CBAreject

That’s the thing. If we had kept Howard and Millsap, we would’ve missed the playoffs and drafted 12th or so and had zero prospects for improvement. People are acting like we tore apart the 60-win team to tank. That team was long-gone and never coming back. Replacing a shrewd Danny Ferry with a SJW GM didn’t help, but that was only one of several decisions that committed us to this rebuild.

Lol this thread turned into a tank thread. Lol.

You know very well that the Sixers aren’t maxed out with 45 wins. As has already been mentioned, I’m talking about a mediocre 44-win team of veterans with no cap and no draft prospects—remember last year’s team? That team actually epitomized the Hawks of the last 25 years. Pete Babcock tried to build that sort of team repeatedly. Even when we ended up in the lottery it was because his experiment of trading an aging core for younger mediocre players failed so badly. There was a point when our best player was Jason Terry and all anybody could talk about was adding Austin Croshere with our cap room. All of these efforts to win now and blow our draft capital and cap room on mediocrity begets mediocrity. I’m quite sick of it.

Of course you’re right, but honestly, it’s just sour grapes. People who have spent the last 2 decades railing against tanking can’t bear to see the most shameless example of it work out so amazingly well. The Hawks have never truly committed to tanking. The worst example was finally getting the #3 pick, using it on Gasol, and then trading him for mediocrity (SAR). Babcock loved trading away high picks—he shipped two of them for Lorenzen Wright (RIP). That mentality, though, won’t die. So many fans would trade a chance at a contender for a 44-win team that gets bounced in the first round. They’re entitled to that preference; I just don’t understand it.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22459076/zach-lowe-10-things-like-including-great-nba-tank-race

I didn't say Philly was the envy of the league; I said their core was. I mean that very specifically--few teams have two players as young and as talented as Embiid and Simmons, and they should have something in Fultz. It's taken Philly a while to get mostly healthy, and Simmons is still just 21 and Fultz is still hurt. And guess what--there are only 2 teams in the east that are clearly better than they are (they actually have the third best point differential). Next year, they should be a force. I am very envious of what Philly has right now, and I hope that we could have such a bright future in a few years.

Philly just completed the ugliest series of blatant, shameless, full-season tanks I can recall. What they got was a core that is the envy of the league. Several of their picks didn't work out, but they emerged from their morass of atrocity with what might be the best center/point-forward combo since Kareem/Magic. Now they need some maturity and value signings, but they have the core to play for a championship. Compare that with our half-hearted rebuild that garnered a core of Joe Johnson and Josh Smith. That team's zenith was being subjected to the most horrific shellacking of a #3 seed in the history of the NBA playoffs. No thanks.

Haha. Hawks made this one too close for comfort! The Pistons should worry after these last two games.

It makes perfect sense to me, but maybe I have different hopes for this off-season than you do. My hopes are that we get a top-4 pick and continue to gain flexibility. That probably involves letting Dedmon walk and trying hard to trade Baze. Both of those guys are useful players, but they are (or will be) expensive, and they aren’t useful to us given our contention window. That said, the only function of Dedmon is to knock us down the draft order and prolong our rebuild. So, let’s speed things up by cutting him so he can play usefully and meaningfully for a contender. Win-win.

Hard to believe 6 teams are tied for fewest wins (18) at this point in the season. Someone who is good at history should tell us whether this has happened before. It's tough to see a Bud-coached team beat out the field in this tankfest. That's why the front office needs to help him with some buy-outs. Don't we owe it to Dedmon to give him the chance to play for a contender???

I reject your premise. Nobody said it changes something to fret that our hopes of a franchise-changing lottery pick are slipping away. And yet, this team has given us so little to hope for over the years, that it is sad to think they’re going to blow it (again). Are we to pretend otherwise? Do you think Spurs fans ever look back and wish they had won a couple more games and missed out on David Robinson and Tim Duncan? I was reading this board 20 seasons ago, and people were having the same argument about whether we should be cheering for meaningless wins if it meant another decade of mediocrity. I had the same position then. I appreciate your zeal, but I see it as tragically short-sighted.

I don’t see what’s so bad about “sounding like a broken record”. To me, that says he is being consistent. Each win gets us one step closer to missing out on the most stacked draft of the decade. Some of us have been watching this team be insignificant for 20-30 years, always hoping that we might get a superstar one day, maybe a few years before senility so we can enjoy it. Forgive us for not being elated over winning that 19th game, knowing it means many more years of being everybody’s punchline.

It’s hard to imagine that we won’t drop to the 6-8 range. It is exactly what this franchise would do to us after suffering through 2/3 of the season in dead last.

I don’t see what’s negative about talking about tanking. We do have the worst record in the NBA, and if you’re honestly “rah rah” for us to slide to like 6th-8th worst, I’m not sure how that keeps you going as a Hawks fan. I’m fine with the roster blow-up because we weren’t going to challenge for so much as a second round appearance with what we had. I’m very optimistic about the future because we picked the right season to tank. It will still take some luck to land franchise talent, but we have the supporting pieces and coaching staff to rebound rapidly if we get it. First thing’s first—let’s finish this tank job that we started!

As of today, 55 games into the season, the Hawks are tied for the worst record in the NBA with the Dallas Mavs. The 8th worst team, the Bulls, sit 2 games back of the worst record. The 2018 NBA draft promises to be the best draft in 15 years (since Lebron). This means that we are in for the most epic tanking frenzy that we will ever witness. Never have so many teams been so close to the bottom with less than 25 games to go, and it happens with a historically stacked lottery. Sadly, I predict that the Hawks will honorably win a few games and boast to the world that they didn't tank while finishing 6th-8th worst, sentencing themselves to another decade of mediocrity, as they did after missing out on Dwight Howard. Prove me wrong guys! Tank the right way this time!

The bench has some nice pieces. Thabo getting hurt was a big deal. After him you have Schröder, Scott, and mack. It is thin, though, and we let the cavs trade for every piece available. Where would they be without mozgov, smith, and shumpert?

I agree with what's already been said. We should be attractive bc of success and ownership. That said, I won't be surprised if the top FA's want to go to the Knicks, Heat, and Lakers, even though those teams are in shambles.

Della looked like a running back pushing the pile at the goal line. Watch him load up with his legs to squat thrust. Whether he was intentionally trying to hurt Horford, I can't know. But he has a pattern of throwing his weight into players' lower extremities. And in this play, he loaded up to thrust into horford at least twice. If you watch that and call it "falling", you're a hopeless homer who can't stand criticism of his own team.

The reason having a star is crucial, as others have said, is that said star gets calls in close games. It's a huge disadvantage, and it's THE reason the NBA is a farce compared to other sports. That said, we can still beat the Cavs, but even when we do, someone will call attention to some random call that went our way (see Korver's "travel") and minge as if it were the only questionable call in the whole series.

why are we fighting? Oh right, hawksfanatic. Ok carry on.

Jeff Kreig set the all-time record for sacks and fumbles as a QB for the Seahawks. Jay Shrader did an admirable job filling in for Todd Marinovich, but those guys are going to have a heckuva time with the Cleveland pass rush. Just sayin.

It wasn't racism, but you could make a more convincing case it was affirmative action :)

Effin torture

246 lb, 6'5", 4.53 40, 41" vertical, 30+ reps on 225 lb. I'm going off memory on those but he was eye popping at the combine. http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/defensive-lineman-vic-beasley-of-clemson-competes-during-news-photo/464120774 This is the guy at #8 for us, since i doubt fowler or ray will be there.

Great win. I thought they would take it down after coming back. The offense was ugly until the 4th but we played some tough d all day