All of the sudden I dont feel so good..........

[Plainview1981]

As opposed to what? The team we just blew up?? The team that had a hard ceiling of a second round exit guaranteed every year? Screw that. We need superstars to win a title. You either get one through the draft, a trade or free agency. Any option Ferry takes to do that is fine with me as long as we get one.

It's only going to happen through the draft. Which apparently Danny Ferry is not intelligent enough to understand. He thinks he will build a championship team through FA and he WILL BE WRONG.

[NekiEcko]

Okay, everybody before yall jump the plankYea is a very sad state right now but for the first time, we got hope that we can build a winning culture in Atlanta. Sure it would been nice to get superstars here but that is a pipe dream, so there only two other ways to have them. Created them or F/A them. If you do the F/A route, we will be doing the JJ scene all over again. NBA is going to have to find a better way to keep stars and superstars in other locations beside LA and NY or they are going to be left behind by NFL, NHL (really improved, no Thrashers :( ) and other sports.

[Plainview1981]

Oh, and go ahead and trade Smith. He has used up his usefulness here. Be gone.

[macdaddy]

Just look at Miami to figure out the other way. Miami ain't LA or New York. As cities go Atlanta is much more of a desirable location other than the beach and Miami fans are historically as bad or worse than Atlanta. So why are big names clamoring to go to Miami? Pat Riley and money. Guys have a ton of respect for Riley because he has built an mystique. Build a respected basketball operation and create a way to dump money on players when you have the chance and you can succeed in a city like Atlanta.

[MrMeltdown]

Welcome to the club.

[Sothron]

My point exactly. We had several shots at superstars in the draft and didn't get any. That's the norm not just for us but in general. That's the route i'm advocating against. And according to a bunch of people on the board Joe freakin Johnson is the difference between a top 4 team and the lottery. Playing on national tv and going to the playoffs makes money. Having a team that wins 60% of its games makes more money as an entertainment product. I'll take second round exits over 13 wins and ping pong balls anyday.

I can't disagree with this enough. This is exactly the same kind of wishy washy fandom that accepts a franchise being mediocre as long as it makes the playoffs and doesn't get swept. If that much. I want a championship. I want to watch a team that from the first game to the last I think they have an honest to God real chance of winning a title. The only you do that in the NBA is with superstars. Any other thinking besides that is literally doomed to fail. You either win with superstars or you do whatever it takes to get one.

[macdaddy]

I can't disagree with this enough. This is exactly the same kind of wishy washy fandom that accepts a franchise being mediocre as long as it makes the playoffs and doesn't get swept. If that much. I want a championship. I want to watch a team that from the first game to the last I think they have an honest to God real chance of winning a title. The only you do that in the NBA is with superstars. Any other thinking besides that is literally doomed to fail. You either win with superstars or you do whatever it takes to get one.

I think almost everyone agrees we need a star. The disagreement is how to get one. I'm asserting that its a better route and more likely to be successful to build a really good basketball organization with a history of winning and try to trade for or attract a known star as opposed to tearing down, enduring years of terrible teams on the crap shoot that the star is available in the draft if your chance comes and you don't whiff.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Just look at Miami to figure out the other way. Miami ain't LA or New York. As cities go Atlanta is much more of a desirable location other than the beach and Miami fans are historically as bad or worse than Atlanta. So why are big names clamoring to go to Miami? Pat Riley and money. Guys have a ton of respect for Riley because he has built an mystique. Build a respected basketball operation and create a way to dump money on players when you have the chance and you can succeed in a city like Atlanta.

I agree. It's like people forgot what it was like watching that bad Hawks team. A team like that doesn't even motivate you to watch them on TV, let alone go to the games. The problem with most NBA teams, is that they believe in their OWN star talent, more than them going out to get a talent upgrade. IF the Hawks were serious about getting a superstar player in the mix, they would've traded one or both Josh Smith and Al Horford for a Dwight Howard or Chris Paul. Instead, the Hawks hold onto those guys like THEY are the future superstars. People keep dealing with the Lakers, because the Lakers are willing to give teams what they want - multiple 1st round draft picks - a willingness to take on a bad contract in a deal Most of all, the Lakers are simply smarter than most organizations. They get Kobe in a trade for Vlade Divac. They draft Bynum out of high school at #10. They get Gasol by trading multiple 1st round picks and taking a "bad contract" off of Memphis' hands. The Lakers are risk takers, while most teams play it safe.

