txsting

This is a great offer once again, thank you Bruce! I'm in Dallas so I won't be able to take advantage. When the Hawks come to Dallas in Feb., you're welcome to stay at my house.

Javaris Crittendon (J-critty) is the ideal BK point. Big, strong defender, can distribute and get his. I doubt he comes out after one season, but keep him in mind for the future. Plus he might help us get Dwight Howard in here, having played with him.

Sagarin ratings only cover the games played so far this year. They become much more accurate as a larger sample of games becomes available. Notice that the Dallas Mavericks are ranked last (#30). These rankings mean little or nothing right now, but it's fun to see all the same.

Great post. I also saw this, and he was able to go to the right as well as left. His drives are simple, like you said, a couple dribbles in a straight line, jump and hang in the air forever, draw contact, and flip the ball toward the goal. He's so quick and jumps so well that maybe he doesn't need to be able to crossover. His first step is good enough to get him in the lane. Are Smoove's hands on the small side? Unfortunately I don't see him controlling the ball very well around the hoop when contact is involved.

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-bl..._emotional.html WTF? Also, Freije and Bozeman make the team.

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/h.../1027hawks.html Hate to see this, but we'll be ok. More minutes for Smith, Shelden, and Childress early.

I just checked all 5 of Rajon's stat lines so far - very impressive. Lots of assists and steals against very few turnovers and fouls. Going to line at will it seems. Telfair has another situation on his hands with talent sitting behind him. Wonder what Boston will do?

Walter, what do you think about Petro or Swift in Seattle? Andray Blatche? You asked for the names of a few project bigs that might be had with Al+JC or less. Podkolzin? I think it isn't too hard to toss out other names of guys who aren't established in the league, and therefore might be had. The problem with any of them (including Bynum) is they might turn out to be complete zeroes. Bynum repesents essentially a low lottery pick (he was taken 10th). Just for the sake of argument, assume AL+JC could get Bynum right now. I think I'd rather get the best pick I could for Al and just pick my own project big in the 2007 draft. With the new age rules, I'll get someone at the same or possibly greater maturity level than Bynum. I gain the possibility of growing my own stud, while keeping the flexibility and trade pieces in the stable in case the ONE TRUE BIG hits the market (Howard did say he wanted to play in Atlanta, right?).

Walter, where did you see that we offered Al for Bynum and a 1st? That seems ridiculously inequitable for LA. We should at least make a good faith offer. I'm mostly with you on Bynum, but I just don't see it as an all or nothing situation at this point. There will be other options in the near future, you just can't see them right now. Just as Bynum was on nobody's radar just last spring before he declared. The way our team is constructed, we'll be able to make some very good looking trade offers next year if a good player is being shopped. We just need to get some more games and a little winning under our belts to improve the value of our youngsters. Also, next year's FA's possibly include Kaman, Darko, Magloire, and Brezec. Even Mihm will probably not be extended next year if Bynum continues to improve. We might be able to get it done with someone from that set - for me Darko sounds really good but his option will probably be picked up.

Count me in for Camby. I think I've mentioned his name before a few times - much more positive than negative, IMO. I'd rather continue to search for a young franchise big, but I'll concede that will hard to do, even if we move one of our young studs. At least Camby can help us win in the short term, and elevate the Hawks to respectability - thus giving us greater chances in the FA arena and even trade arenas. The only problem I see is it might be hard to move him if the opportunity does arise to get a young big.

winner!

To follow-on with my thought, I think the best time to trade a young player like Marvin or Smoove is not now, but once they've shown just enough to the rest of the league. Just enough so everyone knows they are legit, but still may have even more upside potential beyond that. If we have a good year, that time might be end of 06-07, or maybe not. Depends on how we do, and how Marvin and Smoove do. The problem with Al's trade value is that he's a year or two beyond that point. He's already shown the league everything he's got, IMO, and so we can't get paid because there isn't much upside left for other teams to gamble on.

