RealGM

Basically, the "Who do we Draft?" thread is/was getting clogged up with trade chatter. I am at least partly to blame, so I figured to help out, and start another thread specifically geared for off-season acquisitions of veterans (FA's/Trades) for us this off-season.

For ease, I figured I'd list our assets:
Players under contract next year:
10+ mil: Johnson ($15 mil expiring), Smith ($10.8 mil 4 years left)
Rookie Contracts: Acie ($2.2 mil RFA: '11), Horford ($4.3 mil RFA: '11)
Others: Speedy ($5.2 mil expiring), Evans ($2.5 mil PO in '10-'11), Randolph Morris ($855,189 expiring)

FAs:
UFAs: Bibby, Zaza, Flip**
RFAs: Marvin, Chills, Solo, Gardner*, West*, Hunter*
* - ERFA's - I'm kind of guessing here, so sorry if I messed it up
** - We do not have Flip's Bird Rights, so a SNT is impossible

Cap Exceptions: MLE, BAE(?*)
* - Don't know if we used the BAE to sign Murray last year or not

Other Assets:
Draft Picks: #19, #49, All future draft picks
Overseas Players: David Anderson, Cenk Akyol, Alain Digbeu



For purposes of starting the discussion, I'll say that I'm in the "just re-sign our own" camp to the player movement this off-season. Our entire starting front court will be 23 @ the start of next season, we almost won 50 games, and we were the #4 seed in the Eastern Conference. I just don't see the need for sweeping changes because we got swept by one of the top 4 teams in the NBA while we were pretty beat up. If we can find a good fit in FA for the MLE or someone offers us something 1/2 decent for Chills in a SNT (we had to part with some filler, but we have a little), then sure, as long as it makes sense and we fill a hole. Otherwise, just draft some players who can contribute and keep a low cap figure for the length of the rookie contract, and go into next season to determine which of the young players are continuing to rise up and who is starting to stagnate. Anything before that may be jumping the gun. We've already gone through the effort of drafting and developing them to the point where they're all competent NBA players. Now, let's see where they top out - both individually and as a team.

Have @ it.

On decent contracts I'd like to see Bibby and Marvin back... nothing over 3 years for Bibby... he's getting old. On the bench, I think that especially with guards and small forwards you don't need to spend a lot of money/draft high to take care of that.
So, if we get a Jeff Teague in the draft, then we probably let Murray go. Try to resign Zaza, since his talent-set is harder to replace.
I'd like to see West back in his 12thman role, and maybe Othello Hunter. If one of the other guys impressed the coaching staff, great, if not they are easily replaceable.

Seems like most of the trades that I've seen set the Hawks back a couple of years. I actually like Smith at the 4, I think he is tough for other teams to match up with, and the 2nd most valuable player on our team. Truthfully, IMO he's more likely to be our go-to player than Marvin or Horford... unless either one can be healthy/ improve greatly.

The dream situation would be to SNT Bibby and Childress. Maybe for Calderon? Monta Ellis? I'd love T.J. Ford. No way IND lets Jack go.

If we signed Bibby and Childress REASONABLY, say for $13 million for both, we could SNT them to GS for Ellis and Turiaf. GS is supposed to be mad at Ellis, would they like to be free of him in exchange for an attractively priced duo?

T.J. Ford for a resigned Josh Childress? We'd have to sign him at somewhere around $8 million. That would make him happy, wouldn't it?

Calderon's BYC status ends the same time we could sign Childress, would TOR revisit that idea? If we offered a resigned Bibby and took Kapopo's contract, would that sweeten the deal enough? For Calderon, should we add the 1st?

Remember a Sign and Trade still spends those dollars. Don't expect any move(s) that pushes Atlanta over the Luxury Tax whether it makes great basketball sense or not.

If we took Vince Carter's contract, would NJ take a SNT'ed Bibby and Childress (about $13-14 million) and add Brook Lopez? The deal really helps them reduce overhead (for the FAs they want) and gives them 2 good players in the bargain.

I wouldn't do it if they refused Lopez.

I think NJ building around Lopez and Harris...they might be able to get cap space for 2010 too...so no way they trade Lopez.

And it'd be very tough to get a double ST with Bibby and Childress both wanting to go to the same team.

I couldn't see us making enough moves to get to the tax threshold. To get there, we'd have to SNT Chills and use our MLE on top of signing (or SNT-ing) all of our FAs. It could happen I guess, but we're pretty far off right now.

Personally, I love to give Bibby a little extra $$$ and only sign him for 2 years. Marvin just the opposite, I'd prefer to give him less $$$ but a longer contract. I don't think the rest of our FAs would require enough $$$ to worry about it.

As to the trades mentioned, I'd really like Ellis - would trade anyone on our roster outside of JJ. Don't think that GSW would part with him though (definitely not for just Bibby and Chills). Same goes with Lopez and NJN.

If Chills did decide to come back to the States, would he go anywhere if the $$$ was right? If so, I think IND might be a good fit for him (Bird prefers skills to talent, IQ to athleticism, and doesn't seem to mind a bad contract for this type of player). I would think that Ford, Tinsley, or Daniels would be OK fits for us, and all of them have had a rumor that Bird was attempting to dump him at some point over the last year. We'd want something equivalent to a 1st @ some point if we had take salary back past this year, and that should be fair. Something like Chills and Speedy for Tinsley/Ford and Rush would be a nice deal.