Knight: I Tried to Send Shareef to a Champion

[jaywalker72]

Knight: I Tried to Send Shareef to a Championship Team

After the shock of the late night trade that sent Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Theo Ratliff, and Dan Dickau to Portland for Rasheed Wallace and Wesley Person wore off Tuesday afternoon, Hawks GM Billy Knight met the media, including RealGM to discuss the team’s future and some of the details about the trade.

Included in this discussion was his frank revelation that he first intended to deal Shareef to a “championship team”, in order to quiet the critics of the power forward’s game who say he is a loser because he has never played on a winning team.

Also, Knight talks about why he made the deal, answers the question of whether new ownership ordered him to make the deal, why there were no draft picks involved, and if the deconstruction of the team is complete or are there more deals on the way.

Read the entire article and discuss:

http://hawks.realgm.com/showarticle.php?artid=413

[capstone21]

good article.

I see his reasoning and I am glad to hear Person and Wallace are looking forward to coming to Atlanta.

However, it still does not make this trade easier to accept.

I am tired of the rebuilding and now we are back to square 1. Could it be another 4-5 years before we make the playoffs. I really hope not.

[KB21]

If it is done right, then it won't take 4-5 years.

The Denver Nuggets have to be the model right now. They basically started the rebuilding process a little over 2 seasons ago when they dealt McDyesse and Van Excel.

[Plainview1981]

He's in for a shock when he finds out the only ones interested

in signing around a James Posey or someone of that nature. Billy just don't know.....Hasn't been here throughout the

years.

[chillzatl]

Billy Knight. I still can't judge his talent evaluation skills. But I think what he did and his reasons for doing it were completely sound, both financially and for the teams future.

I just can't imagine that anyone here was fooling themselves into thinking that it would be easy for us to get good again. None of the deals we dreamed up would have been easy and none of them offered any assurances of a winning product. The only definte was that we would be at the cap without a championship level team. While we still don't have any assurances, at least we are starting from the ground up and doing it with A LOT of financial flexibility.

I think that JT's days are numbered too. Whether or not they'll find any deals remains to be seen. But I think it's reasonable for us to get a couple good young players in a summer trade involving JT.

Personally I'm excited. I feel like the air has been cleared. So much negativity had been built up about this team, from casual fans to the people on this site. Now there can be no mistake, we are rebuilding. No more half-hearted attempts at regaining respectiblity. The future of this team is wide open at this point. I just hope the moves we make over the summer feel as right as this one!

[Plainview1981]

Well Chillz the only reason I feel Billy done a stupid thing

is because he got no picks or young players to build around.

There should have been a first rounder added. Portland didn't

really lose anything because they offered Sheed a long term

contract and he didn't take it so they wanted to ship him off.

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/rasheed_wall...x.html?nav=page

Sheed may have a few decent years left...But his numbers are

falling every year and his impact on games comes less and

less.

[chillzatl]

it would have been, what? 16th? I mean that's nice but it chances are it wouldn't have helped us much. Plus it's guaranteed money. We would have had been roped into paying them, even if wasn't a pick we could really use.

[Plainview1981]

True. Then we have to hope the team can get a pick for Sheed

in the draft or something. But chances out the hawks get out

of this deal....NOTHING. This is sorta like the JR Rider thing...

[Diesel]

Thank Jay for that article.

You definitely scoop the rest on a daily basis.

[Watchman]

extend to his own team. He wants to send Reef to a "championship team" but nothing was said, or done, to bring a championship team to Atlanta. JR Rider trade all over again. And stupid JT is still here.

[chillzatl]

This is nothing like the JR rider deal. WTf are you on? We brought in Rider to help us win games. We were depending on him to help us win. We aren't depending on Rasheed for anything. well, we're depending on his 17 million at the end of the season, nothing more.

[Plainview1981]

1)Hawks give more than they get

2)Sheed=Ghetto thug just like Rider

3)Hawks still have no future just like they didn't when they

made that Rider trade

Just like 1999. And you don't know what Billy Knights real

adjenda is. Maybe he thinks this team will do better than

when Theo/Reef was here. What did Billy Knight say? He says

that he could do without the picks because he figures the

cap space can get the young players....That doesn't sound

like a Gm that expects to lose and get a better pick does

it? Perhaps he thinks the team can make abit of run and

be more attractive to FA's in the offseason.