Sports Illustrated's plan to save the Hawks (from

[DrReality]

Atlanta Hawks

Projected draft number: 18 (from the Pacers)

2007-08 committed salaries: $45.6 million

What they need: Size, a poor finish

How they are going to get it: Teams should never try to lose, but the Hawks have every reason to. Unless Atlanta lands in one of the top three spots, its draft pick goes to the Phoenix Suns. Should the Hawks finish in the top three, they would be in prime position to make a dramatic turnaround next season. That pick would yield the likes of Ohio State's Greg Oden or Florida's Joakim Noah, while the 18th pick (acquired in the Al Harrington sign-and-trade deal) would produce another big like McRoberts, North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough or Brazil's Tiago Splitter.

If they use the draft to boost the frontcourt, the Hawks would be free to spend their money on a point guard like Billups or Mike Bibby. If not, taking a run at Darko Milicic would not be out of the question. Atlanta is one of three teams -- along with Charlotte and Orlando -- that could afford Milicic's services and be enticed to overpay to shore up its front line. That said, if you are a Hawks fan (and judging by the attendance at Philips Arena, you are few and far between), I'd be praying the losses pile up.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writ...st.needs/1.html

[Diesel]

with stupidity.

We can't pin our hopes on Youth and potential every year.

Here's a plan.

Let's see what Big is available at Indy's pick... If none exist, let's use that pick and Either Lo or Speedy in trade.

I would see if Dalembert or Swift is available in trade.

If we did move Speedy, I would try to get Bibby in here...

[Guest Walter]

That's the point! "All over the place" means I can tank and still have you plan of trading Indy pick with Lo for Daly (WTF?!?). "All over the place" means noting about your "plan" is excluded with tanking. In short, why not try everything possible to get this franchise a championship instead of JUST pipe dreams for a meager player in Daly?

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We can't pin our hopes on Youth and potential every year.

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But we can and must this year. Given the far slimmer hopes of pinning it on essentially NO PLAN, these hopes are good.

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Here's a plan.

Let's see what Big is available at Indy's pick... If none exist, let's use that pick and Either Lo or Speedy in trade.

I would see if Dalembert or Swift is available in trade.

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What about that plan or any plan does tanking preclude us from doing?

W

[Guest Walter]

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IF you are a Hawks fan

(and judging by the attendance at Philips Arena, you are few and far between),

I'd be praying the losses pile up.

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Hawks fans should want to tank. There you have it. Topic of fan patriotism settled. I feel vindicated!

W

[AtLaS]

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We can't pin our hopes on Youth and potential every year.

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But we can and must this year. Given the far slimmer hopes of pinning it on essentially NO PLAN, these hopes are good.

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Walter you act as if we tank this year everything will be ok. What happens when we give up the #4 or #5 pick? What is your plan then? What do you do when JJ asks to be traded and Smith and Chill bolt when they become FAs? What do you do when our attendance (gasp) gets WORSE? What do you do when there is talk of moving the franchise out of Atlanta??

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What about that plan or any plan does tanking preclude us from doing?

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You still haven't stated a logical, professional, or even acceptable way of tanking..

[AtLaS]

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IF you are a Hawks fan

(and judging by the attendance at Philips Arena, you are few and far between),

I'd be praying the losses pile up.

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Hawks fans should want to tank. There you have it. Topic of fan patriotism settled. I feel vindicated!

W

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That's because national critics are on par with you, when talking about the Hawks it's always worst case scenario.

[Guest Walter]

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Walter you act as if we tank this year everything will be ok. What happens when we give up the #4 or #5 pick? What is your plan then?

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The same plan everybody else has, no (real) plan. The Hawks can do anything they would otherwise have done had they not "tanked". The only personel loss IMO would be the trading of Lue. Big deal. I want to get a Pg prospect with Indy's pick anyhow.

