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Now don't get me wrong with the topic of this post, I'm not doubting the Hawks whatsoever, I'm just simply stating my mind. I would love to see the Hawks with a legit center. I know Horford has filled the bill quite well, and I tip my hat to him, he's been a true impact player. Horford is without a doubt a championship caliber player, he comes to play night in and night out. However, I'd love to see him move to the power forward position. I think he'd be even more effective playing at PF.


I love the play of guys like Pachulia and Solomon Jones, but I believe this team needs a true center that can put up big numbers. I love the Bibby trade. I love the way Marvin, Joe, Smoove, and Chill have been playing as of late too.

I just think we need more depth at the 5. We need a true center, a presence, a force.

Do you think the Hawks have any plans to add a legit big man? And if so, who would YOU like to see?

Here are some of my favorites:

Amare Stoudemire (I know the Suns probably won't move him, but I would've loved to see him suit up for the Hawks as once rumored - though I wouldn't include Horford in any trade.)

Chris Kaman (He's been a beast for the Clippers all season long and I can just imagine him flourishing with the Hawks for some reason, it just feels right.)

Eddy Curry (I know some of you are gonna laugh at me about this pick, but Eddy was an EXTREME force for the Knicks before the Randolph trade and if Walsh is looking to move Curry, I wouldn't mind him winding up in ATL. I don't know how he'd work out honestly, I'd hope to believe he'd fit right in, ATL is just a great city to play in and I think could be a breath of fresh air for E-City. I just don't know if he could run with the Hawks when they get out on the break. But I'd love to see Bibby toss him up some lobs)

Brook Lopez (I think he has all the tools to be great and I'd love to see him in a Hawks uniform. I don't know where he will fall or where the Hawks are picking - I assume 16?)

no pick this year

Throw the full MLE at Diop or Jeff Foster.

Jeff Foster works hard every night, plays solid D, and grabs boards like no other.

I like the Jeff Foster idea. Dude has always been a maniac on the boards and brings it every night.

Don't forget David Andersen's contract is up in Moscow and we may very well be able to coax him to come here next year. He's a big who can hit 3s. If we can get him and Foster on board, develop Acie and Richardson (who I think is a keeper with some coaching), we could have a very dangerous bench next year.

Curry, no just no.

We do need another big. A true center, ehhhh. Those guys who you suggested are big salary, expensive guys. We would have to be trading away Smith to get them. I do like the idea of bringing over Andersen. Diop would be a very solid defensive big.

You can go one of two ways:

Add a real center to the team (how to do this, I'm not quite sure) and play like every other team.

Keep Horford there and run nothing but up-tempo sets. By the way, SI is reporting that D'Antoni is about to be canned, which I don't believe for a second.

I would definitely like to see us get a true C. Someone who could become part of the rotation and help us matchup better against bigger frontcourts. I honestly don't see him being a starter, but he could come in for Marvin/Smoove and let Al play some at 4. If this guy could provide the same level of play or better as Marvin, we would see a vast improvement in this team's ability to compete more consistently.

jagstang76 wrote:I would definitely like to see us get a true C. Someone who could become part of the rotation and help us matchup better against bigger frontcourts. I honestly don't see him being a starter, but he could come in for Marvin/Smoove and let Al play some at 4. If this guy could provide the same level of play or better as Marvin, we would see a vast improvement in this team's ability to compete more consistently.

The cheapest way to do this is by trading into the draft this year with the large numbers of C--some of which will fall down into the draft bit. It might cost a future number 1--maybe you can trade a future and a couple of million to the Suns for your pick back--they are high on the cap+ they seem like they are against the draft. If Mcgee or Koufus was there at 15--that would be a nice fit imho. Also you can bring in Obryant to the summer league--maybe he is better than what GS views?

We definitely need more size. Assuming that Anderson comes over i would like to see him take Zaza's spot. I would also like a center who can play D.

We have no margin for error with foul trouble or injuries to Smith or Horford. Fortunately for us Garnetta is mainly a jump shooter and Perkins isn't much of a scorer.

Getting a legit two-way big would cost us more than we would want to spend. By the way, how is Amare a legit big in your mind but Horford isn't? I think Horford has a much thicker build and they are the same height.

As far as a big off the bench. Of course, its not even a question in my mind... that is probably the biggest offseason move we have to make. We really don't have a big that can give us good minutes off the bench.

I too feel we don't need a starter. Josh Smith is better at PF and while Al is too. I feel Al can match up with a lot of teams. If we had a 7 footer off the bench to play 20 minutes and block some shots it would really give our lineup flexibility with matchups and improve the team D when Josh needs a rest. I also think we need a big burly PF to come off the bench for some minutes and for certain matchups. Would love to find a late 1st rounder or early 2nd to get Joey Dorsey for that.

