Throwback 2004 draft thought

[Endy9]

For years we've heard over and over about the Hawks missing on Chris Paul and some of the other blunders like drafting Sheldon Williams period.

But one that sticks in my mind and I never hear mentioned as a mistake is back to 2004.

Even at the time and not knowing he would bolt for Europe, I thought we should have picked Luol Deng instead of Childress. What do you guys think?

[capstone21]

Well of course looking back on their careers we would take Deng over Childress.It's all moot

[Dejay]

Oh yeah we do. Check out the back pages on this forum. I have at least a dozen posts killing the Childress pick alone.There were a number of folks on this site screaming for Deng and a few for Al Jefferson. I wanted Andre Iguodala myself. Childress was and still is to this very day as much a bust in terms of being a nobody in this league despite the high lottery spent on him as Marvin Williams is. He is one of the reasons why Billy Knight should never be allowed to run an NBA front office again...

Edited May 5, 2013 by Dejay

[Guest]

I also wanted Iggy with the 6th pick and Smoove with 17th pick ...I didn't like Deng and was completely wrong about him because he's awesome...I hated Childress too...I really wanted Livingston or Iggy with the 6th pick but Livingston went 4th overall so we didn't even have a shot at him.

[DrReality]

Remember former Ga Tech being asked about this pick vs Deng and you can only imagine what he said given that the latter played in the ACC

[Dejay]

Yeah, absolutely. I wasn't a fan of his work when he was at Stanford because he reminded me of another Stanford guy the Hawks drafted who was just as overrated as Childress; Adam Keefe. And just like the hideous Keefe pick Babs made, we missed out on several guys who would've made all the difference between being a contender and, well, what we've had here for decades. A few brave souls tried to defend BK's selection on HS but were flamed so badly by us that many of them never returned here. If you need to be wide open in order to get off your jump shot, one should not be spending a draft pick on your services, much less a lottery pick. Ask the Suns and Nets about his value; they'll verify the same thing I just wrote. He should've stayed in Europe...

[Endy9]

I did notice that several teams between that 7th pick and our pick of Josh made some very bad choices instead of taking Josh.

Thanks for all the replies, I must have missed all the childress bashing.

[Kimsey]

Everyone was praying Livingston or Harris would drop down to 6th. Deng and Iggy turned out much better. Couldn't get over JC always looked like he was playing with heavy ankle weights.

Considering how strong the high school class was , BK was better off trading down from 6, oh well.

[Kimsey]

Got me thinking and can't let go. Prime Joe, with two developing players like Deng and Smith with high ceilings. In 05, still bad enough to draft Deron or Paul. At that point we don't get pick 2 or need the "young James Worthy".

Paul, Joe, Deng, Smith - the original OKC. I can take solace that another reality is enjoying this lineup.

[Dejay]

Got me thinking and can't let go. Prime Joe, with two developing players like Deng and Smith with high ceilings. In 05, still bad enough to draft Deron or Paul.

I've been saying that for years. If there was a competent guy in charge at the time, we wouldn't likely be talking about what to do after the crowd chants 'MVP!' when an opposing star does anything in a ballgame here. We'd be at the very least in the conversation as far as being a true contender in the East. Lobs from CP3 to Smith and Iguodala would've made Philips a REAL highlight factory. Oh well... Edited May 6, 2013 by Dejay

[Diesel]

I didn't want Deng. Call it anti dukie.. I just didn't think his game would transform into a pro scorer. I wanted Smoove and Jefferson out of that draft but I was content with Childress.

[lethalweapon3]

The polls are missing from the Hawks Hot Tub Time Machine posts, but IIRC the Squawk had Dre over Childress and others, and Josh over J.R. and others. I think Iguodala's choice had a smaller percentage of survey respondents because the alternative options (Deng, Al Jefferson) were more competitive than Smoove's (J.R., Jameer, Kevin Martin). It would have been interesting had the Wizards not picked-and-traded Devin if he'd have been our guy instead. As bad as Chillz' career arc went, there were a lot of bombs in that draft (Araujo, Luke Jackson, Biedrins, Robert Swift, and Telfair all in the lottery; Kirk Snyder right before Smoove).

In the second round we had Ariza and Duhon over Donta Smith and Viktor Sanikidze, but would have stayed with the Royal Ivey pick.

http://hawksquawk.net/community/topic/369064-hawks-hot-tub-time-machine-2004-draft/

http://hawksquawk.net/community/topic/369180-hawks-hot-tub-time-machine-2011-draft/

2003, first round: Kendrick Perkins over Boris Diaw
2003, second round: Zaza Pachulia over Travis Hansen
2004, first round: Andre Iguodala over Josh Childress
2004, first round: Josh Smith
2004, second round: Trevor Ariza, Chris Duhon, and Royal Ivey over Donta Smith, Ivey, and Viktor Sanikidze
2005, first round: Chris Paul over Marvin Williams
2005, second round: Marcin Gortat over Salim Stoudamire
2006, first round: Rudy Gay over Shelden Williams
2006, second round: Paul Millsap over Solomon Jones
2007, first round: Al Horford
2007, first round: either Thaddeus Young or Rodney Stuckey over Acie Law
2009, first round: Jeff Teague
2009, second round: Sergiy Gladyr
2010, first round: Damion James, then trade for Jordan Crawford and Tibor Pleiss
2010, second round: Jeremy Evans over Pape Sy
2011, second round: Isaiah Thomas over Keith Benson

~lw3

[Guest Walter]

I wanted deng over anyone else if only for his trade value. My draft board remotely possible for us per say was Livingston, deng, Jefferson, JS. I still wonder what Livingston would have played up to if he hadn't destroyed his knee.Long, athletic, and otherwise flawed...the bk way.W