Bradley Gives the Reasons Wade or Bosh Won't Sign Here

[jhay610]

For anyone else who is as tired as I am of reading lazy journalism from Schultz and Bradley about the Hawks: Bradley has posted another gem pontificating on why the Hawks could never entice Wade or Bosh to sign here this summer -- completely ignoring the issue of cap space as he and Schultz don't have a clue about the workings of the CBA.

It's just unbelievable to me how this blatantly inaccurate drivel continues to eat bandwidth under the ajc domain and nobody checks these guys on it -- is there nobody at the AJC who can have a little sit down and ask these guys to have a read-through of Coon's FAQ before putting out this nonsense?

I see Niremetal has already represented in the blog; here is the article (because he doesn't deserve the page-clicks)

Believe it or not, I do read your comments. Regarding the Hawks, your prevailing sentiment — after the one that goes, “Fire Woody” — is that the team should let Joe Johnson leave and sign Dwyane Wade (or Chris Bosh, or somebody) to replace him. Sounds easy, I admit. But it wouldn’t be. Here’s why.

Wade works for the Miami Heat, which is owned by Micky Arison, who could buy and sell all the Atlanta Spirit partners put together. (Arison owns Carnival Cruise Lines.) The team is run by Pat Riley, who has won five NBA titles and who’s thinking about coaching again. Together, Arison and Riley and Wade won the 2006 NBA title, so they know it can be done there.

If you’re D-Wade, why take a flier on the Hawks, who haven’t reached the conference finals since 1970 and who had the lowest payroll of any of the 16 playoff teams this season? Why come where there’s no assurance the owners will ever spend big enough to assemble a deep enough supporting cast?

And there’s this: Wade is undergoing a messy divorce that will surely turn expensive. There’s no state income tax in Florida. (There is here, as we know.) That mightn’t sound like a big deal to a man who’ll be making nearly $20 million per season for playing basketball, but hey … every little bit helps, especially at alimony time.

There’s also this: If Wade leaves, Arison’s team collapses. The Heat cannot afford to lose him, and when you’ve got a man as loaded as Arison paying the bills and a man as driven as Riley running the operation … well, such men tend to get what they want. It’s hard to imagine that crew being outflanked by the Spirit, an outfit that couldn’t even keep Josh Childress.

OK, you’re saying, but what about Bosh? He’s obviously interested in leaving Canada — last week he changed his Twitter location from “Toronto” to “everywhere” — but is he what the Hawks need? He’s a power forward, same as Josh Smith, same as some people (I’m not one) claim Al Horford is. Would you want a front line of three 4’s and no 5’s or 3’s? Who would play on the perimeter? Smith? Given that folks groan whenever he rises to take a jump shot, is that advisable?

And if you let Johnson leave, who’s the default shooter with five seconds left on the shot clock? Smith? Horford? Jamal Crawford? Say what you will about Joe — and most of you have — but he welcomes those moments and has proved himself capable, though not this spring, of making such shots.

Johnson averaged 21.1 points this season, 11th-best in the league. If he leaves, those points would have to be made up somewhere. Who’s going to do it? Neither Horford nor Smith is a pure scorer — good players, yes, but not pure scorers. Is Marvin Williams apt to double his average? (We pause now to laugh really hard.) Is Mike Bibby capable of averaging even 10 points a game?

I say again: You might not like the way Johnson plays — I myself soured on Iso-Joe last season — but you can’t deny he puts up big numbers. He’s not Kobe or D-Wade, but he’s the third-best shooting guard in the league. Unless the Hawks can find someone better, they’re better off sticking with Joe. And they won’t find anyone better.

[Wurider05]

I don't see the big love for Bosh. He is just a taller Joe Johnson. Bosh can't be the man. Dwade on the other hand can be. I am not saying that Bosh is chopped liver or something but I see alot of Joe Johnson in him. The problem with the NBA is that a lot of pieces are being identified as the man. There are only a handful of pieces that can be the man.

Hell Josh Smith keeps Bosh in check whenever we play them.

