Discussing Jason Walker's Suggestions .

[Diesel]

In Walker's latest Blog...  He makes the following suggestions.

 

1. Sign Al Horford

2. Get off the fence at Point Guard

3. Say goodbye to Baze

4. Use the Draft effectively

5. Continue to find the next low-budget, high-minute player

6. Find their Mojo

 

These are six points.  Let's review.

1.  Sign Horford?  Horford is not Tim Duncan.   I think there should be a limitation to how much we pay.

2.  I believe that the PG thing is solved if Teague is not injured.

3.  If we could keep him, why let him go.  It will depend on how much he wants.

4.  Taurean Green!!  Nuff Said.

5.  Specifically, we need a Sf and a BU C.   Let's say goodbye to Splitter if he can't be our BU without injure.  I have been talking about Dwight Howard but is not about spending that much money.  As far as SF, here's the list:  Barnes, Batum, Jeff Green.  Here's the BIgs list:  Humphries, Mozgov, Gortat.   Out of that list, maybe we can get 3.

What do you think?

 

 

[Jody23]

While I agree with some things in that article, non of those suggestions have a substantial effect on improving the Hawks long term.  And that's the problem.

[thescout5]

I agree not enough improvement. Last night watching the Portland vs Warriors game both sides had more than one go to player and they could hit 3s in a flury. The Hawks have zero players that can do that.  Keeping both point guards while it would be nice doesn't achieve and help the team with other weaknesses. Maybe if you could sign Beal, bring Hump back and add Gordat plus keep Horf would really help. Don't think it is possible but need at least 2 significant players. 

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, thescout5 said:

I agree not enough improvement. Last night watching the Portland vs Warriors game both sides had more than one go to player and they could hit 3s in a flury. The Hawks have zero players that can do that.  Keeping both point guards while it would be nice doesn't achieve and help the team with other weaknesses. Maybe if you could sign Beal, bring Hump back and add Gordat plus keep Horf would really help. Don't think it is possible but need at least 2 significant players. 

Agree generally with your premise(s).  I think we go after Beal but Gortat and he have had beef so getting both would probably not be in the plans.  I wonder if the playoff and end-of-season snub by Budz may have turned Hump off to the idea of re-signing here?  Hope not.

[thescout5]

Beal's main issue is health. Even if he misses some time just as long as he is ready for the playoffs is what counts. Hawks need to solve the rebounding issues some how. You can get away with being beat on the boards in the reg season but when you ultimately face the Cavs in the playoffs you have to rebound.

[Jody23]

I COULD say yes to Beal.  Humphries should be brought back.  Inclined to say no to Gortat especially if he's a free agent.

Aside from that, the key things I'm looking at for the Hawks this offseason is if they retain Horford, can they do it for moderatly less than max?  If they do trade Teague and Splitter, can they get significant cap flexibility in the process?  Also, Millsap will opt out of his contract next offseason and we know he won't shy away from asking for a new max based on the upcoming cap numbers.  They need to anticipate this and proceed accordingly.

Edited May 10, 2016 by Jody23

[Ropadope]

Thinking out loud here:  So, what does Horford provide on the court that Humphries couldn't give you at a significantly reduced price? Given the same minutes, would Horford produce much more going forward?? He's a power forward but we could still upgrade at the center position in other ways. 

[Sothron]

Jason has the more realistic outlook but it is not what is needed. We need a rebuild. This team will still be nothing but a second round exit even if we hit all six of his points.

[NBASupes]

I think every team including ours is focus on keeping their star. That includes Washington with Beal, Charlotte with Batum, etc. It is really hard to find a SF that's available. P.J. Tucker seems to be as good as it gets for the value we are willing to trade and even he is overpriced. 

This is tough. Clearly, whatever we do, we must get very good value for Dennis or Jeff. That includes Noel, Okafor, Hezonja, Aaron Gordon, Levine, Hood, etc.

I am really on the Tim Hardaway Jr must come into 2016 to kill like Bazemore did. Korver must be better as well but I am not expecting too much.

We are kinda limited. Even with cap room. The strength of this class is bigs and even then, we got the best one and the only one who could really help us. 

I would love to get Greg Monroe for Mike Scott and Splitter but available and we can't get a young big. The guys that are available like Jeff Green are likely to stay in their teams. LAC stated they got him just for the BR and he can help them win. Deng might be the only one available but Miami is reluctant to move from him and he might not want to come to Atlanta. 

