Talk of trades need to stop !!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Seriously people . . we're in the 2nd week of the season. The 2nd week. A lot of you are acting like we should be 4 - 2 right now. At best, we should be 3 - 3, but realistically 2 - 4 ( Portland, Memphis being the win . . with the other win possibly being against the Lakers. )

The Clippers are obviously vastly improved. So is Golden St.

To be honest, the 0 - 6 start does suprise me. But seeing that we lost 2 games at the buzzer, also gives me hope about seeing this team reach that 30 win mark, IF we take care of business against the Eastern Conference lower and mediocre team.

But when you guys toss out these trades for mediocre position replacements, I just have to wonder where your heads are at?

- I'm not ready to give up on Childress or Smoove after 6 friggin games

- I'm not ready to trade Al, just to make room for our youngsters

- We haven't played an Eastern Conference team yet, the very conference in which the Hawks SHOULD get the majority of their wins aganst. And they match up much better against the East teams, than they do the West teams.

- Salim and Marvin are obviously going to improve as time goes on. And they may improve quickly than most people think.

- I'm sure in the heck are not willing to trade ANYBODY on this team, for the mediocre PG's and C's that most of you have been tossing around, just because we need help in those positions.

***********

What every Hawks fan needs to understand, is that this team was destined to go through stretches in which they'd struggle to get wins. But they'll also go through stretches in which they win 3 in a row, 3 out of 5, 4 out of 6 games. But the bad stretches were more likely to come at the beginning of the season, than in the middle or near the end of the season.

This is a young team, so you have to understand that young teams are very inconsistent and streaky. Woodson is going to have to tinker with this lineup for at least another week or two, before settling on the guys that will give us the best chance at winning games on a nightly basis.

But for right now, Woodson is just going to have to go with the guys that are playing the best on that particular night. The only guys that have proven that they can bring it night in and night out, are JJ and ZaZa. That list will also include Al, once he gets back to being 100%.

When you watch the Hawks in person, as I did Saturday night, you see what the problems are:

- interior defense and perimeter defensive rotation

- consistent perimeter shooting

- inability to finish in traffic or drawing fouls

- team is just "soft" all around

You also see what this team is good at:

- JJ and his shooting/playmaking ability

- ZaZa's aggressiveness on the offensive end ( even if he is too soft to convert sometimes )

- Salim and Marvin having confidence in their games

- Smoove showing the ability to be a dominant rebounder, when he sets his mind to it

Trading Childress for a PG that isn't even starting on his current team, isn't going to solve our problems. Jack and Duhon may be good defenders, but they still don't provide the scoring punch that JJ needs to be playing with him on offense. The same goes for Devin Harris or Earl Watson.

Trading Al for a big man is unrealistic, because how many decent big men are traded from teams that need them? You think trading Al for a Michael Sweetney type player is going to solve our interior defense problems? How about Adonyl Foyle? How about the "Kandi Man" in Minnesota?

You just can't trade this guy for ANYBODY, just because we have a "need" at that position, and expect this team to suddenly become better. The NBA doesn't work like that.

No matter what people say about Al, he's EASILY the 2nd best player on this team . . EASILY. I'd hate to see a game in which we don't have Al in the lineup. OOPS . . we already have seen what happens ( see the 1st Clipper game )

So in the meantime, we have no choice but to roll with what we have.

Personally, I want to see this lineup start games:

G - Salim

G - JJ

F - Williams

F - Harrington

C - ZaZa

I think this lineup gives us the best chance to put points on the board and keep people honest on defense. With JJ being the main "playmaker" in this line up ( don't call him a PG if you don't want to, but he is easily our best playmaker ), he'll have the option to keep it himself and score, toss it out to Salim and Williams for open jumpers, or dump it down to Al or ZaZa to get them a look from 12 feet and in.

With Salim and Williams starting, it'll also give the Hawks a more confident bunch out on the floor. Funny to say that about 2 rookies, but Salim and Williams are already poised enough to make the correct decisions with the basketball on offense ( whether it be to shoot it, or put it on the floor and try to make a play for someone else ). I liked the confidence that both players showed on Saturday night.

Bringing Lue, Chill and Smoove off the bench, may pay off to be a better option for this team in the sense that they'll be able to do their thing against the other 2nd teamers, instead of mainly going up against the other team's starter.

