Why would Fratello come here?????????

[atlfaninAZ]

Everybody seems to think he would be great and yes he did do good when he was here, but he also had TALENT when he was here. There is none now. Honestly, this team scares no one and what is the long term plan for the organization?? I love the Hawks and always will, but c'mon... let's be real.

[Lascar78]

not necessarily true. If you look at the main pieces:

Shareef

Theo

Boris Diaw

JT

Stephen Jackson

Nazr

...

There's talent there. There is easily enough talent to make the playoffs in the east on our team. EASILY. But the pieces don't fit right now, there appears to be a feeling of despair instead of motivation.

A good coach could take it upon himself to want to show the league and these players how it's done. Either he can figure out how to make these pieces fit, or he can trade some of those pieces for equal players( or players that are worse but who fit better). And we'll be getting a high draft pick

For instance who would have thought that hubie brown would have come out of retirement and coached the grizz. They're in the west, they had less talent than we do. But he put his system in place, made trades to get players that fit his style better, and now they're winning. They also had talent, but a losing attitute and were somewhat out of control. They needed a disciplinarian just like the hawks do.

The only argument here is that Hubie went because of Jerry West. But you can counter that with the fact that Fratello has a history here in atlanta and Im sure he wants the hawks to do well. Especially with new management that actually cares coming in, and Nique possibly emerging with a higher role.

I don't assume that Fratello is dying to take the job, but surely it's very possible that he would take it

[Packfill]

Well, Fratello coached in Cleveland where he had next to no talent so under your analysis he would be entering a familiar situation!

[Gray Mule]

New ownership. They are wanting to create excitement

in Atlanta. They want to DO SOMETHING!!

This group of new owners have been successful business

men in the corporate world. They want to do the same

thing in the N.B.A.

Some of them are big N.B.A. fans with a working knowledge

of the N.B.A. This helps. They already understand what

it is all about. These new owners want to put the best

product {Team} possible on the floor to represent them,

the city of Atlanta and ,us, the beleagered fans of this

present franchise.

Hawks don't have a Michael Vick type as Blank did when

he took over the Falcons. Together M.V. & Blank, turned

the Falcons from a ho-hum franchise into something

very special. Blank used his knowledge from being the

head honcho at Home Depot to good use.

Here's hoping that the new owners of the Hawks, {If they

can EVER get the necessary N.B.A. approval} can do

much the same things here.

That's why Mike Fratello would be willing to come here.

[Diesel]

Several reasons..

1. The new owners.. I think that the New owners are somewhat closer to Fratello than Kasten was at the end of Fratello's stay here. I think that Fratello sees a group of guys who wants to win and that's all he ever wanted.

2. Money. Fratello's not coming to do charity work, I think that he's looking for financial gain too. I think 5.0 million a year will be his asking price.

3. "THE ITCH". I wonder how hard is it for Mike to call a game for ESPN and have the Itch. I mean I know when I here him calling some games he sounds like he's dying to get back out there. I think seeing the success of Hubie and Alderman and the introduction of the zone defense has made him want to be in coaching.

4. I don't know if Talent is a major factor. If you think about it, with new ownership who wants to win, I'm sure that they will be willing to work with Mike and gives him what he needs.

[Vol4ever]

EDS, yes this would be a familiar situation that he was in at Cleveland.

1. The only viable if you could say are JT and Reef. They are niether hot commodities on the market. A playoff team might be interested in Reef as a off-the-bench player for depth in the playoffs. Reef has the physical talent to be a top PF but he doesn't have the mental toughness to make it.

2. Ownership is looking better, but please don't hire Kasten!

3. If I'm not mistaken we don't have any top draft picks.

4. We need a GM who can come in and make some moves that will better this team. A true Basketball GM.

Only time will tell

[Gray Mule]

#3 - We don't have any draft picks??

Have they already been traded away?

I thought we had some picks coming in the next draft.

What happened to them??

[Playmaker0017]

Vol4Ever,

1. Reef riding the pine is laughable at best. There are NO teams in the entire league (save maybe the Lakers) where Reef wouldn't start at either the SF or the PF spot. He may not be starting in front of Duncan at PF, but you can't tell me that Turkoglu, Horry, Rose or Bowen start in front of him at SF. The same can be said of almost every team. That statement is just absurd.

2. No one will hire Kasten. At least the ought not to.

3. You are quite mistaken, I believe. This year our draft pick is ours and we have a top 15 protected pick from Philly or some such.

4. Having a GREAT GM doesn't mean he can make moves if other teams don't want what we have and won't offer what we want. Thems the breaks.