DBac

This would be a great hire.

Damn. Wish Wilcox would've won the power struggle. He had the right idea.

Hartenstein isn't coming over this year. If we pick an international player I hope they come over ASAP. I kind of agree on Markkanen, but if he's a transcendent enough shooter then you build and hide his weaknesses. I wouldn't draft him until late in the lottery though.

Going full Philly would have the arena's attendance as the 6th man and that's it haha. Given that the ownership has expressed how they are fine with just being competitive , I hope we at least take risks in the draft like you said. edit: And it wouldn't recover like Philly's did. re: attendance.

Like I said it's a funky draft for that kind of trade, but I think they'd have to consider it. But yeah I'd rather not watch 82 games of Delaney and Calderon, so we'd essentially be trading Dennis for another young PG unless they want to grab a young guy at 19 (which might not be any better).

Yeah it's hard to be in a worse position than Brooklyn. They are a bottom 3 terrible team without premium picks and very little FA appeal.

I think a team would definitely take a 23 year old coming off a 25 and 8 playoff performance rather than take a risk on Fox (probably won't shoot as well as Dennis, but better distributor) or Smith (not gonna lie I love Dennis Smith Jr). Plus Sacramento is always down to make a deal . But really if you look at the past few years of PG draftees, Dennis is up at the top. I think what the Hawks wanted to do was sign Dwight and Al and then trade away Millsap. I think that would've been a smooth transition while being competitive in the meanwhile.

Dennis could definitely net something nice (like top 8 or so). This would be a weird draft to trade him though, most of the top prospects are PGs. There's a couple nice bigs but nobody to build around. And trading Dennis seems like a pipe dream.

Well fine then lol. @NBASupes nah I was just agreeing that the Hawks don't have many tradable assets.

I'm not talking about then, only right now in the 2016-2017 season. @NBASupes This.

No, only that they would not be contending right now without him.

Because you said name a player from outside the top 3 that took a noncontending team to contending.

They became contenders when Curry hit his prime. Teambuilding is important (the Warriors are built around his strengths perfectly... thats why I want the Hawks to space the floor out for Dennis), but he's a top 3 player in the NBA by all accounts. The Spurs roster right now is only in the mix because of Kawhi. And I don't expect any draft pick to come in day 1 and turn the team around. The idea is to build towards something long term. Warriors fans will trade those dog days with Steph for these 5+ years of contending any time.

Curry is a 2x MVP and 1x unanimous MVP. Having Thompson and Draymond helps, but he's the piece that makes that team go. They won without Durant. Thompson was 11th pick himself. I gave you what you asked for. If you consider San Antonio a contender, then Kawhi is another one. Of course you want to be higher and give yourself better odds of landing a stud, that's the point of tanking. I said top 10 because it's a pretty safe bet. This team got blown out by the Nets at home without Millsap, there's no telling how bad they would be over a full season. I doubt they'd be 10-72 6ers bad, but they'd be pretty bad man.

Yeah I can. Steph Curry. He's playing right now lol. Picked 7th.

Yes.

What do you mean transform? I don't think there are many transformative (Lebron level) prospects to come out. But yes in a draft like next year's, if you get a top 10 pick you're in a position to grab a really nice player. Especially in that 6-8 range as far as the Hawks go. Miles Bridges has all the tools to be a playmaking 4, he'd be a really fun piece.

In the Hawks case? Sure it would. Like I keep saying, the Hawks don't have many guys that they can trade and get back premium picks / young players. But letting Millsap find a new team would make them bad enough to land in the top 10 and save space.

You never want to lose two guys like Al and Paul in consecutive offseasons for nothing, so I hate that it has to happen like this. But yeah the team would suck without him in the meantime. In my mind that's better than paying him, watching him fall off, and being stuck with old man Paul.

As Supes alluded to, it doesn't take much to make this team very bad. Look no further than how the team performed without Millsap. Are you assuming that tanking means scrapping the young players and starting completely over? Dennis, Taurean, Bembry, and THJ are all fine. I said I'd be open to selling high on Dennis, but I'm cool with moving forward with him as well. Dude's 23, I just really hope that he works on his flaws so that he can take the next step. The way the NBA is set up right now, good young players rarely become available. It's just way too easy to retain them. So when they do, you best be able to make a good offer (that goes for FA and trades). Dwight's current contract is tradable, Baze's contract is probably not this offseason (though I hope we find a way to get rid of it). SO yes I would try to get rid of the bad contracts, make some lowkey signings to compliment our young guys, and draft to add to the future with those pieces in mind.

On a sorta related note, who do yall want in the draft? The draft forum is always dead, but I love draft discussion.