Bazemore might be our best option. Joe Johnson should be available. He would be huge for us and he likes Atlanta. Atlanta should look into possibilities of trading Millsap. He could get us two assets for the price of one but I am not sure Bud even wants to trade Sap unless you offer the barn. 

We got decisions to make. 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Jody23 said:

I COULD say yes to Beal.  Humphries should be brought back.  Inclined to say no to Gortat especially if he's a free agent.

Aside from that, the key things I'm looking at for the Hawks this offseason is if they retain Horford, can they do it for moderatly less than max?  If they do trade Teague and Splitter, can they get significant cap flexibility in the process?  Also, Millsap will opt out of his contract next offseason and we know he won't shy away from asking for a new max based on the upcoming cap numbers.  They need to anticipate this and proceed accordingly.

I have a few ideas I think folks can get behind ...

- Trade Millsap to TOR for Valunci-  Valen -  Valunch .... their center.  Go after Montejunas

- Alternatively, go hard after Biyombo and Beal; go after Noah, try to re-sign Al too (capologists will probably unite against me, no idea if it's doable); take a flier on Tony Snell (league minimum)

- Try to re-sign Al but also go after Mozgov (has his value been depressed enough?)

- Go after Josh Powell from DAL; he's a RFA but will they lose him trying to chase stars?

- Trade Teague for a wang; go after DJ Augustin to backup DMike

- Go after Durant (ho hum)

- Probably won't fit but Telenoviz (PHX) could be a nice piece; poor man's Ryan Anderson who I think will be overpaid.

Not sure how many of those are game-changers.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Bazemore might be our best option. Joe Johnson should be available. He would be huge for us and he likes Atlanta. Atlanta should look into possibilities of trading Millsap. He could get us two assets for the price of one but I am not sure Bud even wants to trade Sap unless you offer the barn. 

We got decisions to make. 

I've been saying that for most of the season.  Sap to UT for Favors and whatever makes sense.  If we're going to re-sign Al, selling high on Sap is probably among the top 2 ways we can make dramatic changes to the roster that we need (trading Teague is the other).

[NBASupes]

2 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I have a few ideas I think folks can get behind ...

- Trade Millsap to TOR for Valunci-  Valen -  Valunch .... their center.  Go after Montejunas

- Alternatively, go hard after Biyombo and Beal; go after Noah, try to re-sign Al too (capologists will probably unite against me, no idea if it's doable); take a flier on Tony Snell (league minimum)

- Try to re-sign Al but also go after Mozgov (has his value been depressed enough?)

- Go after Josh Powell from DAL; he's a RFA but will they lose him trying to chase stars?

- Trade Teague for a wang; go after DJ Augustin to backup DMike

- Go after Durant (ho hum)

- Probably won't fit but Telenoviz (PHX) could be a nice piece; poor man's Ryan Anderson who I think will be overpaid.

Not sure how many of those are game-changers.

You guys have no clue how much our bigs do for our team. No clue. Thankfully Bud does. Jonas Hurtunchaius? Mosgov? Bud like "facepalm" 

To part with Millsap, it's going to take a hell of an offer. Bud loves him and rightfully so. 1st or 2nd team Defense and 3rd team all NBA. Bud is not getting rid of him for Jonas who wouldn't fit Bud's system.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

You guys have no clue how much our bigs do for our team. No clue. Thankfully Bud does. Jonas Hurtunchaius? Mosgov? Bud like "facepalm" 

To part with Millsap, it's going to take a hell of an offer. Bud loves him and rightfully so. 1st or 2nd team Defense and 3rd team all NBA. Bud is not getting rid of him for Jonas who wouldn't fit Bud's system.

We know how much our bigs do.  The problem is, despite how enormously important they are, there's a ceiling on what we can do/be as a team with them.  Are we wrong on that?  If you disagree, I'll kindly point to results.

Obviously the ideal move is to add an elite wing.  Obviously.  However, we don't live in an ideal world where Budz will get to keep his precious big(s) tandem together.  Budz will have to figure out how to win without one of them most likely or we'll be right back here next year.

Budz better not be Phil Jackson-ing himself and putting "scheme" over wins.  Yes, I know you have to have (for lack of a better description) a template for winning by which you build.  However, you can't be so rigid that you refuse to get out of your comfort zone just so you can lose your way rather than win another way.

[Jody23]

4 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I have a few ideas I think folks can get behind ...

- Trade Millsap to TOR for Valunci-  Valen -  Valunch .... their center.  Go after Montejunas

- Alternatively, go hard after Biyombo and Beal; go after Noah, try to re-sign Al too (capologists will probably unite against me, no idea if it's doable); take a flier on Tony Snell (league minimum)

- Try to re-sign Al but also go after Mozgov (has his value been depressed enough?)

