With a Horford trade, will the Hawks go after Durant?

[PandaKidd]

Durant on Miami I tend to agree with SAS on that who wants to follow the same path Lebron did.

I agree on the WEST being unnatractive in terms of performing. Washington is his home, but , hardly a large market, and that team isnt that good, its barely better or worse than Atlanta.

[atlantabbq99]

Most of you are missing the point of the post. Alot are short sighted and think the post is about the likelihood of Durant coming to Atlanta, which it is not. it is about why are the Hawks willing to trade Horford? is it to get better now during the season or to get better over the summer with free agents?

[Hawk Eye]

Most of you are missing the point of the post. Alot are short sighted and think the post is about the likelihood of Durant coming to Atlanta, which it is not. it is about why are the Hawks willing to trade Horford? is it to get better now during the season or to get better over the summer with free agents?

I think most of us on this board believe the main reason the hawks are willing to trade Horford is because they feel like he may walk this offseason. I don't think it's that farfetched to think Al could leave to a more desirable team after this season. And it looks like he is going to have a lot of options to choose from considering almost every team in the league will be able to offer him a max contract this offseason.

If you think about it, why on earth would wes and bud even entertain offers for Horford if they felt like he was 100% coming back to the hawks next season?

EDIT: I suppose another reason could be that our management doesn't want to be paying two max contracts for a 31 year old millsap and a 30 year old Horford.

[MaceCase]

Most of you are missing the point of the post. Alot are short sighted and think the post is about the likelihood of Durant coming to Atlanta, which it is not. it is about why are the Hawks willing to trade Horford? is it to get better now during the season or to get better over the summer with free agents?

Perhaps you're overthinking it, it could just be due diligence. Atlanta could feel 80% confident in retaining Al but will listen to offers, not make them, as is being reported. Gauge trade interest, if an offer catches their attention then they heavily consider it up against their 80% confidence of re-signing him, if not then they go into the off-season with the confidence he will likely remain a Hawk. It's all part of the game, you always consider your options no matter what type of team or player that you have, people would be stupid to not even listen to an offer but by no means is a team obligated to act on it.

[PandaKidd]

Yes, its being stated they are LISTENING to offers. Doesnt mean they are actively shopping him. EVERY team listens to offers I would think. Even the Teague rumors werent CLEAR who was shopping whom. It said they had made Teague "available" or they were "listening to offers on Teague/DS''

I think they might move teague if the offer is high enough. Thats it. I just dont think this FO (and to be fair many FO dont) have that kind of balls to move a "cornerstone" piece unless the offer is just way too good to pass up.

[Geaux_Hawks]

Im not sure Wall/Beal/Durant/Gortat/Porter=best team in the east.

CLE is loaded. KI/LBJ/Love easily better than that squad.

KD would surely equal Lebron. Wall would certainly equal KI, and seeing as how Love has been used(Great rebounding stretch 4), Beal/Otto would equal Love. Throw in Gortat, who is a solid 2 way big, and Washington is just a better all around team, that's well balanced.

respectfully,
I think youre smoking crack

KI > Wall all day. Wall cant shoot.
Lebron , while aging, has completely dominated KD his entire career.
I wont even dignify the Beal/Love comparison. Thats just laughable. Love is in a bad situation right now, the scheme was terrible for him. Hes playing much better now.

I wont even get into the depth of the benches with Thompson/Varejao/Smith/Shumpert/Mo Williams, etc

You're kidding me right?

So because Wall isn't the shooter that Irving is, he's a lesser player? For goodness sakes, Irving is a horrid defender. Wall doesn't even have to be an elite defender to close that gap in shooting. I would easily take Wall's shooting over Irving's defense.

Lebron James dominating Kevin Durant?! Other than the W/L category, which is a product of the entire teams performance, I don't see how James has dominated Durant.

Beal is on his way to being a top 5 SG. In reduced minutes after coming back from injury, he is still putting up solid performances. Consider that until recently, Love was just a stretch 4 that could rebound well.

You're reaching with the Cavs bench also. They aren't the best squad in the league or even top 10 for that matter. The Wiz bench is more solid anyway. They're older, but deeper, and also just as productive.

[PandaKidd]

Did you watch the 2012 Finals?

I dont think anyone would put Wall over Irving, ever.

Beal cant stay on the floor, and I dont think anyone thinks hes a top 5 SG.

Love is infintely more talented than any player they have in the front court, Hell Id take Tristan Thompson over NENE any day of the week.

