Confirmed: We gave out the worst contract of the offseason

[HawksBalla]

Joe Johnson signed a bigger contract than anyone, and it doesn't appear to be closer than 20 million or so. We overpaid far too early instead of letting the market develop. And now we'll pay for it for years as the Bulls, Heat, and Magic rule the East for the next couple years to come. JJ's deal will be the last "real bad" contract of all time after the new labor agreement.

[WraithSentinel]

David Lee and Warriors: :bye1:

[gsuteke]

we overpaid but if joe didn't resign we'd we trying to shed payroll to freak out and try to get some players in here. look at the nets. they are screwed. that is us minus joe. don't be ignorant when you post negative things about Joe"scontract..

[Unforgiven]

David Lee and Warriors: :bye1:

so much for the hawks getting Turiaf ROFL

[HawksBalla]

we overpaid but if joe didn't resign we'd we trying to shed payroll to freak out and try to get some players in here. look at the nets. they are screwed. that is us minus joe. don't be ignorant when you post negative things about Joe"scontract..

Yeah, I guess the entire rest of the NBA world is ignorant too.

[CBAreject]

I agree with everyone actually. GSUTEKE is right--we had no choice but to pay Joe because we had no other option. Hawksballa is right--this is the worst contract given out this offseason. I say so because it puts us no closer to a championship. We may have peaked last year, and even if we repeat last year's success, we have no hope of contending with this Miami juggernaut, so why spend so much when a 2nd round exit is our destiny? The Hawks are no different than 27 or so other NBA cities. There is little FA draw, and we will never be able to do what Miami did this year or what LAL did with Shaq or even what NYK has done. Atlanta has always been a team that is destined to draft its stars and sign a few second tier FA's (see San Antonio) to round out the team. Trouble is, we've been one of the worst drafting teams in NBA history. In spite of that, we've never spent to lure top GM or scouting department, but we've spent millions on mediocre talent which will never put us any closer to contending.

[YP2K]

We definitely got jobbed on that contract . . .

[KB21]

I agree with everyone actually. GSUTEKE is right--we had no choice but to pay Joe because we had no other option. Hawksballa is right--this is the worst contract given out this offseason. I say so because it puts us no closer to a championship. We may have peaked last year, and even if we repeat last year's success, we have no hope of contending with this Miami juggernaut, so why spend so much when a 2nd round exit is our destiny? The Hawks are no different than 27 or so other NBA cities. There is little FA draw, and we will never be able to do what Miami did this year or what LAL did with Shaq or even what NYK has done. Atlanta has always been a team that is destined to draft its stars and sign a few second tier FA's (see San Antonio) to round out the team. Trouble is, we've been one of the worst drafting teams in NBA history. In spite of that, we've never spent to lure top GM or scouting department, but we've spent millions on mediocre talent which will never put us any closer to contending.

I disagree on two key points here.

First, Joe Johnson's contract is a bad contract, but it is no worse than the contract Amare Stoudemire got in New York. Everyone wants to talk about Joe declining in his thirties, but Joe doesn't even come close to having the injury history or the wear and tear on his body that Amare has. Neither player is an alpha dog, so both are getting overpaid. This is a function of the league though. This is a league where Rudy Gay, who is clearly not a top player in this league, gets $80 million over 5 years, and David Lee can be a system made player and get $80 million over 6 years.

Second, I disagree that the Hawks have peaked. Do you think Al Horford and Josh Smith are maxed out? They are the two key players on the Hawks. Both are very young and are already among the top players at their positions. I don't see them plateauing or suddenly starting to decline, particularly in this new offense where I think Al Horford is going to be great as a pick and pop guy. Whatever the Hawks get from Jeff Teague will be gravy, IMO, and if he plays the way he is capable of playing, the Hawks are going to be a very good team next year.

[Guest]

I disagree on two key points here.

First, Joe Johnson's contract is a bad contract, but it is no worse than the contract Amare Stoudemire got in New York. Everyone wants to talk about Joe declining in his thirties, but Joe doesn't even come close to having the injury history or the wear and tear on his body that Amare has. Neither player is an alpha dog, so both are getting overpaid. This is a function of the league though. This is a league where Rudy Gay, who is clearly not a top player in this league, gets $80 million over 5 years, and David Lee can be a system made player and get $80 million over 6 years.

