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There has been a lot of talk about plans if we don't sign Dwight Howard. According to a ESPN report, if we don't sign Howard we will tank the season. My question is what is the best way to do that for the future? I feel we should do it with youth and young projects. Any player that has one year on their deal would be welcome. I would bring all of the international players like: Cenk Akyol, Sergey Gladyr, and Sofoklis Schortsanitis over on one year deals. Also, Dennis and Bebe play for us from day 1. Might see if we could get Toney Douglas on a one year deal. Maybe bring back Pape Sy. John Jenkins, Mike Scott, and Mike Muscala all get minutes to see how good they are.

As way draft and go into free agency 2014, we would know which young guys could play and who could go.

davefmcl wrote: According to a ESPN report,

According to Chad Ford. He thinks we're purposefully destroying our team to be bad enough for Wiggins.

Yeah it is only Chad Ford, and the tweet/article was very badly written. It was basically saying the Hawks "might" tank. "Might" isn't exactly iron clad insider information.

Though I wouldn't be against tanking for 2014. Lots of good players there.

Are you trying to kill off the very few fans that we have actually coming to regular season games?

I think the idea has merit, and it's far more likely that the international talent that has been stashed to this point ought to be considered. But I don't believe we need to go into tank mode. We have a few really good players and a lot of options to reshape this roster. It might take time to fully develop it into a winner, but that doesn't mean tanking.

jagstang76 wrote:I think the idea has merit, and it's far more likely that the international talent that has been stashed to this point ought to be considered. But I don't believe we need to go into tank mode. We have a few really good players and a lot of options to reshape this roster. It might take time to fully develop it into a winner, but that doesn't mean tanking.

Agreed. I'm anti tanking, but I'm also against spending too much of our capspace on a long term contract on some one that would just be a stopgap.

trade Horford for Anthony Bennett and Sergey Karasev

then sign and trade Josh for Amare and Shumpert (or Tim Hardaway)

but i don't know, these decisions are still along way away, lets just hope for the best with the FAs and hope that it won't come to this.

tcorbin wrote:trade Horford for Anthony Bennett and Sergey Karasev

then sign and trade Josh for Amare and Shumpert (or Tim Hardaway)

but i don't know, these decisions are still along way away, lets just hope for the best with the FAs and hope that it won't come to this.

I wouldn't touch that Hoford trade and the Smith trade is beyond awful. Amare is signed in to 2 more years unless he terminates his $23 million contract next season which I doubt will happen

ATL Boy wrote:Are you trying to kill off the very few fans that we have actually coming to regular season games?

jagstang76 wrote: But I don't believe we need to go into tank mode. We have a few really good players and a lot of options to reshape this roster. It might take time to fully develop it into a winner, but that doesn't mean tanking.

tomaHAWKslam wrote:Agreed. I'm anti tanking...

Glad to hear reason and sanity ruling the day.

We were a perennial lottery team in the 2000s and ended up with not much to show for it.

It was trades for veterans that ultimately pulled us out of the cellar.
Drafting Horford helped.

But Marvin Williams
Acie Law IV
Josh Childress
Shelden Williams...none of them helped this franchise gain respectability. All wasted lottery picks. There are few guarantees even in the draft lottery. Just ask Greg Oden.

Look at teams like CLE, WAS, SAC, DET, TOR...all flush with young lottery picks and still nowhere near contention.

If we willingly make our franchise a losing one again, we might get stuck there for another 5 or 6 years.
We lose the fledgling fanbase we have now.
We remain an embarrassment of a team where Free Agents refuse to come.

I'm okay with building through the draft. But I believe in teaching our young players how to win, not bringing them up in a losing atmosphere.

Detroit, Dallas, Boston have each shown us that savvy drafting and masterful trades can win in this league also.

First off I would rather get Howard and win now (as someone who was also born and raised on the Southside of Atlanta, I can't understand why Dwight doesn't want to come home?),let's look at a win now plan B.

Do a sign and trade with Josh Smith for Asik and Lin. Then, sign Andre I. Resign Korver and Zaza. Then keep the 1st rounders or overseas or just bring in Dennis S. to backup Lin.

A lineup of:
C- Asik
PF- Horford
SF- Andre I.
SG- Lou Williams
PG-Lin

That is a playoff lineup, but how far do we go?

Jamaaliver wrote:

ATL Boy wrote:Are you trying to kill off the very few fans that we have actually coming to regular season games?

jagstang76 wrote: But I don't believe we need to go into tank mode. We have a few really good players and a lot of options to reshape this roster. It might take time to fully develop it into a winner, but that doesn't mean tanking.

tomaHAWKslam wrote:Agreed. I'm anti tanking...

Glad to hear reason and sanity ruling the day.

We were a perennial lottery team in the 2000s and ended up with not much to show for it.

It was trades for veterans that ultimately pulled us out of the cellar.
Drafting Horford helped.

But Marvin Williams
Acie Law IV
Josh Childress
Shelden Williams...none of them helped this franchise gain respectability. All wasted lottery picks. There are few guarantees even in the draft lottery. Just ask Greg Oden.
Look at teams like CLE, WAS, SAC, DET, TOR...all flush with young lottery picks and still nowhere near contention.

If we willingly make our franchise a losing one again, we might get stuck there for another 5 or 6 years.
We lose the fledgling fanbase we have now.
We remain an embarrassment of a team where Free Agents refuse to come.

