Bankingitbig

Looks like Dennis and THJ are playing and now maybe Howard is resting? Who knows what's going on.

Should see a decent amount of Bembry. Also not sure why Howard isn't out as well. Wonder if trying to get the 6 or 7 seed as a way to avoid the Cavs until the ECF plays into this decision at all.

Yea this is true. Pop actually was a huge fan of George Hill and didn't want to lose him. Some articles said Hill was Pop's favorite player. I also think the trade had some to do with saving $, but not entirely sure.

You're basically swapping somewhat similar salary if you lose Dennis, Baze, Prince and Millsap, but get George, Lillard and Meyers Leonard. That said, I see absolutely no reason why Portland would do that trade, especially if they are trying to manage their salary cap. In your scenario, you would have a tough time then having the $ to resign THJ, Ersan and sign Gallinari. I also don't see the Pacers trading away George for 3 mid-to-low first rounders. I also think a lineup of Lillard, THJ, PG13, Gallinari and Howard looks good on paper, but would have issues. Your four guards/forwards all have pretty high usage and like the ball in their hands. Add on to that a Center that wants his touches. It's better than what we have, but I don't see the trade scenarios as feasible/realistic.

Funny to see so many people now saying we should just miss the playoffs to get a better draft pick. I've been saying for awhile that we should have rebuilt after losing Al and that we completely botched this last offseason which was the perfect opportunity to start the rebuild. That said, I actually am in favor of still making the playoffs and just seeing how we perform. I think the playoffs would be good experience for Dennis and Prince (if Bud plays him). Also, the Hawks fan in me wants more games.

But why would you bet on a 30-year old when your team is nowhere close to actually competing? On top of that, you already have Lin for a potential two more years making $12M/year. THJ's per 36 stats aren't that far off from what Harden was doing when he got his first max deal from HOU. Not trying to say that THJ deserves a max or that he will become Harden, but just saying there is potential in him. Obviously THJ is older and TS% is quite a bit lower, but I think that has a lot to do with his FT% abnormally dropping this year and Harden's ability to get to the line more often. I think the surrounding cast that THJ has versus what Harden had at the time plays a bit into the efficiency numbers as well. Also consider that THJ has really only had 1.5years of true development (Knicks were a mess) versus Harden having 3-years at the time. I definitely think Atkinson (known for developing/mentoring Lin) would love to get his hands on THJ to continue his development. THJ's per 36 stats this year (4th year, age 24): 19.0 PTs / 2.9 ASTs / 3.5 REBs / 1.7 TOs on TS of 56% Harden per 36 stats (3rd year, age 22): 19.3 PTs / 4.2 ASTs / 4.7 REBs / 2.5 TOs on TS of 66%

I actually think Brooklyn makes the most sense for THJ. They have a lot of $ to spend and are most likely looking for young players to develop. I think Kenny Atkinson would love to get his hands on THJ to continue to develop his playmaking skills and shot selection.

Ownership is far more competent to what we have had. That said, the jury is still out for me. Ressler is a private equity guy. Still unsure if he is truly willing to go above the salary cap and potentially the luxury tax in order to win a championship. Hawks raising ticket prices has me worried, as well as Grant Hill not wanting to be involved in any basketball operations. Huge fan of Koonin though. I am ok with Bud as President of Basketball Operations, but we need a true GM. I almost said we need a GM with ultimate authority, but I want our coach and GM to be on the same page and I am ok with Bud having that ultimate authority for now. Bud is a good coach and I selected that we are lucky to have him. That said, I do think he has his faults like his rotations and the fact that turnovers always seem to be an issue with us. Dennis is a decent point guard right now that is young and I think he is on a great contract. I think he has potential to be a borderline all-star if he develops and works on his flaws. THJ - tough one for me. I think THJ is definitely starter worthy and has a lot more potential in terms of working on his playmaking and defense, along with shot selection. That said, I don't necessarily believe we match whatever deal he gets. Dwight - has done everything we asked and is playing well enough to make his contract valuable. That said, I don't think his game fits the modern NBA. Millsap - I did option #3, but now that I think about more I think #2 is more fair. I just don't think we should be resigning Millsap at all this offseason with the way the team is currently constructed and considering what he will command. Baze - Subpar player that is negative value in a trade. Don't necessarily think he is below Thabo, but definitely below THJ and Prince.