Can you re-ask that? I don't believe the team as currently constructed compliments our young talent very well. Dennis and Taurean would thrive with spacing/shooting, Dennis needs a good defender next to him, stretch 5 vs Dwight etc.

Thanks for this, but I highly doubt we're going to be able to find a team to take on Baze without giving up something ourselves. It'd take one hell of a salesman to trade Baze and actually come out on the winning side as far as assets go. As for Millsap, Ressler has said that we'll do "whatever it takes" to keep him, so I'm bracing for the worst. I'm fine with bringing THJ back. I already mentioned that I'm fine with Dwight's contract and how it fits into our timeline, but it certainly isn't helping us win. It is at least tradable.

First off, the Nets and Knicks are not tanking. The Nets blew up their future when they traded away everything for old stars in a desperate attempt to win right away. The Knicks did something similar when they maxed out Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose. Hell even the Lakers f***ed up and signed Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov(!) to big money contracts last year. The only teams in that list that I feel good about getting it right are the 76ers and TWolves. Sacramento, Orlando, NY, Brooklyn are all horribly managed and won't be good no matter what strategy they employ because they are simply badly run teams. Detroit is in a funky position, Jackson and Drummond seem to have personality issues that makes their future weird. I expect them to deal one or both of them. And everybody would love to be San Antonio. Their MVP level player gets hurt, suddenly their season is torpedo'd and they are right in striking distance to land the #1 pick and draft the best power forward of all time. On top of that, they have one of the best coaches ever and an amazing developmental staff. That's the amazing thing about the NBA, all you need is one pick to break right and suddenly you have a plan. Nobody ever envisioned Kawhi becoming this good, but now that he has he is suddenly the posterboy for the "anti-tanking" army. Look around the NBA man, it's not a secret that assets and flexibility are the common denominator in the top teams. What is the Hawks pathway to becoming a top team in your opinion? We have a PG on the rise in Dennis, a nice 3nD SF in Taurean and then a jumbled mess. Bazemore is overpaid with a bench player's skillset. Dwight is not a good fit with Dennis, who needs space to operate in the paint. But honestly, I don't mind Dwight's contract since he'll be gone in a couple of years anyway. He's actually tradable unlike Bazemore and Millsap (assuming he gets a max contract). THJ has to be resigned, I'm still not even entirely convinced that he's a good fit next to Dennis. I love him as a 6th man, but I'd prefer a guy in the Courtney Lee, Wesley Matthews mold next to Dennis. Ideally if I'm building around Dennis, I'd go Dennis / 3nD SG / Scoring SF / Defensive 4 / Stretch 5. @MaseCase You're missing the point. Tanking only exists to get straight to the point and eliminate as much luck as possible. Of course you don't have to go full Philadelphia, but you still have to be bad to get your shot at the top talents. And the top teams in the NBA are either built around those top talents (Cleveland, Golden State, San Antonio, Houston, Washington) or built around smart cost effective contracts (Golden State, Houston, Boston). You don't get to the top by overpaying FAs and drafting in the 20s every year. The 2015 Hawks succeeded on Kyle Korver, Demarre Carroll, and Paul Millsap outplaying their contracts to an amazing degree along with top 5 pick Al Horford being an amazing glue guy. The Hawks as they stand now are not bad enough to get to the top talents and not good enough to stand a chance in the playoffs. This year it wasn't even Lebron, it was the Wizards. It's not like they are an old team that we can outlast. The Hawks are one of the 5 oldest teams in the NBA. And for what? /rant

Kind of. It's much more important to collect and manage assets. Tanking clears the canvas and often times allows teams to quickly stockpile assets. Assets allow you to make a deal to get a guy like James Harden (Houston) or Kevin Love (Cleveland). Golden State's philosophy of building through the draft allowed them to have enough cap space to snake Kevin Durant away from OKC (who was also built through the draft). Boston has unbelievable flexibility right now. They have the #1 pick in a very strong draft while also being able to afford another max contract player, as well as yet another top 5 pick next year. If you're not in the lottery, you better get lucky like Milwaukee (Giannis + Middleton deal) or San Antonio (Kawhi). Compared to the Hawks, who are declining in a hurry and are backed against the salary cap wall. If the Hawks bring back Millsap on the max contract that he will demand, they are entirely dependent on Dennis Schröder, Tim Hardaway Jr (assuming we bring him back), or Taurean Prince being good enough to put them over the top in the next few years. And that is why people are fine with the idea of the Hawks blowing it up. Because the team is dangerously close to salary cap hell and not competing for a title at that. Right now, flexibility is king and the Hawks don't have much at all..