I'm okay with building through the draft. But I believe in teaching our young players how to win, not bringing them up in a losing atmosphere.

Detroit, Dallas, Boston have each shown us that savvy drafting and masterful trades can win in this league also.

But what if......... Childress turned into Deng, Marvin was Chris Paul instead, Shelden was Roy.... its not hard to build a good team with good picks.

these where no-brainer picks that any average fan could have made, it was just Billy's consistant incompetence that missed out on the no brainer picks of Paul, Roy, and Deng. Ferry should do better in the draft, unless you think Billy is better at drafting then Ferry.

davefmcl wrote:First off I would rather get Howard and win now (as someone who was also born and raised on the Southside of Atlanta, I can't understand why Dwight doesn't want to come home?),let's look at a win now plan B.

Do a sign and trade with Josh Smith for Asik and Lin. Then, sign Andre I. Resign Korver and Zaza. Then keep the 1st rounders or overseas or just bring in Dennis S. to backup Lin.

A lineup of:
C- Asik
PF- Horford
SF- Andre I.
SG- Lou Williams
PG-Lin

That is a playoff lineup, but how far do we go?

That's pretty much exactly what I don't want to do. trading for Lin and giving Iguodala a likely near max deal to me, seems like it's overpaying to maintain a level of mediocrity. I think that team would have a ceiling of being a 7 or an 8 seed and have a floor of just missing the playoffs.

davefmcl wrote:First off I would rather get Howard and win now (as someone who was also born and raised on the Southside of Atlanta, I can't understand why Dwight doesn't want to come home?),let's look at a win now plan B.

Do a sign and trade with Josh Smith for Asik and Lin. Then, sign Andre I. Resign Korver and Zaza. Then keep the 1st rounders or overseas or just bring in Dennis S. to backup Lin.

A lineup of:
C- Asik
PF- Horford
SF- Andre I.
SG- Lou Williams
PG-Lin

That is a playoff lineup, but how far do we go?

You know that is the million dollar question, what is so wrong about playing for your hometeam? I know that Josh was putting down alot by us and media but he deserve some of the blame while coaching staff deserve as well. I hate tanking, right now we are between a treadmill team and tanking team with no ideas if you going to get that #1 pick or that player comes out.

davefmcl wrote:First off I would rather get Howard and win now (as someone who was also born and raised on the Southside of Atlanta, I can't understand why Dwight doesn't want to come home?),let's look at a win now plan B.

Do a sign and trade with Josh Smith for Asik and Lin. Then, sign Andre I. Resign Korver and Zaza. Then keep the 1st rounders or overseas or just bring in Dennis S. to backup Lin.

A lineup of:
C- Asik
PF- Horford
SF- Andre I.
SG- Lou Williams
PG-Lin

That is a playoff lineup, but how far do we go?

I'll tell you where it won't go, and that is a championship.

their is a small possibility that Al Jefferson, Horford, and Smith could possibily re-create what Hibbert, West, and Paul did in the ECF against the Heat's front court, but that is a small chance. but still Hibbert/West, Jefferson/Horford still can't beat Miami.

If we go young and get in the lottery, the chances of getting Andrew Wiggins are slim and I doubt anybody would trade the pick. I did see Glen Robinson Jr. was projected to be a late lottery pick. I do think a SF would be the position of need. Ironic after Billy Knight would pick nothing but SF's during his tenure.

davefmcl wrote:If we go young and get in the lottery, the chances of getting Andrew Wiggins are slim and I doubt anybody would trade the pick. I did see Glen Robinson Jr. was projected to be a late lottery pick. I do think a SF would be the position of need. Ironic after Billy Knight would pick nothing but SF's during his tenure.

It is not just Wiggins, its Wiggins, Parker, Randle, Harrison, and Willie Cauley-Stein

Parker and Randle are both SF so they work. Harrison is a SG and think Jenkins needs to be paired with a bigger SG and likely come off the best as a sharp shooter. Cauley-Stein is a C, so if Bebe developes like we hope he would be unnecessary.

davefmcl wrote:Parker and Randle are both SF so they work. Harrison is a SG and think Jenkins needs to be paired with a bigger SG and likely come off the best as a sharp shooter. Cauley-Stein is a C, so if Bebe developes like we hope he would be unnecessary.

Andrew Harrison is a 6'6 point guard, or point forward.

tcorbin wrote:But what if......... Childress turned into Deng, Marvin was Chris Paul instead, Shelden was Roy.... its not hard to build a good team with good picks.

these where no-brainer picks that any average fan could have made, it was just Billy's consistant incompetence that missed out on the no brainer picks of Paul, Roy, and Deng. Ferry should do better in the draft, unless you think Billy is better at drafting then Ferry.

But it's not easy, because you'd never have had the 2nd pick with Paul instead of Marvin if you've picked Deng instead of Childress,
then even if you get a good player (or even Paul if Deng makes no impact on his first year), you'd never have had Roy instead of Shelden because Deng+ good player or Paul (and Joe,...) makes your team better than a 5th pick team,...
or you have to convince all of them to tank for at least three years, maybe what SEA/OKC did, or some other teams, but there aren't lots of team that succeed to do it and get the right players.

With Andre I. signing with Golden State and Dwight sounding like he will be Houston bound before the end of the day it sounds like the Hawks will not be building a championship team this season. I think this makes staying salary flexible for 2015 the best plan of action. Wonder if we were offered and how hard we thought about taking the deal the Jazz took from Golden State?