Packfill

Booker is still young enough and enough of a scorer that I bet there are a fair number of NBA GMs that would trade Dennis straight up for Booker. That said, it is tough to really evaluate either player given how poor their respective teams are.

Not so sure about 5th given there are people that would place greater value on guys like Otto Porter, CJ McCollom and Steven Adams. Certainly top 10 though.

That video of the dude lounging in the first row during last nights game really says alot about the state of this team and season. So sad!

In fairness, Tatum is playing for a team winning basketball games - much harder to put up counting stats when your team is playing for something.

The East has a good chance to be very interesting in a few years. Obviously the Western conference currently has more established stars, but the young unicorns in the east (Embiid, Simmons, Greek Freak and Porzingis) should be ready for prime time when Lebron's hegemony is over - not to mention the fact that those unicorns will attract other stars looking for rings.

I would take the 2017 Philly roster over the 2016 Hotlanta roster every time. So would any rationale person.

Stats say a great deal about what a player brings to the table, but they do not tell everything. Kyrie is clearly the better player. Look at it this way, there is not one NBA GM, assistant GM or coach that would willingly trade Kyrie for Dennis. Not one. If Schlenk offered Dennis and Collins for Kyrie I think the Celtics would say no.

Every team in the league has 3 pieces if you think the Hawks have three pieces. Look at it this way, our three pieces are Dennis (age 24), Prince (23) and Collins (20), Boston has three pieces in Kyrie (25), Brown (21) and Tatum (19) which are collectively better. All that does not even take into account the fact that they have guys like Horford and Hayward, two all-star caliber veterans, and a host of other guys like Smart, Rozier and Morris.

I did not expect the Hawks to be as bad as they have been. I expected something more like a 35 win team. So far, however, looks like the Hawks are one of the front runners for the first pick. Some interesting talents to dream on at this point in the season. Probably will be at least three more years until the team is competitive again unless they trade picks for players.

It is not just Bud. Clearly most NBA teams are moving to having 4 shooters on the floor. For that reason, Dedmon and Collins are not a good fit together. Collins hopefully pulls a Aaron Gordon and becomes a shooting tour-de-force in the years ahead.

This Hawks team is terrible.

Unless Collins develops some range on his shot and learns how to be more of a playmaker for others I think his long term best fit is at center. I think the worry with Collins is be becomes a guy whose game does not translate to heavy minutes and has more of an Ed Davis type of career. Obviously he is only a rookie and has talent so he will hopefully develop into more.

So the Marvin Williams experience has soured you on draft picks with more "potential" than production?

I think DMC, Jae Crowder, Wilson Chandler, Rudy Gay and Trevor Ariza as far as comps for Prince.

You guys are much more optimistic then I am. I think they have a couple nice young potential rotation pieces but no real stars or guys who easily project to become stars (and by stars I mean someone you can build a championship team around). Young teams traditionally do not win much so from a record perspective I have low expectations.

If the Hawks were middling along record wise at the trade deadline but Dedmon was playing very well, so well that you might not want to pay him going forward, how would people view trading him? A contender might value him as a rental.

That does show how quickly the franchise has moved on from the 60 win team. The starting five is all gone!

Aren't these the only guys with guaranteed contracts beyond the end of the season?

Agreed, particularly because it will give them more opportunity to rest Lebron. Cleveland's success this season will ultimately hinge on getting Thomas back healthy with enough games under his belt to be full-go come playoff time.

I agree with AHF 100%. A 35 win team could make the playoffs in the east this year though, and if that is the case, I hope it is not the Hawks.

Has Tavares done anything since he was released by the Hawks?

That link shows he scored in double figures only four times that season, three of those coming in blow-out losses. What am I missing?

That defensive stat is interesting. Places 6 San Antonio Spurs in the top 25. I am not surprised Kawhi is there, but Paul Gasol, Kyle Anderson and David Lee are surprising. Dwight and Millsap were also in the top 25. Will be interesting to see if Dedmon can play enough minutes to really make a difference.

Korver had averaged as many as 14 points per game over the course of a season prior to coming to Atlanta. He also had numerous seasons playing starter minutes - 30+ minutes a night. Babbit, on the other hand, has a career high of 7 pts per game and has never averaged as many as 20 minutes a night. So yes, no different . . .

He is a good long range shooter. Below average for everything else.