Hawks agree to terms with Zaza! 4yrs/19mil - per ESPN

[DjGrizz]

Great deal for the Hawks! Sund out did himself!

[DrReality]

It is a steal and leaves room to sign MW and bring over DA. That would be an EXCELLENT offseason.

[Final_quest]

Outside of Dwight Howard, there was not a dominant big man in the Finals. Kobe Bryant is a guard.

Look at the top players in the NBA these days. They are guards. Kobe, Lebron, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul....etc. The rules of the league these days allows for free flowing guard play.

I guess if your criteria for dominant big man is future hall of famer. Than yes, there are barely any dominant big men in the NBA. Maybe you can explain why Kobe never made it out of the first round without Gasol or Shaq. Chris Paul needed a functional Tyson Chandler to get the Hornets anywhere. What has Dwyane Wade done without a dominant frontcourt? Lebron is simply amazing, but even he needs a stable of bigs to the point where his team acquires Shaq to deal with Dwight Howard.

The point for our team is that it would take a player of Lebron's caliber to get us to be a championship contender with the current state of our frontline. So yeah, if we had Lebron, which btw is barely a guard considering his team plays him at PF on occasion, we could be a dominant team. Otherwise we need better rebounding and defensive bigs. I'm not buying this nonsense that signing Zaza is enough because teams don't need good frontcourt players anymore. I like the signing, but if we are being honest about our chances to compete for a title we have to get significantly better. We might be doing everything we can. It's still not enough.

[MaceCase]

^^^Zaza is the cheapest backup big we can acquire that we know can actually play worth a damn in this league. He is in no way the final answer but you can't just expect to add other bigs while subtracting him from the fold. We've had success with him before better to have a bird in the hand then worry bout whomever later.

[NJHAWK]

I think there is a difference between a tweet saying a player is on the verge of a deal and an article written saying the player has agreed to a deal. Thats this mornings buisness, as for tonight I just got home and was wondering how much the significant raise ZazA GOT WAS. 4 YEARS 19 MIL isnt bad at all. I will say this though,before the Boston playoff series last year ZaZA in my mind wasnt worth the 4 mil a year he was making. However I think that was mainly because he was hurt. This season and especially in the playoffs he showed some pretty unZaZa like offensive moves. He is young and he will mix it up when needed. He doesnt take shyyt off nobody. Im glad he is still a Hawk.

[NJHAWK]

So how much room do we have under the lux tax now to sign Marv, another big ( hopefully Anderson) , whatever we can get back worth a dam in the Chills trade ( lets just say Kurt Thomas and a pick) and to fill out the roster, Mario, Solo etc?

[GameTime]

This was a good deal by Sund. 4/19 is a bargain for a big as quality as Zaza.

[Guest]

Maybe there is a way to suspend certain posters from starting threads for a time period? It seems to have been a little ridiculous so far this offseason.

Get over yourself man, I said I made a mistake...you just wanna suspend everyone huh? lol..gimme a break

[thefloydian]

Nice.

[dms269]

I don't consider 4/19 a significant raise over 4/16. 3 million or 750,000 a year really isn't going to break the bank.

[jy23]

Too bad Sund can't sign Paul, Deron or Roy. Maybe he can sign Shelden to make it one big happy family.

LOL great point!!!

[jy23]

I guess if your criteria for dominant big man is future hall of famer. Than yes, there are barely any dominant big men in the NBA. Maybe you can explain why Kobe never made it out of the first round without Gasol or Shaq. Chris Paul needed a functional Tyson Chandler to get the Hornets anywhere. What has Dwyane Wade done without a dominant frontcourt? Lebron is simply amazing, but even he needs a stable of bigs to the point where his team acquires Shaq to deal with Dwight Howard.

The point for our team is that it would take a player of Lebron's caliber to get us to be a championship contender with the current state of our frontline. So yeah, if we had Lebron, which btw is barely a guard considering his team plays him at PF on occasion, we could be a dominant team. Otherwise we need better rebounding and defensive bigs. I'm not buying this nonsense that signing Zaza is enough because teams don't need good frontcourt players anymore. I like the signing, but if we are being honest about our chances to compete for a title we have to get significantly better. We might be doing everything we can. It's still not enough.

Great points, we have a very versatile team which allows us to keep up with other teams but if we eva want to be one of the dominant teams in the league we need a true NBA big and a pg thats going to distribute. I love what we're doing compared to years past and we are definately going in the right direction but we all know we need a real big!

[ATLSmith]

I don't consider 4/19 a significant raise over 4/16. 3 million or 750,000 a year really isn't going to break the bank.

That's an 18% raise... A 10 to 15% raise is pretty good. But you're right. In the grand scheme of things it won't break the bank but its nothing to sneeze at if you're on the recieving end.

[AHF]

I guess if your criteria for dominant big man is future hall of famer. Than yes, there are barely any dominant big men in the NBA. Maybe you can explain why Kobe never made it out of the first round without Gasol or Shaq. Chris Paul needed a functional Tyson Chandler to get the Hornets anywhere. What has Dwyane Wade done without a dominant frontcourt? Lebron is simply amazing, but even he needs a stable of bigs to the point where his team acquires Shaq to deal with Dwight Howard.

Agreed. The era of the big man is far from over.

The two finals teams featured the best big man in the game, Dwight Howard, against an All-Star PF/C in Pau Gasol. Big men remain very important, Jordan's Bulls notwithstanding.