This also goes to answering player discontent following tanking and potentially not getting a top 3 pick. As long as we come out for next year better, with a new cøach and new GM, the team has a new beginning and can put the year of the tank behind them. That's what needs to happen. Tank, purge the team of it's tanking devils by firing the cøaching staff and management, start anew with a new lease on life. It wøuld be great to have a top 3 pick to add to this, but without it we still have every single other option people cite available to us.

It's pretty much a 50/50 chance that we tank well and don't get a top 3 pick IMO. It's a far lesser chance that this team contends for a title without the talent of a top 3 pick in this draft added to it. Since you can do anything following tanking you otherwise wø¨ld have done without tanking, add that percentage, however small. You can look at the negative of tanking, sure, but it's downside pales in comparison to this team without significant improvement at the time it caps out. Don Nelson team d@mning mediocrity here we come (because we aren't even near there yet).

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You still haven't stated a logical, professional, or even acceptable way of tanking..

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I believe I have many times over. It most certainly is logical because statistically it has the better chance of having a greater positive impact on this team than any other option. It is acceptable because tanking itself is within the rules and acceptable. I don't know why "professional" is important to you over the franchise contending for a title, but nobody condemns Cleveland for being unprofessional in how they acquired Lebron.

W

[Guest Walter]

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That's because national critics are on par with you, when talking about the Hawks it's always worst case scenario.

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Their opinion of us is we are just plain bad and insignificant. We aren't either but we d@mn sure need significant improvement to ever contend and we aren't getting it from our ownership before we cap out.

W

[AtLaS]

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As long as we come out for next year better, with a new cøach and new GM, the team has a new beginning and can put the year of the tank behind them. That's what needs to happen. Tank, purge the team of it's tanking devils by firing the cøaching staff and management, start anew with a new lease on life.

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So..in other words.. you are telling the team they aren't good enough, and then coming back the next year and telling them to go win?? Please..Do you realize how much of an ass that makes you look like?? Players are not going to stand for that and they are going to leave. BACK to the drawing board..

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You still haven't stated a logical, professional, or even acceptable way of tanking..

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I believe I have many times over. It most certainly is logical because statistically it has the better chance of having a greater positive impact on this team than any other option. It is acceptable because tanking itself is within the rules and acceptable. I don't know why "professional" is important to you over the franchise contending for a title

W

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How is it within rules and acceptable?? I can understand if a team has ZERO talent, and the team has just been stripped and their pick ISN'T top 3 protected, but it's just rediculous in our situation. How would Stern react if he knew we were losing on purpose??

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but nobody condemns Cleveland for being unprofessional in how they acquired Lebron.

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LOL what a hypocrite!! you just went against EVERYTHING you have been saying!! First off, Cleveland was like the least talented team in the league, Ricky Davis was their best player, they had ZERO young talent, and their pick was not top 3 protected. Please don't tell me they could have won 20 games. BTW Cleveland is stuck in MEDIOCRITY as you would like to put it. They are capped out. BTW we already have a star in JJ and a much better potential supporting cast.

[DJlaysitup]

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...Let's see what Big is available at Indy's pick...

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Dull at best. Our current Indy pick is 19. Change the world with a 19 pick? LOL.

[Diesel]

Again Walter, you don't take into considerations the ramifications of tanking... ON THE TEAM.

Just like you were so sure trading Smitty for JR Rider was "the right thing to do"....

You're on the wrong side of History again.

Our team is made up of guys who don't quit. Now you want to force them to quit??? That's a dumb plan.

[Diesel]

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ull at best. Our current Indy pick is 19. Change the world with a 19 pick? LOL.

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How far did Smoove fall when we picked him up??

No Dj, I'm not saying that there's a world beater at 19. I'm saying if there's an acceptable big with potential, we look at him.

MY plan consists of a trade or a FA pickup.. I would consider using the pick to get it done.

Like our first for Robert Swift.

[DrReality]

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...Let's see what Big is available at Indy's pick...

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Dull at best. Our current Indy pick is 19. Change the world with a 19 pick? LOL.

