Here is an article on Peachtree Hopps that attempts to explain the Lin trade

[Peoriabird]

Just now, marco102 said:

I also read your other post in another thread asking why they were resting players.  Just threw it all in one response.  

That was before last night's game when they were still in the playoffs.  Other teams played their healthy players

[JayBirdHawk]

7 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

How did you get that out of my original question...The question is will the roster be manipulated like last year where players were shut down with minor injuries and a bunch of G-leaguer were playing toward the end of the season.

Depending on our record towards the end of the season......yes.

If Dennis Baze or Dedmon are still on the team past the deadline based on record.....yes.

It will be another season of Development over Wins.

 

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Depending on our record towards the end of the season......yes.

If Dennis Baze or Dedmon are still on the team past the deadline based on record.....yes.

It will be another season of Development over Wins.

 

So you are in the camp that Pierce will deliberately try to lose games by manipulating the line ups

[JayBirdHawk]

Just now, Peoriabird said:

So you are in the camp that Pierce will deliberately try to lose games by manipulating the line ups

No. I think the directive will come from upper management that the 'young guys will play more'.  Pierce will play who is available to him.

[Peoriabird]

Just now, JayBirdHawk said:

No. I think the directive will come from upper management that the 'young guys will play more'.  Pierce will play who is available to him.

So you think that Schlenk will tell Pierce who to play and how many minutes each player should play each game

[JayBirdHawk]

Just now, Peoriabird said:

So you think that Schlenk will tell Pierce who to play and how many minutes each player should play each game

The same way this season ended, I can see it going the same way to end this season.

[Peoriabird]

Just now, JayBirdHawk said:

The same way this season ended, I can see it going the same way to end this season.

I hope not because the team would get a reputation and would loose the players.  Definitely would lead to a bad rep around the league so no one would sign here.  At least Philly had an excuse, their main players actually injured.

[Sothron]

49 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Salary cap floor is 91.7 million for next season.   A salary they'll have to pay out, no matter what.

Hawks are currently at 89.7 million.

The non-guaranteed contracts of Cleveland and Morris add another 2.74 million to the payroll, bringing the Hawks just above the salary cap floor.

Had they stayed significantly under the salary cap floor, they would've had to pay out millions to the players at the end of the season, to make up the difference.

So when I say operating on the cheap, I mean doing the bare minimum of what they're required to do.  Splurging on Lin really doesn't matter, because they'd have to pay that money out anyway.  And when they deal Dennis, they probably won't take back a player, but they'll take that cash.

The summer of 2019 will show what they're really about.  They'll be significantly under the cap, if they deal Dennis for picks and cash.   If they can't get a significant free agent, they'll play the minimum route once again.

I just have to point out that over the course of our franchise history we've only ever signed two major free agents. Neither of them superstars. And frankly one of those two (Joe Johnson) was a speculative major signing that worked because Joe became the 2nd best SG in the NBA for about a six year stretch in Atlanta. The other major signing was Deke who was only effective on one end of the court.

I have absolutely zero confidence we will sign any major free agent in 2019. Look at the Sixers this offseason. They have literally the best situation in the NBA for an established star to go  to by having two young superstars and...they still got no one. No one. What hope do we have that even if Collins has a breakout year and Young has a good rookie year that we sign anyone?

I completely agree with you about our ownership being cheap as crap. They are barely at the salary minimum floor. It is just like how the A$G ran the Thrashers. The difference? The Thrashers had actual hockey superstar players and they still wouldn't pay them to keep them.

If Ressler and crew don't bring anyone, not even a Plan B guy like the former Millsap signing by Ferry, then we know we are in for a nightmare era until they sell the team.

[sillent]

15 hours ago, Peoriabird said:

How did you get that out of my original question...The question is will the roster be manipulated like last year where players were shut down with minor injuries and a bunch of G-leaguer were playing toward the end of the season.  By the way, there is noway anybody watching Landale and Kaba play that you would conclude that Landale is better.

Hopefully Landale "the mummy" doesn't make it to training camp but to answer your question. Nobody knows. They could surprise even themselves this year with the core we have and say let's ride it out. They could struggle early and often and step it up towards the end of the season. A numerous amount of things could happen that could affect their/our decision around the end of the yr. How will the Cavs/Mavs do? Too many questions so the best bet is to go out there and play which I think the players will do. We may have some late game coaching/player mistakes and other things that may cost us from doing better but overall I'd think/hope they would try.

Good thing is (just speaking currently) we have Trae, Dennis and Lin at point Dorsey, Bembry, Bazemore, Huerter, Prince (& fillers) on the wing. With Collins, Dedmon, Spellman, Moose, Plumlee as our big men we are pretty deep at every position so it will be hard to sabotage with lineups. The defensive end could be a different story but with that being Pierce's supposed bread and butter I don't see him letting the slack too much on that end of the floor either. 

[Peoriabird]

2 minutes ago, sillent said:

Hopefully Landale "the mummy" doesn't make it to training camp but to answer your question.

Please...There is no scout in the NBA that thinks this guy can play...No chance we see this guy in any NBA uniform again. Cavanaugh was better than that stiff.

3 minutes ago, sillent said:

. With Collins, Dedmon, Spellman, Moose, Plumlee as our big men we are pretty deep at every position so it will be hard to sabotage with lineups. The defensive end could be a different story but with that being Pierce's supposed bread and butter I don't see him letting the slack too much on that end of the floor either. 

