RealGM

It's hard to tell what is going on with our ownership and front office, but based on the Josh Childress trade I'm starting to suspect that Miami's moves have scared ASG ownership into tightening the wallets. It is a bit sad that Miami is doing better filling out its roster with minimum contracts that the Hawks are to improving last years roster with exceptions available. If the ASG isn't willing to overspend to try to strike before Miami can gel then the long term contract for Joe Johnson is the worst move possible under the circumstances (such an expenditure only works if you go all out). Bottom line is they could have spent a fraction of the money and likely still made the lower half of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Spending $124M over 6 years to be middle of the pack is tragic.

This leads me to a moderately bold prediction. Sometime between December 15th and the February trade deadline, the ASG will seek a do over and trade Joe Johnson to a Western contender for expiring salaries and possibly picks. Dallas is the most likely candidate but I don't rule out Houston either. The move will allow the Hawks to resign Al Horford (given their budget) and refocus on a longer term strategy of competing 2-3 years down the road when the core of the roster is 27-28 years old and more importantly to the ASG treading water much less expensively.

Do you think jokes about kidnapping the ASG's kids and holding them for ransom would earn me a warning from HMFFL, or would that qualify as a manifestation of battered-spouse syndrome?

azuresou1 wrote:Do you think jokes about kidnapping the ASG's kids and holding them for ransom would earn me a warning from HMFFL, or would that qualify as a manifestation of battered-spouse syndrome?

The problem is that its still a committee and you'd have to hold kids of a majority of ownership to have any impact (assuming they value the kids enough to react which might not be the case). It's really more hassle that its worth to go down that route.

IMO, you can't because they don't have any kid, at least a majority don't have.
If they have one, he would certainly cry how his father is a bad owners and how his friends are joking on ASG every day.

If you want your kid to be proud of you, you can't work like they did. ASG = looser, that's all, and more than if they had let Joe walk for nothing, because they would have just be cheap.
Now, they are also incompetent... unless they can manage some surprising trades like we never saw before.

Maybe the key to understanding the ASG's moves is to consider that they're not trying to win but to make the team attractive enough to sell.

For example, they'd have to keep Joe (for appearances) but then skimp everywhere else.

If I were a billionaire who wasn't a fan, I'd have bought the team this offseason prior to the signing. Post-signing? I'd have some second thoughts.

azuresou1 wrote:If I were a billionaire who wasn't a fan, I'd have bought the team this offseason prior to the signing. Post-signing? I'd have some second thoughts.

I think at some points I would even have more second thoughts to buy this team while being a fan
No that the team is stuck with this albatross contract, it's hard to know how to improve it, except spending 20M in tax.

Before the signing, it was different. Now, what can we do, in a team where Josh Smith and Al Horford are already producing more than Joe, and will certainly ask for the same kind of deal since Joe got it, and how do you expect some other big F.A. to come in the next 6 years and play with a guy that deserves max 15M earning more money than they can get ?

It was just the worst move they can do to this team.

Not a fan, I would not buy it.
As a fan, I would probably not because it would be too much frustration to try to improve this team and see for the next 6 years Joe eating all that money.

I still can believe he did not reduce anything while even Arenas did it. It says a lot on Joe and his willing to win.