Zach Lowe was not a fan of the Hawks summer moves

[Bankingitbig]

35 minutes ago, MaceCase said:

Reread the story, it's very illuminating.  They didn't shop Sap for "mysterious reasons", they shopped him specifically as the manner to be able to re-sign Al. 

If you didn't notice, they already had agreed to deals with Dwight and Bazemore on Friday, it would have been moot to re-engage in a contract talk with Al on Saturday without a potential trade because they had already allocated the majority of their cap space, including Al's cap hold, to both Bazemore and Dwight.

 

So again, they had the option to replace Al and they also had the option to retain Al.  They had options....they were not going to concede in one direction because they had leverage.

Teams negotiate contracts all the time without having the cap space. Look at Wade to the Bulls as an example. They know how much space they can free up by moving players. They negotiate in those parameters, get a deal, then free up the space.

I don't understand their plan. Was it to get Howard and keep Horford? Was it to get Howard and keep Millsap? Was it to get Howard and trade Millsap, while letting Horford walk? Was it to get Howard and keep both Horford and Millsap? It sounds like the plan was to get Howard then resign Horford and trade Millsap, but $5M over 5 years is what prevented that plan from happening and the Hawks went with the option of letting Horford walk. One would think that if that was the plan then the Hawks would have discussed it with Al beforehand to make sure he wouldn't bolt because he doesn't want to play alongside Howard. However, by all reports it sounds like Horford was not happy with the Howard signing. It sounds like they just went into free agency with a "let's keep our options open" mentality, instead of a "let's know our option for every scenario".

[Bankingitbig]

Also, I am of the belief that if we traded Millsap to free up cap space for Horford, then we should have just blown it up and not signed Howard or Horford. I also have a hard time fully believing that the Hawks FO wanted to run a Horford/Howard combo at the 4 & 5 spots for the next three years.

[DrReality]

My question is how did AH's heart not being in his game last year affect the team.  It had to and as the leader he crapped out.  There's the players and their talent and then there's how much heart they put in it.   D12 is less talented but hopefully will bring more heart.  

[yardbird]

Considering all of the consequences of Al leaving (Millsap's morale, Millsap's 2017 salary spike, the loss of the MLE for a backup PG, etc.), I have zero understanding of why our FO didn't avoid all of the risk by simply offering Al the full Max at the beginning.  $17 million over 5 years isn't enough to risk being where the franchise is now (looking at a leadership void, Howard as our 2018 best player, with a strong chance no high profile FA wants to come here), let alone $5 million over 5 years.  Even if we needed the extra money to facilitate the Millsap trade and get the players we wanted, those players (or one of them) couldn't have been worth seeing the whole thing blow up because Al wasn't offered the max. 

Now there's a chance that Al would have gone to Boston even if we'd offered the max, if he saw that as a better opportunity for a championship or didn't want to play with Dwight.  But then no one could have any criticism for the Hawks FO, and future FAs would see Atlanta as a team trying to compete without penny pinching.  Not so much now.

Edited July 8, 2016 by yardbird
typo

[Trout7]

22 hours ago, Gray Mule said:

Hawks gave away their PG for nothing - Big mistake.

Starting center left because Boston's fans were so much better - Big mistake.

Over the hill D. Howard signed for mega $$$ - Big mistake.

Mad Millsap angry by trying to trade him so he no longer wants to be here. - Big mistake.

Dang, he forgot to mention Blaze's contract.  His Big Mistake.

===================================

Now, we can all sing the old Hee Haw song:

Gloom, despair and agony on me,

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.

=====================================

Ain't it great to be an Atlanta fan now !!

GO ATL !!

Don't worry, Bazemore will save us chucking a record amount of three's!

[Lurker]

Quote

"But a second consecutive playoff sweep against the Cavaliers demoralized the Hawks. It laid bare that their current core would not be able to compete against LeBron James & Co., and raised internal questions about whether their pass-happy style of play had reached its zenith. Atlanta players have talked openly about catching the league by surprise two seasons ago, when they won 60 games, and how their relative struggles in the playoffs were the first sign of the league catching up."