We could use another big and a Big wing.

[LamarHampton]

2 hours ago, Peoriabird said:

Cavanaugh was better than that stiff.

 

Hey now, I liked Cavanaugh. No need to sully his name by comparing Jock Lawndale to him at all. 

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, LamarHampton said:

Hey now, I liked Cavanaugh. No need to sully his name by comparing Jock Lawndale to him at all. 

Would you consider adding Okafor?

[Buzzard]

I think the article is right in that we do not know what the opinions were inside the execs offices. For me it is most likely one of two things. We either did not want to take on those two bigs for 21 million or Denver wanted to trade with the Nets for some relationship building reason.

Schlenk obviously wanted Lin and he got him; and we can still free up about 9.8 million in cap if we want to.

Practical Cap Space Figure at Spotrac

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/atlanta-hawks/cap/

[LamarHampton]

6 hours ago, Peoriabird said:

Would you consider adding Okafor?

I'm torn on the guy honestly; would definitely consider it but not sure if I'd pull the trigger.

[KB21]

On 7/13/2018 at 10:11 PM, Peoriabird said:

I hope not because the team would get a reputation and would loose the players.  Definitely would lead to a bad rep around the league so no one would sign here.  At least Philly had an excuse, their main players actually injured.

You are learning that tanking is a completely vile strategy that does nothing but build a losing culture, and you are about to learn that tanking isn't just a one year thing when you decide to completely bottom out the roster the way Travis Schlenk did.  

As a result, this team will be incredibly young, and young teams lose in the NBA.  Travis is making sure he doesn't add any impact veterans, and at some point this season, you will see Dedmon flipped for "assets", and they have also tried to move vets Kent Bazemore and Dennis Schröder this summer.

So, yes.  Their intent is to lose again this year, and it will be next year as well.  Their method of tanking this year is going to be putting these young players into a situation where they want them to play at a break neck pace, and the result of this is going to be turnovers, offensive inefficiency, and the inability to get back on defense.  They will also "allow" these young players to make mistakes in the name of "player development".  

[Macknsweetjones]

Don’t like the Tank..get a new team..this is what it is period and it should’ve been did.

[Peoriabird]

40 minutes ago, Macknsweetjones said:

Don’t like the Tank..get a new team..this is what it is period and it should’ve been did.

At some point you have to ask yourself...Why does it need to continue? How many lottery picks are enough? And why would you need to try to get multiple top 5 picks on purpose?  It the current team's optimal performance is a bottom 5 roster so be it....If it isn't, why manipulate it into a bottom 5 performing roster?  I think we have enough of a core to start the growth phase.  We also have possibly 2 other lottery pick coming regardless of how this team performs so why not preach winning?

[Macknsweetjones]

58 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

At some point you have to ask yourself...Why does it need to continue? How many lottery picks are enough? And why would you need to try to get multiple top 5 picks on purpose?  It the current team's optimal performance is a bottom 5 roster so be it....If it isn't, why manipulate it into a bottom 5 performing roster?  I think we have enough of a core to start the growth phase.  We also have possibly 2 other lottery pick coming regardless of how this team performs so why not preach winning?

Because we’re not winning anything special...what’s better than 2 lottery picks ? 3...and out of those 3 our pick can possibly get us RJ barett. Players are going to develop period. No super stars or star players are coming here..do what needs to be done, which is lose, not winning 5 to 10 more games for the sake of pleasing some fans who love a treadmill 

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, Macknsweetjones said:

Because we’re not winning anything special...what’s better than 2 lottery picks ? 3...and out of those 3 our pick can possibly get us RJ barett. Players are going to develop period. No super stars or star players are coming here..do what needs to be done, which is lose, not winning 5 to 10 more games for the sake of pleasing some fans who love a treadmill 

Apparently there are no superstars in next year's draft either.  But like I said, if the roster lands you in the top 5 so be it.  There should be no reason to try to lose games anymore. Plus you can get to the top of the draft without being the worst team.  Image being the 3rd worst team and ending up with the 6th picks and the team with the 6th worse team or better ends up with top 3 pick or higher.  You might change that tune if that happens next year.

[KB21]

5 hours ago, Macknsweetjones said:

Because we’re not winning anything special...what’s better than 2 lottery picks ? 3...and out of those 3 our pick can possibly get us RJ barett. Players are going to develop period. No super stars or star players are coming here..do what needs to be done, which is lose, not winning 5 to 10 more games for the sake of pleasing some fans who love a treadmill 

Yeah.  The team has to build that losing culture and make sure they are consistently in the lottery and have no shot at the playoffs.  They have to make sure that the young players do not develop properly, because instead of teaching them how to win games, you are letting them play in a way that allows you to lose.  

5 hours ago, Peoriabird said:

Apparently there are no superstars in next year's draft either.  But like I said, if the roster lands you in the top 5 so be it.  There should be no reason to try to lose games anymore. Plus you can get to the top of the draft without being the worst team.  Image being the 3rd worst team and ending up with the 6th picks and the team with the 6th worse team or better ends up with top 3 pick or higher.  You might change that tune if that happens next year.

You do realize that the roster putting the team in the top 5 is part of the tank?