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Billy Knight: NBA Executive of the Year

archie44

By archie44
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archie44 Newbie

archie44

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(PREPARE FOR A LONG POST HERE FOLKS)

Well ole Arch told you we weren't done. Sure enough Sheed is in Detroit and Larry Brown is getting his best suit ready so he can show off his new prize.

I want to thank Black Hawk and others who are giving Billy props. He deserves it. He has changed the entire future of this team in 10 days. Ten days ago we were just another mediocre team that might get a break in the lottery and might get a mediocre player to join our mediocre players next season. Now we simply SUCK and have an excellent shot at a top three pick plus we've got more cap room than the Yankees have millionaires.

Several points:

1. I wasn't too upset that Knight didn't get a pick from the Blazers. Not sure why. Just thought the cap room was enough. You may know I thought Shareef Abdur-Rahim was the biggest waste of flesh to ever wear a Hawks uniform. So I was just glad he was gone.

2. However, now they he got a first round pick from the Pistons, I do kinda wish he had gotten another first rounder. Even if it was just used in another deal down the road. It would have been nice to have three first rounders next season, since we've got to get eight players with $21 million bucks.

3. But we're still in good shape with draft picks. We'll probably have five out of the first 40. Plus don't forget we've still got a future 1st from Phily, which is also a good trade option. And who knows what those second rounders (3) can be used on (i.e. trades or picks).

4. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT THURSDAY'S TRADE: We now SUCK. I mean our roster is the worst thing I think I've ever seen in my life. Holy crap are we going to be bad. We've got 28 games left and we'll be lucky is we win five games. We've gone from having Shareef and Theo to Pryzbilla and N'Diaye! Holy crap.

5. We need to lose. Why win and be fifth or sixth going into the lottery. Guys we need a TOP THREE PICK. We need Dwight Howard. He is a Hawks fan who wants to be with us.

6. Don't forget what we'll be able to do with our cap space. Let's say a team needs a third team to broker a deal. We're there man. The cap room in itself has value even if we don't spend it all. What does it give us? FLEXIBILITY. That's something we haven't had in a long time. We've always been stuck in mediocrity - not good enough to be a Champion and not bad enough to win the lottery. But now we are bad enough to win the lottery.

7. Who cares if we don't sign a BIG time free agent this summer. Let's get enough to field a team and if we have to we'll suck again. Then we'll get another great draft pick and STILL have $11 million dollars in additional cap room once Henderson and Crawford get off the books following next season.

8. I'm going to repeat something Black Hawk said: I WANT TO BE A DOMINATING TEAM - not a decent team.

Question:

What do the following teams have in common?

a) Blaylock, Smith, Mutombo, Laettner, Corbin, Henderson

b) Blaylock, Smith, Lang or Laettner, Long, Augmon, Ehlo

c) Blaylock, Wilkins or Manning, Koncak, Willis, Augmon

Answers:

a) They all won between 46 and 57 games.

b) None of these teams were EVER going to win a NBA title

Now do you really think that Terry, Glover, Jackson, Abdur-Rahim, and Ratliff were ever going to do anything? Hell they weren't even as good as the three teams just mentioned. They were on paper, but paper is only good to use in the toilet on this year's team.

9. Billy Knight has totally turned this franchise around. But it's going to require something on our part: patience. Don't be pissed if we don't get Kobe this summer. It might be summer of 2005 before we adequately complete our team.

10. Let's build this team up and construct a WINNER. It's been tried before. Chicago tried it with Brand and then Chandler and Curry. They've done nothing so far. The Nuggets have done it with Nene and Carmelo. It's working pretty good. Who knows how we'll do? But to get to where we want to go (i.e. playing in the first week of June) we have to go down to the bottom.

11. We must trade Jason Terry. Not to get more cap room (although why not - we're on a roll!) and not even necessarily because of what we can get in return (although I want KWAME!). But we need to trade Jason Terry because part of the problem of this team has been his inability to play one position with exception. He can't run the point and he can't defend the two. Let someone else deal with this tweener. We need a point guard. Let's get a young player (KWAME!) and a lottery pick (and draft the guard from UConn maybe?) and start over.

12. We will, eventually, get a tremendous free agent. They'll see the cap room. They'll see the draft picks. They'll see the big name head coach (oh yea almost forgot about him). They'll see the opportunity to come in and be the man. Who knows who it will be or when it will be (again be patient). But we will get a tremendous free agent.

