We need new Ownership.

[Diesel]

I don't care that Ressler is a Billionaire.   The bottom line is that he's only trying to make money and he doesn't care about winning. 

Follow the actions.

1.  Trade Kev  for nothing. 
2. Trae JC for nothing. 
3. Looking for a trade of Dj. 

In each instance, his only intention is to stay out of the Luxury Tax.  Regardless of what the product looks like on the floor.. Stay out of the LT.

Look at the talk now.

We want to trade DJ for 2-first rounders and an expiring contract.   Or a Bench player and a couple of firsts?

Really?  Why?

Our only reason for doing this is DJ is our most movable contract.   

• We can't move Dre'  90 Million dollars and bad knees. 
• We won't be able to move Capela til the offseason. 
• OO is a PPP
• Bogi has a cheap deal but extended for a few years.

So then there's DJ and his 30 Million next year. 

They want to move DJ and Save 30 Million to stay under the LT.   

• Not because Trae and DJ ain't working... because it can. 
•  Not because DJ is a lockerroom  cancer... because he's not.
•   Not because DJ asked to be traded because he didn't. 

They want to do another salary dump to stay under the LT so that they can make money. 

The part that gets me is the fanbase who want these picks as if they will make a difference.   This is the fatal flaw of the Hawks fans... They think that we can just run out and get a FRP and that guy will come in day one and be ready to contribute to a championship team.    Look at our recent Past FRPs...

• OO still coming off the bench giving us so-so effort. 
• AJ  O where is AJ?
• JJ - The best pick we have made in 2 decades.  But his defense is trash. 
• Bufkin - Does this guy have more than 10 minutes in NBA play?
• Cam - Gone. 
• Dre - Here but hurt all the time and can't be moved. 

Which of those guys can contribute as a 2nd  in a Championship run?

You know why they talk up JJ?  Because he cost less than 5 Million.  He's good but he cost less than 5 Million.  If you missed it, he's the replacement for JC just like Bufkin is supposed to be the replacement for DJ and OO is supposed to be the replacement for CC.   Keep em cheap is the motto of this franchise.

Ask yourself..  Do our moves contribute to us winning?

When they tell you that we want to trade DJ for Grimes and 2 1st rounders... ask yourself... does that contribute to us winning?

My hope of hopes is somebody like Shaq would pull together a team of investors who love the basketball and want to win... and they buy the Hawks.

 

 

 

 

[macdaddy]

[Diesel]

It was when ASG took over from Belkin.  The complaint against Belkin is that he wanted to run this team on the cheap.  That's exactly what we have now.   We have an owner who is running this team on the cheap to make profit... not to win games.     We need New Ownership. 

 

 

[Sothron]

I completely agree. I have lost a lot of my interest in the Hawks frankly know just how cheap Ressler is. This team under him will never pay the luxury tax. They will never put together as a result a roster that is actually capable of winning a title. 

[Diesel]

The problem is that he got most fans fooled.   These fans think that we care about those picks because we want to attract talent.   Nope.   We care about those picks because they are cheaper than a player who has established himself. 

We have 258 pgs of so of trade banter.   The only trade we will make will be established player for worthless pick to save the owner money and make him money when it's all said and done.   He wants a team good enough on the floor to attract a crowd.   That's all.  IN the meanwhile, he will make his money  off the TV contract and the owners share.  That's why we won't go into the LT.

BUT.. it takes money up front to win a chip.  That's a reality in basketball.   You have to spend money up front if you want to win a chip.. and every year, he makes us less and less competitive because he moves established players out for their draft BU.   This year between DJ, Hunter, CC... DJ is the easiest to trade for nothing and will get us a bigger savings back. 

I read the fanbase postulate spending for Lavine... Are you freakin kidding me.   Regardless of how he plays.. that's a max contract coming back with about 4 years left on it.   NO WAY Ressler spends for that. 

I have given up the dream of getting KAT... NO WAY Ressler spend for that. 

If he could keep the team believing in a player as much as they believe in Trae... i.e. come out and spend their hard earned cash, he will keep it going. 

He has already more than tripled his investment in the Hawks.   And that's what we are.. an investment.   I don't want that for an owner.  I want a guy who lives and breaths Hawks basketball and lives and dies by the wins. 

Maybe Arthur Blank is an undercover Hawks fan... I don't know.. but somebody who will let the Basketball people make decisions but is not afraid of spending the money to be good. 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

2 hours ago, Sothron said:

I completely agree. I have lost a lot of my interest in the Hawks frankly know just how cheap Ressler is. This team under him will never pay the luxury tax. They will never put together as a result a roster that is actually capable of winning a title. 

