Saturday: The Could-Have-Been Hawks Night

[archie44]

Did you guys realize how many participants in the Saturday night NBA festivities could have been Hawks?

If we had kept our third overall pick in the 2001 draft and not traded for the panty waste Shareef Abdur-Rahim, we could have chosen from the following:

Pau Gasol (actually our pick traded to the Grizzlies)

Jason Richardson

Richard Jefferson

Troy Murphy

We could have traded our #3 pick to Boston and selected Jefferson and Murphy.

And of course if we had not foolheartedly given up a second first rounder for Lorenzen Wright, we could have selected one of the following future stars with last year's #8 pick in the 2002 draft:

Amare Stoudamire

Caron Butler

OUCH!

When you look at it this way, it's hard to imagine Pete Babcock keeping his job. But it looks like that will happen.

[capstone21]

from the front office? Are there major or minor changes coming?

[beav]

Pau Gasol (actually our pick traded to the Grizzlies)

Jason Richardson

Richard Jefferson

Troy Murphy

We could have traded our #3 pick to Boston and selected Jefferson and Murphy.

there are a lot of coulda woulda shouldas there....

jefferson was a later round pick that a lot of other teams passed on.... murphy was also passed on by a number of teams and GS was shocked that he fell into their laps (I'm sorry but if boston didn't draft an irish guy that played at notre dame when they had the chance then a lot of people dropped the ball on him)...

Musselman is not actually that big on richardson either, and he has been rumored to be on the trading block most of the year...

Does that mean that Babcock should keep his job? No, I agree that is time for him to go, but it isn't entirely fair IMO to drop all of that at his door...

[archie44]

The big deal right now is the huge "FOR SALE" sign that is transparently hanging on the front door of the Hawks office.

Until that is resolved (and who knows if it actually will be or not) everything else is also up in the air regarding long term plans.

But boy didn't Mr. Van Gundy look comfortable at Philips Saturday.

[Diesel]

Yeah, and if we had not a traded Rumeal Robinson for Mookie Blaylock, we could have been Bad enough to go after Penny a few yrs later. Darn....

In all seriousness, Reef is what we need and needed.

He was a vet player who averaged 20/10 and was an allstar hopeful. Nothing has changed about him. Now we can admire Memphis after the fact, but wait a minute. Our pick was not going to be Gasol. Our pick would have been Battier. Even still. We would not be better than we are now. We needed a vet presence because at that time, we had nothing but babes. We needed somebody with the work ethic of Reef.

Just because our team isn't playing up to it's potential, doesn't mean that the trades were wrong. The questionable trade was trading Jamaal Tinsley/Parker. However, it is yet to be seen what will come out of that deal..

I would not change any of the deals that we have made save that one. Because now we stand in a much better position than we did before.

[Guest]

Just because our team isn't playing up to it's potential, doesn't mean that the trades were wrong. The questionable trade was trading Jamaal Tinsley/Parker. However, it is yet to be seen what will come out of that deal.. "

I hear LOTS of bad things about Tinsley.Parker is

ok,but he isn't totally a PG.

Yes it does mean the trades were wrong...If they were

right,well we would be winning.

[capstone21]

He did

[hawkster411]

"But boy didn't Mr. Van Gundy look comfortable at Philips Saturday."

I might add, Boy didn't Mr. Fratello look comfortable at Philips Saturday. =)

[Diesel]

In reply to:

---

Yes it does mean the trades were wrong...If they were

right,well we would be winning.

---

Would you say the same about Brand in LAC?

Would you have said the same about Shaq and Kobe after their first three Years together in LAL??

Would you say the same about Marbury last yr?

What you must understand is that winning and Losing can never be attributed to 1 player.

[beav]

van gundy as hawks coach... we might actually see something eye-popping from the hawks.... team defense!

[KB21]

I think Fratello is an even better defensive coach than Van Gundy, and Fratello knows how to get the most out of his talent offensively as well. Van Gundy really seems to lack imagination when it comes to getting offense from his players.

Fratello is a great teacher and a master strategist. Why the Hawks got rid of him in the first place for Boob Wiess, I'll never know.

[Guest]

"What you must understand is that winning and Losing can never be attributed to 1 player. "

None of these trades have made a team that can

fit together...

None are passers

None are defenders

None are double figure rebounders

None of them have size

None have slashing ability

Shareef/Robinson don't play with high intensity.....

Neither are quick or atheletic.

All Pete done was bring "in the flow of the game"

type of scorers.

When your team lacks all of the above it's hard to

expect to win.

None of these guys have made this franchise better

and they never will.

We still have the worst fan support in the league.A

8 win increase isn't enough.