5 year plan

[Lundahl]

As much as I hate that we lost so much for nothing after quasi-competing the last few years, we all now that we must look forward to the LONG-TERM future. I think it's time for a 76ers-like tank, and as long as the team is OPEN that this is what we are doing, I will continue to support our Hawks.

I think we have to discuss, what can we do to set ourselves up to compete by 2022?

1. Try to get Schroeder to average 25/12 next season, LOOK like a superstar, and then trade him away for assets and picks. As much as I like Schroeder, he will never be in the tier of Curry/Paul/Westbrook. I think our best bet is to make him look like he is(I mean he's been trending upwards since he got in the league), and then shop him for what we can. "Good" point guards are a dime a dozen these days, so if we want anything for him we need to make him look "great".

2. Inflate the stats of Bazemore, Moose, and Belinelli. These three will most likely be starting alongside Schroeder, and not one of them will have any value to us by the time we are ready to compete. Try to get Bazemore and Belinelli to average 16-18 a game, maybe get Moose a 14/10 season, and then trade for what we can get by the deadline or next off-season. If we play it right we might can get some late first round picks or young developmental guys who could be role players for the future.

3. Lose as many games as possible between 2017-2020. Would love to get Porter, Ayton, or Bamba next year. We need to stock up as many super-athletic young players as possible.

4. No even semi big-name free agent attempts until at least 2020 when we have something resembling a future. I know no A free agents are going to consider us, but we don't need to start adding B-C+ guys like Rudy Gay or Serge Ibaka to help us win more games.

5. COMMIT TO COACH BUD LONG-TERM.

Anything else?

[Jamaaliver]

Reasonable strategy. If completely painful.

I agree about featuring players, padding their stats and then moving them for value.

I don't agree with #3, though. Teaching young players winning basketball is an important aspect of their development.

And I think #3 contradicts with #5. Bud isn't intentionally losing for the next three years. He certainly won't stick around if mandated to do so. The 2015 Coach of the Year has too much pride for that.

Overall, seems like an understandable approach.

I'd rather go the Boston route, though. Remaining competitive while collecting elite young players. So our kids are like Kawhi or Manu. Young guys learning from proven, blue collar vets -- playing meaningful minutes on a competitive team.

I see the Celtics running this conference in four years. Not philly.

[Lundahl]

I agree with you, I don't want to teach a losing culture or intentionally lose games... Rather, losing games should come along with #2 and #4, and playing lots of young guys.

We don't have the assets to go the Boston route. Remember, most of their picks and young guys came from trading away Pierce and Garnett. We don't have the ability to be competitive and still get top 5 draft picks.

[Jamaaliver]

We don't have the assets to go the Boston route. Remember, most of their picks and young guys came from trading away Pierce and Garnett. We don't have the ability to be competitive and still get top 5 draft picks.

Exactly. That still burns, cause we should. Had we moved Horford and Millsa... <sigh>

Never mind. You get it.

I have a suspicion Bud is biding his team until he returns to SAS.

Brett Brown has been incredibly patient. But most coaches hate to lose. Tanking for the rest of the decade would be a hard sell for anyone. But Especially a guy with Budenholzer's pedigree.


Overall, I do like the strategy. I just have concerns about the timeline.

[tbhawksfan1]

I'm in for a hard tank this year, maybe next but also think by year 3/4 we can start to have some good results. Salary should be kept mininmal next two years. Then it will be time to look for this years N Noel.

I'd rather keep Schro unless ridiculous trade.

You don't have to lose on purpose if you give the kids big minutes.

[tbhawksfan1]

Hawks really are set up for a top pick. Play the young guys while accumulating the most and best draft assets.

Belinelli should be dealt at deadline giving the young guys even more minutes

[jbent87]

Before Hawks fans come in here wanting to burn this thread to the ground with the OP mention of becoming the Sixers, keep in mind a couple of comments from this Sixers fan, coming in peace.

1. Hinkie was hired in 2013. This disgraceful, shameful, setting basketball back decades tanking strategy (depending on who you talk to - our local media, SportsCenter and Deadspin all took this approach with us and lambasted Hinkie as such) SH implemented took FOUR years to get us to a now Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Markelle Fultz, Dario Saric, Richaun Holmes, Robert Covington, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Furkan Korkmaz nucleus. Featuring a FA who actually did sign with us, because what do you know, money is green and players don't care about that stuff, in JJ Redick (another popular anti-tank take was no FAs would sign with a team who tanked). This current nucleus is also taking into account "busts" or misses such as Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel (bust in the sense Noel is now gone/was traded for nothing). Which leads me to one of my favorite Hinkie quotes:

Hinkie said part of the reason he hoards picks is that the draft is fundamentally a crapshoot. You can't draft better than the rest of the NBA, but you can more often than the rest of the NBA:

"We will not bat a thousand on every single draft pick. We also have them by the bushelful, in part, because of that. We don't have any hubris that we will get them all right. We're not certain that we have an enormous edge over anybody else. In some cases, we might not have an edge at all."