[DjGrizz]

For anyone who is disappointed with the money given to Pachulia, just go take a look at what Anderson Varejao got-what a joke!

[Duff_Man]

For anyone who is disappointed with the money given to Pachulia, just go take a look at what Anderson Varejao got-what a joke!

$50 MILLION?!?!

Holy hell!

[MaceCase]

For anyone who is disappointed with the money given to Pachulia, just go take a look at what Anderson Varejao got-what a joke!

Seems to be the difference between us and other teams right now. They are willing to overspend to keep the status quo whereas we are looking for discounts that leave us room to actually improve.

[Guest Walter]

This is shaping up to be the best offseason in Hawks recent memory.

When we signed JJ we had also passed on two franchise Pgs at #2. Not good. Did we also sign Speedy that offseason (for more than Bibby cost us 4 yrs later?) Bad.

When we drafted Horford we also drafted Law (which didn't pan out with Woody), and as nice as Horford is, he has a ceiling and it isn't too much above where he is now.

Seriously, this offseason is impressive. Consider how LITTLE Sund has had to work with. No top 5 pick. No $25 million in cap space. Sund seriously upgrades the 6th man "position" with a scorer who can also help take the weight off JJ. Drafts a PG prospect for the future. He then quickly resigns Bibby at or under market value to an ideal deal length. Follows that with ZaZa's WELL undermarket (see CLevland's "V") deal (I expected $6 mil per avg.). Does so without any drama, with the parties involved all appearing VERY happy. If the offseason stopped right now this would be a reasonable offseason. However, we may have "saved" enough money to resign MW and another big, something I would not have expected. Moreover, no more dead weight on the first 10 on the roster. I am impressed so far and I will be ecstatic if MW resigns similarly reasonably and DA or someone similar is added.

Frankly, I believe Sund has done a serious job of selling these FAs and other acquired players on the Hawks future. I'm grateful the ownership got such an experienced GM when our resignings we upcoming. I believe no one could have prepared for Childress' Olimpkos (sp?) deal, Sund covered for it remarkably well, and the moves since then have been shrewd without much capital with which to make it happen.

W

[coachx]

This is shaping up to be the best offseason in Hawks recent memory.

Seriously, this offseason is impressive. Consider how LITTLE Sund has had to work with. No top 5 pick. No $25 million in cap space. Sund seriously upgrades the 6th man "position" with a scorer who can also help take the weight off JJ. Drafts a PG prospect for the future. He then quickly resigns Bibby at or under market value to an ideal deal length. Follows that with ZaZa's WELL undermarket (see CLevland's "V") deal (I expected $6 mil per avg.). Does so without any drama, with the parties involved all appearing VERY happy. If the offseason stopped right now this would be a reasonable offseason. However, we may have "saved" enough money to resign MW and another big, something I would not have expected. Moreover, no more dead weight on the first 10 on the roster. I am impressed so far and I will be ecstatic if MW resigns similarly reasonably and DA or someone similar is added.

Frankly, I believe Sund has done a serious job of selling these FAs and other acquired players on the Hawks future. I'm grateful the ownership got such an experienced GM when our resignings we upcoming. I believe no one could have prepared for Childress' Olimpkos (sp?) deal, Sund covered for it remarkably well, and the moves since then have been shrewd without much capital with which to make it happen.

W

Good to see your back Walter.

I agree on all points. Sund is doing wonders........even in interviews he comes across as a very likeable guy which is very difficult for GM's to do. He definately has a way of going about his business (contract negotiations) that seems a step above most.

I remember in a past interview he was asked who he his agents was. Sund replied, (paraphrasing) he had no agent. If I needed an agent I would be in trouble. Its my job to negotiate contracts with other player's agents. So I should be able to hanldle negotiating my own.

Dude, definately knows what he is doing. He is hard not to like.

[drzachary]

This is shaping up to be the best offseason in Hawks recent memory.

When we signed JJ we had also passed on two franchise Pgs at #2. Not good. Did we also sign Speedy that offseason (for more than Bibby cost us 4 yrs later?) Bad.

When we drafted Horford we also drafted Law (which didn't pan out with Woody), and as nice as Horford is, he has a ceiling and it isn't too much above where he is now.

Seriously, this offseason is impressive. Consider how LITTLE Sund has had to work with. No top 5 pick. No $25 million in cap space. Sund seriously upgrades the 6th man "position" with a scorer who can also help take the weight off JJ. Drafts a PG prospect for the future. He then quickly resigns Bibby at or under market value to an ideal deal length. Follows that with ZaZa's WELL undermarket (see CLevland's "V") deal (I expected $6 mil per avg.). Does so without any drama, with the parties involved all appearing VERY happy. If the offseason stopped right now this would be a reasonable offseason. However, we may have "saved" enough money to resign MW and another big, something I would not have expected. Moreover, no more dead weight on the first 10 on the roster. I am impressed so far and I will be ecstatic if MW resigns similarly reasonably and DA or someone similar is added.

Frankly, I believe Sund has done a serious job of selling these FAs and other acquired players on the Hawks future. I'm grateful the ownership got such an experienced GM when our resignings we upcoming. I believe no one could have prepared for Childress' Olimpkos (sp?) deal, Sund covered for it remarkably well, and the moves since then have been shrewd without much capital with which to make it happen.

W

Welcome back, Walter! And I've quoted your entire post for truth.