It only takes three

[Buzzard]

all-stars to become a contender. I like what our front office did by staying away from the draft. As much as I like Mark Jackson as a player, his references to the Celtics almost made me puke. The one he kept repeating was "if the Celtics can turn it around 41 games it is possible for anyone". As if the Celtics built through the draft and a Kevin Garnett is on the block every year instead of the truth, which is once every two decades....Completely misleading statement which he repeated all night long.

Now back on the subject. JJ is the truth. Al Horford is the truth.

JJ is there. I think Horford being a all-star is a given and Smoove is right on the cusp of being a given. If Marvin can improve his range and start knocking down threes like a big time scoring SF he will be there. Acie needs to show the same confidence and leadership he had in college. BK missed some big time picks but he also hit a few possible home runs as well.

I like our team a lot. It onle takes three all-stars to contend for a championship. We have two no brainers in Horford and JJ. Lets see what Smoove, Marvin, and Acie do this year. I think that is what our front office decided and I like that thought a lot...

[Vesper]

Not having picked Chris Paul, Deron Williams or Rudy Gay may actually work out in our favor.

We have a starting five, plus Law and Childress that are all young and above average in talent. On any given night at least two of these players can carry the team to victory as long as the rest of the team plays within themselves and we don't have to many turnovers. We just need competent veterans and young spark plugs coming off the bench to put this team over the top!

[Iman]

I like the topic and both comments. However, in my mind, to really contend you need two superstars or one superstar and a couple of allstars. We appear to have a few lower level allstars. That'll get us into the playoffs regularly but not really with much of a shot unless those players are really coached well, etc. I guess what we'll still have to do is move some of our depth for a player closer to superstar, or maybe playing Horford at PF allows him to become a superstar?

And on the drafting thing, it did pan out OK since we got Horford and we aren't too front loaded in our rebuild with players needing to be paid the max. Having to extend one of those points next year after extending Smoove and Chillz this year, we'd be in more cap trouble than we are now. Shelden's pick probably hurt us more since Brandon Roy or Rudy Gay would have allowed us to consider moving JJ or Marvin without hurting our depth.

[Diesel]

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all-stars to become a contender. I like what our front office did by staying away from the draft. As much as I like Mark Jackson as a player, his references to the Celtics almost made me puke. The one he kept repeating was "if the Celtics can turn it around 41 games it is possible for anyone". As if the Celtics built through the draft and a Kevin Garnett is on the block every year instead of the truth, which is once every two decades....Completely misleading statement which he repeated all night long.

Now back on the subject. JJ is the truth. Al Horford is the truth.

JJ is there. I think Horford being a all-star is a given and Smoove is right on the cusp of being a given. If Marvin can improve his range and start knocking down threes like a big time scoring SF he will be there. Acie needs to show the same confidence and leadership he had in college. BK missed some big time picks but he also hit a few possible home runs as well.

I like our team a lot. It onle takes three all-stars to contend for a championship. We have two no brainers in Horford and JJ. Lets see what Smoove, Marvin, and Acie do this year. I think that is what our front office decided and I like that thought a lot...

You have to recognize what Ainge did.

He look at progressing Youth and Capspace and he cashed it all in for 1 shot to win it all... And they did. I don't think they can repeat. I think the East just got stronger and Boston will have the fight of their lives to stay good.

But I still respect Ainge for recognizing that potential never won nothing and it doesn't always stay where you have it.

I'm on board with signing the Joshes... But is that all we plan to do?

Will Sund just resign them... add to them Casey Jacobson, Othella Harrington, and Paul Davis and proclaim that we're set?

Because if that's it... then I might as well be disappointed.

I'm looking for us to get some players who can help us and make a real splash.

[Buzzard]

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We just need competent veterans and young spark plugs coming off the bench to put this team over the top!

I agree with this completely. Both Smoove and Marvin improved their ppg and fg% last year. No reason to believe they have hit a wall after only two and three years of experience. They do have one glaring weakness in their offensive games that has not improved; and it is their inability to consistently hit the three.

We need one or both of them to improve their range. If they can do that; sky is the limit for our Hawks. That is where we need to see the improvement this year.

[Buzzard]

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I'm looking for us to get some players who can help us and make a real splash.

Ainge got a franchise player in Garnett while already having one in Peirce. That is how he made his splash. We have JJ who I think is comparable to Peirce. Who in the world is available that is comparable to Garnett?

We have a lot of young talent that is not fully developed. I do not see us becoming any better by getting younger and less developed. Not right now anyway.

Maybe at the trade deadline we will have a better hold on what we need; but right now I do not think we have it figured out. If either Smoove or Marvin ( both in a perfect world) start making threes at a respectable clip, we may not need anything to compete for a championship.

