Diesel Reveals the truth about Dickau.

[Diesel]

If anybody believes what Babcock said about DD being picked only because he was the best PG available at the time.... Raise your hand?

Babcock lied.

We moved up to get Dan the man. So obviously there was some "us wanting" in that. We wanted him Specifically.

THe second part. Somebody might say, well, we needed a PG. However, I'm willing to bet that Chicago would have traded Best to us. I'm willing to bet that we could have spent our 4.5 MCE on some of the good available PGs out there now. Hell, as we speak, I'm sure that we can trade for Nick Van Exel if we really wanted a PG. The truth of the matter is that We are unsure of JT and DD is the PG in waiting. Babcock says he won't make any moves until after camp? I wonder why? There's a competition between JT and DD. IF DD shows that he can run the show better than JT, we might do with JT the same thing that Washington is doing with Halmilton. TRADE. In our case though, I can imagine that we would get rid of some salary with him.

[Sage11]

Burn that copy of SI you are reading man. JT will prove his own in the position that the team asks him to play, as evidenced at the end of last season. I don't see anything but improvement now that he has more talent around him to speak about. I think JT is a wonderful, spell binding, proven basketball talent that can play and lead THIS team. The man is a general, the fire to win burns in his soul. The Hawks would take several steps back down the development road to "trade" him.

I agree the movment to get Dickau is distrubing but I also think that it was unnecessary because JT will do the job.

[Guest]

Why would we trade for Van Exel?Doesn't he have a big

contract?Why would we throw 4.5 million at Travis Best?

He has been a backup basically his whole career and why

spend 4.5 million a backup you don't need?Why not go for

cheaper?You said Vaughn was a better PG....Why didn't

we just keep him and start him and trade JT if that is what

we were going to do......Vaughn can do everything Best can

do and likely costs alot less.It doesn't make any sense at all.

Van Exel is a cancer as a player and as a person.Why not trade

for Brandon Or try and sign Jeff McInnis if we wanted another

guy starting at PG?

Yes Babcock always lies and I don't understand why people try

and act like he is innocent.Chances are if Dickau does turn out

to be anything worthy then it was Billy Knight's pick.

[chillzatl]

The most glaring flaws in your theory are this:

We traded up to get him. sure we did, why not? we didn't give ANYTHING away to get him. He's cheaper than the MCE, he's cheaper than anything we could have traded for and has a longer future than either of the players you mentioned. We didn't need a player on the bench to gripe and complain about minutes and touches either.

Your theory smacks of desperation. The logic that went into this one is laughable. I can totally see Babcock sitting there thinking "ok, we'll get this unproven, score-first rookie PG that almost fell into the 2nd round. Just in case our explosive, clutch shooting, high scoring PG who consistantly improved at the position over the course of the season, enroute to helping improve our win total by eight games, CAN'T CUT IT."

Diesel really likes to feed the hype around the players he falls in love with. He's tried to transform DD's image from a score first PG in college to one that is destined to be a top flight PURE PG in the NBA. Thoguh there is nothing in DD's past to indicate he is anywhere near capable of doing this. Now he's somehow getting inside the head of one of the leagues most guarded GM's to pick out fact from fiction. Next thing you'll know he'll be calling Miss Cleo to find out if Shaq's big toe is going to be enough to stop a Lakers 4-peat. HAH!

[Diesel]

The point is that if we needed a PG or BU PG, we didn't have to go out and spend a 1st round pick to draft one. Say what you want about DD being brought here to be a Backup??? I have never seen our organization move with this much urgency to get a BU PG, especially when we have had Cookie Belcher, Spoonie Penn and Others to fall out of the draft in the second round.

URGENCY.

Remember that part.

Our moves were deliberate.

[Diesel]

In reply to:

---

We traded up to get him. sure we did, why not? we didn't give ANYTHING away to get him.

---

For the last 2 yrs, we got very serviceable BUs in the second round (Penn, Belcher....not to mention those who go undrafted). Why was there such an URGENCY to move up and pick Dickau if all we really want from him is BU play??

In the second round there was Logan, Mason, Maddux, Milos, Murry and possibly Dickau (I don't see Sactown taking him) that could have fallen to us. Not to mention, that we could have possibly resigned Vaughn. However, our intent was to get Dickau. Not just any PG or the Best PG available, but Dickau. URGENCY.

[JTFan31]

Hey Diesel is Dickau your boy toy or something. Thats all you talk about and you are always saying that you want JT to do good and that you really like JT. Well by the look of things it sure doesnt look like it. JT will prove everyone wrong this year, WHY? he is not a failure and more than that he has too much heart and pride. No rookie will come in here and take his job, he knows this is his team now and he is not about to let it go just like that. Sorry Diesel nice try to make us believe that Dan is the man.

[Diesel]

In reply to:

---

Hey Diesel is Dickau your boy toy or something. Thats all you talk about and you are always saying that you want JT to do good and that you really like JT.