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Don't have the illusion that it will change the world, but at this point I am hoping to just get better than ZaZa and Lo, which ain't saying much.

I think Vesser or Frazecas or Hibbert could be young bigs who could come in and play DEFENSE along side Solomon so we don't give away so many games.

[DrReality]

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Again Walter, you don't take into considerations the ramifications of tanking... ON THE TEAM.

Just like you were so sure trading Smitty for JR Rider was "the right thing to do"....

You're on the wrong side of History again.

Our team is made up of guys who don't quit. Now you want to force them to quit??? That's a dumb plan.

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Diesel, quit arguing with Walter about tanking. It just eggs him on. The poll showed that there is a minority that want to tank. Let it go.

[Sothron]

Yes, we all know how much better our franchise will be in yet another nine years of rebuilding with more Bobby Sura posters and efforts.

[Diesel]

This is one thing that I haven't addressed yet, but I want you to see how stupid your position is RON.

You said:

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Yes, we all know how much better our franchise will be in yet another nine years of rebuilding with more Bobby Sura posters and efforts.

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You know what hurt so much about the Bobby Sura games. What hurt us so much is that we were actually trying to tank!!! It was not a case where we were trying to win games.

You and your handful of others keep running around talking about the 4-5 Bob Sura wins as if they broke the franchise. The truth of the matter is that we purposely broke the franchise before Bob Sura even won those 4-5 games... Remember, we traded all of our players for ending contracts and draft picks.. WE HAD NOTHING TO GO BACK TO... Actually, that's how you tank. So of course, the Sura episode hurt...

BUT

Right now, we have a team. Our team is not that bad. We have players we plan to keep and even sign for the next 4-5 years.

WE'RE NOT TANKING....

[TheDude]

we have the youth....we see the pieces we have...our weaknesses should be filled with vets (with skills) in my opinion. you see the way we are playing now with most of our players back from injury. and they will only get better....

this team with a bit more experience as it is in its current state is a playoff worthy team (although it may be too late this season)..getting a vet in areas of weaknesses as opposed to waiting for more youth to develop puts us as one of the better teams in the eastern conference (i'm sure these sportswriters would laugh at me though).

i guess we'll know more afte this brutal feb stretch.

[TheDude]

bobby sura was just better than we thought he was...

i tell ya, if not for his reaccuring injury issues, he was a solid solid player.

[Sothron]

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This is one thing that I haven't addressed yet, but I want you to see how stupid your position is RON.

You said:

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Yes, we all know how much better our franchise will be in yet another nine years of rebuilding with more Bobby Sura posters and efforts.

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You know what hurt so much about the Bobby Sura games. What hurt us so much is that we were actually trying to tank!!! It was not a case where we were trying to win games.

You and your handful of others keep running around talking about the 4-5 Bob Sura wins as if they broke the franchise. The truth of the matter is that we purposely broke the franchise before Bob Sura even won those 4-5 games... Remember, we traded all of our players for ending contracts and draft picks.. WE HAD NOTHING TO GO BACK TO... Actually, that's how you tank. So of course, the Sura episode hurt...

BUT

Right now, we have a team. Our team is not that bad. We have players we plan to keep and even sign for the next 4-5 years.

WE'RE NOT TANKING....

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Why do you insist on calling me RON? Is this some kind of an insult?

What they should have done to Sura was to shut him down like the Celtics have done with Pierce. We all know Pierce is healthy but he's somehow still on their injured list week after week because the Celtics are tanking and don't want Pierce on the court for it.

Our team is in fact bad. Having two to three guys in JJ, Smoove and Chill does not a franchise make. Marvin and Shellhead are shaping up to be busts, Zaza is showing he is simply a decent backup center and the rest of the team are at best bench players or NBDL players. We have no chance of winning with this core. We desperately need Oden or at least a top three pick in order to do something more than aspire to thirty wins a season.

[AHF]

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Why do you insist on calling me RON? Is this some kind of an insult?

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It is a shorter version of Sothron but I am not sure if he intends it to be insulting or not.