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As we all know by now, Danny Ferry unloaded the big contracts of Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams (scary to think where we'd be had he not done that), to try and make a championship squad using the multiple superstars, or superfriends, model (like the Heat). This meant making a run at Chris Paul and hometown product Dwight Howard, considered by many at this time as the best PG and best C in the game, respectively.

Paul re-signed with the Clippers before free agency even began, after the Clippers acquired Doc Rivers in a trade. Dwight, meanwhile met with Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and the Lakers, and in the end decided to sign with the Rockets. Atlanta resorted to plan B: which was signing Paul Millsap and Demarre Carroll to two year deals.

I think it was a blessing in disguise that we missed out on them in 2012. Had CP3 and Dwight agreed to come here, we wouldn't have signed Paul Millsap and we wouldn't be able to run this beautiful Spurs modeled read and react scheme, because we'd have two ball dominant players on the floor. Our cap space would be tapped out, whereas now we have almost $20 mil to work with (if we decide to officially sign FAs before officially re-signing Millsap and Demarre). Dwight's body has also begun breaking down, as we've seen with all of his injuries this season. In the end, I'd much rather win with this team of selfless, humble guys as opposed to running the superstar model. And hey, we're 50-13.

Was it a blessing that Paul and Dwight didn't come to Atlanta? Are we better off without them than we would've been with them?

impossible to determine TBH

Ive never been a big D12 fan at all, and CP3 has never been capable of carrying a team IMO. But, with Bud, this system and those players around them, who knows.

In the scenario, I think we would have still competed for championships. Probably last season, but definitely this season. Howard's and Horford's injuries would definitely affect the talent we could put on the court, but if you said you could pick 2 guys to run the PNR, then CP3 and Howard would show up on a lot of votes still. (As an adjunct, CP3 and Horford would show up on a lot of PNP votes too.) The O would basically be unstoppable assuming those 3 were healthy and we got minimal contributions from the wings. Kick in Schröder's emergence this season and assuming defensive coaches would stay up nights looking for ways to stop us.

As for the wings, we might not have been able to keep Korver, but I think we'd have Carroll (who had a contract agreed to very early and would have fit into the Room MLE), Bazemore (BAE), and Thabo (Non-Tax MLE) since they would have all fit into exceptions anyway. Further, I think it would have been easier to attract that vet-mini guys like Ray Allen if we're selling CP3, Horford, and Howard. It might have put more pressure on getting a return for Lou though. I do wonder if we would have passed on Payne for a 3-and-D wing in the draft as well.

Now, I agree that I like this team better than that team realistically would have been. While I do think that team still sells out the Arena, I don't think that team creates the buzz that our current team does. The "no ego" thing has really attracted the Atlanta community and convinced many that otherwise don't care about basketball to adopt the team as their own. Sure, some of them are bandwagon fans who would have convinced themselves to adopt a team full of stars too, but at least they're nicer to talk to.