I just made essentially the same post in another thread. I think you guys have it, spot on. We're building toward a big bang type of trade that's going to make or break us. It's an exciting time. The only thing I have different is this - I think we'll have to make the painful decision to part with either Marvin or Smoove. It'll hurt, but if it brings back the right piece (the BIG ONE), we can begin to contend.

Bynum is a risk, we don't really know what he can do, but I would certainly be on board. Look around the league for other young centers with potential that are attainable and your eyes will grow tired. We don't have any help coming in the draft, unless Al could bring back a high pick next year (little chance). Bottom line: what we have now, even at maturity in a few years, doesn't seem like enough to contend for a title. It does seem like a good time for us to move, having Al as a key piece for the deal. If it would only cost Childress, who is buried on our roster, it's worth it. But if the move (Bynum, for example) is not there, we don't have to force it - we will have another, maybe better opportunity next year. By the end of this season, we'll know a lot more about Smoove and Marvin, and hopefully we'll be looking at a situation where both players are obviously highly valuable. If so, we can dangle one of them like a diamond (either one will be much more valuable than Al) in a serious play to get the kind of guy we need. We will also have several other very tradeable pieces to use to construct a deal (Chillz, Zaza, Lo, Slim, '08 first, rights to our foreign players, et al). We'll also have our Al cap-room hopefully, but I'm not going to assume we can attract the kind of player we'll need in FA. We got lucky with JJ, not likely to happen again. So - if we get Bynum for the right deal great. Otherwise don't force it, let's deal with Indy and stay flexible, continue to mature our promising core, and get another tradeable asset back while we continue to look for the "BIG ONE".

Thanks for putting that together. Would you please put the salary cap number in there as well? I know we don't know it for future years, but perhaps we could guess at it in order to look down the road. If we're going to be contenders, it'll probably be 2008, so we'll want to pay close attention to what it will cost to resign Childress and Smoove. I'll just go ahead and assume that they will be part of the team since it's impossible to know otherwise at this point. I think, along with several other posters here, that we will have to plug in a serious 2-way big man at some point in order to start contending. I really think our backcourt and wings will be special in 2 years. We'll need $10 mil plus to get that big - are we going to have room to make a deal like that?

Thanks - another post successfully hijacked!! I haven't seen these kind of puzzles in years, then Diesel brings it all back. Yeah - drzachary - gifted class, exactly! I nominate myself for nerdiest post of the day.

Oh, this is one of those logic puzzles right? Try mine: Ten Hawks players were fighting it out for bench positions. The first five bench positions on the left are for starters. The next five, left to right, are the first players off the bench. BK and Woody had just figured out where all the Hawks sit, but wait! ATL Spirit sold the bench on EBAY because they couldn't get anyone to give us $3 mil for Al. Can you help put the Hawks back in order? Nique was the only one paying attention, here's what he remembers: Hawks: MW, JJ, Chill, Smoove, ZZ, Lo, Slim, Lue, Speedy, Landlord 1. MW and Landlord were sitting next to each other and starting. 2. JJ was sitting in the second chair from the left. 3. Slim was not starting. He was jealous and sitting as far away from Speedy as possible. 4. The '04 first rounders were also sitting together. 5. ZZ was not sitting next to JJ, but was starting. 6. The only player between Slim and Lo was Lue. 7. Smoove was sitting to the right of ZZ. 8. Speedy was sitting on one of the ends of the bench. 9. MW was sitting somewhere between Speedy and Landlord.

Please do not assume Bynum is on the table. You don't actually know what has been offered, and it seems very likely that Bynum would be untouchable.

Maybe, just maybe Foster is not on the table!! Did anyone consider that: Quote: BM (second hand): All the Hawks were offered other than the deal with Indiana was overpaid, underperforming players. I'll bet that we probably like Foster, but Indiana also realizes they have a solid performer in a nice contract and are in no hurry to part with that.

