Three guys who can help the Hawks....

[Diesel]

1. DJ. I would love for us to sign him with a 2 year 2 million dollar deal.

2. Antonio Daniels. I would love for us to trade: Nazr/CC/Dickau for Daniels(SNT)/Woods/McInnis. Is that a dream or what? I'm not sure because Neither Daniels or McInnis was recieved by Portland and they will need some C help soon. Also, who knows what they will get for Sheed.

3. Kevin Willis. After a trade of Nazr, I'd sign Willis 2 years 9 million (MCE).

Then our team would be this:

JT/Daniels/McInnis

Diaw/DJ

Big Dog/Woods

SAR/Hendu

Theo/Willis

Then I would see how expensive it would be to get Corey Benjamin!

[Double_Dribble]

i think i read somewhere that the Hawks won't be using the mid level exception this offseason, just like last year

Besides, isn't 2 years 9 million a little extravagant? Especially considering he took the minimum from SA and is over 40?

did he really do that much last year that warrants that kind of raise?

I think he would take much less, especially if you were willing to guarantee 2 years for a man of his age

[Guest]

man, he ain't worth a full MCE. Not Willis, not for two years....

[cyman3]

i read an article where it mentioned that hes gonna play til his body couldnt take it anymore... he said he'll play a few more years since hes still in top shape.

it also mentioned about how SPURS want him back and with Robinson out, his role might increase.

[Traceman]

There are going to be some really good players available for the MCE because of the luxury tax. If we were willing to spend our full MCE this year, we could DEFINITELY get a better player than Willis. GP might play for the MCE for goodness sakes!

[Guest]

now there's an interesting post...and question. I still have serious doubts as to whether GP is a) going to remain with the Bucks (I doubt it, cause he'll have to play sg primarily, with Ford as the pg). b) I don't see him really fitting in with the Lakers, taking that much of back seat and depleted role.

Would y'all be willing to risk the future on GP? Sign him to a four year, 8-9 million deal (I think that's about what'd it take for him to come to a team like the Hawks).

Do the Bucks have his Bird rights? or is he unrestricted? I'm not sure how that works with his transfer of teams. Are Bird rights for the team or for the player? You get someone like that in here, someone who's a floor and locker room leader and almost all of the problems this team has as far as chemistry, roles, etc. are taken care of. JT and GP would switch on D on certain nights, depending on the style, size, and quickness of the pg/sg tandom of the opposing teams.

Granted this is really a pipe dream...but if you had a starting lineup of GP/Terry/Dog/SAR/Theo with DD/Diaw/Hendu/Nazr off the bench...good gosh that's a team. But you'd have to overpay and overextend payton beyond his true market value...

[Playmaker0017]

Weasel,

I would sign GP in a heartbeat, but it would require losing Big Loaf, in my mind.

Put Diaw or Newble at SF and Reef at PF or Reef at SF and Hendu at PF.

I wouldn't want BD and GP on the team. Their shots would so overwhelm the rest of the team... JT and Reef might as well not play.

Play.

[Guest]

I dunno. I thought about it, but I'm not sure how it'd work. I mean, doing a snt with the Bucks would be tough, cause I'm not sure they'd want GRob back...they're rebuilding and developing (plus they have that investment in TT).

However, a snt is the only way that we could go over the cap to get gp (above the mce). We can't get far enough beneath the soft cap to sign GP outright to that sort of contract, even if we traded GRob right now for Brandon's expiring contract...it wouldn't work.

Which really leaves you with two options if you want to play this game - figure out a snt with the Bucks that they'd want to do, and do it only partialy with the tradechecker, cause you'd have to figure out what gp's new salary would be (like I said, probably somewhere in the 8-10m range over four years). It's tough, believe me (played with it a bit, have to talk to bucks fans more about what they think their team needs/needs to get rid of right now and if they'd want GRob back).