I've gotten past the Luxury Tax issue, I've resigned myself that he'll never pay it.  But that coupled with his penchant for interfering with basketball personnel moves is problematic on so many levels, and not just recently.  Going back to the Milsap trade during the Bud era that he stopped, the failed Horford negotiation, signing DHoward, speaking to Cuban and making the Trae/Luka decision (though Ressler denies it), the DJ trade with the subsequent Huerter trade.

 

Quote

He also scoffs at rumors that he was the reason the Hawks traded the third overall draft pick, Luka Doncic, to Dallas, for fifth pick Trae Young and the Mavericks’ first-rounder next year. The rumor goes that Ressler believed Young would be easier to market to fans.

But Ressler said the trade only happened because “basketball operations feels like they have a kid who’s going to be really good with a really high ceiling, and we got a great first-round pick next year. If the rumor is that I picked Trae over Doncic because of marketing, it’s the dumbest f***ing thing I can imagine. It’s fundamentally untrue.”

 

Quote

But the owner also dismissed any suggestion that Budenholzer is the final decision-maker.

“I make the final decision,” he said.

“If you think Bud makes a final decision on everything that we do, you don’t understand the way the Atlanta Hawks are run. … The president of basketball operations is what I say it is, not what you say it is. (Budenholzer) has the loudest voice, not the final word. There’s a dramatic difference.”

 

6 Years ago he admitted he was a deer in headlights, yet here we are...AGAIN!

Quote

“Let’s cut the bullshit — I didn’t know what I was doing,” Ressler said. “I can blame someone else, I can blame you, I can blame my wife. But there was only one schmuck in the room, and that was me.”

Schultz: Tony Ressler has learned from mistakes, says he was ‘schmuck in the room’ for two years - The Athletic

[smoove31210]

Ressler does not care about winning....

[Diesel]

1 hour ago, smoove31210 said:

Ressler does not care about winning....

This is the bottom line.

When your motive is money...  Then you don't care about winning and doing what it takes to win. 

We need new owners. 

 

[NBASupes]

If in this thread, Tony is probably steaming. He wants to pay the LT for a contender but we aren't close. That said, he does stupid shit. Forcing Murray on the market because Trae reps were looking at other options was stupid. It didn't even lead to anything either. It was just boneheaded.

Tony needs to understand, team building is hard. It's not easy. Travis told him this but he wants to appease his golden calf at all cost. He makes so much money from this team. Previous teams won and couldn't make a profit for shit. Just be patient. With the 2nd apron, shit will open up. 

Edited February 2 by NBASupes

[JayBirdHawk]

11 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

He wants to pay the LT for a contender but we aren't close

We don't get from shit show to contender status by skipping the inbetween steps......there is an in-between to get there and the impatience to do that is killing the team. 

You can't put out an inferior product with less functional NBA talent and say, if you win with that I'll pay the tax. Do the in-between work to get there.

We aren't building any momentum to get to contender status. It's just recycling salaries to reduce cost.

[JayBirdHawk]

17 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Forcing Murray on the market because Trae reps were looking at other options was stupid

Explain please?

[NBASupes]

20 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Explain please?

I forgot to share this with the fam. Only shared it was the chat. 

His agent early this year called around to see who would have interest in Trae if he was on the market. Half the teams had interest but only 3 saw him as a franchise player. One of those teams think everyone deserves to play for their franchise. The other is a franchise that's jacked up right now but does have some interesting pieces and the other is a franchise that has done a deal with Atlanta in the past that didn't work out well for us and they have a giraffe as their face of the franchise. 

The franchise player part is big because Trae sees him as a max cat and a superstar. The response actually helped Atlanta as Trae been more interesting in making it work in Atlanta than he was putting out there behind the scenes before. But when it happened, Tony flipped, and instead of just getting mad at the person who did it, he wanted to send a statement with the one committed guy. My guess is, he felt getting him would make Trae see Atlanta as a lifetime situation and when Trae did that, he wanted to find what would keep Trae happy. He overreacted as he usually does. He shouldn't have put Murray on the market. It wad stupid and didn't help Atlanta, at all. He does stupid shit out of emotion. Should have just let things play out.

Edited February 2 by NBASupes

[Diesel]

34 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

If in this thread, Tony is probably steaming. He wants to pay the LT for a contender but we aren't close. That said, he does stupid shit. Forcing Murray on the market because Trae reps were looking at other options was stupid. It didn't even lead to anything either. It was just boneheaded.

Tony needs to understand, team building is hard. It's not easy. Travis told him this but he wants to appease his golden calf at all cost. He makes so much money from this team. Previous teams won and couldn't make a profit for shit. Just be patient. With the 2nd apron, shit will open up. 