- Go after Josh Powell from DAL; he's a RFA but will they lose him trying to chase stars?

- Trade Teague for a wang; go after DJ Augustin to backup DMike

- Go after Durant (ho hum)

- Probably won't fit but Telenoviz (PHX) could be a nice piece; poor man's Ryan Anderson who I think will be overpaid.

Not sure how many of those are game-changers.

Lot's of ideas here.  But honestly, I don't see any of these changing the status of this team as middle of the pack team except for getting Durant which won't happen.

If the Hawks refuse to rebuild, then they need to hop back on Ferry's philosophy of having ultimate cap flexibility while remaining competitive.  This is gonna take longer than one offseason to fix.

[NBASupes]

We got to do like we did in 2008 and 2009, we got to win a trade and badly. That's so hard in this game but teams do it like Cleveland for example. We got to trade Splitter for a much better player than him like Al Jefferson who is a FA. We have to get three things.

1. Either a great paint protector who is very talented or a #1 option in the paint scoring big off the bench to backup Al and Sap. Guys like Kanter, Jefferson, Monroe and Okafor.

2. A two way SF who can defend and put the ball on the floor, shoot well with legit SF size.

3. A #1 option on offense. If he's a starter, cool, if he isn't, fine. He can't be a Lou Williams type. Where he's undersized and plays low BBIQ Basketball and won't fit our system.

We need to decide if Bazemore is the SF or SG of the future. Same with Hardaway Jr, if he is not the future, trade him for value.

Splitter might need to go if we can attract a SF in FA

 

[Sothron]

26 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I have a few ideas I think folks can get behind ...

- Trade Millsap to TOR for Valunci-  Valen -  Valunch .... their center.  Go after Montejunas

- Alternatively, go hard after Biyombo and Beal; go after Noah, try to re-sign Al too (capologists will probably unite against me, no idea if it's doable); take a flier on Tony Snell (league minimum)

- Try to re-sign Al but also go after Mozgov (has his value been depressed enough?)

- Go after Josh Powell from DAL; he's a RFA but will they lose him trying to chase stars?

- Trade Teague for a wang; go after DJ Augustin to backup DMike

- Go after Durant (ho hum)

- Probably won't fit but Telenoviz (PHX) could be a nice piece; poor man's Ryan Anderson who I think will be overpaid.

Not sure how many of those are game-changers.

So we trade Teague for a wang eh?

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Jody23 said:

Lot's of ideas here.  But honestly, I don't see any of these changing the status of this team as middle of the pack team except for getting Durant which won't happen.

If the Hawks refuse to rebuild, then they need to hop back on Ferry's philosophy of having ultimate cap flexibility while remaining competitive.  This is gonna take longer than one offseason to fix.

But isn't the reason we can't keep any of these developing guys Ferry's 'ultimate flexibility' plan(s).

Our plan will not be to bottom-out and I'm fine with that.  We need Wilcox to make his mark as a GM, not just be a caretaker.

1 minute ago, Sothron said:

So we trade Teague for a wang eh?

Yep.  There's a whole thread on wangs in the FA subforum.  Apparently a lot of folks here enjoy talking about wangs. 

[Jody23]

11 minutes ago, kg01 said:

But isn't the reason we can't keep any of these developing guys Ferry's 'ultimate flexibility' plan(s).

Our plan will not be to bottom-out and I'm fine with that.  We need Wilcox to make his mark as a GM, not just be a caretaker.

Yep.  There's a whole thread on wangs in the FA subforum.  Apparently a lot of folks here enjoy talking about wangs. 

If they're going to get the kind of players that can make them title contenders, they'll have to have the money to get them.

[ATLSmith]

Beal would be a game changer.  Obviously some risk with his health.  I think Washington will do what it can to keep Beal, but I would also expect the Hawks to pursue him.

12 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Our plan will not be to bottom-out and I'm fine with that.  We need Wilcox to make his mark as a GM, not just be a caretaker.

I'm with you 100% on this.  The Hawks aren't rebuilding, but they need to make a big move (or two) to get better.  Wilcox needs to get it done.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Jody23 said:

If they're going to get the kind of players that can make them title contenders, they'll have to have the money to get them.

None of the top winning teams in the league have cap flexibility.  GS (I think) does until this coming offseason when they'll have to make a decision on Barnes.

This is why I say Wilcox needs to earn his stripes as a GM.  'Cap flexibility' just kicks the can down the street.