I honestly think our biggest weakness is a knock down shooter at the three. Marvin has the stroke but he needs to improve his range. Smoove is working hard on his stroke and range. I say let's wait and see if we already have the peices before we start making deals to aquire more youth...

[Buzzard]

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Shelden's pick probably hurt us more since Brandon Roy or Rudy Gay would have allowed us to consider moving JJ or Marvin without hurting our depth.

That one hurt bad. It not only failed to give us a starter but it really did not add any quality depth either. I agree that it takes one franchise and a couple of all stars or two franchise players (Peirce and Granett, Duncan and Parker, Shaq and Kobe, the list is as long as there are contenders and champions). I just think it is way to early to quit on Smoove, Horford, and Marvin; and go looking for younger potential franchise players.

[Admin]

Once we re-sign the Josh's we are over the cap and only have about 7 million to spend with the MLE and LLE. That will get us a few cheap vets but nobody to really write home about.

We don't have any big contracts to move in a trade other than Bibby and if we trade him we will need a starting PG because Acie isn't a starting PG yet.

We will have 2 very attractive player/contracts once we re-sign both of the Josh's but we will need to wait 6 months after to trade them because of their BYC status.

Obviously we aren't trading JJ.

Marvin is tradeable but he doesn't make nearly enough money to get back an equal talent unless it's another young player.

We could move Zaza but then we won't have a backup 5 or anyone even physically classified as a 5 on our roster.

[mrhonline]

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Once we re-sign the Josh's we are over the cap and only have about 7 million to spend with the MLE and LLE. That will get us a few cheap vets but nobody to really write home about.

Don't even have that. The Hawks will have basically one LLE, and two vet minimum contracts to give out.

Everyone here needs to be aware that the luxury tax will restrict Sund greatly.

[Admin]

The luxury tax might, but then again it might not restrict him. I think that we can sign the players that we want and see how the team is doing at the trading deadline and if we aren't performing up to the level of a team that deserves to be over the tax then we can look to move Bibby, Smith, or Childress to a team with some cap room to get us back under the tax. That's the approach that I would like to see them take. That or just say screw it we are going to pay the tax for one season until Bibby's deal comes off the books.

[Diesel]

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I'm looking for us to get some players who can help us and make a real splash.

Ainge got a franchise player in Garnett while already having one in Peirce. That is how he made his splash. We have JJ who I think is comparable to Peirce. Who in the world is available that is comparable to Garnett?

We have a lot of young talent that is not fully developed. I do not see us becoming any better by getting younger and less developed. Not right now anyway.

Maybe at the trade deadline we will have a better hold on what we need; but right now I do not think we have it figured out. If either Smoove or Marvin ( both in a perfect world) start making threes at a respectable clip, we may not need anything to compete for a championship.

I honestly think our biggest weakness is a knock down shooter at the three. Marvin has the stroke but he needs to improve his range. Smoove is working hard on his stroke and range. I say let's wait and see if we already have the peices before we start making deals to aquire more youth...

It doesn't take us getting Garnett. It takes us going after somebody who can make us better.

For instance, Having Smoove, Bibs, and JJ is fine. All three guys do what they do. However, I would have loved to see us use other players to get RJ or MMiller. I would like to see us make a move toward possibly moving for Posey or Daniel Gibson. If we need to use Bibs, let's see if we can get a solid PG in return who can help train Acie or even be PG. Point is that I think if we just stick to what we had last year, we will disappear deeper than GS did.

[Admin]

How did Golden State disappear? They won more games and were a better team this past season and that's after losing a solid contributor in Jason Richardson. The west just got stronger around them.

The east will certainly be stronger this year, but at this point we haven't been passed by anyone behind us. That could change throughout free agency, but we are sure to make some moves as well and I know that some of you don't believe this but simply keeping our core together and having a healthy Bibby and after that Celtics series we should be a lot better to start next year than we were last year at the same point. Al and Acie will be a lot more prepared than they were. Woody should have learned some things to improve as a coach.

We could make some moves just to make moves, but really swapping Marvin/Zaza for Mike Miller or Richard Jefferson doesn't make us a better team. It might make us better at SF but it would make us a lot weaker on the bench. Nothing short of trading young pieces for a superstar (ala the Celtics) is going to make a significant impact on us next year. I would rather stay the course and find guys to contribute off the bench and get some quality bench coaches to help Woody.

[BusBoyIsBack]

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Not having picked Chris Paul, Deron Williams or Rudy Gay may actually work out in our favor.

We have a starting five, plus Law and Childress that are all young and above average in talent. On any given night at least two of these players can carry the team to victory as long as the rest of the team plays within themselves and we don't have to many turnovers. We just need competent veterans and young spark plugs coming off the bench to put this team over the top!

As much heat as we get for not taking Chris Paul/Deron Williams if we had one of those guys we wouldn't have Al Horford.

