A Positive Article

[evildallas]

Hoopsworld has up an article on the Hawks in their continuing "The Grade So Far" series.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9764

Atlanta held on to Josh Smith, and did their best to keep Childress in town. Then, they spent money wisely in free agency, filling the need for depth on their roster by picking individual pieces they could use in their offensive system. Overall, a solid offseason for the Hawks.

[Harry10]

i agree, one out of two is not bad. we all knew, going into the off season, that it would have been hard to give Chil 5M, and he ended up getting 12M.

I would have liked to get Kwame, but he was just a bit too expensive. Morris is a decent alternative.

Flip is a great signing

i would like to bring in am athletic wing like White, Richardson, Green, Livingston, Newbill into training camp and see what happens.

[td00]

2 bad decisions this offseason:

1) Getting nothing for Childress - Sund/Gearon played it as they planned.
2) Re-signing Woodson

Let this season determine the success of this summer, but those 2 moves could have been better.

And did anyone mention Flip Murray anywhere before he was signed? How can he be considered a great signing?

[JoshB914]

Did Rip write that article?

Seriously though, the offseason isn't all bad. We lost one guy but kept the one that mattered most, and we should be a little deeper. However, our fears about what a pathetic organization this is were confirmed with the way that the Chill and Smith situations were handled.

[evildallas]

I agree with td00 on #2. Any summer you extend the employment of Mike Woodson can't be all good. The article didn't extend to coaching. Although some people will trumpet the continuity, I'm still a hater.

I'm with the author of the article that the Childress situation couldn't be resolved. Oh sure the team could of handled negotiations better, but the end result was unavoidable (IMO). It has some similarities to the Boozer to Utah situation. Not the bamboozling of a blind owner, but rather a team thinking a player was worth x dollars and someone coming in with y dollars (Utah's offer was about 20-30 million more over the term of the contract depending on which reported Cleveland offer you go by). Atlanta tried to use the system leverage to their advantage. Teams do that all the time. The Europe card was new for an American player to use that way. If it had been a small difference in salary I would have blasted the Hawks, but it was too great a difference.

The free agent signings have been good, but a lot depends on how well Randolph Morris develops.

Got to agree with Josh as well. The fears about the organization seem well-founded. With each summer having a big negotiation it's hard having great long term faith in the organization.

[Rod700]

Holy crap! A positive article about the Hawks on the Hawks board? I bet Sekou sh*t himself if he read this.

I do agree that all and all the season wasn't all bad. I would have liked to have seen either Chill or Bibby packaged in a trade, or Mike Woodson put out to pasture, but other than that, not too bad. I still want to see J-Rich and West fill out the last two spots on the roster after camp though.

[Harry10]

i don't know what some of you are talking about getting something for Chil?

does anybody really think that an NBA team would have ponied up a $12M sign and trade deal for Chil?

[td00]

Harry, Chill wasn't untradeable and it didn't have to happen like it did. The ASG just simply sat on their hands. They could have done better, but we just have to accept that losing him was of no choice or consequence.
You can't honestly believe that?

[evildallas]

I believe based on his comments that Childress would have accepted less money to get a chance to start in the NBA. Mind you not all the way down to 5.58M, but maybe 7-8 per season average. A trade would have been very difficult because of BYC rules, but from most reports the ASG didn't even consider that option. I'm not willing to concede a trade would have been better than losing outright because as a BYC deal it would have required including additional pieces on our side and taking quite a bit of salary back. We can come up with worthwhile scenarios, but not necessary ones the other team would have been willing to do. I concede it was possible to trade him had they approached the situation differently, but not necessarily better.

The ASG had Childress over a barrel within the NBA RFA system and weren't willing to budge. They wanted to keep him at a reasonable price not facilitate his movement to a better NBA situation.

[Harry10]

- What are some of these phantom Chil trades some of you are talking about?

- What NBA team would give Chil $8M a year?

- What NBA team would give Chil a starting spot?

- What trade did the ASG miss out on?.... Ron Artest?

- What player do you think the Hawks could have gotten in return for Chil?

- What team with cap space would have signed Chil, at any price? and giave the Hawks a draft pick in return?

- What would have been the Hawk's cap situation if they did do a Chil trade?

[td00]

All I know is that Childress did not feel wanted. I have no inside on what trade he could have gotten. The ASG simply didn't want to go through the process of finding out what he was worth; they would rather let the league dictate the salary. It was up to Childress to wake up and see he wasn't appreciated and Sund was simply not proactive.
Childress was 6th in the 6th man award behind Ginobili, Korver, Terry, Barbosa and Gordon. I think he deserved a little more respect than he got if he was considered so important to the bench. After all, he saw a ceiling on his negotiations and he saw a ceiling on his ability to start here. He did the best thing for him at the time and left the ASG and Sund looking foolish. They deserve any criticism they receive.
Apparently, he wasn't important enough and it ends up being just another wasted lottery pick. You grow a player in your organization's culture and then you let the market determine his worth. Looks like he is worth more than the Hawks think.

Re: the chance to trade for Artest, once Bibby arrived, that duo was not going to be revisited. We took Bibby and we gave up any interest in Artest. These 2 did not play well together in Sacramento. To me, Artest is way more valuable than Marvin, but you'll never get a chance to find out. Artest should make Houston a more formidable opponent in the playoffs.

[Rod700]

- What trade did the ASG miss out on?.... Ron Artest?

On wiretap it was rumored he could have been traded for Barbosa, but that wasn't certain . . . considering what the Kings got in return for Artest though, Chill plus a couple of other pieces might have gotten us Artest.