Diaw shot the 3pter very well in France...........

[jjjohns3]

Diaw was actually a very solid 3pt shooter{At least no worse than E-Mail} Maybe it was a typo,I don't know,but go to the Hawks homepage and look up Boris's player page. And Diesel Boris is 6"8 203.

~Peace

[Blunt91]

Not to bash Diaw because I hope he can help us,but the French league 3pt line isn't the same distance as the NBA, also Diaw probably shot a high percentage becasue he didn't take that many shots.

[cyman3]

not a necessity when i take a close look at Diaw.

get this- Suppose ur playing a pickup game and u see 2 players available, Allan Houston and Bruce Bowen. U get to pick first and ur bestfriend Joe picks the other player. who would u pick?

I believe Bowen had the best 3pt shooting percentage in the league (correct me if im wrong)... i also believe Steve Smith had one of the best 3pt percentages the year b4 that. What does this mean? They are getting WIDE OPEN SHOTS!

While poor Allan Houston is creatin for himself and tryin to get open and shoot a 3 while the other defender has his long arms in the way, Bruce Bowen gets a pass from TIM for an open 3... that simple!

so where am I gettin at?

- we brought in Diaw for his ball handling skills + passing + defense. Kinda similar role to Bruce Bowen. We're lookin for the perfect compliment player or role player. We didnt draft according to potential, we drafted according to NEED.

We all know Reef gets doubled in the paint, if Diaw can hit that open 3 while doing what we expect (pass/defend) that is a big plus and something i didnt expect from him- since i had the assumption that his offense wasnt very good...

if he could shot the wide open 3 thats fine, a very big PLUS. if he cant hit a 3 trying to create space for himself, thats fine cuz we didnt expect him to...

[Diesel]

Let me mention 2 players for you.....

Mugsy Bougues.... and Tyron Corbin...

http://www.basketballreference.com/players...ilkid=CORBITY01

This is the stat line for Ty Corbin. It says a lot... but what it doesn't say is that Ty was a good role player, but when important games came up, Teams would back off of Ty and let him shoot. Many times, that would seal the game for Atl. Ty couldn't shoot well. He was a streak Shooter. Regaurdless of how well he rebounded and passed and Played defense. What the game came down to is what the game always comes down to... Can you put the ball in the hoop.

http://www.basketballreference.com/players...ilkid=BOGUEMU01

The same treatment was given to Mugsy. He played on a team with Gill, Morning, and LJ... Remember. Teams would double down on Mourning with Bogue's man and single cover everyone else. This of course Left Mugsy wide open. In the season, he got easy layups... BUt I recall the Bulls switching defense that allowed Jordan to play Mugsy while Harper played Gill (I think it was Harper)... Anyway, Jordan would double so much from the backside that he would get steal after steal. This wasn't because he was such a great defender, it was because the plan was good.

I see Diaw being much the same way. He has athleticism.. Good. But what stops a team from clogging the middle. Covering JT and Begging Diaw to beat them from outside. The Knicks used to do it to us and that was before zones were leagal. Diaw's three point shooting will becoming a question that teams will want us to answer.

[Traceman]

we drafted him because I assumed that JT and Dog would take the majority of the perimeter shots (not necessarily 3's) anyway. With Dog gone though, Diaw's inability to shoot from the perimeter just became a signifcant liability. If we start Diaw and Glover at SF and SG, we will be one of the weakest perimeter shooting teams in the league. Dion can get hot from the outside on occasion but he's streaky at best from the perimeter and from what I've seen, Diaw just can't shoot.

[TheDude]

If you draft a SF hoping to get a three point shooter, you've got some issues. And that's not why we drafted our SF in Diaw so even if he sucked at 3 pointers, who cares?

[Traceman]

You guys fail to see the the truth but Diaw was drafted to play alongside JT IN THE BACKCOURT. Stotts wanted another ballhandler IN THE BACKCOURT who would free JT up to do what he does best, score. JT will still have the primary responsibility of running the team but there will be times in the game that Stotts asks him to look for his shot more and that is where Diaw is supposed to take over more of the ballhandling responsibilites.

As for not drafting your SF to shoot 3's, why wouldn't you want your SF to shoot 3's? Most of the good ones shoot 3's very well.

[Diesel]

Even though I consider Diaw to be an NBA SG, I will say this...

If we had drafted him to play SF, what's the problem with wanting him to be a shooter?

Rashard Lewis, Paul Pierce, Pippen, Horry, Battier, Odom can all hit the outside shot. This is just off the top of my head. The game has changed since the day of the athletic SF who can't shoot. Look at the work Shawn Marion has had to put in to become a shooter. Going to the playoffs and having the ball in his hand on the perimeter was a [censored] good lesson that Athleticism just doesn't get it done.

