falc82

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_2558538 The part regarding the Hawks is as follows: The Warriors also are a good third (or fourth) team to get involved if the Hawks, as expected, deal Antoine Walker at the deadline. Atlanta would be looking to get cap space in return — Walker makes $14.6 million — and the contracts of Robinson and Davis match that almost perfectly. Atlanta could send Walker to Minnesota, which could ship Latrell Sprewell to Dallas, which could provide the Warriors with two young players (Marquis Daniels and Devin Harris?) and an expiring contract (Alan Henderson?). The Hawks would receive Robinson and Davis from the Warriors. I felt this trade was horrible for the Hawks and I responded to the author of the article in an email that reads as follows if anyone is interested: While I agree that the Warriors have assets, I can not agree with the following trade proposal from the Hawks point of view, because it makes no sense for the organization at all. ''Atlanta could send Walker to Minnesota, which could ship Latrell Sprewell to Dallas, which could provide the Warriors with two young players (Marquis Daniels and Devin Harris?) and an expiring contract (Alan Henderson?). The Hawks would receive Robinson and Davis from the Warriors.'' Why would the Hawks trade Walker, an assets in his own right, for Robinson and Davis who salary wise ''match that almost perfectly.'' Would it not make more sense, and be the same for all teams involved to simply cut out Golden State and make it where Walker goes to Minnesota, Sprewell to Dallas, and Daniels and Harris going to the Hawks. The Hawks would get the young PG they are looking for and a talented young player in Daniels that could be a serious part of the future. I can not see why Golden State needs to be involved in this deal, nor why the Hawks would trade cash for cash, when they could simply trade Walker elsewhere or use him in a sign and trade deal similar to the one Al Harrington became part of the team by. A response to this email would be greatly appreciated, and if you still believe this to be a good trade for all teams involved (including the Hawks) please explain to me why, as I am obviously missing something. Thank you for your time. -A reader of your article.

I'm just not sold on Paul right now, he hasn't proved it to me yet. He still struggles when facing PGs who are both stronger and taller than he is.

Hanno Möttölä!!! Wow..he tried hard and all, but I really hated that guy.

I still want Felton, Felton is a good defender but is also like Nash in his ability to set up his team mates and really make them better. Diaz averages 2 apg...that's not what we need in our PG. We should draft Bogut or Felton with the 1st, and then in the 2nd pick up either Wayne Simien, Nate Robinson, or Andray Blatche. With the Knicks 2nd rounder we pick up Luther Head, Julius Hodge, Sean Banks, or Lawerence Roberts. With the Spurs 2nd rounder we should pick up someone like BJ Elder, Quemont Greer, or Chris Thomas. We have the opportunity to add talent at everyone of our picks even with the SA pick, which is very rare. I don't know if BJ Elder will last to the SA pick, but it all depends on how he bounces back from his injury. He could be the outside threat we need off the bench. Another player to keep an eye out should him come out is Daniel Gibson, who is the freshmen PG for Texas who is playing very well. If we are to trade Walker for a 1st (15-20 range) then we should draft maybe Bogut with our own pick and get Jack/Gibson with the added pick.

I think our 2nd rounders this year could net us some important talent. But in the 1st, I have to go with Felton as the best PG in the draft, and Bogut was very impressive the one (and only) time i saw him, which was against BYU. I'm just not that blown away back Jack, and I know thats a sin to say in GA, but still...just my opinion. There is no way we sign Big Z. The Cavs can pay just as much as we can, and why would he want to leave the next Jordan to play with the Hawks? The Cavs love him, and need him, so why would they want to go? I seriously doubt the Hawks sign any big name player like Ray Allen, Micheal Redd, Big Z, or Shaq, Amare, Yao, Wallace next year. Atl just isn't a mecca for basketball or hotbed for FAs, although it has the potential to be someday, since athletes love the city, but that day hasn't come yet, we are going to have to built through the draft. IMO right now, if we draft PG then it's Felton and if it's Center then it has to be Bogut.

