Would you guarantee a starting spot...

[mrhonline]

to Stephen Jackson? Because it seems like that might be enough to lure him away from Utah and Denver. Would 3 yrs, $13 million be enough?

From the Deseret News (SLC):

In reply to:

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Still, no promises to Jackson, a 25-year-old who never played college basketball, but did play in both the CBA and Venezuela before breaking into the NBA three seasons ago.

"I mean, if you promise him the starting position and somebody clearly beats him out," O'Connor said, "then do you have to start him?"

The unstated answer clearly is no, especially for a next-alternative option like Houston native Jackson, who played as an NBA rookie with New Jersey before moving to San Antonio for the past two seasons.

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I mean, come on, who else is still available that would be significantly better? Although I don't like his ballhandling skills in traffic, SJax is a good defensive player with range and athleticism. How many 6'8" SGs are there? (Not including ones that are returning from terrible accidents, of course).

[DJ_Money]

Eh...why not? Whoever we sign will have to start at SG. Be it Jackson, Glover, etc. Who else do we have? Hansen?

I'd offer Jackson the starting spot, but I think that's what other teams have in mind as well. He will end up with whoever offers him the most.

I'd give him $13 mil. over 3 years, as long as the 3rd year is a team option.

[Blunt91]

I say give him the money, the Hawks need all the help they can get.

[Diesel]

I would go after Jon Barry.

I mean he's experienced. Good Ball handler. Good Passer. Good Shooter. Decent defender.

[Traceman]

I think that giving anybody who is likely to be no more than a good role player more than a 2 year deal right now is crazy. We need to prtect our caproom in 05//06 unless we are bringing in a superstar. As things stand now, it looks like we will have Nazr ($5.5 million), Diaw (approximately $1.1 million), HOPEFULLY JT ($9 million???) and MAYBE DD ($1.6 million) under contract in 05/06. That is approximately $17.2 million. Assuming that we want to resign Reef, he is likely to command AT LEAST $13 million (probably more) in the first year of his new deal. That would kick us up to around $30 million. Assuming that we will have AT LEAST 2 first round picks over the next 2 seasons, they are likely to command a minimum of $3 million together (likely more since they'll likely be lottery picks) which would bring us to around $33 million. Assuming the cap stays the same, we would have around $10 million in caproom. That won't be enough to sign one FA to a max deal. If we eliminate Jackson and don't resign DD though, we can have approximately $7 million more or $17 million. The bottom line for me is that I'd rather have $17 million + in capspace in 05/06 a lot more than I want to have Stephen Jackson right now and have $10 million (or less) in capspace in 05/06.

[Admin]

Why not sign Jackson or Barry or a player of that caliber to a 2 year deal with a club option for a 3rd? I am sure that neither of them will be looking to sign a long term low money deal and the Hawks can only offer low money.......but we can offer one of them a starting spot and a chance to show themselves off around the league for 2 years while getting a decent check and then they can hit FA in 05/06 and we can still keep our money.

[Diesel]

I wouldn't give S. Jackson a contract period. I don't think he's worthy. This guy stunk in NJ and played next to Duncan in SA. I say let him go back.

It's a shame tht the free agent market has deteriorated to the point where S. Jackson looks like a good deal. In my eyes, Glover is 5 times better.

I think we should not get any free agents. Rather trade. Cap room is not hurting us but it won't help us much eithr.

I say we sign Holcomb.

Then we see what we have out of Hansen, Diaw, Holcomb.... I would love to trade CC/Theo for Lo/Battier/Knight.

Jon Barry is a player who I would like to look at, but I think Indy is going to give him a better deal than I'm willing to pay.

[mrhonline]

Babcock left all that cap space in 2005 because he knew that the CBA would likely be revamped by that year. There's an out-clause for the owners after next year and with an expansion team likely to throw a corkscrew into the complex financial structure of the CBA, I bet these kind of talks are going to be moot.

As far as Reef goes, I would NOT give him $13M in two years. Absolutely not. He's obviously a 2nd star on a good team, not a near-max player. And it's his hometown, so he should be willing to sign for a little less to help get to the playoffs.

But Diesel's right, if we would rather tank it now and protect our cap space in 2005 like scavengers, then why not start to rebuild immediately? Trade Theo/CC for whatever can be had that will help rebuild this team. The lower the draft picks, the better.

But I don't think that's what McDavid & Co. have in mind - which is why I think they're going to offer the MLE to SJax. Either way, I think Utah will offer him a little more than Atlanta, so it probably won't matter.

(BTW, Byron Scott is on record stating the Jackson made significant improvements since he saw him in NJ. He's still VERY raw; he never played college ball.)

One final question - would any max or near-max players even sign to play in Atlanta?

[Traceman]

position in 05/06. What can they change that will make having a ton of money available to pay people with a bad thing? Besides, I don't think there is any way the OWNERS will make the luxury tax go away because it is a terrific deal for most of them financially.

As for Reef's value, I think that question will be better answered in 2 years when the time comes but a salary starting at $13 million would NOT be a max deal for him and would be a significant pay CUT. He will make $14,625,000 in 04/05. If he were to sign a max in 05/06 deal under today's CBA rules, he would be looking at a starting salary in excess of $16 million. So if he signed for $13 million, he WOULD be signing for a less. Is Reef worth even $13 million? Maybe. Ask me again in 05/06.

As for Diesel's plan to reubild immediately, why? Why trade Reef or let JT walk now when we can we determine whether or not they can be a part of the solution in 05/06? I personally think that both are very good players who can be a part of the solution but neither is a franchise player. We need a franchisee player in 05/06 and maybe, he, with Reef and JT's support, can make us a real contender.

Regarding whether or not any max or near max players would be willing to sign in Atlanta goes, I think we'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully, McDavid will be a good owner and he will create an environment in which FAs want to come here. The biggest things though are the chance to win and money. We should have the money. If we can show them that they will have a chance to win, we'll be able to get them.

[Traceman]

In fact, I posted the same thing either in another thread here or over on Real GM. The problem is that I think teams like Denver or Utah may be willing to guarantee that 3rd year (or even more). When Ira and Kevin Ollie are signing 5 year guaranteed deals, Jackson has to think he should be able to get a similar offer somewhere.

[KB21]

I wouldn't rule out Reef becoming that franchise player though. You can't deny that Reef has the ability to control a game offensively, and he's better defensively than he gets credit for. He's not a great defensive presence, but he still has averaged over a block a game in his career. He needs to work on his help defense more than anything.

Reef is just one of those players that doesn't buy into the idea that he needs to take over the game. I don't know if that comes from his beliefs or if it comes from him never having any stability in the coaching department during his career.

[Diesel]

I am not willing to sit back and totally trust FAcy to give us what we need. I have seen FAcy fail teams too often. Money doesn't guarantee that we will get the player we want.

However, I am willing to make a few trades on players who I feel:

1. Doesn't match our needs.

2. Isn't in our long range plans.

Namely Theo.

For Certain, the Hawks must figure out what they want to do. If we say we want to rebuild around JT and SAR and become an offensive minded team, then I say:

Theo/CC for Lo/Battier/BK.

Reason being is that Lo is a better fit rebounding and scoring wise Plus Lo and Nazr would make a good 1-2 combo when Nazr is healthy again. Secondly, Battier is a good fit with SAR. With Diaw being the 5th starter, I think we have something that we can try.

If it fails this year, fine... The draft is filled with Good Big Men next year. AlSO, we will have 5 million from the loss of BK's contract. That plus the savings from Brandon's contract and we can think about signing up a 6-7 Million dollar Free agent C or SG.

The point is that we NEED DIRECTION.