vdunkndunk

No.

I’m actually a bit late. Should have posted this on draft night. But yes: I’m off the bandwagon. I’d be happy to be proven wrong, but I won’t be.

Travis Schlenk is BK Part 2, in the worst possible sense. Basically, he thinks he’s smarter than the rest of the league and ends up drafting based on his personal obsession rather than intelligent analysis. With BK, it was unskilled 6’8 forwards (including Sheldon Williams). With Schlenk, it’s apparently unathletic shooters who play no D and wouldn’t have been picked within 5-10 spots of where Schlenk took them by any other team. We had Doncic. We could have had JJJ, too, or even Bamba. But no...we took the No. 3 pick and threw it in the garbage by drafting an unathetic 6’1 chucker who plays no D, airballs 3’s early in the shotclock, and likely would have been available at 12. Oh, wait...almost forgot we also got that pick from the Mavs...except we know for a FACT it won’t be in the top 5. And even if it was, it’s likely a weaker draft—and I no longer trust Schlenk to identify talent—so extra picks to throw in the garage offer me no solace. Get rid of Schlenk now before he picks again! (And no, this isn’t an over reaction to one summer league game...I felt even worse about this pick on draft night the moment they announced that trade.) At least Trae can pass if he puts his mind to it, but he’d rather jack up terrible 3’s. Why turn the No. 3 pick into this guy? I’d be more surprised if he made two all-star teams in his career than I would be if you told me he’d be coming off the bench for the rest of his career after his rookie contract. We’ve been down this road before....

I think Prince is an attempt to replace DeMarre; Bembry is an attempt to replace Baze; they re-sign Horford and go after DeRozen or another FA wing this summer. I'm guessing they try to find a backup PG and a draft-&-stash Euro in the second round.

Whether or not you like J. Butler, DeRozen, Hield, or some other wing prospect isn't the material question for me in this thread; the question is whether moving Sap is the best way to rebuild from where we are (outside of signing Durant or LeBron this summer, which isn't likely). To me, Sap is our most attractive trade piece since he's still under contract and could make an immediate impact for another team. And Sap may also be the player we can most easily replace from within (assuming we're confident we can re-sign Horford) since Sap and Horford are somewhat duplicative, Horford's a year younger, and we can go over the cap* to re-sign Horford. And what I think we need to do is get better on the wing and bigger on the blocks. So, assuming we're confident we're keeping Horford, I'd prefer to (1) move Sap to get an elite wing player or an elite center, whether it's an established player or an elite prospect ; and (2) use free agency to sign either an elite wing or an elite center, depending on what Sap brings (e.g., trade Sap for J. Butler and then sign Howard or Whiteside). We've already watched Sap and Horford fail to dominate or downright get dominated in the playoffs by bigger players, and we lack a go-to scorer on the wings. Moving Sap while he's still under contract (rather than risk losing him for nothing next summer) is the best way I see to improve our weaknesses at other areas. If we keep Horford and Sap, I think we stay on the treadmill; and if we let Horford walk and get nothing in return I'm not sure that helps us either. Sap, at this point, promises to bring the most value in return should we trade him, and Horford could slide right into his spot at PF. (*I'm not a capologist by any means and no longer pay close attention to this stuff, but part of my reasoning is based on my assumption that we can go over the cap to re-sign Horford, but, if he walked, the cap space he would clear could not be used as nearly as effectively.)

I agree with that in a lot of ways, but I'd still be intrigued. (I'd actually prefer to send Sap and the 12th pick to Chicago for Jimmy Butler, but I doubt they'd say yes.)

What if we did Sap and the 12th pick for Hield, then signed Howard and re-signed Horford? We'd be looking at a starting 5 like this: Schröder, Hield, Korver, Horford, Howard. Quickness at the point, shooting on the wings, size on the blocks. I'm not a Howard fan, but I'd be intrigued.

For what it's worth, I had to do a lot of driving on MLK day and I heard Rick Kamala from NBA TV/92.9 Game repeat his claim from several weeks ago that a well-positioned source told him that Howard to ATL was a done deal. It sounds like this is coming from Howard's camp - as Kamala specified he wasn't hearing it from the Hawks - but he said he was told by someone who would know that the Hawks likely won't re-sign Horford for the money he'll be seeking and Howard wants to come back to Atlanta, and Howard had been told it was a "done deal" that he was coming to the ATL at the trade deadline or in free agency this summer. Of course, I have no personal knowledge other than hearing Kamela on the radio, but apparently Kamala hasn't backed off on this. (There's a slight chance that this was an MLK replay of a previous recording, but I'm pretty sure they were talking about current stuff that happened over the weekend in the NFL, so I think Kamala repeated the claim from his source as recently as Monday.)