13. Please stop striving for mediocrity. If we have to suck for another year before we dominate, let's do it. We do not want a team that will be an automatic exit in the second round. We are about to go into a division that we can win - easily. But first we have to suffer a bit more before the reward. Please be patient and be thankful that someone had the testicles to ignite a fire to this bad puppy and blow it to high heaven.

Tonight's Final Question: Who is a bigger lame duck? Terry Stotts or Mike Lamb?

Answer: STOTTS. He'll curse us now, but wish he coached us later.

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Watchman Mentor

Watchman

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me. Kwame Brown is the biggest bust I can think of and you want to bring him here, and waste a top three pick and get his clone?

I have always respected you in the past, and I still do, but this is just brutal to me. We were bad with Shareef, et al, but now we are just embarrassing.

Furthermore, these 18 year old kids take years and years to develop, and sometimes they never do.

We have been losers since 1999, and it doesn't sit well with me. Be patient? We have been losing since 1999. That is way too long to suit me.

Other than Kobe, the other free agents that might be decent next year will require us overpaying them to get them. That was our problem and has been our problem over the years. We overpaid Mohammed, even though I was all for it at the time. We overpaid Wright, even though I was all for it at the time. We signed Mutombo to a max level contract, and it handicapped us from that point on. I guess what I am saying is we have a history of wasting our resources on less than deserving players. What convinces you that Knight will be any better than Babcock was? He hasn't done anything to prove it thus far.

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archie44 Newbie

archie44

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that he is not a bust.

In his rookie season, he averaged:

4.5 ppg

3.5 rpg

14.3 minutes per game

In his second season, he averaged:

7.4 ppg

5.3 rpg

22.2 minutes per game

This season he is averaging:

10.3 ppg

7.0 rpg

28.1 minutes per game

Not to mention 14 ppg and 8.5 rpg since the start of the new year (i.e. January 2004).

THAT IS IMPROVEMENT.

Man I hate being right.

And I thought Chicken Stanley would show up to bash me on my subtle Kwame comment.

Quote:

We have been losers since 1999, and it doesn't sit well with me. Be patient? We have been losing since 1999. That is way too long to suit me.

I know it's tough. I hate to lose too. But you know what's even more disappointing than seeing a team we thought was going to be worth a damn turn out to be worthless (like the one we started out last season with)? A team that is expected to do well and can only get into the second round (like the teams from the 90's).

We must take the steps we've taken now to get to the top of the league. What were you wanting to do? Add a player to Reef, Theo, and JT? This mix did not work. ERASE THE BLACKBOARD AND START OVER.

Quote:

What convinces you that Knight will be any better than Babcock was? He hasn't done anything to prove it thus far.

Have you been in a spider hole in Bahgdad the last ten days? Knight has taken a team that was two summers from being able to do squat and allowed it to:

1. Get in position to get a top three draft pick

2. Cap room that starts now instead of later

Yea. Billy has proven a lot in the last few weeks. He's proven that he has the knowledge to ADMIT that the mix that was in place DID NOT WORK. Theo, SAR, JT, Dion are all great guys. But it just didn't work. Why do you think Jerry West didn't take the job? He knew this mix would not work.

We had three options:

1. Play through this season, get a top 10 pick, and have Brandon's cap space available. We still would have not had any money to improve ourselves. So therefore we more than likely would have had the same nucleus for next season.

- Now what was this option going to accomplish? Not a damn thing. We would probably still be a team that would win 30 games next season and get a #10 pick.

Wippy'd-frieckin-do.

2. Scrap this team and start over. Get cap space and be so damn bad we'd be guaranteed a top three pick (which we desperately need, especially with a Georgia kid who IS A HAWKS FAN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD as a potential pick).

I vote for #2. Thank God Billy Knight did as well.

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chillzatl Newbie

chillzatl

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Quote:

Furthermore, these 18 year old kids take years and years to develop, and sometimes they never do.

That's laughable. That's a cowardly position to take. A position that would have this team going nowhere for the next ten years.

What about Lebron? What about Carmello? What aboue Nene? What about Randolph? What about Stoudamire? etc etc etc.

Whole lot of busts that took years to develop right? wrong. With the exception of Randolph, every one of those players contributed immediately. There are lots more too. Those are just some marquee names.

Quote:

What convinces you that Knight will be any better than Babcock was? He hasn't done anything to prove it thus far.