---

I'm stating a fact that our organization moved with URGENCY to get Dickau. That being the case, it tells me that we had to want him really badly. I have pointed out JT's shortcomings as a PG and I hope he is much improved. IF he is then we are a championship calibre team. If he is not, I would not be surprised to see JT traded. Especially if it means getting rid of a salary like Hendu's.

However, some of you are so infatuated with JT that you guys Look beyond all his faults and refuse to see the moves that our GM make. Ask yourself, why did you just try to attack me? BEcause I'm the only one with enough balls to say that JT just might be on the trading block if he can't outplay DD at the PG position?? Think over the recent history... We have tried the JT at SG thing and it didn't work. Babcock said the other day that he would love to have a BIG Gaurd but It's hard to find them. And some of you had the gall to say that Babs was not talking about JT?? Or more specifically a Gaurd like Penny who could cover for JT?

The final summation is this. When we traded for Big Dog, we got a good deal. BUt in the process, we traded away the only player who can cover the Point duties for JT if we were to ever decide to put him back at the SG. It is a fact that DJ and DG suck as points. Therefore, since the trade, Babs has talked about JT as a PG. The unsaid message there is if JT doesn't cut it as a PG, there is no room at SG for him. That being the case, guess what... Our only option is to trade him.

Also, where is the LONG term commitment to JT? Why hasn't it been offered or talked about? If you can take a few minutes to get out of JT's lap, you might not be so easily bambuzzled by Babcock.

[Guest]

Who the crap is Cookie Belcher and Scoonie Penn?Both these

guys suck.It's obviousally true because neither can seem to

make a NBA Roster.They are overseas playing because other

teams(and alot of them need backup pg's)don't think they are

NBA worthy even as backups.

You are just rambling on asking why we didn't keep PG's that

can make anyone elses roster either....because they suck.

As I said before,if JT can't play PG here do you really think he

has anymore value than a Travis Best?Do you really think

you will get anything for Hendu/undersized SG,(If he really

doesn't pan out at PG)c'mon dude where is your common

sense?

[chillzatl]

Nothing about this move says URGENCY. If we had traded up into the top 10-15, then I could see your point. But we traded up into the LAST SPOT in the first round. That's not much of a trade up. Obviously out of all the PG's that were available, Dickau was who they liked. Instead of taking a chance on losing him in the 2nd before he fell to us they traded up a few spots to get him. NOTHING about that tradeup says URGENCY. They had a guy picked out that they liked and they made a VERY MINOR move to get him.

That's all that was, a minor move. If Sacramento had taken Dickau, nobody would have said "sacramento got such a steal in the draft! Watch out Mike Bibby & Bobby Jackson". NO FREAKING BODY would have even suggested that. So why, just because he ends up here, does that suggest some sort of urgency?? This is being dragged to death to the point of absurdity.

[chillzatl]

Give it a damned rest already. We didn't give ANYTHING away to get him, so where was the urgency? Urgency would be giving away something as good or better to get him. We gave away NOTHING. You are making this out to be way more than it is and it's just getting old. You are making blind assumptions on a few sentences and argueing it to deaths door, as you do everything.

[jaywalker72]

...or is this the same truth we talked about last week?

I believe they picked Dickau as a cheap insurance policy for Terry...

Here was my response to this line of thinking all of two days ago....

They are still hesitant to dedicate themselves long term to JT at the point....yet.

That's not to say they won't, but you can bet that Mr. Dickau is a very inexpensive insurance policy if Terry doesn't cut it this year at the point.

If you ask anyone in the Hawks braintrust, they'll tell you that they are thrilled that JT can play either guard position.

Lon believes that JT can, Pete believes JT can, and we all seem to agree that he will be successful this season at the point, as he continues to build on the good play of last season over there.

Babcock, as always, is keeping himself covered. He is not going to say that JT is the man, especially if the time comes that they need to reverse their philosophy. Part of this is to protect the player and the other to protect himself.

It's understandable. Remember, Babcock always wanted to keep Deke, too....until the time came when Deke was not going to resign with the Hawks and Larry Brown's infatuation with the big fella yielded a trade that Pete could not (and thankfully did not) turn down.

So, in short, I believe that the Hawks are ready for JT to be the full time PG, but until they witness for a full season, they are hedging their bets, like all good organizations should.

I think I still believe that...even though it was two whole days ago.....

[Nique21]

and I don't think trading JT is something that is even mentioned now. We were not a playoff team last year, and considering that Theo is healthy our frontcourt looks good. I believe moving JT was one of the most logical scenarios we had on the table at the end of last year. Face it, you have to give up something to get something. JT was going to be our trade bait to attract something in here that could possibly make a difference.

Now fast forward to the summer, when we gave up little to get Dickau. I think this was a good move in trying to make us better at the BACK UP POINT GUARD POSITION. Vaughn played well at the end of the year, but struggled mightly at the first of last season. So now having drafted Dickau we might have a better backup point guard than Vaughn. Terry is still mentioned in trade rumors, because we have to shake something up and maybe bring in another guy to put us in the playoffs. Hoping that Theo will make the difference, seems like too much of a gamble, since we didn't have him last year.