[WillBarrow]

Are you seriously asking that? The Nets, Pacers, Knicks, Boston, 76ers, Bulls are all better than we are. We're looking at the 8th spot in a race with the Bucks and Cavs if the Cavs get Bynum.

I must be crazy cause I just don't see losing ISO JOE dropping us to the 8th seed.The Heat are clearly the best but after that no one scares me.I think we end up 4 to 6 in the east.Lou Williams can easily get the same point Joe got....I know we paid him like a superstar but come on were better off right now!

[Sothron]

I must be crazy cause I just don't see losing ISO JOE dropping us to the 8th seed.The Heat are clearly the best but after that no one scares me.I think we end up 4 to 6 in the east.Lou Williams can easily get the same point Joe got....I know we paid him like a superstar but come on were better off right now!

We didn't just lose Joe, a six time All Star we also lost the only real small forward on our team and have yet to replace him. This team as it stands now will have to dog fight someone to just make it in the 8th seed. You are completely underrating how much better the East has gotten to think we're just going to cruise into the playoffs because of Josh and Al.

[HawkItus]

I must be crazy cause I just don't see losing ISO JOE dropping us to the 8th seed.The Heat are clearly the best but after that no one scares me.I think we end up 4 to 6 in the east.Lou Williams can easily get the same point Joe got....I know we paid him like a superstar but come on were better off right now!

This is so short sighted. It's not the points. Joe scored his points in one of the slowest paces in the league. Also, without a true pass first point guard. I like Teague, but he is not as good as Jrue in setting up an offense. Also, Marvin and Joe were our best perimeter defenders. Lou isn't replacing Joe and Kyle can't replace Marvin on defense. Points is the least of the concerns you should have. We need the other facets to compete at a high level.

[lethalweapon3]

I'm not sure how I'd want to set it up (Polls of grouped players, or thumbs-up-or-down threads of individual players) but I'd love to see a Hawksquawkian consensus of who these "Superstars" are. We always seem content with defining 'superstar,' like the Supreme Court was when defining 'p0rn,' as "you know it when you see it." But I think we'd be surprised at how variable that list (and the cutoff line) truly is among even diehard NBA fans when we start dropping the names. Blake Griffin? Paul Pierce? Tim Duncan? Deron Williams? Carmelo Anthony?Subconsciously, different criteria come into play of varying degrees of relevance, and championships (or the likelihood thereof) are but a part of it. Has he proven himself head-to-head against other superstars? How many All-Star games was he in? How many All-Star games was he VOTED into by the fans? Does my significant other know who the hell I'm talking about without enduring a lecture from me or consulting Wikipedia? Would dropping his name as "scheduled to appear" draw huge crowds at the nightclub? Can I proudly don his jersey in a public venue like a bar without hearing snickers? Am I BUYING Snickers only because he's schilling it on TV? Is he loved enough? Is he HATED enough?I suspect ultimately there's two categories. The names where even the lady at the deli counter fails to make a face at you when you bring them up in casual conversation, that's category one ("Cat-1"). Then there's the cadre of "if he finds a way to get his (bleep) together, his team could win something and he'd become a superstar" stars in category two ("Cat-2").Some might become Cat-2 guys auspiciously, by pulling a breakout game, month, or season out of their (bleep). Others get there audaciously, by doing something either noble/ridiculous like giving up a kidney, dressing in drag, choking their coach, or running into the stands and igniting a riot. Unless they hit it big in Hollywood dancing with the non-basketball stars, most of the Cat-2's only ever get to the Cat-1 stratosphere by riding the coattails of an existing Cat-1 cat. Meanwhile, some anointed Cat-1's erode into Cat-2's if they never win at least a conference title.I'm sitting in a town where we traded for a Cat-1 football guy as a rookie, thrilled by the weekly highlights on SportsCenter and the jerseys flying off the shelves, watching them get within one win of a Super Bowl appearance, only to watch helplessly as (first his coaching and management, then he himself) fumbled away any chance for his franchise to sniff a title. I'm also sitting in a town where we cultivated a Cat-1 baseball guy, a literal rookie breaking out with his bat amid a stable of Cooperstown-bound arms, who would become as famous for his chosen first name as almost any international soccer player, who would actually win the city's first real professional championship, then watched him emerge and devolve over the next 17 seasons as we lost to virtually every other National League team in the postseason. The guy in this town who scored the most goals in the whole NHL in the previous decade probably would have been a Cat-1, but had to get traded to a franchise serious enough about winning before he could be deemed as such by reaching the Stanley Cup Finals.Gleaming championship ring, two NBA Finals appearances, umpteen All-Star appearances and all, I'm suspecting there are more than quite a few who will insist that Dirk Nowitzki is nobody's idea of a Category 1 superstar, at least not in 2012. Googling "If only we traded for Dirk Nowitzki, we'd go far!" won't get you many hits. If anything, the biggest superstar, the "face", for the Mavericks franchise (the absolute worst NBA franchise of the 1990s) is a snooty little dude in a T-shirt and blue jeans named Mark Cuban. And when we're banging our shoes on the table for Mr. Superstar to pay his payroll taxes at this beautiful metropolis we have over here, the first one we need might not be the one on the hardwood, but the one with the key to the arena and the luxury box, who prefers to sit and cheer along with the commoners instead. If this franchise wants a surefire one-way ticket out of Wishywashyville, let's scream for that guy first.~lw3