[Jamaaliver]

Most of you are missing the point of the post. A lot are short sighted and think the post is about the likelihood of Durant coming to Atlanta, which it is not. it is about why are the Hawks willing to trade Horford? is it to get better now during the season or to get better over the summer with free agents?

I've heard a couple of whispers the last few months (a chat transcript, a vague tweet, etc.) indicating Atlanta may simply balk at offering Horford a super-max deal. The most he can get from his current team is a 5 year $146 million contract. That's an annual average of about $29 million per year.

That type of salary is very difficult to justify for a player who doesn't lead your team in scoring, rebounding or assists.

I have no doubt that if we don't trade Horford, we'll attempt to re-sign him. But, I can't see Grant Hill, Tony Ressler, Bud or Wes willing to make a player with such marginal production the highest paid player in franchise history.

...so we listen to offers to see if anyone wants to overpay us for the right to overpay AL this summer.

[PandaKidd]

Yeah, I mean i think his agent will demand the max (DUH) but we could end up with a situation where the market sours on him. Not basketball related but it happened to Julian Edelman 2 years ago. he left the Pats in FA and the market for him wasnt very high. No one was willing to pay him WR1 type salary, so he came back to NE on a discount and we had more leverage. Same with Wilfork that year after his Achilles. If you recall the Patriots released Wilfork because he wasnt willing to redo his deal, he was pissed, the open market agreed he wasnt worth his previous contract, and he came back to NE on a 1 year deal.

Horford, I think it will be interesting. I cant see someone thinking hes worth 30 million average salary. Thats Anthony davis money right?

But, someone may think he is being misused here in Atlanta or something. I dont think hes as good as LMA and aldridge is getting 19-20 million a year. Who is really going to sign him for more than that?

[Jamaaliver]

Yeah, I mean i think his agent will demand the max (DUH) but we could end up with a situation where the market sours on him.

Horford, I think it will be interesting. I cant see someone thinking hes worth 30 million average salary. Thats Anthony davis money right?

But, someone may think he is being misused here in Atlanta or something. I dont think hes as good as LMA and aldridge is getting 19-20 million a year. Who is really going to sign him for more than that?

Yeah, I think you're on the right track with that analogy. The best and worst thing about Bud's offense is that it is so balanced...it tends to marginalize the production of your best players for the benefit of the team.

Millsap could easily avg 20 & 10 as the focal point of the offense. But he takes roughly the same FGAs as AL and his production stays lower as a result. AL could easily get 18 & 8 as the focal point of the offense. But he's become a 2nd (3rd?) option more often than not. Much to the benefit of the team's spacing.

Horford could take $20+ million from Boston, become the 2nd best player on that team. Make that franchise more attractive to future free agents. take pressure off young guys like Olynyk and Isaiah Thomas II. lead them on a solid playoff run.

Horford could absolutely take $22+ million to join Demarre in TOR. Help spread the floor for Lowry, take the pressure off Valanciunas. be the 2nd option that team needs at the 4 spot. And lead them on a deep playoff run.

Horford on Indiana playing next to Paul George and Myles Turner might make them a top 5 team in the league. They'd easily jump to top 3 in the East, and he would be worth every dollar to those teams.

Adding AL to another contender at a high salary makes them all better. He complements almost every style of play. But keeping AL here for a higher salary...doesn't make us better. It keeps US the same.

One additional factor in all this: the rising salary cap this summer means almost every team will have additional cap space to pursue AL in a somewhat weak Free Agent market. I wouldn't be surprised to see some 2nd tier team over-reach to add AL in hopes of jumping up to that top tier for a year or two.

[PandaKidd]

Adding AL to another contender at a high salary makes them all better. He complements almost every style of play. But keeping AL here for a higher salary...doesn't make us better. It keeps US the same.

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[Geaux_Hawks]

Yes, I did. Like I said, the team failed, not Durant.

Wall or Irving is just pick your poison I guess.

Love is better than anyone the Wiz have in the front court, but don't undermine the fact that the Wiz have solid guys in Nene and Gortat. Porter and Beal can be flipped if need be, though I doubt they would move both. The Wiz are very underrated, but whatever. The Convo is irrelevant anyway.

[HMFFL]

Horford walking won't be the end of the world. He's not a superstar talent and can be replaceable.
I feel confident he'll want to sign an extension since he's been here his entire career and he seems to adore Atlanta. He has never made any remarks publicly that have suggested that he wants out and right now we're only trying to get a feel for what his value is.