Second, I disagree that the Hawks have peaked. Do you think Al Horford and Josh Smith are maxed out? They are the two key players on the Hawks. Both are very young and are already among the top players at their positions. I don't see them plateauing or suddenly starting to decline, particularly in this new offense where I think Al Horford is going to be great as a pick and pop guy. Whatever the Hawks get from Jeff Teague will be gravy, IMO, and if he plays the way he is capable of playing, the Hawks are going to be a very good team next year.

I agree with you KB21..I am so over the whole money and age thing and declining abilities...Joe turned 29 this past June, people forget that Wade is 28 (will be 29 in January of 2011) and Joe has had less of an injury history...Paul Pierce is 33 and got a 4yr extension, Dirk is 32 and got 4yr/80mil extension.......It aint my money the owners are spending but when I spend my money to go to games I like to know that at least the Hawks have a shot at winning that game.

[AHawks89]

I disagree on two key points here.

First, Joe Johnson's contract is a bad contract, but it is no worse than the contract Amare Stoudemire got in New York. Everyone wants to talk about Joe declining in his thirties, but Joe doesn't even come close to having the injury history or the wear and tear on his body that Amare has. Neither player is an alpha dog, so both are getting overpaid. This is a function of the league though. This is a league where Rudy Gay, who is clearly not a top player in this league, gets $80 million over 5 years, and David Lee can be a system made player and get $80 million over 6 years.

Second, I disagree that the Hawks have peaked. Do you think Al Horford and Josh Smith are maxed out? They are the two key players on the Hawks. Both are very young and are already among the top players at their positions. I don't see them plateauing or suddenly starting to decline, particularly in this new offense where I think Al Horford is going to be great as a pick and pop guy. Whatever the Hawks get from Jeff Teague will be gravy, IMO, and if he plays the way he is capable of playing, the Hawks are going to be a very good team next year.

I agree with you. Josh & Al both have much more room to grow in. Teague could turn out to be amazing. Who knows what we have ahead of us. I do know we have more room to grow and improve, and also, to be better than the last season (which we have done).

Edited July 9, 2010 by AHawks89

[Guest]

I agree with you. Josh & Al both have much more room to grow in. Teague could turn out to be amazing. Who knows what we have ahead of us. I do know we have more room to grow and improve, and also, to be better than the last season (which we have done).

If we didn't offer Joe that contract when we did and waited until LBJ decided chances are he would now be joining Boozer, Rose and Noah with the Bulls, or NY with Amare a....we would surely have been screwed.

Edited July 9, 2010 by jaybird

[JJFAN4LF]

DimeMag apparently says that Joe is one of highest paid players ever. Wow. Still, I believe re-signing Joe was the best decision for our team. I'm glad that we did what we did.

DimeMag Twitter Account: Largest contracts in NBA history: Kobe ($136M), J.O. ($127M), KG ($126M), Rashard ($126M) & Joe Johnson ($124M).

[Guest]

DimeMag apparently says that Joe is one of highest paid players ever. Wow. Still, I believe re-signing Joe was the best decision for our team. I'm glad that we did what we did.

Good for you Joe...he is our leader and 4-time all-star.

[mrhonline]

FWIW, I know the JO and Lewis deals were over seven years, not six...

[AHawks89]

No, you're reading it wrong. Joe Johnsons contract might have been too high for him, but us offering him that - was a must do. I mean look at the Southeast div now. I'm happy that we signed Joe back. I was also saying, I agree on the part where the Hawks have not peaked yet, we still have Al & Smoove growing and improving. Teagues might be a hit, along with Jordan Crawford in a few years. New coach & offense. Still have all off season to make the right moves. Don't take us out the picture yet.

Edited July 9, 2010 by AHawks89

[Dejay]

I agree with everyone actually. GSUTEKE is right--we had no choice but to pay Joe because we had no other option. Hawksballa is right--this is the worst contract given out this offseason. I say so because it puts us no closer to a championship. We may have peaked last year, and even if we repeat last year's success, we have no hope of contending with this Miami juggernaut, so why spend so much when a 2nd round exit is our destiny? The Hawks are no different than 27 or so other NBA cities. There is little FA draw, and we will never be able to do what Miami did this year or what LAL did with Shaq or even what NYK has done. Atlanta has always been a team that is destined to draft its stars and sign a few second tier FA's (see San Antonio) to round out the team. Trouble is, we've been one of the worst drafting teams in NBA history. In spite of that, we've never spent to lure top GM or scouting department, but we've spent millions on mediocre talent which will never put us any closer to contending.

