from insider

[codyatl]

Speaking of franchises on life support ...

Is Hawks president Stan Kasten on the verge of blowing up his "playoff bound" Hawks. Obviously firing head coach Lon Kruger wasn't the answer. Interim head coach Terry Stotts is just 3-10 since Kruger was thrown overboard.

Jason Terry

Guard

Atlanta Hawks

Profile

2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

41 17.6 3.4 7.1 .412 .878

The word around the league for the past few weeks was that Kasten and GM Pete Babcock were looking for a quick fix, preferably a veteran, all-star-caliber point guard, to dish it to Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Glenn Robinson and Theo Ratliff. Several GMs, despite Babcock's insistence to the contrary, have told Insider that Jason Terry and Nazr Mohammed have been the bait.

But Kasten hasn't had any strong nibbles, let alone bites, on his offer, prompting teams to speculate that he might decide to throw the babies out with the bathwater. Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune is the latest to speculate that sagging attendance and sagging AOL/Time Warner stock could force Kasten to sell off his stars for more cap room.

According to Smith, just about everyone is available, with the Hawks preferring to land players whose contract will be expiring so they can get under the salary cap and start over.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Power Forward

Atlanta Hawks

Profile

2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

40 19.9 7.8 2.8 .488 .827

Of course, the big prize in Atlanta is Abdur-Rahim. Robinson has too many skeletons in his closet and not enough D in his defense. Ratliff's career trajectory seems to be following Marcus Camby's. Terry has some value, but giving his contract away won't buy much cap relief. Alan Henderson and Mohammed are expendable, which is why so few teams are interested.

So, if Abdur-Rahim is available for expiring contracts, who would be interested? What about the Lakers, who have roughly $11.3 million in salaries they could dump? Or the Sonics, who could send a package of Kenny Anderson and Vladimir Radmanovic? The Sonics almost dealt Gary Payton for Abdur-Rahim two seasons ago. Could they get him for much less now? The Bulls have been searching for veteran help and have plenty of young players -- Jamal Crawford, Marcus Fizer -- to trade. If the Cavs really want to start winning now, a combination of Tyrone Hill and Darius Miles from the Cavaliers could jump start the process.

And don't forget the Heat, Nuggets and Spurs. Abdur-Rahim is better than almost any free agent those teams could land this summer. The Heat have Alonzo Mourning's salary they could use to acquire Abdur-Rahim. The Nuggets have Juwan Howard's. And the Spurs have Hawks favorite Steve Smith's to play with. If these teams were willing to take on another unwieldly contract (like Henderson's or Mohammed's) and throw in a prospect or a draft pick, would the Hawks do the deal?

Given the direction the Hawks seem to be heading, someone has to pay for the refunds when they don't make good on their playoff guarantee.

[JTFan31]

That was a good post. In all honesty I would trade anyone of the Hawks right now, but actually only JT I will not like to see him leave. JT brings so much to the table every night with his speed. He can get off any shot against anyone, he can take control of games in the 4th like he tried to do against the Bulls, just that he is a PG and he tried to get the offensive minded players of Reef and Big Dog involved. He should of been given the green light and kept torhcing the nets, but still the Bulls shot 16-18. I would take that deal Hill and Miles for Reef. I would consider alot of deals right now, I think we are all at that point now.

[codyatl]

I would lean towards the dela w/ chitown. I would love to have crawford and fizer. crawford would allow jt to play sg and he could become our offensive leader. I really don't know what kind of defensicve player crawfrod is but I don't imagine he could be any worse than the guys we have now.

[TheDude]

excellent post....however, i'm mostly hoping they can get the point guard all star...i would hate for them to blow the whole thing up and us have to start over again...

plus as much criticism as we give shareef, if we lose shareef, we will regret it...he will go somewhere where there is some talent, a crowd, and a really good coach and he will be a superstar..much like mike bibby did..he goes to a team like a celtics or something and that will be all she wrote...

we'll be a laughingstock even worse than we are now...we don't need to blow it up...we just need to trade to fill in the pieces that are lacking...

it is good to see that we are looking to trade but not good to see there's not alot of nibbles...

[TheDude]

and really what does babcock and kasten hope to do by trading away all the good players for cap room, save their job? if the owners of the hawks decide to keep those two just because they got rid of our talent for money, then i'll be the number pissedoff guy who USED to be a Hawks fan...

so basically they get fired so meaning they traded away the bank for nothing but something for the next gm to work with...they trade to bring in a point guard and maybe they can still keep their job...

[TheDude]

i mean at least for a van exel or stoudamire or somebody to give us a chance at least...

[PlayaPat420]

from that article it seems like the hawks are going to become the new clippers... bringing in talented players only to lose them when their contract is up. the team needs to be TOTALLY rebuilt from the top down. AOL needs to sell them to a single owner, not a corporation and they need to clean house, GM/coaches/scouts/everything. How is it that none of the Turner owned teams can draw fams but the Falcons sold out every game this year... It was only Mike Vick, it was the ownership that brought interest to the team as well as a new attitude.

[mdawg]

I really like the Chicago deal the most. Crawford is young and really just needs playing time, plus you could keep JT. As we saw Monday, Fizer has a lot of talent. Does anyone know anything about Radmonovic? I remember him being a lottery pick, but has he been a bust? Contrary to what some other people think, I don't feel trading SAR would be a huge loss. Also, does anyone know if Keon Clark signed a 1 or 2 year deal? I would love to have him as a replacement for Theo next year.

[Boondocks]

Keon CVlark's deal is a 2-year deal, but the 2nd year is an option. I think it's a team option but I'm not sure about that, surely though Sac will want to keep him.