Dead 17.4 Mil On the bench - Just sad

[geeman]

We have 17.4 mil on the bench! Just sad!



Speedy
Zaza
Shelden
Salim
Lorenzen

[conleyorbust]

may as well add solo. he has been really productive on the boards in his 15 minutes this season.

[JoshB914]

We can thank BK for that.

[Rip2137]

Oh come off it. Name a team that doesn't have money sitting on the bench. Its the NBA.

[conleyorbust]

Oh come off it. Name a team that doesn't have money sitting on the bench. Its the NBA.

True, look at NYC for volume and Milwaukee for recent-ish signings for big money.

[JoshB914]

Whenever I feel down about the Hawks, I just go look at all the Knicks' contracts and it makes me feel a lot better.

[Rip2137]

Even the Spurs and Suns have quite a few millions sitting on the bench. Its just part of being in the NBA. You are required to have at least 12 men under contract and there will be at least 2-6 players not getting playing time. They still need to be paid.

[td00]

AJ should be coming off the bench because we should have Brandon Roy in the lineup.

Look at these combinations we missed out on:

JJ/Paul
JJ/DWill
JJ/Roy

Why? Because BK thinks he knows more than the masses here.

The AS should fire BK, and give the fans a chance to run this team. We could get to play 6 games under .500 ball in our 4th season of rebuilding.
It is just sad to continue to watch what Woody and BK have put together.
The East is so weak that making the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed only makes your fans that much more insufferable.

[HMFFL]

We have 17.4 mil on the bench! Just sad!



Speedy
Zaza
Shelden
Salim
Lorenzen

Not really sure why your making such a big deal about this when every franchise has baggage sitting on the bench. We are free of Lo Wright, Lue, Salim and Anthony Johnson during the upcoming off season. That's four (hopefully only three) expiring contracts that Atlanta hopefully never has to deal with again.

[will]

Let's all send Thank you notes to Billy for his wonderful signings and draft picks

[Rip2137]

I am still amazed that people think that mike Woodson would have started Brandon Roy at the point guard.

[smabie]

Not only would he have not started Roy, but he probably would have screwed up his development.

Yes, Roy & Paul & DWilliams have talent, but it helped them that they went to teams and systems in which nurture and develop PGs, significantly better than the Hawks have.

If we had drafted any of those 3, y'all'd be griping right now about them just like y'all gripe about AC. Woodson is a black hole for young guards. While he's relatively good with developing young forwards - success with Smith, Marvin, Chill; apparent failures with Diaw, & Sheldon; too early to say about anyone else - he's ohfer for any and all young guards who've shown up in Atlanta. Whoever we'd drafted would be sitting down at the end of the bench, getting the cold shoulder from Woody, because that's the way he does it.

[Rip2137]

I think Paul is the only guy that would have succeded regardless.

Deron Williams? Please. he came out and had a tough start. With woodson that means about 20 DNP's, and a bunch of 10 minute games. Sloan gave him minutes the second half of his rookie year even if he made mistakes. Woodson pulls guards after a mistake regardless (unless you are Lue)

Brandon Roy, first Nate handed him the ball and let him know it was his team from the jump. He came out, shot a tough percentage, turned it over, took bad shots, and Nate just said 'Its still your team". Woodson would have benched him for weeks. Then if he got injured, that probably would have been it for the year.

I thank god as a fan of the NBA that neither of them ended up here.

[smabie]

Paul wouldn't have had much success, either.

2005-06 was Joe Johnson's first year, and if you recall, part of the pitch to get him to come was the potential of being our PG.

Whether you think the "experiment" would have actually succeeded or not if it had gone beyond the first month (I do, but that's an argument for an entirely different topic), it did occur for November. So either JJ was our PG during November, or we wouldn't have gotten JJ since Paul would have been our PG.

So either we would have had a team with a bunch of rookies and sophomores in lead roles (and no JJ), with Lue being our primary Veteran experience (which would not have helped Paul's numbers to begin), or (with JJ) Paul would have been coming in off the bench, or even 3rd deep, and not been any help at all.

Furthermore, at the time, passing on Marvin Williams was considered to be virtually as dumb a move as passing on Reggie Bush at #1, or Carmello at #2. If BK had drafted Paul at #2, he would have been as much a laughingstock as he's become.

