These "trade Bibby" posts are not realistic.

[mrhonline]

I can think of only two scenarios in which an up-and-coming team would trade their starting PG and one of the few veterans in the starting rotation:

1. Acie Law proves by February that he is a starting-caliber PG.

Considering that Law was one of the worst PG's in the league last year, is only a 2nd-year player, and first has to prove that he can even stay healthy, I think many of you are being far too presumptuous. At least give the guy a chance to be a role player before you crown him the Hawks' starter at PG.

2. The Hawks are able to swing a deal that brings back a veteran PG of at least equal value to Bibby and with a more manageable contract (e.g., 3 years, $25M left).

This would be an extremely risky move because you'd be upsetting the chemistry of the team, and taking chances isn't something Sund has a history of.

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What I think is much more realistic is that Bibby will be given the entire season to prove that he's worthy of a 3 or 4-year deal in the offseason. IOW, he's got to prove that he still "has it."

If he doesn't, then the Hawks will likely look at a trade or free agency in the summer, most likely using Claxton's expiring deal as incentive. (A player in a crowded backcourt like Kirk Hinrich might be available for an expiring and a protected pick).

In the meantime, Bibby's expiring contract and playoff experience, as well as team continuity make him far more valuable to the Hawks than what he'd likely bring in a trade.

[AtLaS]

I agree completely. Even if we traded Bibby, it would most likely be at the deadline when he'll be much more valuable for a team looking to make a playoff run or a terrible team looking to get cap space.

[DrReality]

I don't know if the ASG can aford to pay him a new contract with the other young guys they have to pay. It may come down to a have to do situation to cut the cap.

[JJFAN4LF]

I think Hawks fans are just anxious to see how Acie Law does as a starting PG because that will somewhat stop the criticism of the Hawks passing CP3 and D-Will.

[Swatguy]

I think Hawks fans are just anxious to see how Acie Law does as a starting PG because that will somewhat stop the criticism of the Hawks passing CP3 and D-Will.

Acie may never play up to defeating the criticism. Never ever.

Hawks need to make a deal for Javaris.

[Swish]

Please tell me you're not being serious.

[EazyRoc]

As big a Tech fan as I am, and as much as I like Javaris Crittenton, he's no PG. He'll be a solid spark of the bench for someone, but I don't see him having the career AC could have.

[Guest]

1. Acie Law proves by February that he is a starting-caliber PG.

Considering that Law was one of the worst PG's in the league last year, is only a 2nd-year player, and first has to prove that he can even stay healthy, I think many of you are being far too presumptuous. At least give the guy a chance to be a role player before you crown him the Hawks' starter at PG.

I think that is spot on analysis. It appears there is a large majority of people wanting to annoint Acie our new PG even though he has yet to actually show any of this. He hasn't stayed healthy and statistically one of the worst players in the league. Bottom line, Bibby needs to stay and Acie is a huge reason for that IMO.

[Seano]

In the meantime, Bibby's expiring contract and playoff experience, as well as team continuity make him far more valuable to the Hawks than what he'd likely bring in a trade.

Agree. If it were me, I'd hold on to Bibby for the time being. Everything you said about Acie is true. I appreciate his work ethic very much. It seems pretty clear he's got a drive and a desire to become better.....but he is a totally unknown factor at this time. There's no definitive proof of his ability to be a starting PG in the NBA right now, and what we did see from him last year was not good. That's not to say that he can't become a starting PG or good player (let's be realistic, a lot of rookies struggle), but that's entirely up in the air at this point. You just don't know, and you can't rely on a guy to just step up automatically and immediately. If you're a team serious about making the playoffs (which we should be), you need to go with more of the sure thing, and that would be Mike Bibby. There's no rush to trade him anyway. We've got all the way up to the deadline to see how things go, and by then everything may have changed completely. Acie may have proven he is indeed a player, or for some reason we might be already out of the playoff race, or any one of dozens of things which might make you want to revisit the thought of moving Bibby at the trade deadline.