Don't know if this Howard stuff is anything more than a rumor, but to me it makes a lot of sense for both sides. We have two teams that made the conference finals last year but are underachieving so far this season, and both of those teams happen to have All-Star centers on their roster; Al Horford will likely be free agent in 2016 and thus the Hawks may not be able to re-sign him and could lose him for nothing; Dwight Howard is reportedly unhappy playing alongside Harden and may want out (and may be causing enough problems behind the scenes that the Rockets wouldn't mind letting him out); the Hawks struggled mightily with size and rebounding in the playoffs; Houston has always been active in making trades ... add it all up and I could actually see this trade happening. Also, as much as I like Horford (and as many warts as Howard may have), I think I'd say yes if this deal is on the table. Howard has been playing 32 minutes a night, and, though he's only averaging 12,6 ppg, he's actually still shooting above his career average from the field. More importantly, he's still pulling around 12 rpg (5 more per night than Horford), and he's still getting around 2 bpg. Paul Millsap is also outplaying Horford this year, and I just think pairing Millsap with Howard would give us a lot more size, rebounding, and interior defense - and offensively it seems to me Howard could end up getting a ton of dunks in this system and may actually fit better alongside Millsap. Overall I'd be very intrigued to see what this team looks like with Howard at C.

Sources: If Mavs miss on DeAndre Jordan, it's expected talks with Indiana on Monta Ellis-Roy Hibbert centered sign-and-trade will happen. — Adreian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 2, 2015 Just saw Wojnarowski say that Mavs and Pacers may do an Ellis-Hibbert sign-and-trade if the Mavs miss on DeAndre Jordan (see above). Any chance we are somehow involved - i.e., Indiana gets Splitter, Mavs get Hibbert, we get Ellis? Have no clue if a deal like that is possible under the CBA, but the thought occurred to me when I saw that tweet.

SI just put out an article earlier today on why the Hawks may pull an upset, and I agree with a lot of what they say: http://www.si.com/nba/2015/05/20/hawks-rockets-james-harden-al-horford-kyle-korver-nba-playoffs-conference-finals My thoughts on why we win: (1) Hawks Offense v. Cavs Defense: Neither of the Cavs PGs can stay in front of our PGs (and that applies even when Kyrie Irving is healthy), and I see Teague and Schröder getting in the lane, collapsing the defense, and pushing the pace in ways they struggled to do at times against the Wizards. And if J.R. Smith ends up guarding Korver for significant portions of the game (and with out PGs getting in the lane more often), I'm thinking Kyle will be taking and hitting a lot more open shots this series. It also seemed to me that Mosgov had a lot of trouble with Horford pulling him away from the lane and hitting Js or blowing by him, and I think Millsap can do the same to Triston Thompson. So overall I see us getting our offense rolling this series. (2) Hawks Defense v. Cavs Offense: DeMarre does about as good a job as you can ask him to do on LeBron, plus Horford and Millsap each posses an unusual combination of strength, athleticism, and mobility - so if LeBron gets in the lane, he's met by guys who are a bit bigger than he is, just as strong or stronger, and can actually hang with him athletically for the most part; and, now that the Cavs don't have Kevin Love stretching out our bigs on D, I think it will be much easier for us to clog the lane - plus LeBron hasn't been shooting all that well from the perimeter in the playoffs. Obviously, LeBron will put up numbers, but Love is out and Kyrie's injuries are making it tough for him to get to the basket the way he normally does. So all in all, LeBron will have some great games - but I foresee us making it tougher on him and limiting the help he gets from his teammates. I think we need to stay out of foul trouble and make sure the Cavs' don't hurt us on the offensive boards, but, overall, I think we'll defend the Cavs at a higher level than they can defend us. (3) Home Court Advantage: I think home court advantage is a big factor that doesn't seem to get a lot of play in the media, but we've hardly lost in Atlanta this year and we've been great on the road, too. So basically, it's hard for me to see the Cavs stealing a game in Atlanta and winning all three games in Cleveland. That's a pretty tall order against a team that lost only 6 games at home all year and has the fifth best road record in the league (despite resting starters on the road a lot of nights down the stretch). My prediction: Hawks take a hard-fought series in 6 games.

Here are my rose-colored thoughts on this series so far: (1) I think we're a little rusty due to a combination of Millsap's injury, resting all our starters in some games down the stretch, and resting some of the starters here and there in other games - basically, it's been a while since all of our starters have played together consistently with something on the line, and I think it shows; (2) We've often started slow coming off of some kind of break - if I remember correctly, we started the season playing .500 basketball, got blown out by 30 on the day after Christmas, and got blown out pretty bad the first game after the all-star break - so I'm hoping we just need to shake off some of that rust; and (3) I think the Nets are in fact playing better than their overall record right now after acquiring T. Young, and with Lopez returning to form. Given the above, a 2-0 start where we essentially haven't trailed in either game isn't so bad. That said, I'm a little worried and would feel a lot better if we could go out and take an aesthetically pleasing win in Game 3.