Looking back at past drafts is a No Win situation, especially when you're picking in the lottery area. If you pick someone good, well of course you were supposed to do so. And if you don't draft someone good, you get turned into... well, BK. The fact that his draft picks are still playing, and for the most part keep getting brought up in trade interest, is a good thing, even if they haven't turned out so hot for us. I mean, heck, maybe you should consider all this damned interest proof that BK does have an eye for talent, and Woodson really REALLY sucks at developing it; as a result, their values drop, and other people can try to buy them from us at a depressed price, just like Diaw was.

As much grief as BK gets, he's still better than Babcock (and prior regimes), when it comes to the draft.

[conleyorbust]

^Paul would have had success because he is an awsome player. I used to fight it but its become fairly obvious that the kid is gonna be something big.

[HoopsGuru25]

Deron Williams? Please. he came out and had a tough start. With woodson that means about 20 DNP's, and a bunch of 10 minute games. Sloan gave him minutes the second half of his rookie year even if he made mistakes. Woodson pulls guards after a mistake regardless (unless you are Lue)

I agree with this. Deron wasn't viewed as a great prospect until his junior year while Paul would have been a lottery pick as a freshman. He also inherited a much more talented roster than Paul.

Brandon Roy, first Nate handed him the ball and let him know it was his team from the jump. He came out, shot a tough percentage, turned it over, took bad shots, and Nate just said 'Its still your team". Woodson would have benched him for weeks. Then if he got injured, that probably would have been it for the year.

This makes no sense. The reason Law hasn't started is because he hasn't been good enough(just like Shelden). If you are suggesting that we should have given Law entitlement minutes over AJ despite being worse then I agree. If you are saying that we should have given Shelden entitlement minutes over Zaza despite being worse last year then I also agree to a lesser extent(although Zaza is listed as being younger). I have no complaints over the minutes Woody has given Horford,Childress, Smith,and Marvin. Those players all got consistent minutes because they gave us the best chance to win regardless of how old they were. Roy would be the Hawks starting point guard or Marvin would be on the bench right now. Horford is the starting center and he is a 4 so why wouldn't Roy start?

Paul wouldn't have had much success, either.

Paul has been successful on every level he's been on. I can't think of another top 5 pick in recent years(besides Durant)who was drafted into a worse situation than Paul. They traded the teams best two players just like Seattle. His other 4 starters were Desmond Mason,Kirk Snyder,and unproven David West,and a 36 year old PJ Brown. New Orleans started from an even worse position than us. We used our cap space on Joe Johnson..they used theres on Peja. We got our late round steal in Josh Smith and they got theres with David West. They traded expirings for Tyson Chandler and we used ours on Speedy Claxton and Lo Wright even though we needed a young athletic center.. It's not unrealistic to think that the Hawks starting 5 could be Paul/Joe/Childress/Smith/Chandler. That's comparable to the same team N.O. has at the number 1 spot in the West.

[Lue_4_MVP]

Furthermore, at the time, passing on Marvin Williams was considered to be virtually as dumb a move as passing on Reggie Bush at #1, or Carmello at #2. If BK had drafted Paul at #2, he would have been as much a laughingstock as he's become.

It doesn't matter if a bunch of journalists and forums posters consider so-and-so to be a better prospect. BK is supposed to have the FORESIGHT to look beyond convention and make the right pick (that's why he's being PAID the big bucks and we don't). If you want your GM to just follow conventional wisdom all the time, you could hire a monkey to do that (hell, we should've done that in 2006 - would have saved us from that awful Sheldon pick).

I also think the notion that Marvin was viewed as some kind of "no-brainer" pick is largely exaggerated by BK-apologists. Many people myself included considered Marvin and Paul to be marginal in talent difference, but Paul a wiser pick since he played a position of need. Too bad, because it turns out that Paul is actually MUCH greater in talent and plays a position of need!

Chris Paul is a freakin' MVP candidate right now and leading his team to the best record in the West. Chris Paul wouldn't do well here? This team is MADE for Chris Paul!!! I understand the dangers of dwelling, but the constant excuses for not only BK but also Woody are much worse! If we had Josh Smith and Chris Paul on our team, this team would surely be better than 18-24 right now after 4 years of rebuilding (and probably wouldn't have gotten blown out by 35 points the other night)!!!