Absolutely NO SHOOTERS on this team.......

[Wretch]

I can wait. Milwaukee waited all those years just to build up Big Dog, Allen, and Cassell...only to tear it down. They got a conference finals appearance out of it. We've had winning teams here...but we've never had a superstar.

My thing is, we're not going to sign one via FA...we've got to keep our noses in the draft.

[tmac13]

Sure, and most here thought Dermar Johnson would be a star too..For every star player that is drafted in the lottery there are 3 or 4 misses..To completely depend on getting good through the lottery is just stupid..Look at the Clippers, how many top 5 picks have they had and how many playoff appearances?

[Wretch]

I don't know if I'd call it a mess. Personally, I just haven't seen enough of our young guys. I'd be worried if Walker and Harrington weren't carrying the load, but they are...and that's important.

When a team is losing, you have to look to the people that are leading it. We can't really put anything on Smoove or Chill because...well, what are they doing? Gettin putbacks, launching a jumper here and there...

Toine and Harrington took over 40 shots tonight. Chill took not even one in 22 minutes. That's a very telling stat. Smoove took 6 shots, and you can guess how many of those were probably putback attempts. I'll be a little more concerned when the ball is given to the rooks and they're still doing what they're doing.

[Wretch]

But you absolutely can not go by that alone. You can't be deterred by that. You have to keep digging and you keep at it until you FINALLY find gold. Miami had it's share of busts. But that's all washed away now. All they can think about is what Wade's going to be doing for the next umpteen years.

It's the same in every franchise that has landed a superstar through the draft. The only other way is to try and trade for an established player. But established players are going to cost you.

It will cost us Smoove, Chill, and this year's #1 for a player like Wade IF Miami would do it. And if they did, we'd have Wade and...*crickets* At the same time, we're not going to land a Kobe Bryant or TMac or Duncan in free agency. We might get a StroSwift here or a Dalember there...but this kind of piecemail building is what the Hawks have done for years. The result is a mediocre team that can't get past the 1st round of the playoff, but ends up with a late draft pick.

Meanwhile, the rest of the cellar dwellars take their lumps and end up with these superstars that we DREAM of having; all the while everybody around the state of Georgia is rockin' Kobe, Iverson, TMac, and Garnett Jerseys...

I don't mean to sound like a hard ass or anything, I've just watched the life cycle of the NBA for year after year. I've heard the same people say the same things about every draft crop...doesn't look like a strong draft...so and so's probably the top pick.

Then EVERYBODY is dumbfounded at how it all shakes out 2 or 3 years later. You think Detroit would like to have Wade at the 2 spot? You think Portland or even Houston for that matter wouldn't take a time machine back to draft Jordan? It's a crap shoot yes, it's not a sure thing by any means...

But as a cellar dweller...you've GOT to get in there; and when you do you have to pick WISELY and you have to PLAY the players you pick.

[Plainview1981]

Well, Mike Woodson isn't a pro head coach. Not seen

what he supposed to be good at. Guess there was a

reason he didn't get a job all these years. But it's

not his fault tha Billy Knight gambled for a lotto

which looks like a piece of crap this year. I'm

looking on the NBAdraft.net and I'm seeing the top

canidates being compaired to the likes of Kenny

Anderson(If you look over his career he hasn't had

that great of a career) and Chris Wilcox. That is

scary.

[CBAreject]

You're right, the lottery is a losers game, in that most teams that enter the lottery in a given year will not land a superstar.

HOWEVER, I would like for you to think of a handful of teams that became winners without getting a major player in the lottery...

I can only think of the Lakers teams that managed to sign the biggest difference maker in the NBA (Shaq) and the Kings who traded Richmond for Webber (though, technically, Richmond was acquired through a trade of a lottery pick in Billy Owens).

You might argue that the Sonics became good through trades, but they already had Payton (who was a number 2 pick) and traded him for a number 4 pick in Allen. The Pacers have been pretty good for a long time, but they were built originally around Miller, a lottery pick.

Suns? Nope, they got Marion and Stoudamire through the draft.

Spurs? Wolves? Mavs? Please. Duncan, Garnett (and Wally), Nowitski (and others).

Heat? Wade (and the pieces used to acquire Shaq).

Pistons? Drafted Hill and Stackhouse and used those pieces ultimately to get Hamilton and Wallace.

Who else became great without a lottery pick?

What do you propose if not improving through the draft?

I hear 'the lottery is a losers game' every year like a broken record, but I don't hear anyone proposing a reasonable alternative. History shows that if you want to win a championship, you have to draft a star OR TWO. Since 1980, there have been 2 championship teams that did not draft their best player. Those were the Lakers (who signed Shaq) and the Pistons (who traded lottery selections for their stars).

[Wretch]

They've got that tightwad owner that is content to collect luxury tax rebates. They draft players and they just let them go...

Take a look at their boy just DOIN' it for the suns - TONIGHT even. *lol*

And they make some horrible picks too...check out the 1998 draft.

[Wretch]

I'm glad I don't have to be the only one saying it year after year. There is absolutely no way around it.

[Employee8]

Thanks for the "conversation" over in the Chatroom....

But Walker made his free throws tonight(10-14)...Aside from that, I don't know what else to say. His double-double streak is over and this team is losing.....

BOSTON?

NY??

Some OTHER team coming out of nowhere?????

