Deng Does It Again!

[sinctybldh]

God I am going to be beating myself up all season. This guy is going to be a superstar player. If you watch him play you would even believe he is a rookie. This guy stands out on this Bulls team. He is having the kind of impact Carmelo Anthony had on the Nuggets. I curse Billy Knight for not taking him. We should be so lucky that Childress becomes half as good as Deng. Damn.

[capstone21]

give it up. We don't have him so what is the point.

[Admin]

the guy who could be the next superstar PG in this league, Devin Harris. Obviously we didnt have a chance to draft him since the Mavs screwed us, but I have watched him play a few games and he just looks amazing.

By the way I say that we dont need Deng because we have Al Harrington and Josh Smith to play the 3/4 positions for us for the next decade. Sure Deng is good, but he wont be better or at the worst much better than either of those guys. Childress will be a stud and many of you will be regretting jumping all over him this quick.

[sinctybldh]

Dolfan. Deng is better than Harrington right now. There is actually no comparison. If you watched the Bulls game you would be blown away by the skill of Deng.

[BOShforRoy]

Deng is playing unbeleivable. Comes of the bench and scores 25. i don't understand why he isn't starting. Also Charlotte got it's first franchise victory beating the Magic.Has anyone been watching Okafor and their starting center Primozoc Brezec this guy is amazing. Scores 15 the first game and 20 today.

[thescout10]

DEng had another outstanding game 25 pts 5 boards and 1 ast 1blk.There is nothing we can do about it now however my point is when you get in a position to draft a quality player that you can build around you take him.Childress may end up being a good player but that is a maybe.Look at Diaw,he can't score even after 1 yr in the league.I have higher hopes for childress but why does it seem the other teams always get the better players while the hawks always are in rebuilding mode with no superstar of the future.

[Diesel]

Quote:

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but why does it seem the other teams always get the better players while the hawks always are in rebuilding mode with no superstar of the future.

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I would say that this isn't a true statement. I think BK made it clear that the future lies with Smith/Childress. Also, don't knock on Smith. Smith is younger than Deng, less polished, but before it's all over, J-Smooth will make many say Luol Who?

In other words, Josh Smith is our superstar of the future. That's why I consider this just a 1 yr gig for Walker. We just need somebody working with Smith on his shooting and his confidence.

In fact, I bet that tonight he will either block Kobe's dunk or Dunk on Kobe!

[MoonKnight]

I would love to see JSmooth (who really needs another nickname) posterize Kobe tonight. That would make a loss much easier to deal with. I agree with you that the sky is the limit for Smith. I hope he keeps his head on straight and I think Willis is an excellant mentor for him about how to approach the game on and off the court.

[chillzatl]

To say that a team that had....NOTHING, didn't need a SF, is absurd. Especially a SF that everyone not working for an NBA team said was "a sure thing".

When you suck like we have, did and do, you need the best players out there. I think we got one of them in Smith, Deng was the one that got away.

[chillzatl]

Smith was a STEAL where he was picked. By all rights, he should have been picked a lot earlier. I think we got lucky getting him where we did and he certainly has the potential to be a star.

But if you recall, we had TWO picks. One of which we used on Childress. You can speculate all you want that player X, Y and Z will all be better than Deng. But all you're doing is speculating. You're making a wild guess with zero data to back it up.

[emeans]

Exactly...Smith was an excellent pick at 17 anyway you look at it. I think Smith is better than Childress right now. Childress should not have been picked over Deng. Deng is a better NBA player now and will only improve. Deng showed this in Summer League.

And again I get tired of hearing well we needed a SG. NO we needed the best available talent out there regardless of position. We had holes at every position and we are rebuilding, so it doesn't matter. Get the best at any position. Now if we were an established winning team then you could pull that argument, but with the Hawks that argument is mute!!

[Admin]

Nobody knew that Childress would struggle and that Deng would be a stud. So many people (and tons of people on here who seem to have selective memory) said that Deng was a Duke product and would be like a Battier in the NBA. I cant recall anyone on here saying he would bust out like he has so far.

Childress on the other hand seemed to have almost everyone excited about him. I know that I was thrilled and still am. I know he will be a star. You just cant teach what he has. Incredible athletic ability and GREAT size, and at the SG position no less. You all can give up on him now if you want to, but the Hawks made the right call. We drafted our SF of the future in Smith and had already traded for Harrington. If we had traded for Harrington and then drafted Deng, most of you all would have been screaming at Knight for taking Josh Smith instead of a SG like JR Smith or a PG like Jameer Nelson, why?......because we had just drafted and traded for a SF. I am sure you all will start saying oh no we wouldnt have said that, we would have been thrilled with our best player and top 2 draft picks all playing the same position...yeah right talk about BS. Knight made the right move.

