macdaddy

Johnson ATL.346 Can we get some props for Chris Johnson leading the NL batting race by 16 points 2. Molina STL .330

It does look funny. Brand will be backing up center we know. Deshawn will be gone and replaced with Carroll. We are loaded up on PFs that for sure. I'm not one who thinks it matters that much but i know some do. What scares me most is if you look at the backcourt there isn't a lot of proven nba talent there. Only 2 guards on the whole team with any real nba experience. Uh Oh.

I think we are looking for a SG. That's where we are weakest.

Yeah i seem to keep getting older. My folks had season tix to the Flames so i grew up watching those guys. He was my favorite player. Got to meet Boom Boom Geoffrion while i was in high school. Nice guy. Can't believe we've lost two NHL franchises in my lifetime.

Last year's team was fun to watch. This is why i'm concerned about Bud. I think this year's team is better and deeper but I hope Bud can get these guys to play together as well as LD did last year.

I can't imagine we even want him at this point.

Thank you. Teague is the least of my concerns. The kid can play. He's got great ability and he has intensity. A lot has been made of his desire and aggressiveness but i'm guessing that won't be a problem this year.

Hey Diesel is that Bouchard? Love that pic.

I think Brand will turn out to be a shrewd move at center. All these other forwards are to keep a physical toll off of Horford and Brand for the playoffs i think.

I'm concerned about chemistry and coaching too. I'm not seeing the losses that we didn't replace though. The only real loss was Josh and we replaced him with a more efficient player. The only other losses were bench players who we upgraded. With Dwight and Paul out of the picture I'm not seeing a whole lot more we could have done. I think this team is solid.

I can't think of any reason they'd trade monroe other than monetary. I think a Horford, Monroe front court would be awesome but who we give up i have no idea. I don't think we have the pieces to trade right now but by January i think we could trade some of our new signees.

Good. Lets roll with it. I have faith in these Braves. There aren't many holes in this team other than the strike outs.

That's all good news in my opinion. I think he can be signed with an exception (i don't know the details) so they are holding off in anticipation of another move. I'm sure i'll get corrected on the details but this is just tactical which means we are still looking.

I actually like Jennings but its hilarious that so many here think the Pistons are now better than us because they signed a guy we let walk away and traded for a guy who's team attempted to replace him with our point guard.

I don't really know but I"m guessing last season is extreme for Gay. He had a bad year. I'm thinking he doesn't look that bad in previous years but I'm not smart enough to look it up.

Honestly I think the ones saying we will be a good playoff team are the middle of the pack. I haven't seen anyone say we will be an ECF contender but to me that would be the extreme positive. 40-45 wins and a 5th seed in the east is not extreme optimism. To say that a team that is roughly the same except for Josh Smith / Paul Milsap is suddenly going to be a 25 game winner is extreme. If you are only going to win 25 games in the east you have to try really hard to lose.

To me it comes down to 2 things. Whether Bud is any good as a head coach and whether Milsap will be as effective/better/worse than Josh Smith. The rest of the parts of the team are the same or better than last year. Teague/Lou/Korver/Horford. I'd argue that the other rotation players are better than last year so unless Bud really sucks as a coach we should be a good team.

We signed Milsap, Korver, Brand, Teague, DMC and still aren't done. I"m excited our offseason is NOT one boring move and done. We got some guys here with ability and brains to play at a high level and we've got a baker's dozen of them young and old. In past seasons we were calling up aged guys who weren't that good in their prime just to get the required number of players.

The Nets? They were supposed to be elite last year and were no better than the Hawks. No one knows if PP and Garnett will still be effective or even healthy when it counts.

These are my thoughts exactly. We need a 2.

I thought you already started this in another thread? I like Rudy. I think he is very good and still in his prime. The only reason he's available is he has a huge contract but that's not going much longer. I guess the main knock would be he's not going to sell a ton of tickets on name recognition but I don't think we're going to get that player anyway.

I think its just speculation that we will be active at the trade deadline to try to take a middle of the pack playoff team to a ECF contender. Since we just signed all these guys this summer I don't think we can trade them until december but the february trade deadline is when the action will be.

http://www.peachtreehoops.com/2013/7/14/4521994/lou-williams-atlanta-hawks-sixth-man

They've been saying that Bud has Lou in the Manu role off the bench. We still have three months to go so we'll see how it shakes out.

Building for february = mediocre flex. Its the same thing. Build a team that competes hard in every single game, gain respect in the league, have a lot of quality players on varying reasonable deals that can be packaged to acquire the stars you need. Its a plan that can go in different directions depending on the opportunities that come up rather than our previous plan which I call: 'is it soup yet?' which is to acquire a bunch of ingredients you think will make a good team, throw them in a pot and then check it every few years to see if its any good.