You're not going to get every pick right. But in the case that you do, the Okafor hole on this team right now could have technically been filled by KAT, Kristaps Porzingis or Devin Booker. MCW could have been Giannis as everyone knows at this point. But hindsight is 20/20. Thus, maximize your chances to hit on more than one guy, which Hinkie did here. AKA don't half ass the rebuild like so many teams tend to do.

2. Hawks are not starting from the place the Sixers did - all we had was Jrue Holiday as a trade chip to start our rebuild (Jrue was traded in the 2013 draft for 6th ovr pick (Nerlens) and a future 1st (Dario Saric). If the plan is to have Schroeder be your Jrue and sell him off for assets, that's a fine way to start.

3. Just because our thing took 4 years to accumulate and build our young nucleus, that doesn't mean it will take that "long" for you guys. Had Joel Embiid never suffered a second setback, we wouldn't be in the spot we are today and Hinkie probably never resigns. But that also means we probably never get Ben Simmons, who eventually got hurt which would lead to us never getting Markelle Fultz.

Basically just saying don't be discouraged if a tank/rebuild is the way you end up going. No Sixers fan is feeling sorry for ourselves for the **** we just had to go through the last 4 years. And after countless years of not knowing what the hell we were doing post-AI it's reassuring to know that we're on the right track now with players with actual superstar upside and not just Jrue Holiday, Evan Turner, Thad Young, Iguodala types. As we now know Iggy is the man as his 6th/7th man role on GSW. He was the 1 here though, because of poor team building. In this league, until you have a true 1 you're not in the conversation. And we in Philly think we have three 1s now. We'll see what happens.

[Spud2nique]

We are gonna be players in the 2018 and 2019 drafts..by 2020-2021,we will be looking at some quality free agents in their prime...guys from the 2014-2017 draft..guys like Towns, Porzingis, Booker and Jaylen Brown could be star pick up by that time.

[Jamaaliver]

Thanks for the insight, jbent.

I hope your rebuild goes as well as you think it will.

[DaddyCool19]

Who is the last player that averaged 25/12? Did that ever happen? And picking up guys like Towns and the others in free agency while they are restricted is impossible.

[Geaux_Hawks]

I was thinking more along the lines of a 3 year plan starting next year. 2 tank years and then a mid-late lotto pick.That's not even including our future draft picks from other teams. 2020 Would be our year to start looking for FA's.

[LeMasta]

man... getting Porter Jr. is a dream
Resetting the culture is a hard thing to do, as a fan especially, risky too.

[King Ken]

If we can get either Bagley III or Zion in 19, we did great. We can get Ayton, Porter Jr or Doncic. We did great. We just need to get elite guys. We can't win a title without them.

[xccelerate]

We haven't had a beloved superstar in Atlanta since....Vick. What NBA prospect fits the "Vick" profile? Zion Williamson. I think this city can fall in love with that kid. If we're gonna go superstar hunting, might as well go get the one that can get this city excited.

Maybe Deandre Ayton fits this profile also.

[ATL Boy]

I feel like if we got Porter Jr. or Doncic right off the bat this "process" will go a lot faster.

With the 76ers, they didn't get that type of prospect (who wasn't injured: Embiid) until they were already a couple of years in.


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[Spud2nique]

Agreed and been looking at the 2018 and 19 drafts. A top 4 in 2018 is necessary for us to get one of the 4 studs..(top 3 better)...and a top 2 in 2019 and this thing is gonna be rebuilt faster than you can say Billy Knight loves small forwards.

[macd-gm]

In case we haven't noticed there is a lot of tanking...er. rebuilding going on in the league right now. Maybe an historic amount. Unless we are extremely lucky we're going to be crappy for a long time. I'm not sure there are 8 teams trying for the playoffs in the east. There are in the west but a bunch of those are trying pointlessly. So we'll be going after the same 3 guys that 15-20 other teams are trying to get. cross your fingers.

[Geaux_Hawks]

In case we haven't noticed there is a lot of tanking...er. rebuilding going on in the league right now. Maybe an historic amount. Unless we are extremely lucky we're going to be crappy for a long time. I'm not sure there are 8 teams trying for the playoffs in the east. There are in the west but a bunch of those are trying pointlessly. So we'll be going after the same 3 guys that 15-20 other teams are trying to get. cross your fingers.

We're definitely sitting on the inside track though for positioning. Our starting 5 should be one of the worse teams out there.

[jayu70]

Schlenk speaks to the plan:

Read on Twitter

[Jamaaliver]

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