Hawks to make another big trade (Maybe)

[Hawksman]

This was posted over on the ESPN Message Boards by someone who claims to have contacts in the DAL organization ... He claims it will go down on Aug 1st (Friday)

A three-way BLOCKBUSTER about to happen between the Mavs, Blazers, & our Hawks

Here is the Trade:

DAL Trades:

Nick Van Exel

Raef LaFrentz

Tariq Abdul-Wahad

DAL Gets:

Rasheed Wallace

Ruben Patterson

Jeff McInnis

POR Trades:

Rasheed Wallace

Bonzi Wells

Ruben Patterson

Arvydas Sabonis (non-guaranteed contract)

Jeff McInnis

POR Gets:

Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Nick Van Exel

Theo Ratliff

Tariq Abdul-Wahad

ATL Trades:

Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Theo Ratliff

ATL Gets:

Raef LaFrentz

Bonzi Wells

Arvydas Sabonis (non-guaranteed contract which can be dumped for capspace)

[sinctybldh]

That trade would be horrible. Reading that just makes me sick to my stomach if it happens.

[jezmund]

Please tell me this trade isn't going to happen. I wouldn't trade SAR alone for those 3. Lafrentz is definitely a player I don't want on this team. He has a huge contract. So it is definitely not for cap purposes. Although we save some with Arvydas, we made the Big Dog trade supposedly to resign JT and after him there really isn't anyone to sign unless we are going after Lamar Odom. JT/Wells/Odom/Lafrentz/Nazr? JT/Wells/Odom is a very talented trio but I hate that frontcourt. That would be one bad defensive team. I'd much rather someone else get Lafrentz. I know that is probably some bogus rumor from a board poster but if it isn't, that is a horrible deal for us and a good deal for both DAL and POR.

[KB21]

Some guy on the dallas-mavs.com forum is saying that it's a deal on the table, and that all three teams have agreed to it as well.

First of all, Bonzi Wells will be a BYC player until the middle of September. This trade can't be done on August 1st.

Secondly, I do not see why the Hawks would do this deal. Writing off Sabonis's $7 million will put the Hawks about $9 million under this year's salary cap, but they still won't be able to sign anyone because Jason Terry will take up most of that salary. As long as the Hawks are under the cap, they can't use the MCE. Plus, they can't sign anyone and then use Terry's Bird Rights to keep him. So, they basically get nothing but LaFrentz's contract out of this deal.

LaFrentz's contract looks like this:

03-04 - $8,178,750

04-05 - $9,087,500

05-06 - $9,996,250

06-07 - $10,905,000

07-08 - $11,813,750

08-09 - $12,722,500

That's a terrible contract. What was Don Nelson thinking when he gave LaFrentz that deal?

[beav]

Dallas gives up two awful contracts (abdul-wahad and lafrentz) and a not so good one in van exel and gets:

Rasheed (a great contract with 17 mil coming off books next year), patterson and mcinnis two very workable contracts at about 4-5 mil per year....

plus all three are better talent wise?

No way in [censored] does that happen IMO...

Of course if I am portland I like the deal, but I don't think that the hawks are that stupid...

The rumors on the blazers board lately were that dallas and portland were going to deal with lafrentz and van exel going to portland for patterson and stoudamire and sabonis' contract...

a much more likely scenario in my opinion...

[Guest]

If the Hawks do this I'm out of here.

1)I don't want that [censored] Bonzi Wells

2)The Hawks get nothing worth a crap in return

IF Billy Knight is considering this...He's really more

dumb than Babcock.

[JaHawk10]

That would be the 2nd worst trade in Atlanta Hawks history. Surpassing Rider for Smitty and just below Manning for Nique/#1Pick. If we were to do that (which i think is totally untrue), we'd definitely be tanking the season. All i know is that this so called "insider" better keep his identity unknown after Friday rolls around and this deal is not made. Like the title says...WHAT A JOKE...

J

[DJ_Money]

I'd like to see Bonzi Wells in a Hawks uniform. But, this trade is frickin' crazy.

[Diesel]

Being Serious on the matter....

There are 2 possibilities.

1. Somebody went to great details to put together this Phony trade..

I mean:

Theo/Reef = 23.5 Million Dollars.

Bonzi/Lafrentz/Sabonis = 7+8.2+ 7 = 22.2

For us, the deal doesn't work so well... BUT it doesn't have to if Dallas and PTL can come closer.

2. The deal would make sense if McDavid was really a rogue double secret agent for CUBAN...

I mean, Dallas gets:

Rasheed Wallace

Ruben Patterson

Jeff McInnis

for three bad contracts. That's a gift from God. That means they have:

Nash/Finley/Dirk/Sheed/Bradley....

3. The deal really makes sense if:

McDavid is in the process of gutting the team.

Let's face the facts, if McDavid makes another trade, it's to his benefit to get rid of Reef. Reef's contract is up in 2 years. It's very likely that we cannot give Reef an extension because he won't be worth it. The next thing to do is to get something of value for him... In this case Cap Space.

If we don't resign JT but say we SNT him for Wade....

we would have:

Wade/Wells/Diaw/Hendu/Lafrentz.

That's a losing team if there ever was one...

However, Atlanta gets a HIGH draft pick next year. and will be a player in the FA game with a lot of money to spend.....

Atlanta might have enough to afford either Kobe or KG.

With the loss of Bradon/Arvydas/Bonzi... That's 25 Million dollars down by next offseason. We would have roughly 17 million to spend on FAcy after we get our draft pick (Howard) squared away...

So say McDavid is able to talk Kobe into coming:

Wade, Kobe, SF, Howard, Lafrentz...

I don't know how this team would do, but they are young and could possibly get on TV.

Then in 2005, we would have 12 More million to spend....

