Final_quest

The backup point could either be Damon Jones or Sura, and PF might be someone from a summer league. Remember we most likely will play Hendu if he's not injured, and Harrington might start at PF. We also have Crawford who can give some minutes at PF. I noticed that Charlotte signed Chris Andersen for reasonable money. Why didn't we go after him?

Under Hubie Brown the Grizzlies play 10-11 deep. Most of their team plays about 20-27 minutes a game. Maybe the Hawks will play a similar style.

If this trade goes down, I don't see why Golden State trades for Nazr and Othela. They would have like 8 bigs and 3 point guards. I would be happy to sign Dampier starting at 8 million. We could have a strong versatile frontcourt. What is the deal with Golden State anyway? They have had the two worst signings this offseason.

I don't want us to improve slowly 5 games at a time. Denver went from 17 wins to like 45-46. I would have no problem improving from 35 wins to 45-46. Rebuilding is not always a slow tedious process. If you get the right guys in you can double your amount of wins in a season, ask Denver.

Chris Paul could be our guy next year especially if we sign Dampier.

I think he is worth $9 million for 1-3 years, 4 years tops. If we had a team option after year 5 it would be risky, but maybe worth it. 6 years is too much for me. It's a similar situation to Steve Nash. He is a great player, but at his age I wouldn't want to sign him to a big deal like that. Still, if we got him I would definitely cheer for him as a Hawk. It's strange that nobody seems close to landing him. If the Hawks were interested why would they wait so long? Maybe we were after Martin first, and Dampier is plan B. Also, shouldn't we try to sign some of these RFA like Swift, and see if their teams match?

Yes Denver was an overnight success story, it's called Carmelo Anthony. Without him they are still pathetic. The Mavs did rebuild, but they do have an owner that's willing to spend ridiculous amounts of money.

I think you guys are talking about UCONN, or Connecticut if you want the spelling. Anyways sure Uconn played a team game, even superstars have teams. Robert Horry, Rick Fox, and Derek Fisher have all made big plays for the Lakers, but their superstars are what takes them to the finals. It's the same with Uconn. Uconn did not dominate until Okafor got healthy.

If this is old country boy logic I'm going to have to disagree. Because superstars can, and do, get injured does not mean they are a liability. Sure when they go down their team does not do well, but they WIN championships when they are playing. The Pistons won with a team game, they played great. However I read somewhere that the last team without a superstar to win a championship was Seattle back in the 70's. I'm sorry, I like my chances better with Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, or Garnett than with whatever team you want to put together. You brought up Michael Vick. In his first season he took the Falcons to the playoffs and beat Green Bay at Lambeau. The Hawks will not sniff the playoffs this year, superstar>team. Also, if you notice the Falcons are the hardest ticket to get in town. Vick got injured last year, so what. I would rather take the chance of having a top five player and doing well with him than without him. Another case in point, Georgia Tech. Great team game this year. I loved watching them. Ben Gordon and Okafor destroyed them in the final.

Not sure how I feel about a power forward rotation of Crawford and Harrington. If we do get Swift that allows for a big frontcourt with Harrington/Swift/maybe Collier. Most of the time we would play Harrington at PF and Swift at Center. My perspective is that we need someone, not Crawford, to play big at PF. It could be a bench role player, but it would allow us to give Harrington minutes at SF against teams with larger frontcourts. I guess at this point it would be Hendu, yikes. I was really hoping for the three team deal with Memphis and Golden State to go through. Hope there is some truth to the deal.

Of all the scenarios possible with these discussions, I like getting Van Exel and Swift. I know Memphis has had their eye on Dampier this offseason. I didn't think we would land Swift by just offering a contract. This would give us the chip to send him here. Van Exel is a bit of a gamble, but their are some positives to having him. He is a much better point guard than Terry. I'm not so concerned about him sitting out because of losing, he has to play for a contract. After seeing what happend to S Jackson, he might be playing his best game. Also he has trade value because of his expiring contract. Let's say that Van Exel plays well for Atlanta, and a few teams need a point guard for their playoff run. We offer Van Exel for either draft picks or other assets, a la Sheed. Next season Van Exel, Crawford, and Henderson are off the books, and we are big time players in the market again. A starting lineup of: Van Exel Childress Diaw Harrington Swift This team could dominate in a running offense. It's the kind of exciting team that Billy Knight wants to have. If he pulls these deals off things could be interesting.

That sounds really great, but does that trade check? Also where is your source on that, or is it just an idea? One more question KB, who is that picture of next to your posts?

Memphis' board is a good indicator of what might happen with Swift's future. It's certainly better indicator than the Hawk's board. What did happen to O Ekezie? Does anyone know?

OK after weeks of saying the max is too much to pay for Martin, now you want to add a $10 million dollar contract in Kittles. The only reason why New Jersey has been trying to trade him is to keep Martin. Also, do you think New Jersey blows up their team for a JT/Kidd backcourt?

Just got back from checking out a Grizzlies board to get their take on Swift. Even with the signing of Cardinal, they will most likely either keep or trade Swift. The trade would be for Dampier. Also the sense they get is J West is willing to go over the cap to keep him. Remember Swift is a RFA. We would have to make a lucrative offer so high that no one else will match to get him. Memphis does not want to see him go without getting anything in return. With J West as GM it is not as simple as signing the guy to a reasonable contract if you're the Hawks. There has been a lot of false confidence on this board with regards to Swift. So, what would this team look like without Swift? Does this mean Harrington is our starting PF? I think so. I guess we are stuck with Collier/Pryzbilla/Rebraca to fill out our front court. I think we still need a banger off the bench, to give Harrington some relief. Someone who could come in to give Harrington some minutes at the SF spot, and let us play big when we need to. Any suggestions for a no Kmart, no Swift frontcourt rotation? Will we be signing guys to ten day contracts until someone sticks?

