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who would you rather have as the Hawks backup center?

1) Zaza
2) Gortat
3) Birdman
never) Morris

I just don't see Orlando letting Gortat walk... I also don't see Birdman walking from Denver. Randolph Morris is awful! I'm a 5'11 and 130 lbs and I am a better center than Randolph Morris.

Ah, better choices on this question.

1) Gortat
2) Zaza
3) Birdman
4) Alade Aminu or John Bryant
5) David Andersen
6) People I've not thought of
7) Randolph Morris

I appreciate the folk hero like status of Zaza because of his playoff intensity, but Gortat is longer with better rebounding and defensive numbers. Check 82 games and you see the impact Gortat has defensively as a C. Birdman produces great block numbers and excitement off the bench, but his support system is in Denver. I'm not sure I trust him to leave that environment and not have a lapse of behavior off the court. Zaza is the devil you know. I think he is actually one of the better backup centers in the game when going head to head with a backup. He often gets eaten up against a good starting C.

I'd rather have Gortat. I wouldn't hesitate to offer him the full MLE to put Orlando on the clock, but I'll be surprised if someone does not offer him that and a starter's role to join their team. So after getting shot down by his agent I'd stick with getting Zaza back. I'd like to ink him at his current salary and I'm not opposed to going 3 years. Salaries as whole are going down, not taking a cut is the "new raise". What I think we need is another big added to the mix to go along with Zaza. It might even be a rookie if he shows more signs of life than Morris. There are certain teams that we don't match up well because of their length and bulk. Another big who can actually play a few minutes would be helpful in those situations.

I'd rather have Andersen but I don't think he will leave Denver. I'd rather have Gortat but I don't think he will come to Atlanta since he will have other MLE offers. Honestly I am worried that Zaza is going to sign with the spurs for no other reason than he seems like the kind of player the spurs would like.

Trying to be realistic I'm hoping for resigning Zaza and getting a UDFA like Aminu.
I agree that convincing Gortat or Anderson to come is unlikely. What about Wilcox though? He may not have the length, but he is very athletic, and wasn't Sund the one who traded for him (and then gave him that long contract)? He should feel some loyalty to the man who made him filthy rich I hope!
Anyways, going by that standard we could see any of the old Sund bigs (Petro, Swift Sene?).

Zaza and Birdman would be my first choice. zaza and Gortat would be good too. Zaza and D Andersen would be god too. Any way you look at it, we need two solid bigs. Solo wasn't worthy.

killbuckner wrote:I'd rather have Andersen but I don't think he will leave Denver. I'd rather have Gortat but I don't think he will come to Atlanta since he will have other MLE offers. Honestly I am worried that Zaza is going to sign with the spurs for no other reason than he seems like the kind of player the spurs would like.

Like you, I fully expect the Spurs to offer ZaZa the full MLE, and I have been saying that throughout the season. Even some Spur fans pm'ed me to discuss the interested they had for him.

Is he worth that much to us? Of course, I don't mind paying him, but we need him (or another equal or better big) another big, Bibby and MW. Can we afford all of that if one of the bigs is going to get over$7M?

We definately need two bigs behind Al and Smoove. If the market is that expensive, one of the two bigs might not be the player we would like.

Bibby will be the most affordable, good PG we can get. QO for MW, that leaves two bigs.

Two key things I like about a backup center:

A. Combination of rebounding and shot blocking.

B. Getting to the foul line

1) Birdman
2) Zaza
3) Gortat

HMFFL wrote:Two key things I like about a backup center:

A. Combination of rebounding and shot blocking.

B. Getting to the foul line

1) Birdman
2) Zaza
3) Gortat

I agree with that order. How much will they cost and who will be the other big?

To me, the keys are - in this order - low-post defense, defensive rebounding and shot-blocking.

I love Zaza but do we offer Gortat his $4 million and bump it a million or 2?

Gortat seems unlikely if the rumors of him seeking a starting role are true (which seems likely). I'm also afraid that Birdman won't be able to live up to the size of contract he'll get. Resigning Zaza is seeming more like a must.

