Big news on Dermarr, you heard it here first.

[chillzatl]

Today, Dermarr was officially cleared to start practicing again. I don't know if this means he will be playing with the Hawks any this season. But he has been cleared by his doctors to start working out again. This is a pretty big step in his recovery and his career. Best of luck to DJ!

Oh, I can't say whether or not it will be with the Hawks. But I have it on good authority that DJ WILL be playing with someone in the NBA next season.

[cyman3]

how do u know... and how reliable is your source?

thats good news though thanks

[jaywalker72]

I will definately talk to Slim about that today...

It's funny, that Pete has been very, very cautious about this subject, waiting for the long term prognosis to come in, but always gave a strong indication that he wanted to keep DJ, and would go right to the team's financial limit to do so.

For Slim's part, he wants to stay here, which I am sure Chillz can attest to, so let's see if the two sides can come together.

The only fly in the soup is if a new GM comes in who thinks DerMarr is a bust and wants to divest themselves of all things Babcock...

[chillzatl]

There are a lot of people that aren't really Hawks fans that felt losing DJ really hurt us this year. I agree too.

my "source" was more than confident that if the Hawks don't want him, he will end up with someone next season. We talked about DJ for a while. He said that many people, DJ tops among them, don't understand why the Hawks seem to have totally dumped DJ. He said that the injury he has will heal and will not hamper his career, physically. He seemed to think that it was a sign that the Hawks wouldn't show much interest in keeping him. He predicted DJ's worth on the market at around 1-1.7m per year and didn't know if the Hawks would take the "risk" after their financial losses this season and poor record.

We'll just have to wait and see though. It was very good news to hear though. Hopefully the team will be able to get him some playing time this season. It can only help DJ's confidence and his chances of getting signed/resigned.

[jaywalker72]

He mentioned that the team could go up as high as what the qualifying offer would be (about 3.8 million) for Slim next year, but didn't think anyone would get near that in the open market.

As I said though, if another GM comes in and wants to toss away the remnants and start over, it may not be as sure a thing as it seems right now that Slim would be back.

[hawkster411]

Jay,

I noticed your always talking about a new GM. I was wondering if Babcock knows he will be fired by the end of the season? If not, please don't put my hopes up. Thanks =)

[KB21]

I don't think Pete wants the headache of being a general manager anymore. This year has really gotten to him, and his health is deteriorating. He really needs to take time off, relax, and get all the stress out of his system.

I think the last thing Stan wants to do is fire Pete, but he knows something has to change. It wouldn't surprise me to see something happen after the All-Star break. Stan may take over the GM duties for the rest of the season, with Pete resigning from his VP/GM post.

Stan has really been a lot more vocal about the team than Pete lately, so I think something will happen and will happen soon.

[Blunt91]

Chillz when you say Dermarr is cleared to practice with the team, do you mean just running and working on his shooting and moves or do you mean he is able to go in a full practice game with his teammates. If he is able to get in there and practice for the full length game with his team I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be back before the season is over.Unless he suffered a setback, let's hope not.

[chillzatl]

well, my source made the announcement to a room full of people. HIs words were "Dermarr Johnson was cleared today to start practicing again". I really didn't ask for clarification beyond that. I assume that he is now able to practice with the team though. Though I'm sure the team has some say in that as well. Previously he was forbidden from even jumping. So I'm sure he needs to get himself back in shape in several ways.

[Gray Mule]

When they have a Major League player who is recovered

and ready to resume playing, it is usual for the team to

send the player "Down to the minors" and let him play

himself back into game shape.

It's too bad the Hawks can't do that with DerMarr. Send

him "Down on the farm" to our minor league team and

let him play himself back into game shape.

I know, he doesn't have a contract right now. But, I hope

something can be worked out and we get to retain his

rights and sign him to a reasonable contract with lots of

things added to it, so when he does make it back, we

will have a happy DerMarr on our team.

The N.B.A. would do well to copy some of the things

that baseball already has in place. Play in the minor

league, as opposed to the Development League is

one of them.

[Guest]

If I recall correctly, the League wants to do that, merge the CBA and the NBDL possibly, and asign farm teams, but the player's union doesn't like it because it limits a player's availability to multiple organizations, thus their ability to get a pro-contract, so they'd rather not have one.

I may be wrong on this.