Edited May 10, 2010 by Wurider05

[Sothron]

I'm constantly amazed at how little the AJC writers actually know about the sports they cover. The Hawks are nowhere close enough to sign a max free agent if we lose JJ.

[mrhonline]

What's sad is that a bunch of anonymous people on the 'Squawk, Bret's blog Hoopinion, and the Peachtreehoops site do more to educate Hawks' fans than the corporate newspaper with paid staff...

[niremetal]

What's sad is that a bunch of anonymous people on the 'Squawk, Bret's blog Hoopinion, and the Peachtreehoops site do more to educate Hawks' fans than the corporate newspaper with paid staff...

Schultz and Bradley follow the Hawks pretty much not at all. It's embarrassing how little they know about basic rules governing free agency and trades, and how they think that everything they need to know about a game can be gleaned from the box score.

And thanks for the shout-out, jhay :thumbsupsmileyanim:

Edited May 10, 2010 by niremetal

[Vol4ever]

The Hawks put themselves in this position plain and simple. This team doesnt even have the character to hustle on the court. Your in the playoffs and the opponent comes into your house and kicks in your teeth????? Sickening.

[Guest]

Uhh...lowest payroll of playoff teams? Does anyone fact check these guys. OKC and Portland had lower payrolls.

This is pathetic. The AJC needs to fire these morons.

[gutz]

I thing Bradley and Schultz are idiots too but Bradley is right here on why Wade or Bosh would never sign here regardless if we had the cap space or not. Wade is not leaving Miami even if we could sign him.

[NJHAWK]

Actually its not lazy jounalism its just uninformed. It cant be lazy because he took alot of time and wasted hundreds of words to write that when he could have simply said its not possible under the cba and the cap rules. He could have covered that whole article in one sentence.

[jhay610]

Actually its not lazy jounalism its just uninformed. It cant be lazy because he took alot of time and wasted hundreds of words to write that when he could have simply said its not possible under the cba and the cap rules. He could have covered that whole article in one sentence.

I am honestly starting to believe these guys know the score as far as our cap situation with regards to the 2010 free agent class but write this crap just to incite the ignorant masses and generate hits and blog commentary. That has to be it, right?

Edited May 10, 2010 by jhay610

[niremetal]

I am honestly starting to believe these guys know the score as far as our cap situation with regards to the 2010 free agent class but write this crap just to incite the ignorant masses and generate hits and blog commentary. That has to be it, right?

Nah. They just find it much more efficient to talk out of their respective asses than to take the time to become reasonably informed about pro basketball.

[AHF]

Actually its not lazy jounalism its just uninformed. It cant be lazy because he took alot of time and wasted hundreds of words to write that when he could have simply said its not possible under the cba and the cap rules. He could have covered that whole article in one sentence.

That makes it lazy and stupid in my mind. Too lazy to look it up. Too stupid to realize that looking up the CBA rules might be dispositive and might have shortened the article to one sentence.

[JackB1]

I dont understand how Bosh improve's us as a team. That would make 3 power forwards instead of 2.

Lets address what we NEED.......a true Center, PG or SF.

[jhay610]

I'm not gonna post it but Schultz has written another fine piece today saying that the Hawks should fire Woody (he said "fire", not "refuse to tender a new contract"), SNT JJ for Salmons, sign CB4 and move Josh Smith to the three.

Then in the blogs he says we could "trade the rights to Josh Childress".

:shake_puter:

Edited May 11, 2010 by jhay610

[niremetal]

I'm not gonna post it but Schultz has written another fine piece today saying that the Hawks should fire Woody (he said "fire", not "refuse to tender a new contract"), SNT JJ for Salmons, sign CB4 and move Josh Smith to the three.

Then in the blogs he says we could "trade the rights to Josh Childress".

:shake_puter:

Please, someone kidnap Jeff Schultz and Mark Bradley and put them wherever they sent Connie Chung and Vanilla Ice.

Edited May 11, 2010 by niremetal

[AHF]

I'm not gonna post it but Schultz has written another fine piece today saying that the Hawks should fire Woody (he said "fire", not "refuse to tender a new contract"), SNT JJ for Salmons, sign CB4 and move Josh Smith to the three.

