Realgm Hawks draft Grade

[Hawks]

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_fromth ... ft_grades/

15. Atlanta - None

The Hawks didn’t have a selection and dealing Boris Diaw and Robin Lopez for Joe Johnson looks pretty stellar for the franchise.

Grade: A

[evildallas]

I saw that, but if we had bought a 2nd round pick or traded a future 2nd or 2 for a 2nd round pick to add either Bill Walker to provide a scoring wing to develop or DeAndre Jordan for pure upside, I think we get an A+.

We have a very short bench and adding a depth/missing skill set like Boston did would have been even better.

[raleigh]

The Hawks' "missing skill set" isn't upside or scoring from the wing.

It's experience.

Sund did the right thing by not trading for any 2nd rounders. For one, you can just as easily bring in comparable talent in the summer league. Secondly, the Hawks would be better off bringing in a proven vet at the minimum.

[evildallas]

First, I'll believe the proven vet at the minimum when I see it.

We've got a team that the coach only felt comfortable playing 6 players at most times. Even at 8 deep like they talked about in recent interviews we have a need for some additional talent on the team. The 2009 draft doesn't look nearly as deep as the one that just happened, so I don't see the future 2nd as a great price. When you consider our bench only Acie Law seems like a potential go to scorer and that's a stretch. I have trouble believing that a player (Bill Walker) who was seen as a steal of a pick for the World Champion Celtics wouldn't have been a good pick for us. I freely admit the draft isn't the only solution to our shortcomings, but it provided an inexpensive way to improve the roster. Low hanging fruit if you will. Also adding a 2nd round minimum contract doesn't affect signing minimum salary vets. We've spent the last few years blowing off the 2nd round and it seems that trend continues.

I guess I'm from the Kevin Pritchard school of General Management in that you should use every avenue available to gain assets. If you don't have room on your roster you turn your current picks into future picks. If you have room on your roster, you use future picks to gain talent now to develop. If you are a decent judge of talent those players can later be used to improve your acquisition of talent in the future (like trading Jarret Jack and Josh McRoberts to get the G you wanted).

The everything's rosy and if we just let the players develop and hopefully add some vets to the mix (still waiting to see who joins us at the minimum) approach will land us back in the lottery.

[fo_o_fo_404]

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_fromtherafters/211/20080627/2008_nba_draft_grades/

15. Atlanta - None

The Hawks didn’t have a selection and dealing Boris Diaw and Robin Lopez for Joe Johnson looks pretty stellar for the franchise.

Grade: A

Don't forget to put Rajon Rondo on that list. He was traded on draft night from Phoenix (the 21st pick in 2006) to Boston...but he was a part of the JJ deal too!

[evildallas]

But you could also say that we gave up our 2nd and contract filler for Mike Bibby.