When we traded Dog, we became weaker. We have one shooter on the team. teams will drop back into zone... cover JT and dare us to beat them from outside. We have no threat.

[Gray Mule]

All this is true but:

Hawks will probably sign a few more players before we

open the season. Assuming we re-sign Jason Terry,

that gives us nine active players.

I doubt we open the season with less than 12, don't you?

Aware of these problems, as I'm sure the Hawks are,

signings and a trade or two are not out of the question,

now that the "Interm" label has been dropped.

[Blunt91]

That's why we need to get Battier or Wesley Person to hit those open 3pointer's.

[Traceman]

Nazr/CC for Person? Done deal in my book. Battier/Humphries/Trybanski for Nazr? Done deal. What I don't agree with is some of the suggestions that we should give up a first round pick in addition to Nazr in order to acquire Battier. That is simply WAY too much to give up for Battier in my opinion.

[Diesel]

Theo/CC for Person/Lo.

Very fair.

We get Person who can hit the open Shot.

JT/Diaw/Person/SAR/LO.

I think this team is competitive. Maybe Sign DJ and see if he can compete with Diaw and Hansen for Starting SG.

[Blunt91]

Nope say no to Lo as a center. Wright didn't provide the presence we needed on defense when he was with the Hawks. I know Theo can get pushed around even by scrubs like Andruw Declerq but I think he is a better option than Lo.

[Diesel]

If Theo/CC can get us Lo/Person, we should do it in a heartbeat.

We are not a team built on defense. We are a team that has strong offensive pieces. We need to magnify that portion of our game. Getting Lo/Person will do that. Lo won't block 3 shots per game, but he will get us between 9-10 rebounds per game. From where I sit, I consider rebounds more valuable than Backside Blocks. I mean, Theo's blocks doesn't stop anybody from challenging us down the middle. That's why Theo is crying about Guards and Grob. He's not a great one on one defender, but helpout defense is Theo's specialty. One on one, you have Andrew Declerq and Etan Thomas trying to punch it in for a score.

Secondly, we need Person's shooting. Plain and Simple. If we put Diaw on the floor as a ballhandling OG, we will need Somebody other than JT who can shoot the ball. Person is that somebody. He is top echelon when it comes to shooting. I think with Him and JT as shooters it will open up the floor for Reef and Lo to work underneath.

I think keeping Theo is really delaying the future. The future is that he's going to leave us anyway.

I think:

JT/Diaw/Person/SAR/Lo would be more competitive than:

JT/Diaw/CC/SAR/Theo.

That's based on what we have, what we need and how each player fits.

If you believe that Grob was a bad fit because he didn't play good defense, you have to also believe that Theo is a bad fit because NO one else plays good defense.

[Blunt91]

Yeah but Wright hasn't stayed healthy since he left Atlanta. If we trade Theo I think we could do better than Wright&Person. BTW wasn't Lorenzen Wright foul prone at times when he played with us? I might consider a Battier/Wright for Theo but not the 32yearold person and Wright for Theo Ratliff. Let's see the lineup

pgJasonTerry, Sg Boris Diaw SFShane Battier PF Abdur Rahim C Lorenzen Wright

Bench Dan Dickau, resign Dion GLover, Travis Hansen, Chris Crawford, Alan Henderson, Nazr Mohammed and Dermarr Johnson.

[Diesel]

The reason for considering Person over Battier is:

1. Person is the better three point shooter.

2. Person's contract ends at the end of the season.

3. Getting Person means we can get rid of CC.

Other than that, I would do a Theo for Battier/Lo trade. In fact, Battier brings so much to the table that it makes the deal better for us.

JT/Diaw/Battier/SAR/Lo.

That would be an interesting 5. I think mostly because it's young. These guys are all under 30? I'm not saying that Diaw is penciled in all the way... We might decide to sign DJ and have:

JT/DJ/Battier/SAR/Lo.

In which case, JT would have to improve his PGing skills. But this team is closer to what we like. A team that can break and score.

[Traceman]

$7.7 million in 05/06. Why in the heck would we tie up $7.7 million in a player like Lo when we are poised to have a ton of capspace that year? Trading even Hendu for Lo right now would be a bad move in my opinion unless we could move Lo on to another team in a 3-way. Neither of them will get us over the hump, but at least Hendu's deal ends after 04/05.

[Diesel]

Answer one question Trace....

When has cap money ever meant good things in Atlanta.

I understand Deke, but Deke is the ONLY FA that we have attracted in 20 years. Even with the little money we have now... We have BEEN Shunned by Lightweights like Stephen Jackson.

For good FAs, the money doesn't matter that Much. Look at Odom and him not wanting to be in LAC. We are developing the same type of reputation that LAC has had.