3 years as a pro..... Oh, wait... No they don't Not claiming that he's the second coming of basketball jesus, and i stand by the idea that at 4mil per year he can easily out play his contract. If he doesn't then we didn't break the bank for him. he's worth the money just for his defense.

i didn't do any backflips when i saw this but it's not a terrible signing. gotta remember the guy was on a team with ball stoppers. that kills chemistry and is death knell for role players. we 4mil per isn't cheap for his recent production but it is far and away a salary that can turn into an excellent value with any production. without a doubt i think he's capable of out producing lou williams and he was owed more. not a bad signing.

If we don't make any big time deals this off season I would like to see us go after a true center so that Sap could come off the bench. I think that role would be a good fit for him. let him pick apart the second unit of a defense. Bring in a guy like Jordan Hill to start games at center and then bring Sap off the bench and still give him 32-33 mpg.. Jordan Hill is not a very good offensive option-at least he is not going to create his own shot-but he's capable of PnR and crashing offensive glass and other high energy play. This would also give us the flexibility to change our lineup based on strategy from game to game (big-ish or small lineups). Would give a very Spurs feel to what we would be capable of offensively and defensively. Sap isn't Diaw but my suggestion is to use him in a similar capacity.. only a little less distribution and a little more aggressive offensively. Thoughts?

I was looking at this earlier and it looks like they would be pitching Melo somewhere between 16-19 mil(?). The max he's eligible for would be 5 year at 25(ish) mil per year, if he signed with NYK. Otherwise he's looking at one less year if he signs with another team outright. that's the way i understand it anyway. So if he signs for 18mil for example he would be playing for the heat at a 25% discount..

interesting...

I am not sold on Melo being the best fit for our team.. I have never been a huge Melo fan.. He is an excellent offensive player and I think he is better defensively than he gets credit for. There is something about him though.. He has consistently been incapable of making the players around him better. I have never been a fan of a player who might take 30 shots any given game.. It looks great on espn but i remember playing ball in high school or even just pick up ball and you NEVER want that guy on your team. If you want to grow you gotta eat.. Carmelo is going to get his 30 shots per game. Every game's a buffet for him. but what about everyone else? If we did make a move for him I would buy in, but in all honesty I would prefer to stay away from melo. I don't see that as a championship move.

This is actually exactly what I was referring to! jaybirdhawk - good find!

i have been waiting for weeks to see someone mention Kawhi Leonard.. Man, he's a beast. I would sacrifice my first born to have him in a hawks jersey. someone correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems like my understanding is that Coach Bud was a main component in the George Hill-for-15th-pick-swap. George Hill was a guy that Pop really liked and preferred not to trade. So.. hopefully that eye for talent and knack for player developement can help us net our own Kawhi with our own 15th pick.. I'm not big on Ariza. He had a good season this year but it was an outlier. I wouldn't be so quick to even consider him a 3 and D specialist because he's only shot better than 35% from behind the arc 2 times in his career.. and before this year he never came close to 40%. He won't be worth the money that he makes. I like Hawes for the sake of his ability to shoot and the fact that he's a big body. I would be very careful to not over pay him too though. afraid that any competition for his services would result in an inflated (at least for his talent/skill level) contract. I think I like Hill the best of the three. Only because he's the least likely to be over-paid. We can likely sign him while remaining flexible. As long as we remain flexible we have a lot of options..

I hope the Pacers do well. IMO that will validate our effort against them. That's all I'm worried about. I want to know how good we are short-handed and how well we actually played. If the Pacers beat the Wizards, who damn near swept the Bulls, then I think we are looking pretty solid. That's how I'm looking at it anyway. Still expect the Heat in the finals and pray to God that they lose to the Clippers. Last thing I want to see is a three-peat. I can't take another night of impromptu parades with people hanging out of car windows banging pots and pans with wooden spoons.. Lord be with us...

I think Washington would have beat us handily. They are impressive right now. I also had the feeling that we played not to lose (instead of playing to win) in the second half of game 5.. I am sure that afforded the pacers a little bit of momentum througout the next two games. I wouldn't so quickly give that game 5 effort all the credit though because game 6 was still very close. I think at the end we ran out of steam... In the first 6 games we played above our potential, creating-and hitting-quality shots (not really an excellent % but nonetheless), getting a lot of 50/50 balls and determining the pace of the games by playing to our strengths. 7th game looked like we just ran out of steam. Al instead of Antić.... if only.....

He might sacrifice his first born to get out of Detroit

I like the trade. If it happened I would be ok with it. I agree that it wouldn't hurt either team.. and it doesn't put either team in a vice with bloated long term contracts. Asik is paid too much. That is for sure.. but picking him up in a trade gives us options (an expiring deal is always attractive to front office personnell) and I think that's most attractive to DF as he continues to put the best possible team on the floor. I really like Sap and I hope he does well even if it's in another jersey. You have to appreciate what he did for the team this year but I'm very careful to not get too invested in any players. I am a big fan of Parson's. He has game and is underrated just because of the big names on his team. He may not be known for scoring 30/game but he's a capable scorer and a solid defender (Last reg season game he gave KD fits. That game against Parson's is the game that ended KD's 30+ scoring streak). He is not a big ego guy. He is the team captain, despite being one of the younger players on the team. He has a knack for the ball and is capable of a double double any given game. I like the trade. Of all possible, realistic scenarios I think this is one of the better ones.

Bingo! 35.7% (Antić and Scott combined 0-10 from 3) and still only 2 points behind with 35 seconds??... and you absolutely can't attribute past failures to this group.. We aren't even a shadow of the team from 2 years ago. We are moving in a direction and playing with a purpose.. There are a whole lot of things to be excited about as a Hawks fan. I drove up to ATL for game 4 and we lost by 4.. But the excitement was palpable.. Got to see a game that went down to the last possession with the last shot at the end of regulation potentially taking the game to overtime. We lost.. but man was it worth the 22hr round trip. **lost by 3 in game 4

Kyle Korver has played solid defense this whole series. He has been matched up on PG and has done a solid job of staying in front of his man esp considering he is not an elite athlete. The defense that we run is help, and trust your help. If Korver cheats off his man every now and then it doesn't mean he's playing bad D. It's far more about defensive rotation than one on one. Game 6 I noticed some sloppy ball handling and careless turnovers by our guards much like the 3rd quarter stretch in game two. I think the biggest key is that we missed open looks. the crux of a shooting team is that some days the shots aren't going to fall.. Then consider that we were only down by 2 with 35 seconds remaining in the game.. We can definitely hang with this Pacers team.. Also huge shout out to our fans for showing up to the game!!