I totally agree with what was written. The Hawks have never been good enough to be considered an elite-level franchise to attract players who they didn't have to overpay to show up, nor have they been historically bad enough to draft a franchise-changer. And when they have, well, no sense in going down that street again. As I've stated a million times on this board, the Billy Knight-error (spelled correctly) will haunt this franchise for years to come. All I have to say on that is if a competent guy had been in charge instead of BK, we would've been in waaaaaaayyyyyyyy better position to counter what the Heat did the last two days. I mean, seriously; what was the use of losing for all of those years, only to be handed a glue guy off the bench (see Childress, Joshua), a career question mark (see Williams, Marvin), and a guy whose wife is a better player than he is (see Williams, Shelden)? All the resources used to bring in Bibby, resign him while he's running on petro fumes, draft Teague, Stoudamire, and Law, not to mention the hideous contract given out to Claxton could've easily been used on bringing in a big man or upgrading a bench that badly needs it sans Crawford if (insert point guard here) was chosen several years ago. That's not an opinion; that's a fact.

I guess it's just frustration setting in. Year after year passes by and seems that we're really no closer to an ECF, let alone an NBA Finals being hosted in this town now than when I was seven years old (that's 30 years ago for those keeping score). I've seen teams come and go and even the most downtrodden franchises (see Nets, New Jersey) and expansion teams have gone further in the playoffs than ours have. I know that they still have to play the games but need I remind those of what the Celtics did after acquiring KG and Allen a couple of years ago; they were one knee injury and a good 4th quarter away from winning two titles in three years. No 18th pick coming off the bench is going to do what the 'Big 3' did in Beantown, let alone what the Brand New Heavies will do in Miami. South Beach will be packed every night and likely celebrating deep playoff runs for the next half-decade while we're stuck wondering if we can really get a high 2nd round pick for Marvin or Mo Evans.

With that said, they had no other option but to overpay to keep JJ here. He had the Hawks in between a rock and a hard place and he knew that going into free agency. If you think things appear bleak with the Miami triangle entrenched in our division, imagine what life would've been as a Hawk fan if JJ was in Chicago or NYC right now. Forget about winning 45 games; we'd be talking about 35-40 wins max going into a likely locked-out 2011-12 season.

I just wonder. When will our day come? When will our team sit at the head of the table instead of fighting the Bucks for the scraps left on the floor? Two of our division rivals have 2-3 max level players on their rosters while we're pining for way-past-their-prime guys to spend the MLE on because of historically bad moves that were made years ago. I know Horford and Smith are young and can improve but that line is getting really old, really fast; especially considering that we have to see those two teams eight times a year.

Edited July 9, 2010 by Dejay

[BudBall]

Wow well said

[niremetal]

DimeMag apparently says that Joe is one of highest paid players ever. Wow. Still, I believe re-signing Joe was the best decision for our team. I'm glad that we did what we did.

We should take heart in Rashard's contract. Seriously. It's proof that you can overpay severely for a player and still build a contender even without going into the luxury tax (which, I'll remind people for the billionth time, did not happen until AFTER the Magic made the Finals in '09). Under the current CBA, Joe's contract is not the albatross that morons like Dwyer and Hollinger make it out to be. Under the next CBA, well who the hell knows, but in the NBA as in all businesses you can't afford to make business decisions based on conjectures about potential legal/administrative rule changes that might come in a year or two.

Edited July 9, 2010 by niremetal

[spotatl]

niremetal- by my numbers in the 2008-2009 season when the Magic went to the finals they had a salary of 73,970,842 and the luxury tax line was 71.1 million. I could be easily convinced that the numbers I have are wrong but where did you hear that the Magic didn't pay the tax that season?

[frankthetank966]

Dude there are very few sports fans that will argue with you that the hawks overpaid for Joe johnson, however they did what they has to in order to remain a contender next year. Without a doubt we would not be te same team without him. And too be honest you may think the hawks look foolish for giving him the money but the bottom line is the hawks were able to do something the Cavs jazz and raptors were unable to do and that is sign their big free agent. It's not like Atlanta was ever considered a team for any star free agent including Johnson but looks like he is still in a uniform who is dumb now the asg or everyone who blames them for overpaying???