As far as trying to re-sign him to an extension, I'd have to think long and hard about that one. One thing I like the most about Bibby is his remarkable durability. Before he tore the thumb ligament last season and missed 34 games, he had started 80 games or more in 7 of the previous 8 seasons. Now that's reliability, and a guy you can generally count on is going to be there for you- and that is valuable in and of itself. The downside to that though is that he has logged a ton of minutes in his career, and he'll be turning 31 years old next season. So, it's very possible his best days are well behind him. Or maybe not. Hopefully his thumb (and shooting touch) will be 100% recovered, and he'll just keep going, and we'll go out there and kick some ass, and actually have a little bit of depth at the PG position for once. That's the hope anyway. It'll be really interesting to see how Bib's does this season.

[DJlaysitup]

Yeah Seano...it could go either way:

Optimism: Bibby comes back fully healthy and motivated and is again MB2000....Claxton works through his knee issues and gives us 10-12 minutes of great PG D off the bench (Speedy was actually very good when he was healthy)...Acie gets it in gear and shows that he is the guy of the future, he plays decent PG and backs up at the 2 when necessary and actually makes shots.

Pessimism: Bibby continues to get dinged up and misses a bunch of games....Speedy shuts it down early due to the knees and basically retires....Acie continues to be unable to hit "the broad side of a barn" and continues to turn the ball over due to the fact that they don't even really guard him.

As with most things...it will likely be somewhere in the middle of those two scenarios.

[DJlaysitup]

1. Acie Law proves by February that he is a starting-caliber PG.

Considering that Law was one of the worst PG's in the league last year, is only a 2nd-year player, and first has to prove that he can even stay healthy, I think many of you are being far too presumptuous. At least give the guy a chance to be a role player before you crown him the Hawks' starter at PG.

Agree 100%...

[frosgrim]

While I agree that the trading of Bibby is unlikely at this point in time, there do seem to be some scenarios where it might make sense to both the Hawks and a trading partner to make the deal.

Face it Bibby is a defensive liability. Woodson is our HC and he wants defense. Bibby can run the offense but just can't do a thing on defense. Hence, a trade for a defensive PG like Hinrich makes some amount of sense. For Chicago it actually helps clear up the backcourt for Rose. Plus it gives the Bulls some cap flexibility.

New York. Bibby would flourish with D'Antoni more than almost any other HC. The problem is that the Knicks have junk.

Houston?? Reuniting Bibby with Adelman might make some sense for the Rockets, but this would be a huge long shot of a trade.

I am sure there are other things that people could make up. My point is that I wouldn't count out a trade of Bibby. I also would not be surprised that he stays long-term.

[Iman]

I think Bibby is gonna be hard to move for that solid center that we need. However, we'll have to try that or try to move some salaries at least. That way maybe we'll have enough money if Bibby just leaves to make a good free agent offer. I'm guessing we'd have to gain Bibby's capspace and either Zaza's or Speedy's to get enough under the cap to offer more than just the MLE. I doubt it happens though.

Probably next offseason we'll resign Marvin and use the MLE again. We'll just have to hope that our main core of JJ, Marvin, Smoove, and Horford will carry us to contention.

[atlhawks321]

we should work a deal that involves bibby and hinrich

[Final_quest]

While I agree with the Bibby/ AC analysis, I have to say that I believe there could be more possibilities in trading Bibby. For example if we have the possibility to pick up a higher caliber player that a team is trying to unload we should do it. Like Memphis did with Gasol last year or Philadelphia did with AI. Some potential players: Amare Stoudamire, Carmelo Anthony, Shawn Marion, Josh Howard, and Jermaine O'neal. We could send a package of Bibby, Marvin or Acie, and draft picks.

Another scenario where we trade Bibby is if our season is over by the All star break. Let's say JJ gets injured and our season gets sunk. We trade Bibby for expiring contracts and a draft pick or young player.

This is the NBA. PG is an important position, but you can always pick up a serviceable player at any point. If we could land Amare or Carmelo then we will just have to make do with picking up someone like Anthony Johnson to run PG.