chillzatl

I read the original article on the AJC. I think this shows that despite what is printed by the "professionals" out there and despite the conjecture of some here, the Hawks ARE commited to JT. They just don't feel he's a max contract player, and I agree. The contract they are offering him is right in line with what I feel he's worth at this point in time.

I would love to find out that JT went ahead and signed. But I really think he's going to wait it out. Not so much so he can demand more. But I think he feels that after a full season at PG, he will have shown that he's worth more. If he didn't feel that way, I think he'd have jumped on the deal they offered.

There are only a few people in either of those lists that I would want.

JJ would be good if it weren't for the attitude problems we've heard about. He can score and play solid D, he would be great as the starter. Lenard and Gill would be ok, but I wouldn't start either personally.

Out of the 2nd list, Raja Bell and Maybe Dell curry are the only ones I'd want.

Several guys on that last list I would like to have, Najera, Ham, etc.

You can remove Roshown from that list, he is officially retired and recently accepted a job with a school somewhere.

is that maybe Ira is just a good defender?? Ira didn't play that type of "gambling" defense. When teams were scrambling and out of sync, then he would gamble for a steal or poke away. Otherwise he just stayed in front of his man, moved his feet and played good solid by the book defense. I don't see that being any different with or without DJ or with Big Dog. Besides his defense didn't deteriorate with DJ wasn't in the game.

DJ's mother said the doctors told him he would not be playing this year, period. She also said that one of the doctors said he wouldn't be cleared for jogging for nearly a year. That does seem a little steep for me, considering the injury. But she said that if the fracture had been 1 inch longer he may not have been able to even walk again. A lot of it depends on whether or not they had to cut him to put a pin in there. If not, his recovery time will be much less. He's gonna be in a halo regardless.

I think we should realistically be able to petition for a medical exception. We did lose a player dude to a medical problem, that should qualify us.

I was just told that he's done for the season. The doctors said something to the effect that he shouldn't even be jogging for nearly a year. The good is that he should make a full recovery and shouldn't have any long term problems from it.

Disappointing news, maybe we'll get a medical exception out of this?

word from his family is that he has a stress fracture in his neck. Nothing mentioned about burns so I don't think they are serious if he was burned at all.

I've just gotten an update on Dermarr. The latest word is that he has a neck fracture and was transfered to Grady hospital. No word on the burn situation. When I hear more I'll pass it along.

lets all keep our fingers crossed for DJ.

latest update is that it's a stress fracture. So I don't think that's as serious as it could be. Though i'm no medical expert. More when I hear it.

His family didn't say anything about burns so I don't think they were very serious.

he definitely has to be considered an option. Last season I was as hard on Dion as ANYONE on this board. But I really feel he's got a very good shot at getting the spot. I always thought he could be a very very good defender and he even said once that he wanted to be the hawks "stopper". So he obviously cares aobut his D. Last year he just lost the will to play it and his offense suffered as a result. He's worked hard in the off season and tore it up in the summer leagues.

We've got three solid contenders for the spot and they all bring something a little different. Though none of them are so good at any paritcular thing to set them apart from the others.

If Ira has been working on his outside shot more, as rumored, and he's able to deliver from there, he'll win the spot. He is a very good shooter and good at getting to the basket, he just needs a bit more range. If he were even a moderate perimeter threat he'd have to be the choice. Physically he's built right for the position. Good wingspan, height and weight. He's built to match up with just about anyone at the 2 or 3 spots.

DJ needs to show that he can play top level D against NBA players. He's shown it in the summer leagues and on occasion last year, but not consistantly. He's shown the offensive range to give what the team needs out of the spot though. If his defense is there, he will take the spot. Physically he needs work. A good post playing 2 or 3 would put a hurtin on him.

