For all the people complaining

[frosgrim]

My thinking on Yi is that his offensive game is much better than Horford's. I guess its a trade-off question, and Horford is that low-block beast, esp on the defensive side, that we need. Again, I really hope that comes about. I think I will like the guy. The Hawks now can put some beef on the court. Sheldon at center and Horford at PF for stretches will be tough to score on.

Law is going to be a better defender than I think a lot people are saying. He seems to have the fire-in-the-belly aspect that is needed to both be successful and a good defender (not great, but very solid).

[sinctybldh]

last years draft i thought our gm looked like a clown. this year i am happy to say i am very happy with what Knight has done. they drafted right. i would have liked stuckey at pick 11 but i can't complain that we got a solid point guard along with the consensus no 3 pick and a guy that can play center.

[thescout5]

I am satisfied with the picks although I would have loved to get Horford and Conley but seeing conley at 4 no way would that happen. People are underestimating Horford he s much more athletic than Sheldon and KB has pointed out there are not that many centers with size in the conference or for that matter in the NBA. The potential talent of our front line will be hard to match up against in the conference. One thing we have lacked is intelligent players horford is that plus he helps block shots and rebound just what we needed.

Of course I would love to have some size but remember all the times teams driving the paint and getting easy baskets hopefully will help in that matter. As for Law I don't expect for him to start right away but break into the lineup. We won't need him to score as much so we have to hope what he doesn't do scoring he gets better passing the ball for assists. Alot of people are knocking him I am willing to wait very few players don't have some question coming into the NBA. Billups,Cassell both had questions so lets give the kid a chance. If he does better than we expect we already know he can score and is money during clutch.

It would be great to get a veteran like Jack to groom Law and I think there could be a deal to get a point veteran since the Hawks have a glut at forward. Trade bait in my view would be Marvin,Childress,Sheldon and if it was for size since portland has a few big men ZaZa could be inlcuded.

[mrhonline]

For what it's worth, the complaining isn't as bad this year.

[KB21]

I think people look at the fact that Law doesn't get many steals or many blocks and automatically think he isn't a good defensive player. Just based on what I've seen from him, he's a good positonal defender. He isn't a gambler that will sag off and play the passing lanes, but he can defend. He's no Darren Collison defensively, but he's good. I see a lot of Chauncy Billups in his game.

[Admin]

that we have all been able to see coming for a month or more now. That was the whole basis for the argument behind taking Horford and passing on Conley. The difference between Law and Conley is drastically smaller than that of Horford and anyone available at 11 would have if we had taken Conley.

[Dejay]

They should've made a deal to bring in a veteran guy who can help right now instead of a pair of rooks who MIGHT. They're already the youngest team in the league; why get younger?

[Admin]

go back and read any number of my posts from the past month where I have talked about this EXACT scenario happening where we had to go big first and then go PG later.

[PeeplesCuttino]

I was sad that we didnt get Amare,

I trying to figure this one out, we got alot of forwards on this team, I am trying to figure why we cant trade one of them away to a another team, I know that BK got a fetish when it comes down to Forwards but this is way too much for any team. Soth, do you have any news or information that we may do a trade or whatever...

[AHF]

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that we have all been able to see coming for a month or more now. That was the whole basis for the argument behind taking Horford and passing on Conley. The difference between Law and Conley is drastically smaller than that of Horford and anyone available at 11 would have if we had taken Conley.

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What you just said is simply an after the fact situation, but I doubt you would ever understand that.

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No - it really isn't an after the fact situation because it was expected that there would be nothing but guards and small forwards on the board by the time the pick hit 11.

I really like Conley but was swung over to the side of rooting for Horford/Yi at 3 and a PG at 11 because every single interior presence in the draft was expected to be drafted by the time 11 rolled around (other than reaches there like Jason Smith, Sean Williams, etc.)

When you can predict beforehand that someone will be available or not be available that is strategic planning not after-the-fact rationalizing, IMO. I am satisfied with this draft because of that before-the-fact rationale.

If Acie Law, Critt and Stuckey were predicted to go before #11 and Noah, Yi and B. Wright were expected to be on the board at #11 then you could fault the Hawks for taking Horford and lucking out when Law was still on the board but that just isn't the case.

[mrhonline]

HF, what matters from the Hawks' perspective is in fact a little bit of clairvoyance. They couldn't make the #3 pick in a vacuum. This team has more than one hole to fill.

They had to guess which players would be available at #11, and measure that with which players were good selections at #3. The actual proceedings of the draft proved they made the right selection.

[Sasha_Volkov]

Teams put such a premium on size that it was the most likely scenario. Once Hibbert pulled out it really made #11 worthless for PF/C pickings.

[Admin]

It was SO OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE that this would happen that even with your head as far up your a** as it usually is you should have been able to see this. I suppose I overestimated you though. That won't happen again.

[Guest Walter]

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The issue with Yi is that he is absolutely not ready to defend anyone in the post.

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Yi will be a better NBA defender than Law will. I don't see how you can diss Yi for his defense when his shot blocking is exceptional and not Law for his when he's not particularly good anywhere on defense. Horford's defense will fade at center. He can't man up on NBA centers and weakside defend. He's not that kind of guy. The kind of center we need. He's frankly alot like SW defensively.

W

[TheDude]

yes i think we may still pull off something smaller...like chill and lue for calderon or something to that effect..although that would still leave us with too many points..

i think i would have taken the chance on stuckey.

[TheDude]

The Hawks did the smartest thing. They KNEW that they had two holes and they drafted in a way to fill both weaknesses. Sure, they could have gotten Conley at 3, but that would have prevented the ability from filling the OTHER need at #11 (and if you DID take a big man at #11, he wasnt going to be very good).

You take the chance of not being able to fill both holes in the draft and if somehow a trade can't get done (as we have already found out can happen), then what? you got no DECENT big man in the offseason and DEPEND on Shelden playing stronger. What I'm saying is this- when you have two weaknesses to fill which option does a better job of filling those needs IF YOU DON'T DEPEND ON TRADES:

a- Conley at point, ummm maybe Jason White? (you could draft Thornton-who i love- but you still didnt address your big man defense issue)

b- Law at point, Horford for the big man.

that's the thought going into the pick....why DEPEND on the possibility of a trade knowing how this league is...

[BossTweed]

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I am not arguing against that or anthing. But when people talk about "if you picked Conley, and now you can't pick a PF/C" type of situation is just ridiculous. How exacltly are you supposed to know that the draft would play out as it has? It clearly is an after the fact argument as of right now.

Sorry if I have not looked back into your exact posts, but as of right now bringing up the picks right now is after the fact. It could be that the whole time you were for one situation, but I just haven't looked through it so far so forgive me and please don't take it personally.

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You don't predict the future, but you DO come up with probabilities of things happening. The probability of #3Conley and #11Noah/Hawes/Yi/Wright occurring was maybe 20% from what I could tell, and the chances that we could get #3Horford and #11Conley/Law/Critt was 99%.

If you don't understand that, I don't know what to say. There must have been 20 people on these exact boards saying "if you pick Conley first, you won't have any options at #11, that's why you pick Horford at #3". No one is making this stuff up after the fact. There were a bunch of people saying this. This was the single biggest arguement against taking Conley with #3.