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Look for the down economy to change the summer habits of more than a few teams. Word has it the Hawks and Bobcats will not send teams to Orlando, Utah or Las Vegas. Rather than fly a flock of players across the country for a week at a cost of roughly 150G, some teams figure to stage mini-camps in their home cities, assign a player or two to someone else's squad, or flat out combine forces. I had heard the 76ers would be cutting back as well, but a source says they plan to participate (in partnership with the Nets, perhaps) in Orlando's tournament.

article here

I don't like referencing Peter Vescey, but it makes some sense. It would mean that any draft picks will have to wait to get their feet wet. I hope that the Hawks come up with some more economical way of helping its young prospects hone their games.

I personally think the summer league is stupid anyway. Rookies do get their feet wet...against d-league guys and other young guys. It isn't like they are going up against the same type of talent they are seeing in the pros.

Bring back the Atlanta Shootout!

I went from '95 to '97 when it was at Life College off South Cobb!

I know this is probably overrecting but...how upset would you all be if the Hawks were to sell their 1st round pick to a team like Portland for money?

HoopsGuru25 wrote:I know this is probably overrecting but...how upset would you all be if the Hawks were to sell their 1st round pick to a team like Portland for money?

I would hate it, especially in this draft. The Phoenix model doesn't work and isn't good business. It's shortsighted. The starting salary for the #19 pick is less than 1.2M. Their 4th season is still locked in at a max of about 2M if they work out. If you properly scout and pick you should have years of contribution and possibly even starting for relative pittance of investment. Selling off picks gives a short-term in flux of cash to offset some salary expenses, but you are left with a thin roster with little to compliment your stars. If we were drafting in the lower lottery, I could see trying to trade down to save some cash (because the guarantee is higher and the player is pretty much the same as #20 at that point), but we're poised to get a very good young contributor at a bargain price where we'll be picking. You save money by making those late 1st as well as 2nd rounders count, so that you get multiple years of cost-controlled contributors rather than multiple years of risky flops.

I think that Late first round picks are just damn good value- they save you money long term rather than cost you money because they are locked in. But thats also why I would probably focus on guys that I feel can contribute rather than projects. For a project you are overpaying them for the rookie deal and then once they pan out they hit FA and you don't have any guarantee that they will be on your team.

if you think about it we don't have a real reason to have a summer league team this year. our bench players are pretty much locked in next year

solomon jones-didn't even go last year
mario west-third year player doesn't have to go
othello hunter-what is he gonna prove out there
thomas gardener-we've already seen him out there twice.

once you add in the draft picks, it is a real waste to keep players over there.

^^^^ None of those guys are under contract for next season, which makes me think our bench is in complete flux.

I'm not surprised that we aren't fielding a summer league team by ourselves. I just saw the news item and passed it on. I will miss the summer league as I get really desperate for basketball come late July. The Rocky Mountain Revue which is the one we've been participating in is behind the times (in comparison to the other summer leagues), so it isn't a great loss. I couldn't even get online feeds for most of the games last summer.