Then in the blogs he says we could "trade the rights to Josh Childress".

:shake_puter:

It is amazing that our newspaper reporters who are writing on the Hawks would be among the least informed (at best) 10% of the Hawksquawk population. How are these guys not at least at an average level of awareness with what is going on with this team?

[Sothron]

I'm not gonna post it but Schultz has written another fine piece today saying that the Hawks should fire Woody (he said "fire", not "refuse to tender a new contract"), SNT JJ for Salmons, sign CB4 and move Josh Smith to the three.

Then in the blogs he says we could "trade the rights to Josh Childress".

:shake_puter:

The fact we couldn't do any of those things sans trade JJ for Salmon if the salaries matched is the only thing to take from that. We still wouldn't have the room to sign Bosh unless he signed for the MLE.

[niremetal]

The fact we couldn't do any of those things sans trade JJ for Salmon if the salaries matched is the only thing to take from that. We still wouldn't have the room to sign Bosh unless he signed for the MLE.

And if we're keeping Josh and Horford and if we've already S&Ted Joe for Salmons (apparently, the Bucks have $10M in cap space that I didn't know about and wouldn't mind paying 2 shooting guards $30M total) we don't even have the pieces to S&T for Bosh. I guess he thinks Toronto would accept Bibby and Marvin in a S&T deal. I mean, the Raptors surely couldn't find someone who would offer them more than that.

Here's what I said to him:

Jeff,

If you paid attention to the Hawks for more than 10 games per year, maybe your posts would reflect an ounce of basketball common sense. But since you won’t, let me give you some sound advice on how you could make sure that your posts don’t make a mockery of basketball writing.

Please, find me a professional scout or analyst who has watched Hawks game tape this year and who says that Josh Smith can play the SF. Or find me someone who thinks that the Hawks have the pieces to S&T for Bosh AFTER we S&T Joe. Or find me someone who has read the CBA who says that we have rights to trade in Josh Childress (we don’t – he’s a free agent, and we have NO rights in him except the right to match other NBA teams’ offers).

Or how about this – email your piece to Charley Rosen, Hubie Brown, or Sam Smith. Ask what they think of your half-assed attempt at basketball writing. At least pretend that you have the desire to learn 10% as much about the NBA as you know about the Braves and Bulldogs training camp machinations.

Spend time doing stuff like that instead of talking out of your *ss. Then you won’t be a laughingstock on blogs where the fans live and breathe NBA basketball year-round, in contrast to people like you and Bradley who only skim the box scores and watch when the Hawks are on national TV.

Just because you know something about some sports doesn’t imbue you with knowledge of all others. Stop acting like it does.

And you know – if you spent as much time trying to gain basketball knowledge as you do making snarky comments to those who question your basketball knowledge, maybe you’d actually have passable basketball knowledge.

[Sothron]

And if we're keeping Josh and Horford and if we've already S&Ted Joe for Salmons (apparently, the Bucks have $10M in cap space that I didn't know about and wouldn't mind paying 2 shooting guards $30M total) we don't even have the pieces to S&T for Bosh. I guess he thinks Toronto would accept Bibby and Marvin in a S&T deal. I mean, the Raptors surely couldn't find someone who would offer them more than that.

Here's what I said to him:

lol I love it. Those guys have no idea how the CBA works.

[coachx]

Uhh...lowest payroll of playoff teams? Does anyone fact check these guys. OKC and Portland had lower payrolls.

This is pathetic. The AJC needs to fire these morons.

and on 680 Chuck & Chernoff preach from the AJC like its the Bible or something.

The Hawks are only $2 or 3 mill away from teams like Toronto, Miwaulkee, Chicago, and Charlotte.

They made this a feature of their Hawks segment and then went on to say how we could sign Bosh.

LOL

Its the media fault Atlanta fans are so stupid. Fans are only as smart as their sources for information and both media sourcess (AJC and sports talk radio) just plain suck.

Edited May 11, 2010 by coachx