shock

hughes didnt want to play here. he wanted to play with lebron.

look for tj fords stats to be something like 18 pts, 12 assists, 3 steals

was reading bill simmons mailbag today and two topics were hawks related,.... Q: Bill, I'm worried Isiah Thomas might actually be trying to find you. Do yourself a favor and hide behind a decent free agency prospect -- he'll never look in your direction. -- Jermaine P., Richmond, Va. SG: I'm going to spend my summer at Al Harrington's house. He'll never know where I am. and... Q: Is it just me, or is Tyronn Lue the ugliest woman in the NBA? -- Dave F., Littleton, Mass. SG: I keep pitching this idea for my friend Jimmy's TV show that I continue to watch, even though he never listens to my ideas anymore -- a game show called "NBA Player or WNBA Player?", in which they pull two people out of the audience, then show them headshots of NBA players and WNBA players and they have to match the player and the league. Wouldn't this be riveting? Either Tyronn Lue, Carmelo Anthony, Danny Fortson or Teresa Weatherspoon would be the picture for the final round every time. You're telling me that anyone would turn the channel during a round of "NBA Player or WNBA Player?" That's it, I'm giving the idea to Craig Ferguson.

absolutely they should fine and suspend him. His wife is notorious for getting into altercations at his away games. no one ever laid a hand on her or were yelling at her. She put her hands on someone and attempted to physically confront someone else and was restrained. She tried to fight latrell spreewell a few years ago. People say a real man would have protected her, but i say a real man ends a problem not starts one.

Quote: We could use Darko on this team badly. He would get massive playing time with Hawks!! The question is, knowing what you know about his playing time with two different coaches.....Would you trade Al for Darko straight up?? That is a hard one!! Why do we need him badly? Dont we need to get good players to build around our young core and not busts. Diesel often mentions the "hype machine" when he talks about marvin which i disagree with, but it is very true for darko. He was built up by all of the "professional analysts" and "insiders" and joe dumars fell for it. it happens. Its time for you people to stop this love affair with darko and realize he will never be close to being a good player in this league. This false hope of him coming to atlanta and becoming a star the way jermaine oneal did in indy is ridiculous. trade al for darko straight up? you've got to be f'n kidding me.

Quote: why not play him at least 15 minutes? Because of what i've been saying from day one: darko stinks. Larry got a lot of heat for not playing him, and now flip isnt playing him. I would think those two guys know a little bit more about talent than you guys on this board who just love the guy and want to give him a shot. He will be lucky if he can play at KWAME BROWN'S level.

I noticed Jay Williams was doing commentary on the charlotte/st johns game last night. I was actually impressed, he sounded like an experienced analyst. Has it been determined that he can no longer play in the NBA?

hahahaha

Quote: This was the first game that I've seen Rondo play. He is cat quick and plays great defense, however he can't shoot a jumper very well. He is like a young Gary Payton without a shot. Josh Smith was at the game, maybe doing some scouting. Nah, Josh was there with his dad to support his buddy, mike mercer. he was also hanging out with tasha humphrey, who played for my high schools biggest rival, and is one of the sweetest girls you'll ever meet.

Let me just say this, and i think most everyone will agree,......Harrington will want a max contract or very close to it after this season. If the dunleavys, foyles, and turkoglus can get over 40 million dollars, you dont think Al will ask for at least a 5 yr 55 million deal?

hes a good player. 6'11", 235. shot blocker, runs the floor well.

once again i am at the top of the standings in our league. true, alot of people have given up, but im still happy to be in first place. Capstone better watch out this week, im aiming for 9-0!

i pretty much just dont like forced nicknames. And i personally think the whole tmac, jdub, or any other nickname that is a combination of a first and last name. with the exceptions of JJ which i think sounds good, and p-diddy (drobnjak). Nicknames i do like are ones that fit the style or character of a player such as pistol pete maravich, hammerin hank aaron, and of course the immortal jimmy superfly snuka.

Quote: FYI he's never missed a free throw at Philips. Pretty impressive. Also, Slim is indeed his nickname on the team I still wish they would blast off gunshot sounds (6 shooter) every time he comes in the game You've got to be kidding me. Ive never heard smith, rathbun, or neal call him "slim", and ive never heard a player refer to him as "slim". Im sure the guys on the team and the guys here at hawksquawk could be a little more creative than just removing a vowel to make another word for the sake of a nickname.

why do you call salim "slim"? i understand why it was used for dermarr, and why it could be used for chillz, but why salim. hes not skinny.

I was a always a fan of rowdy roddy piper. "just whe they think theyve got the answers, I CHANGE THE QUESTIONS!!!" brilliant

I highly recommend this movie simply because its great for guys and girls to watch. The first half of the movie is for the guys, and the second half is more of a chick flick, but still keeps the guys interested because of chazz reinhold.

I'd do this trade in a heartbeat. Hell, i'd throw in Delk, Edwards, Batista or Ivey

Quote: It doesn't require a Pulitzer Prize in message board reading to be literate enough to see that your only motive was to be disagreeable. My thoughts exactly!!!

Quote: Lue/Royal JJ/Salim Dunleavy Jr./Chillz/Marvin JS/Diogu Zaza/Edwards It's just what you guys have been asking for... AL gone. Deez, I think if someone said they wanted AL to be traded, then one of the leading reasons would be so that Marv would get more PT. But your scenario makes him a third string sf. If you had included another trade that had us dealing dunleavy or chillz, then i would have no argument.

I work in sales for a food manufacturing and distribution company....

Blaming the loss on the refs? I think Ive got some better reasons why we lost. 1) Melvin Ely and Primozjbfe Brezcdfghkj owned smoove, al, and zaza in the paint. 2)JJ wasnt taking shots in the 4th. 3) The team collectively did not play any sort of defense. Especially on brevin knight. 4)We just flat out didnt show up to play last night.