He's a free agent this offseason. Has to show teams that he is still capable of playing and staying on the court in order to get a new deal.

I don't see how the Hawks make a significant move up in the draft unless we are willing to trade Prince or Schröder, which I don't see happening. We just don't have valuable assets. We could make a small jump by giving up the #31 BKN pick or a future first, but nothing to get us into the top 10 to be able to draft a guy like Markkanen.

I hope so, not because I don't like Millsap, but because we just aren't going to seriously contend with this team and that contract would cripple us. That said, if you are Wilcox - how do you seriously justify not resigning Millsap no matter what it takes? That's my point... You can't be the GM that has his two best players leave in back-to-back seasons while you said the whole time that you wanted to resign them and then not get a single dime in return for them leaving. You let him walk and you know you are going to come under serious fire and be on a major hot seat, if not just let go. You resign him (even if to a crippling deal), then you get to say that you kept your promise and resigned your all-star which gives you a bit more time to salvage your job. It's a lose-lose. That is why I am fearful that the Hawks actually will resign him no matter what, then you also include the fact that ownership is increasing ticket prices and likely wouldn't want a rebuilding team during that process. Who knows though.

No I say this with the thought that keeping Horford at a max of ~$154M/5years is much more favorable to paying Millsap a potential max of ~$209M/5years. They knew at the time what the market was for Millsap in terms of trade value. Waiting another half-season was only going to diminish the potential returns he would get. At the time, they also knew that Millsap would likely be looking for a max or at the very least a deal that begins above his cap hold. So they knew all of this and instead of just giving a near max to Horford (recall Horford reportedly just wanted a ~$145M deal), the front office decided it would be better to let Al walk and, by all indications given, plans to try and resign Millsap to a deal that will be far above Al's. The economics of that make absolutely no sense to me without even considering that they could then deal Millsap and get some return if they wanted to.

I have a hard time seeing the front office (Budcox though especially Wilcox) not bringing back Millsap at all costs. You can't have your top two players walk in free agency in consecutive seasons without getting a single return for them. Additionally, you can't go from a 60-win team two seasons ago with four all-stars and lose all of your starters with only Prince, Dunleavy and a 2019 first round pick to show for it. On top of all of that, you had the front office explicitly saying that they plan to bring back Millsap and ownership is raising ticket prices. Wilcox is in a lose-lose situation. You don't bring back Millsap (with a likely max or near max contract) then you failed your promise and have no assets to show for it two years in a row - likely leading to you losing your job (imo). You bring back Millsap and are a treadmill team, but at least he gets to try and salvage his job - though very difficult as he won't have much flexibility in constructing a roster.

Definitely losing to Boston. That said, I think we can beat Boston and matchup well to them. We have no shot against Cleveland. I want to play Boston and beat them.

I don't see D-Rose providing any mentorship/development to a player that is ahead of him on the roster. He wants to play and he wants to be a starter. In fact, do we even really want Rose's mentorship/development - if you can even call it that?

Hawks ownership/management just jacked up the ticket prices. I don't see them tanking.

This isn't new..... We all already knew Paul would not take his player option. Also why would you choose the terminology of "void"??? This is just a NFL reporter stating the obvious.

Bud just played a lineup of Delaney, Dunleavy, Prince, Muscala and Humphries.... like that was a legitimate lineup used in the NBA just now...

I don't think Howard has that much value, especially in the offseason. He would probably have more value around the trade deadline for a potential contender that is missing a solid center/rebounder or maybe their center gets injured or something. If you seriously look at every team - there aren't many that would want Howard. Maybe the Bucks if Monroe doesn't take his player option? But would you seriously want Howard at his ~$23.5M. There is no one else. Center is a relatively stacked position.