Now to the present, where we have added Big Dawg. Now we have a guy that changes the makeup of our team in a big way. I don't see any type of urgency to move Terry now, and I think the Hawks front office would agree. We have improved ourselves by leaps and bounds, with GR and a healthy Theo.

To me personally, this is JT's team. He has the Atlanta personality, works and plays hard, he doesn't complain (he has a great attitude), he has the ability to change the game with his steals, speed, or his dead aim shooting ability, and he always seems to be the first player from the team that greets the new guy. I can't be the only one that can see these qualities. So whether you want him or you don't, JT will be flying high in the Hawks Uniform at Philips this year.

[JTFan31]

and for many many years to come, so can you please drop the subject already Diesel.

[Diesel]

Babcock admitted that he tried to get Dickau after what pick #14??

Urgency!

[hds428]

...and we all know what a draft genius Pete is too. Roshown McLeoud, Cal Bowdler, John Konack, etc, etc. The fact that Pete drafted Dickau makes him automatically suspect. JT, Dion and DerMarr are the only three draft picks that come immediately to mind that were'nt total duds, and two of them have'nt proven anything yet. JT and DerMarr might be the exceptions that prove the rule, but one was a 6th pick for crimony sake, and the other a 10th, not a mid to bottom first rounder. So to me, saying that Dickau was drafted to replace JT is like saying Cal Bowdler was drafted to replace Deek. the more we explore this logic of drafting Dickau to replace JT, the more comedic it gets. The logic is pretty simple. You have a hole going into the draft, you fill that hole in the draft. If we were so desparate at the point because of JT, I would think we would have addressed it sooner, like when we had Jamal Tinsley in our clutches. So if there is desparation or urgency because of JT, I dont see it. We knew we were going to lose JV to FAcy and with migrane Davis as the only bu, there was a hole for a bu point, so we drafted a backup point guard, nothing complicated or nefarious about it, just filling a gap where a gap exists. Like Chuck D said, 'Don't believe the hype, its a sequel. As an equal can I get this through to you ?!?!?", so it goes with our Hawks, this PG hype is just rewarmed media leftovers from last season's 'big PG' shtick... Seriously Diesel, sometimes a banana is just a banana.

[BlackHawkDown]

I may not like your political views but I like your post.

1.) I'll at least get Pete credit that he didn't draft John Contract, oops I mean, Konkak that was Stan Kasten's doing. But you are right Pete has proven he couldn't spot young talent if it slapped him. We has drafted nothing but losers until recently and gave up J. Tinsley the 3rd or 4th best PG in the East. But in a way I am glad we didn't get Tinsley, for one reason, we would be forced to trade either JT or J Tinsley a chose I wouldn't want to make.

[Guest]

Jamaal Tinsley is a Mark Jackson rip off.Can't score,doesn't play

defense and can't shoot worth a crap.

He will have a good scoring and maybe even a triple double every

once and a while....but he is mostly a passer and has nothing more.

Sorta like Brevin Knight.

[chillzatl]

As I remember it, Babcock clearly stated that they had their eye on him but never imagined that he would fall low enough that they would have a chance. That doesn't sound anything close to 14th pick, touche`! He went on to say that when they saw that he falling far so babcock started making calls to those last few teams until he found one that was willing to deal, Sacramento. I think he's said pretty much those exactly words 3-4 times already, when asked about getting DD. So I dunno where you are getting your info, maybe you need to recheck it. Urgency my a**!

It is flat out absurd that you or anyone would honestly think that Dickau was taken as insurance. Insurance is a proven player. Travis Best would be insurance. Howard Eisley is an insurance player. An unproven, short, not-quick, score first college player IS NOT PG INSURANCE!

[cyman3]

1)"I'm stating a fact that our organization moved with URGENCY to get Dickau."

dont dig into it too much DIESEL. Maybe the hawks were high on him, and didnt think he would be available on our 2nd round pick. Maybe BABCOCK did his HW and didnt like what he saw in Logan, Mason, Maddux, Milos, Murry. Many GMs skipped those players, not JUST BABCOCK.

we did IN FACT need a backup PG either through TRADE or FA. Before the draft, i thought we would sign a FA... but i think babcock wanted to get his PG through DRAFT (which is just as good).

2)"Also, where is the LONG term commitment to JT?"

Wheres the LONG TERM COMMITMENT to RASHARD LEWIS? C'mon, the NBA is a business... it takes time for 2 sides to complete a deal. Im not saying that JT will automatically get his extension, but DIESEL... give it some time MAN...

3)"Seriously Diesel, sometimes a banana is just a banana"

i agree... ur reading too much into this. I mean, if JT is traded i will apologize and give u some props... but c'mon, there arent any good signs pointing in that direction.

If we got a center in the draft and moved up to get him... does that mean RATLIFF is packing his bags? No!!! it just means we need another CENTER on the team.