What if #1: The Nique Trade

[HawkItus]

Would we have won a title?

Would Nique have made the top 50 list?

If Manning signed with us and did not get hurt?

Just wondering about a few what ifs and thought I'd make a series out of it. This is the first.

Edited February 16, 2010 by sultanofatl

[coachx]

Would we have won a title?

Would Nique have made the top 50 list?

If Manning signed with us and did not get hurt?

Just wondering about a few what ifs and thought I'd make a series out of it. This is the first.

If we had signed both Nique and Manning then we would not have signed Deke.

I'm glad it worked out the way it did. Nique had 11 years to get us out of the 2nd round and it just never happened. Darn Bird, Jordan, and those Pistons were just better then us.

[HawkItus]

If we had signed both Nique and Manning then we would not have signed Deke.

I'm glad it worked out the way it did. Nique had 11 years to get us out of the 2nd round and it just never happened. Darn Bird, Jordan, and those Pistons were just better then us.

Actually the Manning part is an /or not an and. But, good point. The money freed us up to get Deke, Mookie and Smitty. Nique had a chance that year though. I mean nobody in the league was playing better.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Would we have won the title? NO.

But I do think we easily get to the East Finals. We would've disposed of Miami and beat Indiana. Neither of those teams had anyone who could guard Nique. If it would've been us the Knicks in the East final. That would've gone 6 or 7 games easily. And since we'd have home court advantage, I'll give us the edge.

An Atlanta - Seattle NBA Final would've been very entertaining. It would've been a good storyline with Lenny ( a Sonics legend ) trying to beat the mighty Sonics for the championship. Sonics

A series vs the eventual NBA Champs ( Houston ) would've been interesting. They're essentially what the Magic are today, except Dream was far more skilled of an offensive center than Howard. I don't know if the Hawks with Nique would've beat them

[Diesel]

Actually the Manning part is an /or not an and. But, good point. The money freed us up to get Deke, Mookie and Smitty. Nique had a chance that year though. I mean nobody in the league was playing better.

The truth is that most of the money we saved on not resigning Nique, we wasted on trading for Kenny the Snake Norman.

There were a lot of moves between us trading for Deke and us losing Nique. The two, really wasn't that related.

Remember there was Kevin WIllis for SMith and Long.

Then there was

Andrew Lang and Spudd Webb for Laettner and Rooks

Then we lose Rooks. We lose Ehlo... We trade Long and Augmon to Detroit for Picks... and we get Deke (with the help of the CBA). And yes, Norman was still on the team.

[tonegully]

Man we have to have the worst drafting, trading, and luck in the NBA

[Sothron]

Man we have to have the worst drafting, trading, and luck in the NBA

I wouldn't go that far but we're down there. Pete Babcock "won" most of the trades he made, he just didn't make anything of the picks we had. Although to be fair we didn't have many high picks in those years because we routinely were in the playoffs.

[Diesel]

Man we have to have the worst drafting, trading, and luck in the NBA

Worst drafting ... Yes.

Babcock was pretty good at trades.

He traded an Old Kevin Willis and got back Steve Smith and Grant Long.

He traded an old Spud Webb and got back Christian Laettner.

He traded away Grant Long and Augmon and got the capspace to sign Deke.

He traded an old Mookie Blaylock and got back the #10 pick in a draft filled with PGs.

He had some bad ones too...

Like Smitty.

Nique.

Trading for Norman.

But for the most part, we did well trading. Our draft days were WTF days.

[Dejay]

Cosign with Diesel and Sothron here. When a trade was announced involving the Hawks and Babs, we usually would get the upper hand. But on draft day, opposing GMs would stampede each other to get the slot AFTER Babs was done because they knew a superstar could be had because of his piss-poor drafting skills. And trading Nique had little relation to the Hawks getting Smith, Blaylock, or Mutombo. Blaylock was already on the team, Mutombo wasn't picked up until a couple of years later, and Smith was acquired in the Kevin Willis deal. As Diesel stated earlier, a lot went down between the time Nique was traded and Deke signing here.

If Nique had stayed, the Hawks are in the Finals that year; END OF STORY. The Pacers had no answer for him; throw in the 'last true shot for a title in a Hawks uniform' storyline and he would've been unstoppable. The Knicks would've been a 7-game series, with the Hawks winning their first Eastern Conference title in franchise history in the Omni because they were the #1 seed and had homecourt advantage. But that's where the story would've ended though because even I couldn't see them beating out the Rockets. Hakeem would've had a field day with Koncak, Keefe, Lang, and Willis guarding him.

[Dejay]

Man we have to have the worst drafting, trading, and luck in the NBA

Well, until Horford was selected to last week's All-Star game, our favorite NBA team had the dubious distinction of not selecting an All-Star/Pro Bowl player with the draft in 26 years, the longest such streak in PRO SPORTS. Wonder why Nique couldn't get past the second round in his prime? Look at the draft. Wonder why Smith, Deke, and Mookie had to play 45+ minutes a night to win games because the bench was shakier than a cheap card table? Look at the draft. Wonder why it took soooooooo long for the team to get respectable again despite having tons of lottery picks at their disposal? LOOK AT THE DRAFT. We could create a first-team NBA squad with the guys we passed over. So yes, we've had some of the most head-scratching, hurl a remote at the TV moments in late-June than most casual fans would dare to imagine....

[Diesel]

Would we have won a title?

Would Nique have made the top 50 list?

If Manning signed with us and did not get hurt?

Just wondering about a few what ifs and thought I'd make a series out of it. This is the first.

Direct answers to your questions above:

1. Yes, it's very possible we could have won a title. We had beaten the Rockets earlier with Nique. With Nique we would have beaten the Pacers and I don't think we would have lost to the Knicks. We were 1-1 against the Knicks with Nique. We were 1-1 against the Knicks without Nique.

2. If Nique wins a championship, he possibly makes the top 50 list.

3. If Manning signs a long term deal, he likely doesn't get re-injured... and he would have been a good player, not a great player. Manning had a little bit of Marvin in him. He didn't want to be the man. Manning resigned probably does mean we have a harder time getting Deke... and we never go after Laettner... and we probably don't trade Willis. Although, Willis agent was the main reason he was moved.. so it would have been interesting to see us with Mookie, Smith, and Manning in the primes of their careers.