On the superstar question, my view is that the right kind of superstar would take us over the top if we could get one (my top choices would be LeBron James, LaMarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol, Anthony Davis, Steph Curry, or a healthy Paul George because I feel they would fit in well and improve us), but I'd say no to any wings or guards who stop the ball on offense, can't shoot, or don't defend, any unskilled or immobile big men, and any malcontents (right now, for instance, I'd be leery of adding Carmello Anthony, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, and maybe even Kyrie Irving even if they were somehow available and willing to sign with us for some reason).

Way better

I like the pacman floor...Would've been a lot more excited about it if the ownership wasn't such a mess. Hope we get new leadership soon; my enthusiasm for this franchise is at an all-time low right now, even though I like the guys we have on the team. Just want to get a Hawks organization as a whole that we can be proud of and support.

Not sure if anyone's posted this somewhere else, but I like the idea of "numerous billionaires" lining up to buy the Hawks: “I had over seven phone calls directly today from multi-billionaires,” Koonin said to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “It blew my mind some of the people who wrote me today.” http://www.si.com/nba/2014/09/08/atlanta-hawks-steve-koonin-franchise-potential-sale

I'd like to think we're assembling a lot of good young assets who will either develop for us coming off the bench or else serve as decent trade assets or filler for a big move.

I don't think it was terrible at all. Not terribly exciting, of course, but definitely not terrible. To me, this summer we: +Added an all-star center (Al Horford); +Added a stretch 4 who actually has requisite NBA size, strength, and leaping ability, and also showed some ability to play in the post (Payne); +Added a 3-and-D guy who, if he bounces back in the 3-point percentage department, could be a major defensive piece who fits better with this team than Lou did in terms of his size, length, defense, and 3-point shot (Safolosha); +Added a young prospect who's athletic and defends and has shown some upside on offense (Bazemore); +Potentially added another stretch 4/5 type of guy who, to me, showed significant improvement in summer league (Muscala); +Drafted a giant guy with a giant wingspan who's hardly played basketball and therefore hopefully has a lot of upside (Tavares); and +Maintained some solid cap flexibility, which could make us a player on the trade market or in free agency. Also, with the additions of Safolosha and Bazemore I don't think we'll miss Lou all that much, and with the addition of Taveres I don't think we'll miss Bebe all that much, either. To me, all of the above - plus another year with Bud - will make us significantly more competitive this season, and I think we've got that cap space and a lot of attractive assets who could be included in trades, so we can be opportunistic if a trade comes our way. Finally, I don't think adding Deng would have done much except eat away our cap space. Stevenson would have been pretty cool - high upside there, but also a lot of potential downsides. There were some other guys out there, like Parsons or the dude from Utah whose name I'm forgetting right now, but no real game changers in my view (other than Lebron, of course). I didn't even really want Carmello, to be honest. So overall, I like what we did this summer. I'll be disappointed if we don't make another follow up move with the cap space this trade season or next summer during free agency, but for now I'm intrigued by the roster we have and the potential we have to make something happen in the future.

I think that's fairly accurate. I remember Teague didn't finish all that well at first, either, even though he could get in the lane, and of course his jump shot needed some work. To me, Schröder has all the tools and a good feel for the game, but he's not all the way there yet. Hopefully he'll get there sooner than later.

Nice. Very encouraging performance, especially the 3-point shooting. I still think he's got a ways to go to be a consistently reliable player this season, but nevertheless it's nice to see him hit 30 in a summer league game.

I think Payne probably could play some center. He seems pretty tough and nasty for a stretch 4; I was pleasantly surprised.

Surprisingly, I actually thought he looked better on offense than on defense...had a nice turn around jump shot, and finished a lay up and a sort of awkward hook shot. On defense he looked a step slow to me a lot of the time, and he had some trouble handling rebounds that came off the rim hard. Definitely intriguing with his size and length.

A few quick thoughts on Schröder after watching his first summer league game this year: -He needs to get stronger and little more crafty about finishing his drives. He could get to the basket almost whenever he wanted, but over and over again the ball just rimmed out - I'd like to see him study the way Tony Parker finishes drives, and I'd like to see him develop a floater as well. -Needs a jump shot badly. Still very shaky there. -Needs to stop wasting possessions. Every now and then he just throws the ball away for no apparent reason. -Needs to stop picking up cheap fouls on defense. Overall he didn't look nearly as bad as his box score suggested, but I'd say he's still two years away from being an effective NBA player.

^That could also be the case. Either way, I'm hoping it means we'll see another domino fall soon. I like what we've done so far, but it'd be great to get another all-star or near all-star type of talent on the roster, because I see a lot of opportunity in the East this season.

Does the quote below suggest a trade to anyone else? To me, saying we really want to get a deal done is one thing, but the fact that Bazemore's side had to explain the "delicate timing" of this deal to the Lakers seems to suggest other moving parts, i.e., maybe we needed to know we had Bazemore in the fold before we were willing to pull the trigger on another deal, or maybe on another signing. Thoughts? http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11205854/kent-bazemore-agrees-terms-atlanta-hawks