DG is the dark horse. He's shown the ability and desire (his own words) to be the stopper on this team. He floundered last year in that respect. But I think he can still do it. Offensively he's the best of the bunch at the moment. He can shoot, drive and post. Though he could use a little more range on his shot. Physically he's very good. few guards could push him around and he's got the quickness to stay in front of guys. For Dion it's about desire though, not what he can do physically.

All of these guys have 1 thing that, if they improved it during the off season, would give them the edge over the other guys. You've got to like the odds that one of them will succeed in improving in the needed area though.

I don't want stackhouse. He looks good on paper. But to me he still hasn't shaken that selfish tag that has hung with him for his entire career.

The best possibly scenario for the team and for DJ is that he will come out with improved offensive skills and an even better long range shot and he'll also play the type of defense that Ira played last year.

I would put money on it that defense is going to be the PRIME FACTOR in who starts at SG for this team. And I really don't see 3pt shooting as being the key thing either. As long as they can hit a solid mid-long range shot, which DJ, Ira and DG ALL can, the one who plays the strongest defense will win the starting spot. A great 3pt shooter who can also play lockdown D would be great, but we just don't have that type of player at our disposal, yet.

DJ is the most likely to step up and do it though. He's shown he has the range that both DJ and Ira lack. He's also shown that he can play great D, though he just hasn't shown it much at the pro level. But I will not be suprised to see either DG or Ira take the spot if DJ can't meet the expectations defensively. Offensively you aren't going to get much more than 10-12ppg from anyone at that spot, by virtue of available shots.

These one could argue that any of these guys could be on the list:

Alan Houston!! - all that money for a guy that is NOTHING but a spot up shooter. He's more one dimensional than Reggie Miller. This is the one guy that I will argue should have been top 3!!

Shandon Anderson - I can't remember his contract size but it was pretty large considering just how little he produces.

Grant Hill - I love Grant. But if you are judging production vs. money spent, he's WAY overpaid.

Zadrunas Ilgauskus - I know he's been injured. But he still got a hefty payday and has yet to live up to it. His production vs. his pay = way overpaid.

So after about 24 hours their links to the articles are broken. So realGM and us when we get around to it, copy the text out and archive it ourselves.

very interesting.

DJ is going to have his work cut out for him at the 2 spot. He's got 2 guys behind him we CAN play great defense. Dion has shown a more polished offensive game (at least in the summer leagues) and E-davis has shown that he can will the 3pt shooter role as well. I hope he steps up and plays at a level that forces the team to keep him on the floor. But if he doesn't we have two guys behind him that can fill that role very well. Especially if Dion comes back out and plays the kind of D that I think he is capable of.

that team was not great in any way. They would have gotten beaten by any team on that list, if not swept. They benefited from an ungodly weak eastern conference.

The jazz also deserve to be above that #4 media friendly lakers teams. Mainly because they beat them year after year after year. They got to the finals two years in a row. That was an excellent team. THe #4 lakers team was very good, at best.

isn't able to defend the top players like we hope he can. Ira has proven he can hold his own defensively. He may not have the offensive potential that DJ has. But he can hit the open shot, though not with the range we might like.

reggie miller is the only leader on that team. Everyone else is a bunch fo selfish, me first players who know more about getting their shot off than actually playing the game. It was going to happen eventually, might as well have been now.

It's sad that those guys will forever be remembered as the first "dream team" to get beaten. But like I said, it would have happened eventually.

if Kemp is clean and can get back to just 70% of where he used to be, they will be hard to stop. If you add a healthy, or even 85% healthy Grant Hill into that picture, they are the best team in the east.

we have great individual players. But we have no chemistry. The team that beat us has played together for a long time. They know each other, they know where to be on both offense and defense. Our team doesn't know that because they don't care. They expect to win because they are NBA players. This has been a long time coming. It will only get worse as time goes on.

One of the Argentinian players pointed out the lack of chemistry. He said they would be unbeatable if they played as a team. He said that guys would miss their spots on defensive rotations and be out of place on offense. It's a team sport, doesn't matter how many all-stars you put on the team.