What he really needs to understand is that building a winner requires paying upfront and then waiting for the return.  Not getting the return and then paying.   This is Sports and This is Basketball. 

It may be required that you go out and sign a team and go over the LT... So that you can win.   How many teams have won by carefully staying under the LT?

Here are your 2022-2023 teams over the LT...

 

The year before.

 

The Year before that...

 

Do I really need to show the Lakers?  If you're going to be elite, it's going to cost you money to be elite.   You can't expect to be elite without spending or before spending.. that's not how sports work. 

 

[NBASupes]

12 minutes ago, Diesel said:

What he really needs to understand is that building a winner requires paying upfront and then waiting for the return.  Not getting the return and then paying.   This is Sports and This is Basketball. 

It may be required that you go out and sign a team and go over the LT... So that you can win.   How many teams have won by carefully staying under the LT?

Here are your 2022-2023 teams over the LT...

 

The year before.

 

The Year before that...

 

Do I really need to show the Lakers?  If you're going to be elite, it's going to cost you money to be elite.   You can't expect to be elite without spending or before spending.. that's not how sports work. 

 

We have guys who do analytics and tell us where we are at. We aren't close. He gets a big cut just for staying under the tax and the seats are filled. He's making a lot of money with this franchise and that's probably why he's not as aggressive knowing we aren't close. 

[Watchman]

If Ressler's goal is all about selling the team to make money for himself, he's shooting himself in the foot.  Who wants to buy a losing team that gets worse over the passage of time?   If he puts the team up for sale while its value continues to plummet, he is penny wise and pound foolish. How did he ever get rich in the first place?  I believe Trae doesn't get picked for all-star games because the team continues to decline.  The only way to win is to stop  being cheap and to spend some more money to get some more good players, but I think the "cheap" reputation makes players lose interest in coming here.  I know I've said bad things about Trae, but he deserves to be an all-star.  How can a 27 & 10 guy not be an all-star?  I think things like this rest squarely  on the shoulders of Ressler.  In time Trae  will grow tired of losing and the empty promises of Ressler, and want to leave the Hawks.  Then what's left of your fan base goes away.  I agree with Diesel.  Resller needs to sell the team.

[NBASupes]

3 minutes ago, Watchman said:

If Ressler's goal is all about selling the team to make money for himself, he's shooting himself in the foot.  Who wants to buy a losing team that gets worse over the passage of time?   If he puts the team up for sale while its value continues to plummet, he is penny wise and pound foolish. How did he ever get rich in the first place?  I believe Trae doesn't get picked for all-star games because the team continues to decline.  The only way to win is to stop  being cheap and to spend some more money to get some more good players, but I think the "cheap" reputation makes players lose interest in coming here.  I know I've said bad things about Trae, but he deserves to be an all-star.  How can a 27 & 10 guy not be an all-star?  I think things like this rest squarely  on the shoulders of Ressler.  In time Trae  will grow tired of losing and the empty promises of Ressler, and want to leave the Hawks.  Then what's left of your fan base goes away.  I agree with Diesel.  Resller needs to sell the team.

I am trying to figure out where is this rumor of him selling the team coming from. He loves owning this team. He's just being cheap but that's due to the data. 

[Watchman]

1 minute ago, NBASupes said:

I am trying to figure out where is this rumor of him selling the team coming from. He loves owning this team. He's just being cheap but that's due to the data. 

It's a popular theory, whether true or not, I don't know.

[NBASupes]

11 minutes ago, Watchman said:

It's a popular theory, whether true or not, I don't know.

We gotta stop these theories. He's not selling. At least anytime soon. He wants to win but he's like the Squawk, he wants to win with Trae. 

[Watchman]

2 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

We gotta stop these theories. He's not selling. At least anytime soon. He wants to win but he's like the Squawk, he wants to win with Trae.

The longer he runs the team on the cheap, it's difficult to advance any further.

[JayBirdHawk]

10 hours ago, NBASupes said:

I am trying to figure out where is this rumor of him selling the team coming from. He loves owning this team. He's just being cheap but that's due to the data. 

Even back when Tony first bought the team, there were some on here pushing the 'he bought it to just flip it" line. I didn't give credence to it then or now. I don't doubt he loves being an owner and wants to win.

I just need him and his son to stop meddling and to stop cheaping out.

Data? Data? He's saying win and I'll pay, but yet he's barely adding anything to aid in winning. 

You can't start a 100 metre race 20 metres back and expect to medal. That's what's happening, we keep starting the race behind.