[cyman3]

let me just tell u guys something...

"Theo/Reef = 23.5 Million Dollars."

if u can give me 1 player that is better than both THEO/RAT for 23.5 dollars, i will do this deal (assuming we have that cap space to use it).... but the truth is, we are the LA CLIPPERS of the east when it comes to attracting FREE AGENTS... nobody wants to come here.

WAT IS THE POINT of having money when nobody wants to play here?

in other words, i dont think we can do better than REEF/RAT for 23.5 million...

end of story

[CHORO44]

If this trade goes down and we get rid of REEF for that garbage then I'm officially becoming a full time Kings Fan. This proposal makes me freaking sick to my stomach.

Hey Billy we already traded Nique please keep some kind of face on the franchise. We have a Georgia native and a guy who loves Atlanta, JT, that want to play here.

This has to be a joke.

[Admin]

Amen to that. If this trade goes down then I am done with the Hawks.......I live in Houston now and the Rockets try very hard every year to get better and better.......but I still love my Hawks.......that is unless a deal like this goes down.

[Boondocks]

I don't put much stock in anything that is posted on the espn message boards, that board is probably the worst out there.

Being fiscally responsible is one thing, but gutting the team in favor of future FA's doesn't really seem to work.

Utah, Denver and Miami all seem to have trouble getting a FA to sign (not taking clips into account).

FA's want to go to a winning situation, high tier ones do anyway.

The trade with Grob offered the oppertunity to sign JT wihtout going into cap limbo, which makes me pretty confident something will get done once ownership officially changes hand.

[Lascar78]

I would love to get Bonzi despite what everyone says to him, but the hawks CLEARLY get screwed in this trade. I mean it's not even funny. If I were to say what's the worst trade for this franchise that works as far as salaries are concerned, this might just be it. I don't want Raef's contract. Nobody wants him. He'd be stuck here forever. I don't even know if I'd want that contract if it came with michael Jordan from the early 90's...

So for now I hope this is just a Dallas fan's wishful thinking

[Diesel]

I think sometimes you guys just don't read sh t. I mentioned Theo Reef = 23.5 million to see if this trade was legitimate via salary cap. You know since all teams are over the cap, they must match within 15%. Well, in this case, the salary does match so i was saying that somebody went through great pains to make this Phoney deal seem real.

However, I like a challenge. This is somewhat offtopic.

So you said name players that =23.5 million that is better than Reef/Theo...

Howabout Karl Malone/Shaq?

How about Kidd/Mourning/Jefferson/Kmart.

How about Curry/Chandler/Rose/Crawford.

How about Dirk/Bradley/Lafrentz.

How about Cwebb/Clark/Jackson.... Yes, I said it.

How about Wallace/Davis.... Hmm?

How about Zach/Davis/Bonzi/Anderson.

How about Big Z/Rick Davis/Labron James.

I think we can go on and on with this. You might disagree... BUT... I think I have brought up many true players that are better. AND I didn't say KG. How about KG/Loren Woods?

[cyman3]

Yes i am aware that there are better players for 23.5 million...

All of ur ideas are GREAT (except for maybe 1 or two) but whats our chances of gettin them at that price?

do u think Lakers are willin to trade Reef/Ratliff for...

1)Shaq/Malone? [censored] no!

2)4 of the Nets starters? [censored] no!

3)for 3 recent Lottery picks + Rose? I dont think so- that's taking a step backwards for them...

4)The top international player in this game + scrubs? Most likely not..

5)We'd be lucky to get Webber + anything

6)Wallace/Davis, think about that a little more...

7)Other Blazers... give it some thought

8)Clevelands future...

- all in all, im 100% aware that the NBA has a better 2 player combination at 23.5 million than Reef/Ratliff... but wat are the possibility that we'll get them? We all know none of those would work through free agency (assuming we are under 23. million in cap space).

- what im tryin to say is that @ 23.5 million, the ATLANTA HAWKS cannot do better than REEF/RATLIFF.... im sure the LAKERS/WOLVES/KINGS could do better, but not atlanta...

[Diesel]

Make up your mind.

My point wasn't the money either. However, you make these blanket statements like Name some players that are better than Theo/SAR at 23.5 million. Hello. There are hundreds.

Also, we need to really evaluate the worth of both Theo and SAR.

For INstance. If it became available... JT/Theo for McInnis/Wallace... I'd do it so quick it would make your face blue. Various reasons but mainly MONEY.

[cyman3]

"However, you make these blanket statements like Name some players that are better than Theo/SAR at 23.5 million. Hello. There are hundreds."

- look, heres my point.

i know theres 100 players that are better than THEO/SAR that we could get (technically) for 23.5 million. But lets take LOTTERY rookies out since they are building blocks for most team. but out of the established players that are not in their rookie contracts... how many are willin to come to atlanta?

forget the fact that we traded players to get THEO/SAR. suppose we had 23.5 million to spend.... can u REALLY DO BETTER than theo/sar in the free agency?

take this year for instance, who would u rather get instead of having theo/sar at that price... lets pretend SAR/RAT are freeagents as well and for 23.5 we can sign both and we all agree.

but if u dont want them, who would u rather have in the freeagent for that kind of money? erase Malone/Payton since they choose team over money. u can get arenas, but wat about the remainder... who u want then?

what i was trying to say is that...

1)We're not an attractive team when it comes to free agents. The only way we can get someone here is by loyalty (steve smith) or by giving lotta money

2)can we DO BETTER than SAR/THEO at 23.5 million? if we can, please show me how!!!

those trades u posted, how many will meet these requirements

1)make us better

2)the other team actually wants to trade those players for SAR/RATLIFF...

if u meet those 2 requirements, im all for it... but like i said- i dont think its possible and dont see us doing better for SAR/RAT