Yes, but a PG is much easier to get than a franchise center. Bogut seems to be the real deal. He is a legit 7 footer, who has a great work ethic, excellent passer, and is a double double machine. If anything, Bogut's game translates better to the NBA than Paul's does.. I mean Paul struggles against taller stronger points, and almost all points in the league are both stronger and taller. The best PG in the draft this year IMO is Felton. Someone asked if he's good because of the talent around him or if he's just talented. He's the type of PG he makes his team mates better. Felton's very athletic, much stronger than Paul, and has much better court vision and passing skills. Felton/Bogut are tied right now, but that will change after the NCAA tournament starts up, and then Paul is my 3rd choice right now. Paul is so over rated right now.

I watched Bogut play on ESPN the other day and I came away very very impressed. If there is a way we can get the 5th pick away from Utah (They have 2-3 picks this year) without giving up our own 1st rounder then we have to do this. We could then draft Bogut with our pick and then pick Raymond Felton 5th. Our team would be so much stronger next year with a lineup of Felton/Childress/Smith/Harrington/Bogut A franchise center is tough to come by and Bogut seems to be just that this year. This draft was lacking in ''stars'' some would say, but with Paul, Marvin Williams, Bogut, Felton, and Taft, i dont see how we can mess up this draft since we will have at the very least the 5th pick.

I think realistically, you can expect us to be a little better next year, but still not even in the playoff hunt. We'll end with another top 10 selection. Hopefully draft a big/point (Whichever we don't get this year) And then we should be competitive the year after next. How this could take 5 years is lost on me...If it takes BK more than 3 years to get this team out of the celler then he has to be let go. I believe with all my heart that if Babcock had not traded our draft picks away every single year, then we would be one of the top 10-15 teams in the league, with a solid future. With the likes of: Eddy Curry,Pau Gasol,Jason Richardson,Joe Johnson,Richard Jefferson,Troy Murphy,Zach Randolph,Gilbert Arenas, and even Dalembart (2001 draft class) Amare Stoudemire, Caron Butler, TayShaun Prince (2002 draft class) TJ Ford, Mike Sweetney, Jarvis Hayes, Luke Ridnour, and Josh Howard (2003 draft class) If Babcock had hit on just at least 2 of these draft picks in the drafts of 2001-2003 instead of trading them away for players no longer with the team then there is no doubt in my mind that we'd be competitive now. A lineup of Curry/Stoudemire/Josh Smith/JT/TJ Ford or Curry/Stoudemire/Josh Smith/Hayes/JT would contend this year in the Eastern Conference. Perhaps the three years of drafting between 2004(Smith and Childress)-2006 will net us the talent needed to contend for the next 6-10 years or so.

He actually played very well last night, but I'd still rather get one of these points in the draft. If we could walk away with one of Paul/Felton/Bogut, then I'd be happy. It's important to lose the most games this year because then we'd be promised at least the #4 pick, and would have a 75% chance to get one of these players. But, I just can't root for the Hawks to lose, it is just great to see them win. Deron Williams (1st round prospect) and Luther Head (2nd round prospect) are on ESPN right now playing #10 Michigan State, and Paul Davis (future 1st rounder). Should be a good game and a good look at 3 prospects in the NBA draft.

They have a thing called ''the good student..'' something like that. Basically it is 2 free tickets to the game and they give you 2 games to pick from. They give them out to the schools, and allow the teachers to give them out. This time it was to the Bulls game or the Magic game, the last one was the Rockets game which I went to myself, and it was a great atmosphere with good attendance. (And the Hawks won that game to).

The Hawks play much better when either Drobs/Willis/Collier are not on the court. We rebound more as a team, run the break better, finish around the basket better, and play better defense. The Hawks would have lost by more than 1 point had we been forced to play those 3 for heavy mins. like we usually do. Obviously we can not go with Walker at center all year, but Ekezie did a good job I thought during his limited mins. We just have to get a big in the offseason somehow or another.

Also, Jawad Williams is very impressive scoring the ball and has been all year. If we could pick this guy up with our 2nd 2nd rounder then I would. with our first 2nd we should see if a big is there or not.