Back to the C solutions:

The only reasonable way to get a draft pick high enough to get a good rookie C project is trade Marvin. When Thabeet stayed in school my interest in this route waned. I still see the possibility of trading Marvin, but only if the right deal is there.

I think the MLE could be used to get a backup, but I'm unclear. If Andersen comes over he'll eat a portion of the MLE. O'Bryant might be a possibility, but the current GM has passed on him before so I wouldn't expect him to get a shot here unless something changes. Diop would be a defensive force, but it's doubtful we'd win the bidding on him as he might get a full MLE offer from someone.

Randolph Morris is another free agent possibility. He's not done anything in New York, but his ties to Josh Smith might lead to a hope of getting him to turn it around and he'd be priced about right to take a chance on.

I see no reason not to keep Al at center at least as a started. We need to keep Smoove at the PF, we can't play him out of position. We just need a good backup big that we can play at the 5 for extended minutes, and then we can play Al at the 4 and Smoove at the 3 if the matchups dictate such.

david andersen seems to be the most logical choice. i doubt we will get diop to come to our bench (there's no way horford or smith go to the bench or the three). but andersen and pachulia would be okay on the bench.

JoshB914 wrote:I see no reason not to keep Al at center at least as a started. We need to keep Smoove at the PF, we can't play him out of position. We just need a good backup big that we can play at the 5 for extended minutes, and then we can play Al at the 4 and Smoove at the 3 if the matchups dictate such.

Right. I've said it before and I'll say it again: as long as Al can get enough lower body strength to defend most centers (the Howard/Ming/Oden variety are going to give everyone trouble), we are better off with a frontcourt of Smith and Horford than one of the two plus a center.

We've seen in this series and all season that they can both create serious mismatches while not really being liabilities at their positions. I also think that until Al adds a little finesse to his post game he's better off as a center on offense where he can stay close to the basket and score off of put backs, defensive attention to other players, and speed moves in the post.

If you guys feel very strongly about keeping Smoove at the PF then I'm all for it, I like the idea of it because Smoove is a great defensive player and he's excellent on the block, but I think Smoove could play the 3 just as well as he plays the 4 because he's just such a beast on defense. I like the idea of bringing a guy like Marvin off the bench as the offensive sparkplug because he has such a beautiful stroke. But back to big men. The reason I listed the big contract guys is because I think they'd fit nicely but since its highly unlikely any of those guys will end up in ATL, and the Hawks could use another backup:



Randolph Morris may have ties to Josh Smith but I don't think he's the answer. He can't really get out and run at all. I watched him play a lot in the Knicks summer league and he did great every night, but that's summer league. He didn't get a lot of tick this season, even though Isiah praised him as his "unofficial lottery pick", though I don't think Morris would've been a lottery pick, maybe a late 1st round or early 2nd round pick.

I like the idea of Foster as well. I always liked his game in Indiana. He's a defensive mastermind and a force on the boards. Foster hasn't been properly utilized the past few years in Indiana but there was a time when he was extremely efficient (kind of like how Pat Garrity gets no tick in Orlando while during the McGrady years there were nights where he was a monster in his own right).

Diop is another great idea. He fit perfect in Dallas and did good when I saw him play for the Nets. The Hawks should definitely offer him a contract when he's a free agent, which I believe is at the end of this season.

Rod Benson - He's been a monster for 2 years down in the NBDL, and he considerably stepped up his game this past season. His blog is hilarious too by the way, but he can really play the game, and he's yet to make an NBA roster. He was invited to the Nets training camp at the start of the season, but got cut, and I think he's improved a lot since then. I recall him playing on the Grizzlies summer league team at some point and he played great in about 17 minutes a night. I forget who else was on the team, but they had a bunch of bigs on the roster. But this guy definitely deserves a training camp invite at the least somewhere in the league.

Sorry to post again so quickly I should've just edited the post

David Andersen? Isn't he the guy the Hawks drafted back in I think 2002? It was a while ago I know. Didn't he sign a huge contract elsewhere and decided he'd come to the Hawks when his contract ran out? Is that why his name has been included? Is his contract up?

Also what kind of stats has he been putting up? I'm going to do some research on the guy.

I doubt David Andersen plans on coming over here to play for us. He's wanting money that our management doesn't feel he's worthy of. I also feel he's a big soft, doesn't have passion for the game and he may even be a bit scared to go outside his comfort zone.

HMFFL wrote:I doubt David Andersen plans on coming over here to play for us. He's wanting money that our management doesn't feel he's worthy of. I also feel he's a big soft, doesn't have passion for the game and he may even be a bit scared to go outside his comfort zone.

At the town hall meeting BK said they plan to bring him over next year and that he wants to play in the NBA.

Yeah he(DA) has some quotes over on CNNSI about coming over. He was wanted to come over last year, but the team told him to take one more year.

Will see what happens fellas. I hope David proves me wrong!