[quote="evildallas"]Ah, better choices on this question.

1) Birdman
2)Gortat
2) Zaza
3) Tall People I've seen walking down the street
4) A WNBA player
5) Anybody else I can think of that is not Randolph Morris
6) Randolph Morris

II love Anderson's game, and I took a lot of grief when he came back into the league and I told people he still had it. I wanted to go after him agressively, but kb and dallas explained how he has a strong support structure in Denver for his drug use, and the last time he left Denver, it was a disaster. I mean, in the event that he has grown beyond that, I would make him an offer, and do my best to establish some similar structure for him here, but I wouldn't wait long for his response before pursuing other players, because I would expect him to reject it.

Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing Zaza and Gortat sharing the bench if we could get them both for the right money. Gortat has some of the defense that Zaza lacks, and Horford could rotate down to the 4 spot whenever one of these guys comes in. You just wouldn't want to play them both at once.

evildallas wrote:Gortat seems unlikely if the rumors of him seeking a starting role are true (which seems likely). I'm also afraid that Birdman won't be able to live up to the size of contract he'll get. Resigning Zaza is seeming more like a must.

I've been worried about that. I was hoping that his limited minutes per game would keep the offers from being too high, but do we know what sort of offers he is hearing so far?

I have no idea what plan B is if Zaza moves on.

The last two seasons Zaza has averaged 19 and 15 minutes a game and 6.2, 5.2 pts and 5.6, 4.0 boards a game. All this as the only big behind Al and Smoove.

The Hawks have been a team in need of a big forever and after our two starters, Zaza had no competition. So why the pathetic numbers (realative to the situation). It seems that if he was any good at all, he could have gotten a lot more minutes the last two seasons.

I understand that Zaza is our only TRUE big (over 6'10" and 250lbs) and we deffinately need to get even bigger and deeper in the front-court, but Zaza doesn't deserve a raise.

He's worth what someone will pay him (not really), but my feeling is that he isn't worth a penny more than $4M. That being said, I like Zaza, he's cool and everything, but running an NBA team is a business and it won't do us any good to over pay for a guy that has had EVERY opportunity to do better than he has.

I'd love to have him back. I'd offer 3@$12M, then I'd try to sign someone better to be the first big off the bench.

Of course, it could all be Woodson's fault

The Kings did not make a qualifying offer to big man Ike Diogu. I see some good value for us here. During the final two regular season games the Kings played him 40 minutes and he put up 32/11 and 28/13.

^Against teams that weren't trying.

tbhawksfan wrote:The last two seasons Zaza has averaged 19 and 15 minutes a game and 6.2, 5.2 pts and 5.6, 4.0 boards a game. All this as the only big behind Al and Smoove.

The Hawks have been a team in need of a big forever and after our two starters, Zaza had no competition. So why the pathetic numbers (realative to the situation). It seems that if he was any good at all, he could have gotten a lot more minutes the last two seasons.

I understand that Zaza is our only TRUE big (over 6'10" and 250lbs) and we deffinately need to get even bigger and deeper in the front-court, but Zaza doesn't deserve a raise.

He's worth what someone will pay him (not really), but my feeling is that he isn't worth a penny more than $4M. That being said, I like Zaza, he's cool and everything, but running an NBA team is a business and it won't do us any good to over pay for a guy that has had EVERY opportunity to do better than he has.

I'd love to have him back. I'd offer 3@$12M, then I'd try to sign someone better to be the first big off the bench.

Of course, it could all be Woodson's fault

To be fair, you should look at the numbers per minute (or 36 minutes if using basketball-reference.com). Last year, Zaza's rebounds per 36 minutes went up to a healthy 10.7. I don't really expect scoring from him or that position. He's close to rebounding and ahead on scoring when compared to Andersen unfortunately without blocks. Gordat has much better rebounding numbers, but the issue is that the sample is small in terms of real game minutes.

magee wrote:^Against teams that weren't trying.

Could careless if he's willing to sign for close to the minimum.