Or assume that GP would play with the current squad for the mce...which is really all he's going to get anyhow, cause he's not going to Utah, he's not going SanAntonio, he's not going to Denver, he's not going to the Clipps...he's either gone in an snt (which is hard for us to put an attractive one together without losing reef or theo) or decides to play iwth someone for the mce.

it's almost that simple...

[Guest]

looking at it again, you could give them GRob and Nazr for GP Anthony Mason (two years left on current deal, I don't like him but his salary expiration date fits with our other current "problems," so maybe it wouldn't be that bad, and I know they want to get rid of him and can't). GP's new salary would be more or less what Glen's is now, about 10 million a year under that scenario, though it could go down a million or so and still work.

That's the best I can come up with that they might consider...it'd be contingent on GP forcing their hand and saying no, I'm not coming back.

Plus, having GP in the East to square off with Kidd a few times a year and perhaps in the playoffs sure would be fun. Keep on dreaming.

[Traceman]

Milwaukee has any need (or want) for Dog. No way would I send them Reef for GP. They have no need for JT with Ford coming in. That leaves Theo. I wouldn't send Theo for GP straight up but would you consider a deal where we received Des Mason and GP for Theo and Glover (SNT)?

I don't know if I would do such a deal and I don't know if Milwaukee would either. Right now, Pryzbilla and Gadzuric are the only centers on their roster. If they did such a deal, they could line up:

Theo/Pryzbilla/Gadzuric

Mason/Smith

Thomas/Kukoc/Haislip

Redd/Glover

Ford/???

That's not bad but not great either.

We'd lineup:

Nazr/???

Reef/Hendu

Dog/Mason/CC

JT/DJ/Diaw

GP/DD

or

Nazr/???

Reef/Hendu

Dog/Diaw/CC

Mason/DJ

GP/JT/DD

with JT playing the Bobby Jackson role of 6th man. We could see a lot of:

Nazr

Reef

Mason

JT

GP

I don't think I'd pull the trigger because I heard from Jaywalker that Theo is really working hard to keep his body fit so that he can stay healthy but such a deal would have some benefits. We would probably be a good defensive center away from contention in the EC. Say McDavid, how about throwing the full MCE at Zo? Yeah right.

[Guest]

I'd almost work towards keeping Theo above SAR. I'm not trying to undervalue SAR at all, but decent centers are so hard to find and so useful, esp. in the small ball, guard oriented east. SAR's equally as difficult to replace, but you find more serviceable pf's than you ever do serviceable centers.

However, Theo's market value is far below SAR's, despite the differences in their salaries. You trade SAR and you expect to get something significant back in return...and I don't see another team trading for Theo as the primary target in a trade and wiling to give up equal compensation in return.

[Playmaker0017]

Weasel,

I am not sure I would really call Theo a center. He's only 6'9". I think he is playing out of position.

I love what he brings, but he isn't a center.

Play.

[Guest]

He'll pose fine as a center in the East...to the same extent that Ben Wallace does, though Wallace fits much more into the mold of the prototypical pf (see role on the enforcer, Lambeer and all the old timers...Martin's the best example of that now).

Theo's 6'10 (he's a hair taller than Reef to the best of my recollections) and has a lot on the line these next couple of years.

FYI - GP is an unrFA, which clears that up. If you get traded from a team with which you have Bird rights, the rights completely disappear. see below

http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/aldridge_david/1574934.html

which brings up another interesting point of conversation...what would you offer Maggette? Is he worth a full MCE?

[Traceman]

the Bird Rights issue. Are you saying that Milwaukee does NOT have GP's Bird Rights? If you are, I think you are wrong. GP's Bird Rights WERE traded with him from Seattle to Milwaukee and Milwaukee can exceed the cap to resign him. The primary reason they made the Cassell trade was so that they could cut Peeler and save a little over $3 million in salary this year. That way, they could resign GP to a deal starting in the $10 million range and still not be in luxury tax territory.