Would NY.....

[jezmund]

......trade Thomas for Nazr and maybe a 2nd if necessary. Nazr's deal is a year longer and Thomas could help us win now without giving up any of our future. Let's say considering all the talk surrounding the Hawks right now that the following happen....

-JT wants way more than we are willing to give and Miami seems to be up for giving him what he wants. I don't see why they would give us Wade to save 2-3M dollars but let's say they do.

-If it's between us and Washington, I don't see why he'd want to go to Washington other than playing time. That could change, though, if we move JT.

-NY wants to get younger and agrees to a Thomas for Nazr/2nd rounder. This might be an unfair deal but you don't know until you try.

Dickau/Armstrong

Wade/Hansen

Grob/Diaw/vet?

SAR/Hendu

Theo/Thomas

A good coach could take that team a long way I think. (A good coach could take our current team a long way too, but this is if JT wants some huge deal.) That team has a lot of interchangeable parts. If Grob gets hurt SAR or Diaw could start at SF if necessary and Thomas could move in at PF or C if SAR or Theo get hurt. I'm not sure if Dickau is ready to start, yet, but Armstrong is fully capable of starting if necessary. I do like the sound of building our future around Dickau, Wade, and Diaw at the guard/wing positions. Although that team lacks top tier scoring ability, all 3 have multiple talents. They all play hard, can handle the ball, have athleticism. Dickau might not be the quickest PG but he is crafty and plays hard. Diaw might not have the sweetest J but (from what I hear) can play some quality D and help with the ball handling. Wade from what I saw of Marquette this year is a leader, all-around basketball player, who plays solid D and is an above-average rebounder for his size.

[Guest]

Help us win now.Dickie boy and a short rookie SG is

going to help us now?And again...where is the talent?

If we are going to get rid of JT we probably need a

starting PG and Dan is not that guy.

It might seem like I'm picking at this Wade kid.But he

wasn't even a top 5 pick in a weak draft and he's another

short SG so I'm not convinced.

[jezmund]

I wasn't talking about Dickau/Wade helping us win now. I was referring to Kurt Thomas. He is definitely an upgrade over Nazr in ability and experience. I'd much rather have JT starting than Dickau but not at 8-9M a year. And I do believe Wade was a top 5 pick this year if I'm correct. To Miami at #5? That doesn't make a difference, though. My point is, I'd like to keep JT but I'm already moving on to the fact that there might be a good chance he is gone.

[Guest]

My point is that we wouldn't win next year.We already

have TO problems and basically two rookies starting is

not going to help that.

It's tough because I want to win now....But it also appears

that we need to scrap this team totally.

Dickau/Wade/Dog/Shareef/Theo is a even smaller

team than we already have.I just dunno about it.

[Admin]

Okay first off, to the few who believe that Dickau would start over Armstrong, thats not going to happen. Maybe next year, but not this year. If we sign him after trading JT its strictly to be our starter.

Hotlanta before you run off at the mouth with your "reasons" for not liking someone, you should check your facts

In reply to:

---

It might seem like I'm picking at this Wade kid. But he wasn't even a top 5 pick in a weak draft and he's another short SG so I'm not convinced.

---

Wade was a top 5 pick in this draft. He was the BEST SG in college basketball last year and the top guard picked in this entire draft. This is what NBADraft.net has to say about him

Strengths: Possesses one of the most explosive first steps in all of college basketball ... Extremely athletic player who has superb leaping ability and dominating quickness ... Once Wade goes into the lane he has the ability to drive and dish if the defense collapses ... Plays very poised and mature for his age. Seems to maintain the same facial expression regardless if his team is up or down by 30 points ... Has an NBA ready body which usually allows him to finish after contact occurs ... Plays solid perimeter defense and understands how to cut-off the passing lanes ... Thanks to his athleticism he is an excellent rebounder ... Has a great understanding of shot selection and rarely forces up bad shots ... Understands how to shield off his defender when driving to the basket ... Creative player who has the body control and excellent relation to the basket skills to convert difficult shots off the glass ... Has become more of a leader this year ... Draws a good amount of fouls due to his aggressive, penetrating style of play ...

[Guest]

NBAdraft.net also compaired Darius Miles to Tracy McGrady

Chris Mihm to Brad Daughtery

Keyon Dooling to Steve Francis

He sounds like Antonio Daniels to me

[Admin]

They didnt say that they would become those players......you cant ever go by that, you have to go by what they list as their strengths and weaknesses, not their comparisons.......I mean they have to compare those guys to some type of player that is successful in the NBA or nobody would know who the [censored] they are being compared to.

[Guest]

true,but I'm just trying to prove that just because NBA

draft said such and such don't mean anything.

It just seems strange Daniels and Wade are both top

5 picks...Not really PG's...but are short for SG's..both

are athletic....both seem to be pretty good defenders..

I have a hardtime buying short SG's after what I've

seen with JT.It seems like we really don't help our

selves with that and we are trading for a unproven

player.

[Admin]

He is 3" taller than JT and his wingspan is at least 6-8" longer than JT's is and he is a much better defender. He is a short SG when you compare him to all of the SFs in this league that are mascarading as SGs like T-Mac and Vince, but 6'4 with his wingspan isnt too bad. He was able to shut down Lebron James and that says something to me. Not to mention that last year the guy averaged something like 22ppg, 6rpg, and 5apg......those are very good stats.

[jezmund]

I agree that Armstrong would start Dickau until Dickau shows us he's ready or Armstrong doesn't work out like we might think. I just put Dickau 1st on the depth chart, not really thinking about who would start. He would have more of a part in our future, though. The more we talk about Wade, though, the more I like him.

Armstrong/Wade/Robinson/SAR/Theo could win as many games as we have been while saving 6M or so in cap.

[Guest]

I don't really put much stock into college stats anyway.

Wasn't Ed Gray a 25PPG scorer in college?

He was able to shut down Lebron James and that says something to me."

Didn't someone say that Hansen did a pretty good job

also?I wouldn't suggest that shuting down a 18 year

old kid should be the bar to decide.

Vince Carter

Paul Pierce

Kobe Bryant

Tracy McGrady

Michael Finley

Eddie Jones

And most of the other SG's have size over him.

Besides I want to rebuild and get a superstar.

[beav]

Even if it is true as someone suggested here recently that Thomas is a PF masquerading as a C, it is also quite true that he is at least starting caliber at one of the positions for most any team in the league.

Nazr has not proven that he is a starting center. He's done good things in limited minutes, but is not a proven starter. In fact I'm not sure that he's ever even proven himself as a marginal starter. On another subject here are his games played numbers the last seven seasons:

26

28

30

28

58

82

35

Obviously the first two years he wasn't showing enough to play much which is a little bothersome, but more importantly I'm worried about the next two years. He turned out to be a pleasant surprise as a garbage throw-in from Philly but I just think that it was because we found a good backup.

I question his durability and toughness on top of that. Some west coast team might be more likely to take a chance on him.

[KB21]

Nazr has proven that he is a functional center though, and there aren't many of those in the league these days. You can probably count the legitimate starting centers in the league on one hand.

[beav]

but would you trade Thomas for him?