It's still early in the game, but Felton is looking impressive. I wasn't impressed with Paul the other night. And it's just a homer statement to say that Jack is a less selfish Baron Davis. Baron Davis IF healthy is oneof the top PGs in the NBA, he can dish a ton of assist and score anytime, and he is very very athletic. He's more dominant than Jack could be. If we got the #1 pick, maybe we should trade down to about 4-6 pick up an extra pick next year and then draft Felton. He is in the mold of a Nash (With better defense though)/Kidd PG. With Martin in Denver this year, we can see how much better he was when Kidd was his PG, same for Stoudemire and Nash. Nash made him into a monster, but when Nash was out of the lineup then Amare slipped about 10 ppg. Maybe Felton could have the same impact on players like Smith and Harrington in a year or two.

He was named player of the week along with Lebron James. ''Terry led the Mavericks to a perfect 4-0 week, averaging 18.3 points on 72.1% shooting and 69.2% three-point shooting, 6.0 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals in wins over Washington, L.A. Clippers, Charlotte and Denver. Terry had only five turnovers in 156 minutes played to record a 4.8 assist per turnover ratio and a 1.6 steal per turnover ratio.''

Let's forget about this: sign dalembart/kwame/chandler/swift for a $10 million a year contract stuff. I say since we have 20 million in capspace that we: 1)Build through the draft 2)Trade Walker to someone who is either a contender or in cap trouble for: GOOD draft pick(s) and one of their cap problems. We'll absorb the cap hit (But we can with the amount we have) but we'll pick up a decent 1st in the process. 3) Either draft Paul or Felton in top 5, otherwise trade down and pick up a mid first and a future 2006 pick top 3 protected. 4)If we trade down then pick up Gilchrist or Jack or Deron Williams, (Or Felton if still available) then pick up a SG with the 2nd pick (McCants or Green?) and in the 2nd round we pick up Andray Blatche (6-11 HSer) and Lawerence Roberts/Wayne Simeon as a backup PF. (We have 2-3 2nd rounders as is.(NYK, SA, but CHA owns our own 2nd pick since we traded it to them for Drobs) 5)Also if we do trade down then we have 2 chances to pick one of the bigs in next years draft like Greg Oden Brandon Wright or Taft(who is rumored to perhaps stay in school another year since his stock has dropped a bit), or LaMarcus Aldridge, or Daniel Gibson if we are not able to pick up our future point in the 2005 draft after the trade down. 6)Keep our pick in this years 1st and draft either Paul or Felton, then wait till next year to draft one of the bigs with our own 1st in 2006. There's an outline of what I think we should do. I don't want to overspend on one of the young bigs and they will probably be matched if we don't overpay hugely. I'd rather build through the draft personally, and the drafts are set up perfectly for us to do so with a PG heavy draft this year and a PF/C heavy draft next year. By 2006-2007 we could have a very solid group with a lot of star quality players on it. Thoughts?

So what happens if Paul goes #1 overall and we draft somewhere between 2-4? Is that too high for Felton? Is there a team that has the quality and quantity of draft picks that would warrant a trade down? Or is there a big in there that we should draft with the 2-4 pick? (I dont think so). If we got the #2 overall pick in this draft and Paul went first and we felt it was too high for Felton, then here is what i would do: Something like...trade down to the 10-15 range and pick up felton, williams, gilchrist, or jack. then also pick up an additional pick in the 2006 draft, #1 overall protected. Therefore we could pick up one of the many bigs in next years draft and have 2 chances (along with our pick) of picking up a player like Rudy Gay or Greg Oden. Just a thought. What do you all think?

That’s the reason NBA scouts are at every one of Green’s games. “Toronto and the Boston Celtics are living down here,” Williams said. “He’s exactly what they’re looking for.” But Williams believes that Green will wind up playing at Oklahoma State. “He’s going to go to Oklahoma State for at least a year or two,” Williams said. “He feels there are some things he needs to improve on in his game. But if he’s like LeBron James and is the number one pick in the draft ... well that’s a no-brainer. “I feel Oklahoma State came in and got a steal in Gerald Green. Gerald is on a whole other planet (when it comes to playing basketball).” Williams says as good a player as Green is on the basketball court he’s even a better person off it.

