Poll: Which 1-time Hawk would have got us to the title?

[Diesel]

If this guy would have been a Hawks Earlier, Later, not been injured, or Stayed a Hawk... Would he have got us to the Title....

Omitted were Ken Norman, Kevin Willis, Sean Rooks, Mookie Blaylock, Rumeal Robinson, Kenny Smith, Jon Barry, Shammond Williams, Jacque Vaughn, Lo Wright, Brevin Knight, JR Rider, Jim Jackson, Jumaine Jones, Stacey Augmon, Jamal Tinsley, and Babcock's favorite... Roy Marble.

But feel free to write in a name.

[chillzatl]

You can look at all those great players and speculate which of them would have won us a championship. I mean they were great players, they probably all would have made a huge difference.

But I think, in recent years, Laphonso Ellis would have made the biggest difference. The mookie/smitty/deke hawks were VERY good. Their only problem was offense. They were one good SF away from being a finals team. If Laphonso had contributed at the level he displayed the two years before he came to Atlanta, I feel he would have put us [censored] close to breaking out of the 2nd round and going all the way.

You also have to consider the year that Nique was traded. THey were a damned good team that first year under Lenny. THey traded away Nique and sputtered into the playoffs.

[Diesel]

If you let Babcock tell it, the Hawks won more after Nique was traded? However, I can't help but agree on both points. I think Nique 94 was the year that we were definitely going somewhere. Jordan was in retirement year Number 1. We had own the Rockets and Knicks that year. We had a good mix of Scoring and defense. Then Babs said.. Well, Nique's career is on the downs.... Let's trade him.

I agree also about Ellis. I believe if He and Hendu hadn't gone down, that we could have done something big in his second year. Not to mention his first year. Again, we had a good mix of defense and scoring when he played.

[cynic]

I hated to give up Nique. He played with fire that year.

Babcock is technically right, we did have a higher regular season winning percentage with Manning than with Nique.

I think it was .700 vs. .690 or something, but Manning only played a little more than 20 games, so that's really the same percentage.

We just lacked the passion that we'd had with Nique, and the Pacers had that desire. I'll never forget that game against Houston when we absolutely pasted the hottest team in the league.

I don't think Babcock has ever recognized the need for desire among players.