A good player is a good player, period. The cream rises to the top. However, players are affected by the environment they are in. It would be interesting to see how well Kmart plays without Kidd. I hope we get that chance. I'm pretty sure Karl Malone would have done just fine without Stockton. Martin is no Malone, but I'm confident that he'll be successful without Kidd.

We are not bidding against ourselves, if in fact a max offer was made, but we are using our only bargaining chip, money. The only way Atlanta gets Kmart is if we are the highest bidder. We truly are bidding against NJ and Den. The Heat signed Odom last offseason by offering him more than the Clippers would pay. This is a similar scenario.

If we had signed him to an offer sheet for $75 million everybody would be so excited. Throw in the word max contract, and everybody goes off because he's not Kobe or Garnett. Really how much difference does that extra $10 million make over six years? I still don't think he will end up in Atlanta, but you never know. BK has to give it his best shot.

Who do you guys think the big winners are this offseason so far? I can think of more losers than winners at this point. Two teams that have improved themselves most, Utah and Houston. Golden state signing Foyle to an outrageous contract = loser. Phoenix signing a 30 year old point guard who could fall off any moment now = loser. However, they did sign Q. Next year they should be good, but can they do much better than reaching the western conference semis, doubt it. Cleveland and a contract disaster = big loser. Spurs resigning Ginobli = winner. How do they do it every year?

Unbelievable! Boozer just signed a 6 year 68 million dollar offer sheet with the Jazz. How could this happen? Check it out on espn.com.

I agree totally with tmac13. Aren't the Hawks creeping dangerously close to being like the Clippers. It seems like most of the fans on this board cheer more when we don't sign someone. Everyone says how stupid it is for all these teams to overpay players. If you're not willing to do that you end up just like the Clippers. The Spurs have an advantage that other teams do not, Tim Duncan. He is signed to his deal, and they can fill up their roster around him. It would be impossible to follow the Spurs model without having a player like Tim Duncan. This notion that the rest of the league is going to get in cap hell, and everyone is going to be wishing they had not paid to bring anyone in is ridiculous. EVERY offseason the top available players sign big contracts, this is a fact. The Hawks are rebuilding, but part of rebuilding is also signing players. Even if it is for more than you'd want. Building solely through the lottery is just as risky as signing free agent players. Can this franchise afford to ask their fans to be patient? We are practically last in attendance. With our current roster we are no better than the Bobcats. At least they have a premier prospect in Okafor. We have no commodity to match him. The Bulls have been trying to build through the lottery since Jordan left, and still are one of the worst teams. Unless something changes I will not standby and applaud our nonactivity as being smart. Best case scenario we trade for Tinsley and Harrington, and sign Swift and Martin. Starting Lineup- PG-Tinsley SG-Childress SF-Harrington PF-Martin C-Swift This is a young team with great potential. Most likely we won't be able to do all of these deals, but I would be happy if we could do 2 out of 3. If we sit back and do nothing, how can you be happy about that?

Quote: Kiki specifically said why would he sign and trade for K-Mart when he can just sign him as a FA and keep Nene. I don't think Kiki ever said that, but it was implied. However, the deal could still be alive. Now that Denver has signed Ginobli and Camby they don't have the cap room they had on draft night. They may still do the sign and trade if New Jersey is unwilling to resign Martin to a big contract.

He has to come to Atlanta for the sake of contract negotiations. The more places he goes the higher his offer gets. Let's say he has no remote interest in playing for the Hawks, a likely scenario. Denver might not be able to make him an offer due to the signing of Ginobli, Camby, and others. That leaves Utah and Atlanta to sign with. He has to go to both and take the highest offer. If he is confident New Jersey will match, then he wants them to match the highest offer possible. Anything Martin says over the next few days can be thrown out the window. No one can be certain where he wants to play until he signs. Just like Ginobli said he wants to be a Spur, and Nash said his main goal was to play with Dirk for the rest of his career. Even if Martin wants to be a Net, they still might not match his offer. There are rumors that New Jersey's new owner is in a cost cutting mode.

Memphis will match any reasonable offer. So we either have to overpay, or let him walk.

Quote: All that we can offer him is 84-85 million. What makes you think he would take less to play with us. The short of it is this... Kmart wants money. NJ wants Kmart to make a bid and they will match. They have already parted ways with Rodney Rogers and Eddie Gill. And are willing to SNT Martin to Denver for a package containing Nene'. Us and the Clipps might be the only team that can sign Kmart outright but don't think that Utah won't or that NJ will not match... Definitely don't think that Kmart would settle for less than the max???? You can save that breath for cooling coffee. Where to start? It is not up to Kmart to set his salary. He is holding out for the max, but if no one offers it to him he can't sign for it. Only Utah or Atlanta can offer it at this point, assuming Denver signs Ginobli. Utah and Atlanta are in a position to call New Jersey's bluff. New Jersey would like to resign Kmart, but it remains to be seen whether they would match any offer. There is speculation that they cannot afford Kmart. If negotiations cool with Utah and Atlanta is the only willing partner to set the value for Kmart, he maybe forced to sign for less than the max. The Nets may or may not match. What Kmart wants is not necessarily what he gets. Also the Nets are willing to sign and trade for Nene, but the Nuggets were not. Allegedly the Nets offered a deal that would send Martin for Nene on draft night, but it did not go down. The speculation was that NJ could not afford to resign him, and they were trying to get something in return. Finally the Clipps are loaded at power forward, and they are not in the running for Martin even if they could afford him.