One thing I didn't know was that we have 3 2nd rounders in this draft. Now these could be valuable to us because this is a deep draft. Now we owe Charlotte one of our 2nds because of Drobs, I just don't know if it has to be ours. (I hope not) I'd like to see a PG like Aaron Miles or Thomas from ND and a PF like Wayne Simeon or Lawerence Roberts, or a HS guy like Andray Blatche should they drop. The 2nd round was good to us last year, and this year it has the potential to be good to us again.

I hate seeing people post on how we will sign Swift then have him come off the bench. Should he come off the bench? Yes, but why would he sign with us knowing that he would be a bench player for the next 4-5 years? I don't understand that and I know he could start st PF for a good number of teams and play very well for them as well. I doubt that Chicago would do that deal or that it would improve their chances in the playoffs. They are winning because of their defense and Chandler/Davis is a big part of that.

Hey Employee8...just cause someone is not on here doesn't mean that they aren't a hawks fan, and also why question someone on how long they have been a Hawks fan when you yourself have only been a Hawks fan for this season and only because we got your favorite player, AW? If you were joking then that's different I just couldn't tell. But about Walker. He's played better all around as of late. He's been rebounding very well and if can get his average up to 20 and 10 then I think his value should be good enough to where we can get something good for him. I'd rather get a decent pick (10-15 range) than a player like Chandler or Dalembart or anyone else we could just sign in the offseason. This is a deep draft, just not one full of stars. (For the most part)

Hmm...I have a question..are Wade and James going to play in the Rookie Challenge? Surely both are going to be in the all-star game. I was unsure if you could play in both or not.

It's not like Employee8 is a good fan..I've seen little to no evidence of it.

Quote: Quote: We have enough DRAFT PICKS to last us a lifetime, Diesel. It's time we get Players that can contribute IMMEDIATELY. No more p*ssy-footing around here....and get your mind out of the gutter, too! [/indent] Explain this for me please...we have enough draft picks to last us a lifetime? We have 1 first rounder in this upcoming draft. In 2003 we had 1 pick that we traded for (#21 Diaw) after trading our #8 pick overall for G-rob.We traded for Wright and gave up our #8 overall pick to the clippers in 2002. (Amare Stoudemire was drafted at #9). In 2001 we traded the #3 overall pick for Reef to the Grizzlies who drafted Pau Gasol. In 2000 we actually had a pick and at #6 we selected Dermarr Johnson who we ended up having to let go because of his tragic accident. So there you have it in all of the drafts since 2000 exluding this past years we had 2 players selected. 3 straight years without our top 10 pick that we sadly earned. Dermarr has an accident and was not retained. And now Boris rides the bench. So are you saying that Smith and Childress (are 2 1sts from this year) along with two 2nd rounders (even if they do show promise) is enough to last a lifetime? Or even enough to last for the next few years? Please, sometimes I have to remind myself that you are not a lifetime hawks fan, and therefore do not understand what really being a Hawks fan is. You have to remember the Babcock administration when there was no draft to look foward to. Either he traded the top pick for a vet that would never do anything for us, or he would throw the pick out the window on a wasted pick. We do not have enough draft picks on our current team or in the future to *last a lifetime*.

yes you right it does depend on what you call athletic. Felton on one play had his back to the basket today got in the air faked a pass spun around and shot and made the shot. That was athletic, oh and he also did all that on a hurt ankle. Felton showed me heart, determination, energy, court vision, speed, and leadership today. Paul outplayed him today yes, but I just think both of these players are outstanding and wouldnt complain one bit if either of these ended up on the Hawks. It's too early today to tell which is really better, but I think the ACC tournament will be something to watch for Hawks fans. Last year Gilchrist was the best in that tourny, we'll see who rises up this year.

yeah ok, paul is not more athletic than felton, that is just stupid. Felton hurt his ankle early in this game and it is clearly bothering him, but he's a gamer so he's stayed in.