I honestly dont care if you all give up on Childress this quick, I mean who can blame you for giving up on him since he has played a total of 2 games as a rookie so thats plenty to measure his success by. I will just remember who you all are and rub it in your faces by saying I was right and you were wrong when Childress becomes the star player that I guarantee he will become.

[Dukegotgame]

i always wanted deng ahead of childress

[Wretch]

If this were midway through the season, I'd be inclined to listen to some of what's been said. If Walker and Harrington weren't out there dominating the offense, I'd say Chill looks bad out there.

Right now, I am simply not concerned. I like what I've seen from him. Not so much in production, but when he is actually taking the game to the rim. He's going to be good. I'm not worried about that at all.

I am worried about Smith though. He's playing behind two talented, veteran forwards right now. He's fresh out of HS and he really looks lost at times. People have said he has a tendacy to hang his head and with everything else that's going on with this team, that could be detrimental to his development.

Luol Deng is another story. He's bigger and stronger, and he doesn't really have to worry about deferring to anyone. I have been high on him for a LOOOOONG time. Other than the tourney, I don't watch much college ball. But after reading the reports on him, I took the time to catch Deng in action. He's the real deal and after we were out of the running for Harris, Okafur, Howard, and Livingston...Deng is the player that I wanted BK to draft. I would have taken him...but still, I think it's WAAAAAY to early to compare the careers of these two players.

I think Chill will be just fine.

[Diesel]

Going into the draft, we had JT, Diaw, Hendu, CC. There had already been murmurings that Al Harrington was pushing for a deal and Atlanta was a place that wanted him. ALSO, we knew that Jax was gone.

The success that we had was because we had a capable SG who could shoot from outside.

In this past draft, Between Childress, Deng, and Iguodala, Childress was seen as being the best shooter and the best suited for SG. In fact, if it was already known that Harrington would be a Hawk, why would you want Deng... They are the same player.

That's why you see that our FA acquisitions revolved around getting a PF... That's why you see our draft was a SG and a Swing player with superstar potential.

I'm disappointed with our work at the C position, however, I think that the focus of the next draft will be a C or a PG...

[Diesel]

I think Walker is a rental and our true forwards will be Jsmooth/Harrington. However, J-Smooth needs a Shot.

You're right in that Childress is taking his time. My only question is what happens with Diaw? Especially once Childress comes along?

[Traceman]

I was looking back at some of the older posts and honestly, Childress was not even in the CONVERSATION at #6 until just before the draft. Even then, most saw him going around #10. Until just before the draft, the consensus top 6 were Okafor and Howard as 1a and 1b followed by Livingston, Deng, Gordon and Harris in some order. Iguodala, Biedrins and even Josh Smith got some talk but Childress wasn't even on the radar screen. I hope Chill picks it up because I still think he has talent but right now, Deng looks a LOT better.

[emeans]

First of all I didn't know anything about Childress until AFTER we picked him. I have never gone on record of saying WE SHOULD PICK CHILDRESS. I have always been a Josh Smith supporter in the draft. As a matter of fact I don't think most people on this forum had a clue of who we were going to pick at 6. Childress was not talked about a lot at all on this forum. Iggy and Deng was most peoples pick for 6 on this forum.

Deng has always been rated higher than Childress on all draft boards so why not take him. I was personally shocked we didn't take him.

Again you picked the best available talent when you are rebuilding!!

[deester11]

I have to respectfully disagree with the people saying they didn't know about Childress. The only thing he was trying to do pre-draft was improve his top 5/10 positioning. The scouts had questions, but NONE questioned his ability to score and present mismatches which is what he was mostly scouted on during the predraft camps. He matched up with almost everyone and took on any person one on one. According to several draft sites he was going to be top 5 and at worst top 10. Looking back, I knew of him and wasn't disappointed that we took him. I still feel that way and I don't see myself abandoning him just because he hasn't done what Deng has done.

I'm glad that Deng is doing his thing. I like him and if we had him i would be estatic. But we don't and I still think that Chill will be fine. That being said....I liked the J.Smith pick the best of any thing we've done in a long time in the draft. We will all hopefully be able to laugh about this next year. The key is....the kids have to play. PERIOD. They need to learn on the floor and they'll be fine. Walker is the key figure here because he does dominate the ball. We will see, but Chill is still worthy...I just hope he shows it soon....

[Diesel]

You forgot how Childress led Standford to a 29-1 record? On draft night, the three players I wanted most were D.Howard, J-Smith, and J-Nelson. However, I knew that Childress would be top 7. He got messed up because he was definitely going to Charlotte until they got the Second pick. Then it was to Washington until they traded with Dallas. And you can't fault either team for their choices... I think that we got a player who will not be a star, but like Pipp, he will be a glue type player who does a lot of stuff and probably takes a leadership role down the line.

I think J-Smith will be a star... If they work on his shooting.