BELKIN WINS

[KB21]

No.

Your goal is to find the quick fix and to ignore the fact that the league is evolving into one that will emphasize the more open style of play that Dallas and Phoenix employs.

You still have this antiquated idea that we have to build a team that goes inside out...that we have to have a back to the basket power forward....that we have to have a true point guard despite having a tremendous playmaker in Joe Johnson.

[Nicholasp27]

pistons did it without a superstar

and billups wasn't considered a true pg or even a good one before detroit

[KB21]

Basically, this is Diesel's hypocritical nature. Jason Terry is now a pure point guard.

[Guest]

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Kiki won't be the GM, and all he has proven anyway is that he can do just enough to get a team to the playoffs. Denver can't get out of the first round of the playoffs though. I don't want a GM that is going to go for the quick fix and just build a team that can compete for the 8th seed with no chance at winning a championship. Kiki isn't as good as Billy.

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What is it that BK has proven?

I do believe you have to get to the playoffs before you can win a championship. Or hell, I am pretty sure you have to have a .500 record before you can get a championship.

[Guest]

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Like I said. You dumbasses that want BK gone because he didn't give you your precious instant gratification may get your wish. You will now be saddled with the people who drafted Eric Montross in the top ten of the NBA Draft.

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Oh, so taking control of a team for three and a half years and still having them win 26 games is a good thing? Please answer this as a yes/no question.

Billy Knight sucks d*ck, period. I hate his guts. Besides Isiah Thomas, he is the worst GM in basketball. He acts as if he is more intelligent than everyone who watches basketball. I have a hard time believing that especially coming from someone who had the most amount of wins (35 in 02-03) when he was taking over a Babcock team.

I have never said he is bad at scouting talent, I have said the exact opposite. BK is AWESOME at picking talent. But you could have Shaq, Wilt, Russell, Walton, Olajuwan, Kareem, Dikembe, Robinson, and Zo and that would be the most talented team in NBA history but still have the worst record ever. TALENT DOES NOT EQUAL A GOOD TEAM. You have to have a design behind a team, such as a traditional design (Stockton, Hornacek, Russell, Malone, Ostertag) or an offensive design (Nash, JJ, Q, Marion, Amare) or a defensive design (Billups, Hamilton, Prince, Wallace, Wallace). What design has BK had? A clusterfuck of talent is all I can think. Basically everyone agrees we need an inside presence, guess what, BK already traded away Nazr and decided that Jason Collier was the better option than Joel Przybilla. And also most generally agree we need a point guard, well BK traded away JT for basically $4 million.

[Diesel]

A superstar or a good PG...

BTW...

Wasn't Billups the MVP of their championship finals?

Mr. Big Shot they call him!

[sick_five]

I think everyone would agree that we are better off with BK than ol' Pete, but Knight hasn't doing anything that makes me have the utmost confidence in him. I will give him this much... he actually has a plan and is building a team with that in mind.

What pains me more than Knight leaving would be the possibility of another GM blowing up what has been 2-3 years of rebuilding and starting over.

Knight is not the worst we could do, not the best, either. It kills me that the organization flopped around for so long, then Knight traded JT (he wasn't a true PG), who was tired of losing, and now that everyone realizes that JJ shouldn't and isn't a full-time PG, and BK says we don't need one...

[tmac13]

He was a lousy drafter..No doubt, but then again he wasn't picking in the top 5 year after year either..He is mostly hated for the Dominique trade and was a victim of alot of bad luck at the end of his run..

Is BK better than Babcock?..Its hard to say..Babcocks teams won for alot of years, BK very best season was 28 wins...In 5 years that doesn't say alot.

[sick_five]

But don't forget that he completely blew up the team that went to the playoffs every year and put us in the predicament that we are still in now. And then tried the quick fix every year... and by trading 'Nique, he disrupted what could have been the best team in Hawks history... but we'll never know.

So yes, I think we are better off with a guy that at least has a plan and will be somewhat patient to build the team as he envisions. But like I said, I do think we can do better than Billy Knight.

[tmac13]

The year he traded Nique we were a paper tiger..We won that year because Lenny made them play defense..We had a better record AFTER we traded Nique..That trade turned disasterous when Manning refused to resign with us in the offseason..I agree, Babcock was no Jerry West, but he was not the worst either..On the other hand,so far you would have a hard time finding any GM in any sport with a worse overall record than BK after 5 years as a GM..

[sick_five]

But you also have to consider the teams he inherited. If I were to choose, I'd choose BK over Babcock easily, but I think we can do better than BK. The only real reservation I have in him leaving is my fear that the nucleus that he has built, which I do like, will be destroyed.

[tmac13]

Probably not..I think our nucleus is ok..Most Gms would do exactly what we have all talked about, add a point guard and a big man and let the young guys develope..Most GMs don't feel the need to completely dismantle the team like BK did..

[Diesel]

i wouldn't say we were a paper tiger...

In the first half of the season we played tougher competition.. including Bulls, Knicks, Pacers, and Rockets.

In that time, we had a 14 game win streak and I remember us beating HOUSTON (who won the championship that year) I think they had a streak until we beat them...

The second half with Manning, we won more games, but we were not a much better team.

Nique was the heart of that team. People say that Lenny's defense was so good because we slowed the tempo..

Well, we were 101 ppg and we were second in defense in the league that year.. I want to say behind the Knicks...

Still, it's a bad judgement to think that that trade helped us...

Even if Manning had stayed, we were not as good as the team we were with Nique!

[drzachary]

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Probably not..I think our nucleus is ok..Most Gms would do exactly what we have all talked about, add a point guard and a big man and let the young guys develope..Most GMs don't feel the need to completely dismantle the team like BK did..

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We didn't have a nucleus that just needed a PG and a big man. Adding a PG to the JT backcourt didn't work.

[tmac13]

I don't think the trade helped or hurt us..Manning not resigning killed us.

And..I went and looked at the schedule for 93 and 94..We played an equally hard schedule before and after the trade..You just pulled that out of your ass..

[tmac13]

Thats not what I meant..I meant a NEW GM wouldn't necessarily dismantle our nucleus now..He would probably add a point gurad and a big man..

[drzachary]

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Thats not what I meant..I meant a NEW GM wouldn't necessarily dismantle our nucleus now..He would probably add a point gurad and a big man..

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Ahh I see. I thought you meant that most hypothetical GMs, finding themselves in the same position BK did back when he took over, would have just added a PG and a big

[MoonKnight]

This does not currently change the ownership lineup or management of Atlanta Spirit. The other owners still outnumber Belkin vote wise and he can make no changes until the other members are actually bought out (if this actually ever happens). The only likely immediate effect of this ruling is that no real major changes are likely to happen (big trades, big FA signings, etc.). BK will remain on until the other members are out. BK will continue on through the draft and make decisions on draftees regardless of this ruling. This is not the doomsday ruling many of you suggest but today's ruling will likely cost the other owners alot more money in order to buy Belkin out.

[AHF]

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This is not the doomsday ruling many of you suggest but today's ruling will likely cost the other owners alot more money in order to buy Belkin out.

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That is the best case scenario for the Atlanta Spirit group if their appeal doesn't succeed.

[Plainview1981]

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Hello, Kiki and Stan Van Gundy!

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Yeah, right... The Hawks will probably get an even more incompetent gm.