Sekou (relatively) scathing in criticism of Speedy

[emeans]

I agree......The Shelden pick is turning out to be a bad pick. There are several big men playing much better than him draft after him.....SEVERAL!!

Roy should have been a no brainer and again like Chris Paul we passed on a potential future All-Star caliber player.

J Smoove at 17 so far is BK's best draft pick. Chillz was a solid pick but not spectacular. His 2nd round pick of Ivey was a head scratcher, when Duhon was still there.

BK hasn't done well in the draft and the fact that last years draft was probably our last very high draft pick in 2 year makes it more magnified. We may not have a good pick this year.

Also didn't we have Mehmet Okur once???

[jerrywest]

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Chillz was a solid pick but not spectacular. His 2nd round pick of Ivey was a head scratcher, when Duhon was still there.

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BK wanted to please Coach K after snubbing Deng and Duhon in the past.

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Also didn't we have Mehmet Okur once???

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No. We never had a genius GM.

[bonethugz]

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if knight take roy or foye then somebody will say he pick some swingman again. or if we pay nene for 11 million somebody say we overpaid again. is always easy to point finger isn't it?

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Denver didn't even pay $11 million for Nene. They paid $10 million/yr and a lot of that is incentives. Without incentives it is less than $9 million/yr. And Denver's negotiating position wasn't as strong as ours would have been if nene was our rfa.

And many of us argued before the draft that Roy and Foye could easily play pg next to JJ. And in fact Foye is starting at the point with Minny and Roy is splitting his time between pg and sg even though they have Jack and Sergio.

if you are going to use a strawman argument at least make it a good one.

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what i was saying is people would blame knight for what he did or what he didn't.....

[Guest Walter]

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(In my opinion the 3 people you speak of have made the Hawks more competitve. ( Lo, Speedy, Sheldon).

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We spent $9 million and had a 5th pick. Only a shameful BK apologist would not expect more out of that than what we got. We're trying to dump Speedy NOW - 1 year into his 4 year deal - and cannot, SW is the the earliest irrelevent 5th pick in NBA history, and Lo is simply horrible.

JJ and JS are the ONLY two moves (with the JJ one still painful giving up our pick) that has significantly upgraded the team (and yet no upgrade shows in the win collumn. JC has also helped but wasn't the better pick over Iggy or Deng. EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY other move has not accomplished anything of merit, particularly considering the amount of capitol he had. To agree with two out of a GM's 30 other moves is not an endorsement of him. It's pitying BK. He sucks so bad I feel sorry for him.

W

[Guest Walter]

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Maybe I'm ignorant. I don't think there was another FA pg out there that could give us what Speedy has over that 5 game road win streak. No I dont't think there was another FA big who would step in and start at C for the price Lo is doing it.

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Not ignorant, just totally misguided.

We shouldn't be 4 years into rebuilding and trying to duct tape together an injured BU Pg to be our 4 year starter or piece together a lame center corp in a weak offseason.

It's not like BK didn't have upteen options for getting a franchise Pg or couldn't have made a trade of Al for Nene or others. The fact is he has no forsight, isnt' bold enough to pull even the necessary triggers, couldn't design a team to save his life, and the ONE thing he was supposed to be good at, talent scouting, he turns out to be one of the worst in recent history passing in two consecutive years on the ROY (as Roy will win it) for a marginal prospect and a horrible role player.

W

[jerrywest]

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SW is the the earliest irrelevent 5th pick in NBA history,

W

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If I show you many 5th picks in the NBA history that were not as relevant, would you say that your zeal clouds your ability to say the truth, at least occasionally?

[AHF]

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SW is the the earliest irrelevent 5th pick in NBA history

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I know you like to bash Shelden but that is a huge exageration.

Nikoloz Tskitishvili?

Jonathon Bender?

James Ray?

Wally Walker?

etc.

How could he be irrelevant earlier than these guys?

[DrReality]

Typically Sekou walks a pretty fine line between telling it like it is and staying on the good side of the Hawks. But if he doesn't keep it real he'll lose his cred with readers. He does a good job and wouldn't be surprised to see him get a chance further up the food chain.

[KB21]

Bingo.

For whatever reason though, Billy Knight will never get the credit he deserves. He built the foundation that took the Memphis Grizzlies to the playoffs. Jerry West has done nothing as the President/GM in Memphis to further what BK was building. All Jerry has done is kill his team's depth with poor drafting decisions and bad long term contracts. Now, Jerry is getting out of the mess he created after tearing down everything that BK was building. You won't ever hear anyone criticize Jerry West though, unless you listen to Ronald Tillery on 560 AM out of Memphis in the mornings.

[Guest Walter]

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How could he be irrelevant earlier than these guys?

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Something even SW lacks. He is the earliest irrelevant 5th pick precisely in large part because he was supposed to be NBA-ready. Younger players with less experience, even if they were horribly performing picks early, at least have the the appearance of potential if not actual potential. SW has neither.

But thanks for putting SW into such wonderful perspective.

W

[Guest Walter]

...or modern day Malone.

Prospects with potential who don't play well early at least appear to have if don't have potential (see MW). 6'7.5" unathletic, short-reach Pfs who are supposed to be the most NBA-ready yet play and look horrible, don't. That's why when the NBA-ready role player looks bad early, he is the most forgetable.

I see your dead horse and raise you a

W

[Packfill]

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Bingo.

For whatever reason though, Billy Knight will never get the credit he deserves. He built the foundation that took the Memphis Grizzlies to the playoffs. Jerry West has done nothing as the President/GM in Memphis to further what BK was building. All Jerry has done is kill his team's depth with poor drafting decisions and bad long term contracts. Now, Jerry is getting out of the mess he created after tearing down everything that BK was building. You won't ever hear anyone criticize Jerry West though, unless you listen to Ronald Tillery on 560 AM out of Memphis in the mornings.

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What exactly did BK build in Memphis? If you think building a flawed foundation for a borderline playoff team is worthy of accolades then maybe you have something, but otherwise . . .

[AHF]

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How could he be irrelevant earlier than these guys?

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Something even SW lacks. He is the earliest irrelevant 5th pick precisely in large part because he was supposed to be NBA-ready. Younger players with less experience, even if they were horribly performing picks early, at least have the the appearance of potential if not actual potential. SW has neither.

But thanks for putting SW into such wonderful perspective.

W

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I am not giving up on him yet. I was pointing out that there have been guys who absolutely gave their teams nothing from day 1 and that never changed during their careers. I will be very surprised if Shelden isn't a productive member of an NBA rotation and has a longer career than all those guys above.

Those guys are the worst of the 5th round picks I glanced at - they are not my point of comparison for Shelden. That said, Shelden's lack of progress is frustrating me. If he is not healthy give him the time off to get healthy. He is doing nothing in his current role.