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Well ultimately, they made a reasonable offer. It sounds like they really dropped the ball early on in negotiations, though, for something like this to happen.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the ASG is willing to go into the luxury tax. However, if that is the case, we should have signed someone for the MLE earlier in the FA period. Wow, we could have conceivably had someone like Posey in addition to Childress.

The luxury tax comment was if it took the Hawks to a Championship level. Adding one player at the MLE and resigning the Joshes at all costs wouldn't have done that. If I was GM I wouldn't put my butt on the line given that criteria. All in all it was the first article I read today that didn't bash the team on this situation.

Killbuckner and/or evil, if we had added Camby, and Chills still walked away, how would the cap have affected us?

Keeping last year's roster, and adding Camby could have made us a much more viable contender. Hey, you bring in a young big to learn behind Camby for his last 2 years, and on paper you look like a top 4 team in the East.
Now, all of that is just a pipe dream for the fans.

I just don't think the Hawks are willing to make the commitment to compete long-term in this league. Well, if their finances are shaky, and they don't allude to that, then what is the problem other than idiocy for letting Chills walk for nothing.

I applaud Chills, and thumbs down to Sund for stating market value is what we offered and it should have been enough. Bad spin job and good luck bringing in vets to be on the bench.
ASG, Chills is in your rear-view mirror now and you better renounce before the '09 season if you want any chance of improving this team under the cap. Unbelieveable.

td00- the Hawks couldn't have added Camby. Thats what I keep trying to tell you- they had no way of just absorbing his salary like the Clippers did.

KB - I think you are basing your reply on the luxury cap. What I asked, if the Stagnates had decided to exceed the cap to improve the team, could if have been done? And then, if Chills left, what would be our scenario right now? My guess is still over the cap, but in a position to compete in the East for a playoff slot higher than 8.

I'm not criticizing the Hawks for not overpaying Chill to keep him here, but I think there was one mistake in the article. See quote below:

Instead, the Hawks may now go out and spend the mid-level exception ($5.85 million) on a veteran that will complement the team (remember, Kwame Brown had an impressive workout last week for them).

Wouldn't we have been able to use the mid-level exception any way after signing Chill, without going into the luxary tax? They make it sound like we wouldn't have been able to utilize the mid-level exception. I'm thinking we now have to use it to replace Chill instead of using it to add an extra player after re-signing Chill.

no td00- I am not basing it on the luxury tax at all. The Hawks didn't have the caproom to take on Camby's contract even without Childress.

And by the way, Childress still counts as 10.8 million against the Hawks cap even though he has signed overseas.

Rod- when Philly was thought to be making a big offer to Smith it wasn't clear that the hawks would be able to sign both Childress and Smith alone without going into the luxury tax. If the Hawks had kept Childress then they almost certainly wouldn't have been able to use a big portion of the MLE without going into the tax. By the numbers I saw,the Hawks were around 19 million under the luxury tax not counting Smith and Childress. Say Smith signed for a first year salary of 9 and Childress signed for 6, that would leave just 3 million dollars left to fill out the rest of the roster. with the minimum salary around 500k then you see the problem with spending a portion of the MLE without exceeding the luxury tax.

I be interested in who were the players that could not crack Atlanta rotation in a sign and trade. As far as I can tell Hawks don't have much of a rotation. Even if they came away with future picks that be better than what they ended up with.

richboy wrote:I be interested in who were the players that could not crack Atlanta rotation in a sign and trade. As far as I can tell Hawks don't have much of a rotation. Even if they came away with future picks that be better than what they ended up with.

I blame ownership for a lot of things but in this case, I'm a little more understanding.

SnTs don't usually happen in the first couple weeks of the open period, you want to see what teams are REALLY willing to give up for your guy - not just the scraps they'll throw at the beginning. Then, when Childress' agents found him this deal, any team that wanted Chil realized they'd have to convince him to take their offer instead of the Euro offer and I just don't think anyone wanted to try and outbid the Greeks.

My feeling is that Camby while improving the team would not made the team a championship contender with both Joshes. I see us as having 4 major holes and 1 minor holes that are the difference between contention and okay team.

#1) Shooting. We don't have enough court stretchers. Bibby helps when he's hot, but the truth is we a legitimate 3 pt threat at SF either starting if Marvin can develop range or off the bench. As long as Josh Childress was getting 30 minutes a night we didn't have the shooting in the lineup to stretch the opposing team.

#2) Defense C with some size. Al Horford will increase in strength and someday maybe Solomon Jones can develop enough to play some minutes. Our only real lane protection is Josh Smith and when he's off the floor or forced away from the lane the team gives up too many easy basket. Again this doesn't have to be a starter, but a backup who plays enough minutes to make a difference. This is the one role that Camby would have filled.

#3) Perimeter defender off the bench. This might be Mario if given a chance, but we were exposed in the playoffs as not being able to match up consistently with Pierce. JJ had Allen. Josh Smith was needed inside. Marvin Williams and Josh Childress were abused. It's true that not every team has a scorer like Pierce, but not have a defensive guy who could play some tough minutes at playoff time leaves us weakened.

#4) Consistent low post scoring. Josh Smith has potential here but need the defensive spread more to take advantage of his athleticism. Al Horford also has potential here, but wasn't really used that way by Woodson. I'm hoping with more strength that he will be better at obtaining post position this season. Our second unit doesn't have anyone that fits this role either as Zaza isn't that good with the ball. Camby would not have helped here. #2 and #4 compliment each other as adding one should in theory strengthen the other.

#5) Beef. Even with Camby we'd still be short of a true wide body underneath to eat some minutes situationally. I know that Al will gain strength and we do have Zaza, but we were pushed around by Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis, and Leon Powe. These aren't established veteran bigs or even 7 footers, but they are wide bodies who pushed our bigs around. I know this was what Shelden was supposed to be when drafted, but most teams can find a 2nd round project who can fill this role as a sub.

and honorable mention: A 3rd PG. If Speedy can stay healthy this isn't an easy, but that is a huge if. More likely he goes down and then find ourselves thin at the position. The reason this is only an honorable mention is that the 3rd PG probably wouldn't play in post season and really only helps overall record. Furthermore, it would probably be filled at minimum salary.

That's why I don't think 1 extra player would have gotten us to a championship level. 3 of those issues are compounded somewhat by the over-reliance on Josh Childress as a sub at so many positions. He lacked the quickness to be a defensive stopper, didn't reliably shoot 3s, and didn't help the bulk situation. He was a good player, but not the right fit in any of those areas. Once we add some of these skill sets it might make it reasonable to exceed the luxury tax to finish out the list, but until then it would be committing money before were in a position to tweak. Strangely I think the team has the chance to be better without Josh Childress unfortunately we didn't convert him to other pieces which would have been optimum. Also we didn't replace him early enough in the process to build the right lineup. Because of cap rules we can't fill all the pieces in one season although we can get closer. The key will be to fill enough to not lose team momentum while finishing the roster next season. Again just my opinion.