What are you kidding me? Knight has done more in the last 10 days than Babcock did in 6 years. Even when we had a winning team Babcock let it flounder because of his personal ideals. We could have had numerous players that would have made us better but Babcock didn't think the players fit "his philosophy". In one swoop Knight turned us into a team with hope and the financial flexibility to make it reality.

You people do not have to be afraid of the draft. Babcock is gone! By the time we're making picks, we will have a significantly different front office. Let not your heart be troubled. The future is looking up for this team.

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KB21 Grand Master

KB21

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Pete Babcock had the opportunity to rebuild this team the right way starting in 1999.

Done right, this team today could have had 7 footer Pau Gasol at center and 6-10 power forward Amare Stoudamire in the paint. We could have had the best defending small forward in the league in Andre Kirilenko at the three. Michael Redd, an All Star, could be this team's shooting guard with rookie T.J. Ford at point guard.

Instead, Atlanta wasted their draft picks in trades for veteran players like Lorenzen Wright and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

Now, the Hawks have a chance to right that wrong, starting with the possible opportunity to select Dwight Howard in this draft. Two years from now, maybe the Hawks will be able to bring Kwame Brown in via free agency and have the homegrown front line of 7 footer Brown and 6-10 Howard.

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Watchman Mentor

Watchman

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We have blown a lot of good draft choices. Knight's only claim to fame thus far is Diaw. Nice player but nothing to write home about. Basically we drafted a clone of Ira Newble. Again, nice role player, nothing to write home about. It's the high picks that trouble me. We might do all right with the # 15 pick, but top 3, that's scary.

Ask Washington how they feel about wasting a #1 pick on Kwame Brown. How about us wasting a #6 pick on Dermarr Johnson? Sometimes the kids develop. Sometimes they don't.

But, I'm over it. We suck, and we're going to continue to suck for a long, long time. We're on our perpetual five year rebuilding plan, starting over again at square one. As someone else said, we're an expansion team without the benefit of an expansion draft.

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Watchman Mentor

Watchman

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for nothing. I don't see Knight's last 10 days as something that just about anyone couldn't have done. Knight bent the team over and got nothing meaningful in return. Couldn't we have gotten a prospect? How about, as someone said, Randolph. Clearly, he and Rahim get in each other's way, and probably one of them will be dealt. Why couldn't we insist on him and his cheap contract? Why no draft pick?

If that is displaying Knight's "genius", then we truly are doomed for at least 5 more years of rebuilding and excuses.

I have been a Hawks fan since 1970. In all that time we have never sucked like this. We have never been the absolute worst team in the league. We are now. Prospects don't look too good for that changing in the near future. But hey you guys are excited about our NBDL team, and that's all that's important.

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TROUBLEMAN69 Newbie

TROUBLEMAN69

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Quote:

I have been a Hawks fan since 1970. In all that time we have never sucked like this. We have never been the absolute worst team in the league. We are now. Prospects don't look too good for that changing in the near future. But hey you guys are excited about our NBDL team, and that's all that's important.

What's the difference in being the worst team and the teams we have fielded for the past 4 years? I'll tell you, the worst team has a shot at higher lottery picks, and doesn't have to fool itself into believing that it is only a player away from making the playoffs.

TROUBLEMAN

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Plainview1981 Mentor

Plainview1981

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1)Kwame Brown is a WIMP. The guy cried cause another player

yelled at him for christ sake. And he's averaging 10/8 on

one of the worst teams in the league. Kwame Brown is a

bust like Kandi.

)As watchman said, any GM cause cut payroll. I didn't know

it took a genius to cut payroll. You got to be a smart motherfu(ker to field a team with JT/Sura/Diaw/Crawford/Joel..

THe Hawks will have some high schooler.....and some

mediocre mid round picks and a overpayed player going

into next year. Still no young core. Atleast Cleveland

had Boozer/Waggs/Davis/Miles and other young players when

they got LaBron. LaBron started out the year on a talented

Cleveland team. Some poor fool is going to start out with

Rebraca as a starting center.

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AHF Grand Master

AHF

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I'm sorry but anyone who thinks that the Hawks were going to acquire Zach Randolph and Rasheed Wallace for Ratliff, SAR and Dickau is a moron. You think the Hawks are going to go into a trade and end up with cap room and the best prospect of all the players involved in the deal? That is just flat out stupid.

I can understand arguing that we should have gotten a late 1st rounder or someone like Outlaw in the deal but Randolph? Please tell me you are kidding. You might as well propose that the Pistons should have thrown Darko into the trade (oh wait, someone already did).

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