RAHMOR

Those have to be the skinniest arms I have ever seen. I've seen Kenyans running marathons who look like they have guns compared to that guy. Unreal! He could probably squeeze all the way through the rails on that banister.

Or a shirt with a picture of BK on the front looking like a mad scientist and a picture of Josh Childress on the back with a white stripe through his fro looking like the bride of frankenstein.

I made a post about trading down with Seattle for the #10 and Luke Ridnour and the board felt like he wasn't good defensively. If he sucks on defense than I doubt we do it. I would also prefer to get a player like Cedric Simmons over Shelden even though Cedric is a bit of a project.

I'll probably be at Phillips Arena for the draft and will run through the Arena screaming "It's the apocolypse, we're all doomed." j/k Really, I was thinking about wearing two t-shirts. A Hawksquawk t-shirt on the top and a T-shirt that says "I'm on my way to return my season tickets. Follow me." underneath if we draft Rudy Gay.

Quote: So, are you completely happy with where the team is right now? I can't believe you don't already know his answer to this question.

Quote: I love it.. "you can't arrest me" as they cuff him and throw him into the car. Way to prove a point, smart guy. At least he didn't say "I'm Rick James b*tch."

If we can't get Aldridge I would prefer to trade down. I'm not too keen on trading for more draft picks for more young players but would if we could do 12 and 15 like in your other post and draft Sene and a player that could contribute immediately like Shelden. I really like what I've been reading about Cedric Simmons and even though he is somewhat of a project I could live with getting him and Sene in the draft.

Hindsight is 20/20, but is it possible. If we had done #2 and #4 and these guys are so much better than what we got than we may not have been in position to do #1 as this draft came before the Chris Paul draft. Even if we had been bad enough to get Chris Paul having already done #2 and #4 he should have improved us so much it would probably have made #3 not worth the risk. If we are close to making the playoffs with Harrington and Paul I doubt we trade Harrington for Artest. I mean, we didn't trade for him being at the bottom of the league would we trade for him if we are in the playoff hunt. Another question is whether or not JJ would have come if Chris Paul was here. Maybe, maybe not. If New Orleans doesn't have Chris and we do maybe JJ plays for the Hornets. They had money, they are in the south(closer to Arkansas) and he could have been the man there too, plus we have Iggy who without Iverson and being so much more talented than Chilz would have looked like he could hold down the future at the two spot(assumably since none of this happened). We could have been more like Paul(maybe)/Duhon Iggy Harrington Smoove Diaw AND we still have Woodson as the coach who is not Mike D'antoni. We could have been good but who knows. Look at a team like Seattle who had Ridnour Wilcox(a player we want) Ray(20 point scorer) Rashard Lewis(20 point scorer) Look at the talent they have, two 20+ point scorers and they still suck. If they move Rashard to center and add another shooter they could be built like Phoenix too but that doesn't mean they will have their success and it doesn't mean we would have either.

I guess nobody wants Luke so maybe a Hawks get #10pick(Sheldon/Cedric) and Petro Seattle gets #5 pick Petro probably for the most part is still a project but at least he's been in the league for 1 year. Sheldon would be a rookie but a rookie with 4 years experience in college. This help alleviate some of our big man problem. I was looking at a way to get a vet out of the deal but we still have free agency money/Al Harrington if we made the above deal. Of course this is all null if Lamarcus is still available per my mock draft.

I don't know much about Luke Ridnour's game but I do know that he is a starting point guard. Would you guys consider trading the 5th pick and a players(Lue or Childress) for Seattle's 10pick, Luke, and say Petro. I bring this up because I'm starting to think that we need to get some vets on this team and trading down for two picks this season or a pick this year and a pick next year would be counterproductive as we are already the youngest team in the league. The statement by Bernie Mullin this morning about bringing in AI or another Big Ticket player(pun intended) would mean we would have to build around that player makes me think we are building around the players we already have. There are a couple of other reasons this scenario came to mind(Herb Browns interview) but I want to know what you guys think. Atlanta gets: #10 pick(Shelden Williams/Cedric Simmons), Luke Ridnour, Johan Petro Seattle gets: #5 pick, Josh Childress. Feedback please.