Quote

"Like Howard, Faried seems almost the opposite of a classic Budenholzer-era pace-and-space Hawk. He can't shoot, and he hasn't cracked 100 assists in any season. But he and Howard are good rebounders, and the Hawks are sick of watching Tristan Thompson shove them away like tackling dummies.

Quote

The coaching staff longed for a big man who would slice to the rim on pick-and-rolls instead of popping for jumpers. Millsap and Horford would occasionally roll hard, but it was a change-of-pace thing for them. Tiago Splitter, a capable roller, barely played. Unless Teague or Schröder penetrated into the paint, the Hawks were left to fling the ball around the outside."

Just FWIW...

[Guest]

Where were these from?  I wouldn't mind scanning the rest of the article for conteggst.

[Lurker]

1 minute ago, kg01 said:

Where were these from?  I wouldn't mind scanning the rest of the article for conteggst.

I think it's from an article that was already posted on here but I'm not sure. Just thought these quotes were noteworthy enough to start another thread about it.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/16834452/atlanta-hawks-had-great-plan-get-better-all-went-wrong

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Lurker said:

I think it's from an article that was already posted on here but I'm not sure. Just thought these quotes were noteworthy enough to start another thread about it.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/16834452/atlanta-hawks-had-great-plan-get-better-all-went-wrong

 

Thanks.  Those were pertinent quotes and show the "trust the system" speak is probably just for show (to a degree).

[HawkItus]

I don't think Zach Lowe knows what he is talking about.   All his Hawks stuff has been wrong.   Sounds like a lot of his stuff is from Jeff's agent and Horf's agent if you read between the lines.

[Admin]

Hard to disagree with any of that though. I would love to get Faried without giving Sap or any important piece.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RandomFan]

11 minutes ago, Dolfan23 said:

Hard to disagree with any of that though. I would love to get Faried without giving Sap or any important piece.

 

Do.Not.Want.

Faried is the anti-Hawk. No defense, can't pass, no range on his shot.

[Lurker]

15 minutes ago, HawkItus said:

I don't think Zach Lowe knows what he is talking about.   All his Hawks stuff has been wrong.   Sounds like a lot of his stuff is from Jeff's agent and Horf's agent if you read between the lines.

Talking about the wrong person. That's Chris Vivlamore. Lowe usually knows his stuff.

[Lurker]

2 minutes ago, RandomFan said:

Do.Not.Want.

Faried is the anti-Hawk. No defense, can't pass, no range on his shot.

The Hawks want a guy that is mainly a rebounder simply because of Tristan Thompson punking them for two straight playoff series.

[HawkItus]

3 minutes ago, Lurker said:

Talking about the wrong person. That's Chris Vivlamore. Lowe usually knows his stuff.

What has Lowe gotten right about the Hawks?

[RandomFan]

4 minutes ago, Lurker said:

The Hawks want a guy that is mainly a rebounder simply because of Tristan Thompson punking them for two straight playoff series.

You don't know that. The Hawks have never said that. That is what Lowe thinks the Hawks want, not what the Hawks have said they want.

[Lurker]

8 minutes ago, HawkItus said:

What has Lowe gotten right about the Hawks?

Well, one is easy. Lowe was right on the Hawks not giving into Al Horford and just giving him a blank check to sign. He had that early, before the FA period started.

What I mean by blank check is "just letting him name his price".

[Lurker]

9 minutes ago, RandomFan said:

The Hawks have never said that.

There is a lot of stuff from behind the scenes that may not be getting leaked.

[RandomFan]

1 minute ago, Lurker said:

There is a lot of stuff from behind the scenes that may not be getting leaked.

So, like I said, you don't know that. I dont' know that. Only the Hawks know that, and they don't leak. So we're only ever going to know if they decide to let us in on that thought process. And I highly doubt they ever do that.

[Diesel]

58 minutes ago, HawkItus said:

What has Lowe gotten right about the Hawks?

I have to go with this.  It seems like Lowe just threw a lot of speculation on the wall so that he can cover up for everything he has missed up until now.  It's all just speculation.