Jaywalkers article on the trade

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Big Dog Gone.....Retiring Brandon In

According to ESPN the Magazine's Ric Bucher, the Hawks are participants in a 4 team deal that will dump Glenn Robinson and bring in the retiring Terrell Brandon.

The deal would also have to include an additional player going from MIN or ATL to PHL to balance the salaries.

The Hawks have NOT been notified of any deal, so nothing is official at this point.

But IF the trade does go through, the Hawks will finally get the true PG they have been craving.

The only problem is he'll never play a game.

Brandon, who has been injured for the past season and a half, has been sought after because it is believed he can no longer play.

If this is true, then the Hawks will have to do 4 things to complete this windfall.

1. Brandon will have to file retirement papers.

2. The Hawks will have to negotiate a buyout with Brandon, likely for the entire remainder of his contract, of which reportedly, almost 80% will be paid by insurance.

3. The Hawks will petition the league for cap relief based on Brandon no longer being able to play.

4. Come February, on the second anniversary of Brandon's now career-ending injury, the Hawks can remove his number off the cap.

As for what the means on the court for the Hawks….it doesn’t help. Let’s look at the pros and cons:

Pros

1. Money

This is not a pro for the fans, but rather for the Hawks owners (whoever that may be at this point). The deal, assuming that Brandon’s number comes off in February, will put the Hawks at 41.5 million.

However, the Hawks are likely to sign Jason Terry, who would command approx about 5-6 million next season, making the cap swell to 47 million. Toss in the three players that would finish off the roster, and the Hawks are around 50-53 million, thereby staying under the cap, the cliff threshold, and everything, making their owner the recipient of luxury tax rebates.

2. Dog Didn’t Fit

The Hawks, under Terry Stotts, wanted to play more uptempo, a game in which Robinson simply didn’t play well. It wasn’t that Robinson didn’t want to play uptempo, he simply couldn’t. The team certainly finished the season well without Robinson, although it was with an easier schedule, but then that could be said about many winning streaks in the L.

3. DerMarr Coming Back?

This could be a con for some people, but certainly the looming relief of a Brandon contract could mean that the Hawks might spend a bit more than the minimum to fill out the roster. Even after the Terry deal, the Hawks could spend up to 6 million for three players without going over the luxury tax.

Cons

1. Where’s the production?

Count me as one of the people who wonder when 20 points and 6 ½ rebounds from a small forward is getting no production?

Yes, the defense was below par, but Robinson did make things easier for Shareef, as Reef’s higher FG% indicated (despite a now-repaired ailing back), because of the defense’s need to watch Robinson spotting up.

2. Where’s the Small Forward?

This deal leaves the Hawks with Chris Crawford as the lone SF on the roster.

(Crickets)

Obviously, the Hawks would address this position in Free Agency, but with whom? James Posey, whom the Hawks liked, signed with Memphis, and it has been established that, while DerMarr is a matchup favor for the Hawks at the 2, at the 3 it becomes less of an advantage. Anyway, leaving a starting position to a guy who hasn’t played in over a season could be considered faulty.

3. Is this a Sign?

Before the trading deadline last season, then-GM Pete Babcock steadfastly denied the Hawks were looking to dump salary.

Now, 5 months later, the Hawks have dumped salary and face a team that did not add any talent in doing so.

Is this a sign of coming ownership? Is the fact that David McDavid is now bringing in AOL as a partner, albeit small, indicating a cash flow problem? Is the fact that he reportedly laid out only 95 million of the final purchase price indicating a potential purge of top salaries?

Some things that do need to be debunked about the Big Dog Era in Atlanta:

a. Glenn Robinson was not a cancer in the locker room. Did his play on the court upset Theo Ratliff? Probably, but hey, so did Shareef’s defense. Doesn’t mean they didn’t talk to each other on the practice court or in the locker room.

b. Glenn Robinson never demanded anything special from the Hawks. When Lon Kruger isolated Dog out on the perimeter and made him do the one things he absolutely cannot do (dribble), Dog never lashed out in the media, nor blamed anyone but himself afterward.

He never asked that the offense change, or his role. If Stotts yelled at him on the sidelines, there was no rolling eyes, no talk back, just a pro who took his medicine and tried to apply it.

c. Glenn Robinson didn’t refuse to play defense.

He simply couldn’t do it. His movement, though he tried, was limited, and he wasn’t strong at all around the perimeter because of it. He tried to make up for it, using his quick hands to get steals, but the penetration of his man necessitated Theo Ratliff’s moving sidewalk around the basket to cover Dog, Reef, and JT.

http://hawks.realgm.com/showarticle.php?artid=330

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