I love the stews. BTW they are national, they say it everyday.

I stated in the post that I believe a true center and point guard combination will always have a place at the top of the league so I agree with you on that. What I was getting at is I don't think we are headed in that direction and will our draft pick be made with a look towards what we are building. I really just want to have an idea what this team will look like as a finished product, but I don't know because Billy Knight won't tell us sh*t. The other thing is can/will a team built in a non-traditional way win a championship. If it will happen I hope it is us because I think we are clearly not going for the PG,SG,SF,PF,C in the traditional sense.

Yeah. I thought it was alot but also thought we needed to do it. Unless that pick next year turns out to be high enough to get a stud player I think the Hawks will have made out very well on this deal. Even with the performance Boris Diaw had last night and on the entire season.

Here's the question. We now know Boris is the greatest thing since sliced bread and blah blah blah and that we were idiots for letting him go. So let's take a poll to see if we really feel it was a bad deal. I take into account JJ vs. Boris, the pick from LAL/Bos accoring to mock draft and an unknown pick next year. I don't take into account the amount of money we gave JJ because if not JJ who would we have spend it on. Nobody wanted to sign with us last year other than him. And this season who would we spend it on, Al Harrington or maybe Ben Wallace maybe. The money does't matter because we can still afford any player in the league through a trade. Here is the poll. So far for JJ we have up a 2007 unknown pick, Boris Diaw, and according to the mock draft on. NBA Draft.net: Jordan Farmer Draftexpress: Shawn Williams Insidehoops: Shannon Brown RealGM: Guillermo Diaz CNNSI: Maurice Ager

Thanks. I just think maybe this GM thing is a little harder than it seems on the surface. I didn't really think about it but there is alot to consider. I read quotes from GM's who say that they acquire the best talent and it is up the the coach to make it work but truthfully that is plain stupid. At some point you have to get players to fit the system of your coach or the GM and coach will be at each other like Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas. This really happens alot in football. In early rebuilding it makes sense to acquire talent but when the coach develops a system around his core players then everyone else you get has to work within that system IMO.

I'm watching this Mavs vs. Suns game and almost immediately they take out Eric Dampier. They take him out because the Suns have forced the Mavs to adjust to them. It made me wonder what are all the skills that we need for the team Billy Knight is building. The problem:The only person that knows what kind of team we are building is Billy Knight. Back to the Suns, even when Amare returns, he runs the floor so well that they won't be slowed down much. They as well as the Mavericks have players who can play multiple position and even have Dirk who isn't a traditional player for his position. This causes matchup problems for other teams. I don't know if this new style, I guess it is called small ball, will ever win a title but if it does. When? So this is a two part question? Question 1. Will a Phoenix (With Amare) or a Phoenix/Dallas/extremely non-traditional style team win a championship in the near future? I think non-traditional type team will win a title but I still don't believe that it will be the new style of the NBA. Maybe I'm just stuck with the old style of the way teams are built but I think a real post player and a real point guard combination will always have a place at the top of the league. I believe without a doublt Billy is building a nontraditional type of team but I'm not convinced it will resemble the Suns. I don't know if it will resemble anything we have ever seen before but it does make me wonder what type of players do we need to acquire to make it work. Question 2. What other abilities are we in need of? Rebounding Interior defense The ability to control the tempo of the game. There are other things we could use but I think it depends on what we are making. For instance we could use a big man that could run the floor if were building more like Phoenix. In that case I would suggest Aldridge, Thomas, or even Shelden. If we are building a half court team those guys would be good but there maybe be better players such as Sene or O'bryant for us. Some don't believe we are building a team that needs a traditional point guard so that means we take Roy in favor of Marcus Williams. If we are going that route doesn't that favor a guy like Marcus or even Rondo. Is Billy Knight thinking that are ahead? I'm believe he is, don't you. This may be an important draft for us if it provides us with an important player in the style we are looking to play or we may just be acquiring a trade piece. We may get Rudy Gay or not, we may resign Harrington or not. These players maybe important in what Billy wants to do. The truth is none of us know what the grand plan Billy Knight has for the Hawks. As I close this post I watch as both Dampier and Diop sit the bench. Dampier doesn't have one drop of sweat on him and the announcers have just said Diop hasn't been in the game yet and it's the 3rd quarter. What does all of this mean to us?