Where will Walker go and most importantly : WHAT WILL WE GET BACK FOR HIM?

[thescout10]

The draft is the key to building a winner for years.The teams that do it right get the impact players and do not return to the lottery the teams that do it wrong are there year after year.Right now the Hawks have no superstar at least someone to draw in the fans.Detroit won without a superstar but if you don't have a superstar you better haver a team that has 3 or 4 top players right below superstar status.I wonder what this team will look like next year.

Add Felton or Paul with the rest and we still have holes,no center,no shooting and no defense plus Childress will he finally start for good? I would still trade Walker or at least offer him to others to see what the hawks could get.A good point guard can mean alot for the team but there are no big men capable of blocking the shots.Defense,when was the last time the hawks have played it.On the chicago station they were saying about the hawks tonight is there a worse team in the NBA than the Hawks? Are the Hawks the Siberia of the league.That is what I feel like we need impact players and BK needs to make the right decisions getting the right players.

[MoonKnight]

That has been my point for a while. Trading Walker clears up the logjam and frees up JChill (or someone else) to play the 2 spot and allow Smoove to play his natural 3 spot. As I have posted before, I don't want to entirely judge JChill's potential at the 2 guard entirely on his rookie season but he needs alot of playing time now. In the offseason we need to sign a Hoiberg/Jacobsen type shooter to complement JChill at the 2 until we are certain about JChill's ability to a longtime starter at the 2 spot.

[emeans]

I am talking about the entire season. Not just one game. We haven't had a shooter the entire season. Our best 3 point shooter is a Center (Drobs) and a Forward (Walker) and Walker can't shoot free throws.

You can't win in this league without a Shooting Guard or a point guard that can nail the jumper. We have neither. We have to rely on our Center and Forward to hit 3 point shots. Everyone has to be successful in the paint in order for this team to be successful. That is why we beat Milwaukee easily. They haven no interior defense.

[Employee8]

Quote:

---

I am talking about the entire season. Not just one game. We haven't had a shooter the entire season. Our best 3 point shooter is a Center (Drobs) and a Forward (Walker) and

Walker can't shoot free throws.

---

Although he is showing signs of fixing that problem the past few games....(10-14 last night, for example)

[Weez]

tweeners is the wrong term for the players on this team:

Al is definitely a tweener. I'll give you that and agree all day long

Toine - has the skills and size to play the 4...does on occassions, but prefers to handle the ball and shoot the trey (plus pass). But that doesn't make him a tweener...just perhaps a split personality.

Chill - um, yeah, he might be a tweener, but it's not a 3/4. it's a 2/3. guy he's most like in the NBA...Shawn Marion. He can handle and pass, plus the speed, of a 2...but he has that slow release from outside, making him more of a 3 (which he played exclusively in college).

Smoove...is the prototypical 3 in my mind. Yeah, he's got to work on his jumper and outside range...but compare him to Nique...and you see wht I mean. He has the height (but not the weight) to play the 4...not sure about his fundamentals there on boxing out etc...but his game is realy that of the old-school 3's.

[Weez]

horrible team? for this year...maybe.

we cleared the failed project of JT from the books. we got a scorer and a vet (which we needed greatly).

we've been over this all before, at the start of the season...what would you have rather him done. Other than the Pryz thing, which we've decided that we dont' know the details to...what center would you have had us acquire? other player? don't bash him too hard, seriously...not that many toher options...

[AHF]

Quote:

---

We've had winning teams here...but we've never had a superstar.

My thing is, we're not going to sign one via FA...we've got to keep our noses in the draft.

---

I agree with your conclusion but I'd argue that Nique, Pete Maravich and especially Bob Pettit were all superstars in the NBA for the Hawks.

[Wretch]

That's what I was getting at. I was just posting a bunch of stuff in a lot of different places that night and wasn't really paying attention.

Anyway...

In the years that followed Nique, we were a competitive team...but not very entertaining and we never had a "goto" guy. If you think about it, Smitty, Mookie, and Deke were the perfect compliments to a star player. We really were a piece away from being contenders.

But capped out and just good enough to barely compete in the 1st round of the playoffs.

[TheDude]

i think BK is doing a great job..he actually got 2nd round picks that can actually play somewhat...in the 2nd round you can't pick and choose what position you want, it's best available..

true we have a forward clog but one will be traded and we still have alot of capspace in the offseason...he said it would be a few years and he's doing just that...

[Diesel]

I think that BK has done some good things and some things too late.

For instance.

We should have traded JT before his contract ran out the first time. Maybe that was Babcock last act. However, it became a problem because we went into the draft that year and got Boris. Then, we couldn't dare let JT go to Utah for nothing so we resigned him (Although, I liked the process that BK put him through)...

Point is, Boris was such a wasted pick because his whole reason for being here was to be a compliment to JT...

I love the whole Stephen Jackson episode and getting Harrington for Jackson was shrewd.

I love getting Smoove. I wanted Howard with him but I'll take Chillz because he's what we needed.

I love getting Donta.

I think the next few moves will tell us a lot. Mainly I suspect that somewhere along the way, we will get Swift.

I don't know if Harrington is a keeper but we'll see.

I don't know who BK likes in the draft, but we're to the point where I trust him.

I can see the plan coming together and although it's coming together quicker than 5 yrs proposed, I say we still have to be patient.

[Inside_Man]

The important point is that we are not saddled with any totally out of whack turkey contracts!