The key to this team as much as Marvin gets bashed, is IMO Acie Law.

If Acie Law can be our legit starting PG, then we potentially have that balanced starting 5 where everyone can score, defend, pass, and run.

We'd be a more athletic version of the Pistons.

It's just unfortunate that Bibby and Mike Woodson are going to stunt Acie's growth.

[Admin]

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It's just unfortunate that Bibby and Mike Woodson are going to stunt Acie's growth.

I agree with most of what you said in your post, however I don't think that's fair to say at all. Acie has said himself that he has already learned a lot from Bibby and that was the intention of the Hawks when they brought Bibby in. I think it's great that he has a well respected PG to learn from and while Bibby is nothing to write home about defensively, it's not like that is going to rub off on Acie. Acie is definitely the type of player that needs to have his confidence in order to play well and I don't think throwing him to the wolves and making him our starter would be the best way to build that confidence, but he does need to get a lot of minutes with the starters this coming season.

[Diesel]

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How did Golden State disappear? They won more games and were a better team this past season and that's after losing a solid contributor in Jason Richardson.

The west just got stronger around them

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I'm sure you answered your own question. However, if you can see that the East is getting stronger and we were nothing special last year, just fortunate, you need to look again.

You will see a comeback of Chicago, Miami, and NJ to go along with everybody else who made the playoffs. We will have to fight.

[Admin]

I don't dispute that the east will be stronger and that we will have to fight, but none of the teams below us made a move that clearly makes them better than us. The biggest weakness for us last year was consistency and a bench and if we fix the bench and improve our consistency we will be fine.

[crimedog]

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Not having picked Chris Paul, Deron Williams or Rudy Gay may actually work out in our favor.

We have a starting five, plus Law and Childress that are all young and above average in talent. On any given night at least two of these players can carry the team to victory as long as the rest of the team plays within themselves and we don't have to many turnovers. We just need competent veterans and young spark plugs coming off the bench to put this team over the top!

As much heat as we get for not taking Chris Paul/Deron Williams if we had one of those guys we wouldn't have Al Horford.

The key to this team as much as Marvin gets bashed, is IMO Acie Law.

If Acie Law can be our legit starting PG, then we potentially have that balanced starting 5 where everyone can score, defend, pass, and run.

We'd be a more athletic version of the Pistons.

It's just unfortunate that Bibby and Mike Woodson are going to stunt Acie's growth.

I hate getting our faces rubbed in it too but Chris Paul is probably one of the top 5 players in the league right now and Deron isn't too far behind.

Lets not kid ourselves into thinking we "lucked out" by not taking the most dynamic point since Stockton.

[Buzzard]

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It doesn't take us getting Garnett. It takes us going after somebody who can make us better.

For instance, Having Smoove, Bibs, and JJ is fine. All three guys do what they do. However, I would have loved to see us use other players to get RJ or MMiller. I would like to see us make a move toward possibly moving for Posey or Daniel Gibson. If we need to use Bibs, let's see if we can get a solid PG in return who can help train Acie or even be PG.

Point is that I think if we just stick to what we had last year, we will disappear deeper than GS did

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It is not that I would not like to have Miller or RJ but getting them would not be as easy as you make it out to be.

1st off why would Memphis want any player we could have offered? They are set at SF which is exactly why Miller was tradeable.

2nd What type of cap freedom could we have offered the Nets. They now have 17 million coming off the books in 2010! We only have three players that make any kind of serious money (JJ, Bibby, and Speedy). Trying to make the playoffs next season without JJ or Bibby would be next to impossible. So in my mind that leaves Speedy and his contract is not enough.

Its one thing to say I want a player and a serious reality check to actually make it happen.

Your last statement though is what I disagree with. If Horford, Smoove, Marvin, Chilz, and Acie still have a lot of improvement left in their tanks; why should we not expect our team to continue with its improvement?

Last season we were the youngest team in the playoffs. I fully expect us to be the most improved team in the playoffs next season!

[Dsinner]

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see how the team is doing at the trading deadline and if we aren't performing up to the level of a team that deserves to be over the tax then we can look to move Bibby, Smith, or Childress to a team with some cap room to get us back under the tax. That's the approach that I would like to see them take. That or just say screw it we are going to pay the tax for one season until Bibby's deal comes off the books.

..or, and I"m just saying here and I know this will be a stretch for some of you....GET RID OF THE COACH. If we are underperfoming AGAIN why make trades when we have a team that took the champs to 7 games? It's so obvious yet some still wouldn't admit it even if it happens again.

Sorry just tired of all the "trade" talk when we have a VERY capable team.

[Admin]

That may be an option as well. This may be a stretch for you to believe but the problem may be some of the players, or the coach, or both.