I don't think that all 5 teams at the top of the draft will stay there and just pick players. That more than anything else will hurt our chances of getting Aldridge. This article is very interesting in that all the GM felt they didn't need to get any younger especially when you consider the fact that we are the youngest team in the league. Colangelo stating that his young players aren't good enough to build around almost floored me. I would definately build around Bosh if I were GM but that's just me. I think picking Aldridge would offend Bosh, who is still considering whether or not to sign with Toronto in the future. Most of the GM's also said they will practice BPA which BK preaches very strongly. I wouldn't be suprised with Colangelo taking Bargnani at number 1. Like the article said Phoenix does take foreign players. They also play a foreign type game and have a coach who's style of strongly influences by international basketball. I don't think it is out of the realm of possibility to get Aldridge with the 5th pick, but like I said trades from the 4 teams ahead of us will be a significant factor IMO. I must admit I was disheartened by the comment of Aldride being soft as he is my favorite player in this draft but it is what it is. All of these players have questions about them. The person it seems with the least questions of the probable top five is Bargnani but that could be because we know the least about him. Anyhow I'll stick with my mock for now and still hope on getting Aldridge. I'm really hoping for a big man that can come in and contribute and he seems the mostly candidate although I will settle for an player that can contribute period, whether a 1 or a 5. No more projects please.

Charlotte can move Gerald Wallace over to the 2 spot. At points they had Knight playing the one and Felton playing the two, something I don't they want to stick with long term. They also draft Morrison or Gay because they are bigger names across the basketball world. Bigger than even Emeka at the point.

1. Raptors select...Andre Bargnani 2. Bulls select...Tyrus Thomas 3. Bobcats select...Rudy Gay 4. Trailblazers select...Adam Morrison 5. Hawks select...Lamarcus Aldridge

I don't want the fifth pick.(pouting like little kid.)

Yes he did. Isiah actually works for a secret organization spreadheaded by David Stern. He sent Isiah in to destroy the CBA so he would have no competition when he created the NBDL. Isiah is in the process of destroying the Knicks so that Lebron can come in and be their savior. This is also part of David Sterns master plan. I believe Isiah will be fired from New York after Lebron becomes a Knick and will resurface as member of the Players Association where he will bring the players to their knees.

Atlanta will get the number one pick. I had a dream about it.

Wasn't looking for this but got lucky and ran across it. Quote: Q: How tough were these decisions to remake your roster? Billy Knight: I can’t worry about that (not having high profile players). I’m trying to do what I think is best – not just for the rest of the season, not just 28 games, not just for next season – I’m trying to build the team for the long haul in the best possible. I know some things aren’t going to be popular decisions, but you don’t get into this to win a popularity contest. Everybody that’s watched basketball games automatically assumes they’re a basketball expert, and that’s why opinions are like armpits – everybody’s got one and they usually stink. But we’ll have to go with this one right now. http://www.insidehoops.com/billy-knight-021904.shtml This is actually funny. I don't know where we are going with this team but I do feel we have talented players and that Billy has the ability to get even more talent. Truuthfully though I'm impartial to the things Billy Knight says but I do think for his sake that he needs to improve on his PR skills. I'm willing to give Billy a chance to finish creating this team and I do believe he will get bigs one way or the other this offseason. At the same time if he isn't capable completing this team I will have no problems with the owners showing him the door.

Holy sh*t. Now that's an upsell. I heard bits and pieces about this thing but that's the first time I've really understood what is it. I can't believe they are building that. Make sure you get your commission.