I think there's a lot to what you're saying. Do you think this ball hogging might be commonplace, especially among guards, in summer league? I suspect it could also be hurting Shelden. Big men often need to get the ball in a specific place, at the right time, in order to be in position to score. Look at our guards in summer league - Salim is playing most of the PG minutes, and it's possible (I haven't seen the games) that he isn't doing a very good job of feeding the ball inside (or SW can't get position). He's certainly scoring a lot, and not getting very many assists. Also, keep in mind that the other guards that we have are trying to make an impression in order to get a job, and that means they have to score or make flashy plays in order to give other GMs a hint of their talent. I'm not sure why Shelden's not rebounding any better. I need someone to give me a good theory on that so that I can calm down. Sorry to turn this into a bit of a Shelden thread.

The premise of getting J O'Neal is an admirable one. I, for one, take a long term view of this franchise's success. We have some pieces in place now with JJ and either Marvin or Smoove (maybe both) likely to pan out into at least quality starters. But unless one of our forwards can elevate his game to a truly elite level, then I doubt we can become a championship team without a true frontcourt star. I'm talking about a MAN who has success on both ends, and who is not a team cancer. Further, the ideal player would be on the upside of his career, so that we can compete for years to come. There's a short list of such young, big, franchise players: JO, Dwight Howard, Bosh, anyone else?? Probably a few of the very young players will develop onto this list as well. JO is probably the most acquirable right now. You might be concerned that he isn't good enough to carry his team by himself, but teamed with JJ it might be enough. Now might not be the right time to do it, but the time will come when we have to deal from the strength of our position duplication, and move good players to get a great player. It just seems that we have a chance here with a valuable trade cog (Al) + some combination of our potential. If we can't get the great player now because he's not on the market, let's make sure we get an equally valuable piece back for Al, not a collection of mediocrity. Magloire might be the only reasonable thing I've heard so far that might actually happen. At least we get a quality piece, who helps you now, and is tradeable. Maybe getting Magloire sets us up for a huge trade possibility next year that sends him back to his home of Toronto + Marvin OR Smoove + ?? for a newly disgruntled Bosh, who's feeling remorse after checking out the tax bill on his new extension. Help me out here, people. Wouldn't Indiana take Al and Marvin (or Smoove) RIGHT NOW for JO? As much as I'd hate to give away one of those studs so early, wouldn't it be worth it? A move like that immediately sets the team, removes redundancy, the minutes fall into place natually, etc, etc. We're going to have to hit a home run eventually. At a time when optimism runs wild, let's stop mentioning the name of Troy Murphy, et al, and get on with the business of creating an internet pipedream fantasy of a team that could actually win something someday. Who's with me?????

The turtle comment is off-the-wall, and right on the mark. Classic. You know, I would have to say drzachary is the funniest, best poster on this board. Dr. Z, I raise my glass to salute you!

I still like D. West, but I wanted to toss Crawford in this thread since it was mentioned in another thread. Crawford makes a ton of sense to me in every aspect except for salary. He'd be expected to log a lot of minutes in the backcourt with JJ, and I think he's plenty good enough with the ball to do it. He'd replace the scoring punch that we'd lose from Al. His versatility gives us the real option of going small and fast, with a three guard lineup of Salim/Crawford/JJ. Or, he can spell JJ and play alongside Salim or Lue. I'm OK with Crawford's salary because he plays at a near superstar level. He's scored 50 in this league. He has a clutch reputation. He's big, fast, and CAN play defense (I've heard this argued both ways). Phoenix-style lineup: Salim/Crawford/JJ/Smoove/SW Detroit-style half court: Crawford/JJ/Marvin/SW/Zaza

I'm liking Delonte West more and more. He's long, he's a good shooter, he's getting better. I don't know how good he is on defense, haven't seen quite enough Celtics games. But with the Celts getting Telfair and very likely ending up with AI, we might be able to entice them with a SNT for Al. With Gerald Green and Wally World, I don't know if they'd be interested or not. Al is worth more than Delonte for sure, but at least we'd be getting something back for him. Maybe they can kick in Ratliff, who they just acquired in the draft as a toss in.

GREAT move by Portland if true. They are in position to get awesome value at #7, someone big will slip to that spot.