Delaney was straight awful this game... He completely did not understand how to play defense when the team was switching everything. Numerous times he didn't switch when he was supposed to and it cost us every time. Sorry but if you can't understand what defense your team is running and can't execute on switching on every screen then you should be on the bench until you figure it out...

Front office should have recognized that it was time to go in a different direction after they couldn't resign Horford. Instead, for whatever reason, they decided to keep being a treadmill team rather than rebuild. They tried to do a semi-retooling with the Teague and Korver trade, but signing Howard + Bazemore and putting us in this predicament with Millsap this offseason limits what we can do in the future. I agree with getting a true GM, but I still want Bud as the head coach. I believe Howard gets too much blame from people and I also think he will step up a notch in the playoffs. Howard is having a good season. That said, the problem is his style of play just doesn't really fit the NBA anymore and it definitely doesn't fit the way Bud wants to play basketball. That is on the front office for failing to recognize that prior to signing him.

Section V-Stoppage of Timing Devices b. The timing devices shall be stopped: (1) During the last minute of the first, second and third periods following a successful field goal attempt. (2) During the last two minutes of regulation play and/or overtime(s) following a successful field goal attempt. Section II-Starting and Stopping of 24-Second Clock b. On a throw-in, the 24-second clock shall start when the ball is legally touched on the court by a player. Game clock will run if there is more than 2:00 left in the fourth quarter, but shot clock will not run until a player touches the ball on a throw-in. Thus, I am ok with Dennis letting the ball roll when we are leading and there is more than 2:00 left in the fourth. In this scenario, he is letting extra time run off the clock while we are leading without impacting our shot clock.

The only wings available this summer that I see making more than THJ are Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Otto Porter Jr (and maybe JJ Redick). I see Otto Porter getting a max contract and I think KCP will get north of $20M (he was reportedly asking for north of $20M when negotiating for an extension with DET). KCP and Otto Porter are far and away better defensive players (like not even comparable), but THJ is the better offensive player (with the exception of 3P% vs. Otto) and is the only one that I believe can really create for himself. I think THJ will get a deal that is haircut by $5M or so on the per year salary from what KCP gets.

Sap choose a lower deal to come to Atlanta instead of Orlando last time, but I believe there was a specific reason for that in order for us to bring someone else back as well. Also, it wasn't anything that was too material from what I remember. This time around his contract will likely have no impact on our salary cap for this offseason. His cap hold is ~$30M and I don't see him signing below that given that his max is close to ~$36M. Say he decides to be nice and give us a deal starting at only $33M a year... The savings from not having a deal start at the max are just going straight to Ressler and ownership's pockets. He knows this and his agent knows this. Him taking a lower deal won't help the Hawks this offseason, but could help in the future. That said, the only realistic way we have a shot at being contenders is if we resign everyone (Sap, THJ and Ilyasova) and hope for a strong progression from Prince and some nice drafting. He probably knows this as well and if that is the case then we will be well above the cap in the near-term, so him taking a lower deal again would likely have no impact on the Hawks really for the next 2-3 years. I think Sap will take a lower deal to stay with us, but I think it will just be something like a 5-year deal non-Bird rights max instead of the full Bird rights max. Maybe he takes a 4-year deal instead of a 5-years too. Obviously we could trade Bazemore and free up some space, which would definitely change some things though.

Hate to be a pessimist, but this is like a best case scenario that isn't very likely in my opinion. You're not getting anything positive back for Bazemore, if anything you're going to have to send out the BKN #31 pick at least. If you're Paul Millsap and this is likely your last major contract, why would you only sign a 2-3 year deal? If you're Tim Hardaway Jr. why would you give a team option on the 4th year unless the $ is a lot better than other offers (and at $12-15M I think that will be on the low end of what is offered)?