Look at Milwaukee. You think if the only thing they'd done was to bring in Bobby Simmons, that everything would be OK? NO. They not only had to draft Bogut, they had to trade Mason for Magloire, plus get back one of their 1st round picks from 2 years ago, and HOPE he played anywhere near the level he played in his rookie year. It pretty much took the Bucks 3 years to reshape that team from having Cassell, Big Dog and Allen, to the squad they have now. If you're a Hawks fan, you better be willing to wait AT LEAST that long, before we really start to turn the corner and become a legit 7 - 8 seed playoff team. But this WILL take time, unless one of these youngsters rapidly matures and becomes a star.

So what does the future hold for us, seeing that we're now 0 - 6? Let's see:

- we play the world champs in San Antonio tomorrow night

- we play 5 of our next 7 and 8 of our next 12 games on the road ( 6 of those 8 teams made the playoffs last year )

- we don't have a significant stretch of home games until Dec. 16 ( in which we play 4 out of 5 at home ) and Jan 14. ( in which we play 7 straight and 8 out of 9 games at home )

- 13 of our next 22 games are on the road, with the vast majority of them coming against last year's playoff teams.

In my opinion, these are the most winnable games until Jan 1st.

* @ OK City

* vs Boston

* vs Portland

* vs Miami ( if Shaq is still out )

* vs Toronto

* @ Utah ( if AK is still hurt )

* vs New York

* vs Philly

* vs Charlotte

* @ Toronto

If we win all 10 of these games, that'll put us at 10 - 18 by Jan 1st.

Personally, I'd be satisfied if we're 8 - 20.

Realistically, we could be looking at a 6 - 22 record by Jan 1st.

Having a Chris Paul or a Jamal Magloire here right now, probably doesn't change that, because we have so MANY holes . . not just one major hole.

But before any of you talk about trading anybody, you better make damn sure that one of these kids can become a star by the end of December. If they can't, we really can't afford to let anybody go until that time.

And if and when the time comes that we do have to trade Al, we bet not trade him for some scrub who has less ability than he does, from an impact standpoint.

[RAHMOR]

Excellent post. Go Hawks!!

[Gray Mule]

We all love the "What if - - " game and dream up ways

to see if it will improve our beloved Hawks !!

We all know that most trade ideas aren't really going to

happen, but we like to think, "What if - - "

Some get discouraged after a bad game, or in this case,

the fact that we are 0-6 and looking at things to get worse

before they get better, and want to "Do something - - NOW"

Cooler heads prevail. We realise that rebuilding from

the ground up, starting with nothing left over, now that

Jason Collier, the last holdover, has passed away, will

be a slow and mostly painful process.

Trade ideas will continue to flourish. We will continue

to cuss and discuss the merits of each one.

I's entertaining. It keeps us from going insane with

all this loosing. Even great teams have fans who want

to trade their players. Why should we Hawk fans be

any different?? We're not.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Quote:

---

We all love the "What if - - " game and dream up ways

to see if it will improve our beloved Hawks !!

We all know that most trade ideas aren't really going to

happen, but we like to think, "What if - - "

Some get discouraged after a bad game, or in this case,

the fact that we are 0-6 and looking at things to get worse

before they get better, and want to "Do something - - NOW"

Cooler heads prevail. We realise that rebuilding from

the ground up, starting with nothing left over, now that

Jason Collier, the last holdover, has passed away, will

be a slow and mostly painful process.

Trade ideas will continue to flourish. We will continue

to cuss and discuss the merits of each one.

I's entertaining. It keeps us from going insane with

all this loosing. Even great teams have fans who want

to trade their players. Why should we Hawk fans be

any different?? We're not.

---

We'll have to agree to disagree on this subject. I think talking about unrealistic trades do nothing but make the frustration even worse. Sure, we could use all of the guys that people have tossed out, but you have to look at the flip side too.

Why would those teams take on a player that we don't want anymore? If anything, it'll be teams coming to US and looking for a guy, instead of the other way around. And more than likely, they won't come looking for Childress. They'll come looking for one of our rookies or Smoove, or possibly try to swindle us with some junk deal to get Al.

Barring some miracle in Dalls ( or if Dirk is still hurt ), we're starting the season 0 - 8. After that, we go to Oklahoma City. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather talk about what lineup we can put out on the floor to beat the Hornets, than talk about trades that will never go down.

[AHF]

People were talking about Al Harrington and Childress trades before the season started. I doubt they are going to stop now. With Harrington, in particular, there is reason to speculate with the Hawks out of playoff contention this year and with a talented player in the last year of a contract. That scenario equals either a new deal or a trade (which could be in-season or a post-season SNT).

[Johnnybravo4]

Hey how long have you worked for Atlanta Spirit LLC?