For every good gift, there's a lump of KwameBy John Hollinger ESPN Insider Archive Christmas may celebrate the season of giving, but the days immediately following are most definitely the season of returning. Millions of us will spend this week contemplating the bizarre gift choices of others, and how to turn those unusual items into something a bit more useful. We just hope Aunt Polly included a gift receipt along with those polyester lederhosen she sent us. At this time of year, NBA general managers go through a similar process. They've seen their offseason acquisitions perform for nearly two months now, and in many cases they're pretty disappointed with the results. Unfortunately, the league's other 29 teams have a very strict "no returns" policy. So while you can at least get store credit for the Air Supply boxed set some well-meaning nitwit left under the tree for you, the Lakers will have no such luck with Kwame Brown. Instead, their only recourse is to resell such defective merchandise, often at a steep discount from what they paid in the first place. But what if NBA teams could return items? Here's a few of this summer's acquisitions that would be back in the store in a heartbeat: Kwame Brown Brown's resume from the past few weeks includes heartwarming items like, "had five-point no-show in triumphant return to D.C.," "blew Christmas day layup that short-circuited upset bid," "given decidedly unmasculine nickname by coaching staff," and "lost starting job to Brian Cook." Averaging 5.8 points on 43.0 percent shooting isn't what L.A. had in mind when it made that sign-and-trade for him in the offseason, especially since Caron Butler is pumping in 15 a night in the nation's capital. For the moment, the Lakers are bending over backward to be patient with him (well, except for that whole "meow" thing), and Brown still has a year and a half left on his deal to prove he can be a quality power forward in L.A. After that, we don't know what his future holds, but based on his mind-numblingly bad 7.86 PER, I'm guessing words like "10-day" and "Yakima" will be a big part of it. Marvin Williams That whimpering sound you keep hearing is coming from Hawks general manager Billy Knight every time he sees a wire story that begins, "Chris Paul scored 22 points and handed out 11 assists as the upstart New Orleans Hornets pulled off another upset … " Knight had a chance to take Paul with the second overall pick, and his team could really use the help at the point, but instead Knight succumbed to the potential offered by Williams. Thus far, very little of that "potential" has been converted into "actual." While we shouldn't overreact to a 19-year-old's first two months of pro action, Williams' modest rebounding numbers and inability to create his own shot have sent up red flags. Knight still stands behind his pick publicly, but if he could do it again you can rest assured he'd take Paul. Tyson Chandler and Samuel Dalembert Do you realize these two will make over $120 million in the next six years? That's about $10 million per point. OK, I'm slightly exaggerating, but it's safe to say neither player has done much to justify the investment so far. Dalembert continues to frustrate Philly fans with his pattern of blocking three shots per game while goaltending seven, though he's at least stepped it up on the glass this year. Chandler, meanwhile, has been plagued by fatigue through most of the early season and has failed to provide the defensive boost that was so instrumental in last season's success. Both are young and talented enough that they could eventually justify the investment, but each has been enough of a tease to make his team second-guess the decision. Mike Dunleavy At the time, the Warriors' preseason decision to give Dunleavy a six-year, $45 million extension seemed questionable. It now seems positively idiotic. Dunleavy is like that Christmas toy that you can't quite figure out what you're supposed to do with. He's an alleged outside shooter who is hitting 25 percent from 3-point range. He's a 6-foot-9 forward who is being outrebounded by both of his team's guards. He can't defend or create shots, and his slump shows no sign of abating -- until Monday he was working on a streak of six straight games with 11 points or less. Jeff McInnis If you sign a player renowned for whining about minutes and not playing any defense, should you really be surprised if he whines about minutes and doesn't play any defense? New Jersey's had several offseason doozies (I hear post-Christmas bargain hunters can get great deals on Antoine Wright jerseys) but none bigger than this one, which cost the Nets nearly half their midlevel exception. The Knicks No, I don't mean certain Knicks. I mean the Knicks -- coaches, front office, trainers, peanut vendors, you name it. Everybody except Channing Frye. Has there ever been a team in any sport that spent more to accomplish less? The 'Bockers are paying $119 million in payroll -- easily the most of any club and more than double the salary cap -- yet there's a very real possibility they could end up with the worst record in the league. That money figure, mind you, would be substantially higher if Allan Houston and Jerome Williams hadn't come off the books this summer. Wait, there's more. New York is paying $9 million a year to its coach, more than all but one team pays, as well as paying its league-high six assistants. Finally, the Knicks are handing out paychecks to Isiah Thomas and Scott Layden (yes, still). And for all that dough, they're 7-19, half a game behind the mighty Atlanta Hawks. Oh, and they already traded their next two first-round picks. Besides the draft, find one personnel move this team made in the past five years that worked. I dare you. Rafer Alston Think the Rockets wouldn't mind undoing this trade? Of all the many maladies to hit Houston this year -- T-Mac's back, Yao's toe, Jon Barry's calf, Stromile Swift's brain -- perhaps the most damaging was the self-inflicted wound created by the trade of Mike James for Alston. It didn't help any when Alston joined his Houston brethren in the trainer's room with a stress fracture, but even prior to that injury this trade was a dud. Alston looked miscast as a catch-and-shoot guy in Houston's structured offense, while James' scoring has been one of the few bright spots north of the border. The slumping, punchless Rockets wouldn't be nearly so moribund had they kept an energizer such as James in tow. John Hollinger writes for ESPN Insider. His book "Pro Basketball Forecast: 2005-06" is available at both Amazon.com and Potomac Books.

ESPN Insider reports that the Indians are about to deal for Langy. I wonder who were are getting? Maybe Bob Wickman?

Merry Christmas to all squawkers!