[Ruckus]

Are we a championship team? NoDo we have money to spend? YesDoes anyone really know how good the team will be this year? NoDoes everyone think they know everything? Yes

[WillBarrow]

We didn't just lose Joe, a six time All Star we also lost the only real small forward on our team and have yet to replace him. This team as it stands now will have to dog fight someone to just make it in the 8th seed. You are completely underrating how much better the East has gotten to think we're just going to cruise into the playoffs because of Josh and Al.

We shall see....Williams and Harris more than make up for Joe imo, yes Sf is a concern but there may be more moves out there.

[Sothron]

We shall see....Williams and Harris more than make up for Joe imo, yes Sf is a concern but there may be more moves out there.

Neither Lou Williams or Harris can play a lick of defense and you think they are going to replace Joe, a guy that should have been All NBA defense for years?

[Watchman]

I know I've been guilty in the past of being negative, but dang...we need to add a new Melancholy Forum. Getting a "superstar" is no guarantee of anything. How many rings does Charles Barkley have? How about Karl Malone? I could go on and on listing so-called "superstars" who never got rings, but hopefully you get the point.We'd be better off assembling a great team than focusing exclusively on obtaining the elusive "superstar".Consider this, when the Celtics won a title a few years ago, all of their "Big 3" were well past their prime. At one point in time, each could have been considered a "superstar", but the "Big 3" by that time were shadows of their former selves. Yet still they won it all.Howard could not win a championship with mediocre supporting players. If we have to trade away Smith or Horford to get Howard, we will be no better than any of those Orlando teams. Not to mention what happens if we have to take back Orlando's crappy contracts. We would be far better off trying to sign him or some other superstar next offseason than to gut the team, and fill it with players that couldn't win it all with Howard beforehand.With respect to CP (or Deron Williams), it's an unimaginable tragedy that we passed on those PGs (whom we desperately needed) in order to draft yet another tweener forward (which we had plenty of and did not need any more.) BK royally blew that draft. He should never be allowed to work as a GM in the league. He was totally clueless.Now I step down off of the soap box. Next.

[WillBarrow]

Neither Lou Williams or Harris can play a lick of defense and you think they are going to replace Joe, a guy that should have been All NBA defense for years?

I was speaking to replacing his points per game.

[WillBarrow]

But at this moment its all speculation...we will see in a few months.

[Sothron]

I was speaking to replacing his points per game.

But that's literally half the game of basketball. You can't just wish away the defense. We've been spoiled by having a very good defensive team that is now missing its two best perimeter defenders and replaced them with guys who are short and not good defensively. You just can't ignore the huge drop off we now have in perimeter defense.

[Buzzard]

But that's literally half the game of basketball. You can't just wish away the defense. We've been spoiled by having a very good defensive team that is now missing its two best perimeter defenders and replaced them with guys who are short and not good defensively. You just can't ignore the huge drop off we now have in perimeter defense.

We took a big hit in perimeter D, no doubt about that. But our perimeter offense I think has been improved dramatically with all the excellent 3pt shooters. For me it is almost a wash, which is why I think we will still be a playoff team. But the elite teams will be eating our lunch again, if no other major trades take place this season.