RealGM

Several sources inform me that the Hawks have moved into the “common ground” phase of their talks with Mike Bibby’s camp. Nothing has been announced yet, but those sources insist that a deal is closer to getting done than people might think. I’ll be curious to see how things progress through the July 4th weekend and into early next week, when the salary cap numbers come out on the 8th.

From AJC.
http://blogs.ajc.com/hawks/2009/07/02/c ... logs_hawks

This bothers me to a certain extent. I prefer us to focus on adding size to our bench and we're over here seriously considering bringing Mike Bibby back. Andre Miller is seeking three years, 30 million, Jason Kidd is being offered similar money, so I can only assume Bibby is seeking around the same.

Do you guys want a sign and trade for Steve Blake/Travis Outlaw?

I'm assuming with all of your athletic combo forwards, Outlaw wouldn't be of much value though.

They say we can get Bibby on the cheap. Ive seen numbers around 3 years/ 15 mil, around that. Ill take Bibby for that. Having Teague behind him for a year or 2 should do nothing but get him better.

HMFFL your totally right though, we really need to focus on the bench. We gotta ge Zaza back. I wish we would of made a run at Gortat, but hopefully Sund has a plan.

I understand your concern about the lack of depth in the frontcourt. But we have to remember that our team didn't gain any semblance of stabilty or even begin to look like a playoff team until got here.

I know we got JC and Teague, but let's face it, they have never won ANYTHING. The PG isn't fully settled without Bibby.

The frontcourt issue will be easily resolved; we simply need to replace Zaza, right?

Jamaaliver wrote:I understand your concern about the lack of depth in the frontcourt. But we have to remember that our team didn't gain any semblance of stabilty or even begin to look like a playoff team until got here.

I know we got JC and Teague, but let's face it, they have never won ANYTHING. The PG isn't fully settled without Bibby.

The frontcourt issue will be easily resolved; we simply need to replace Zaza, right?

Im pretty sure that re signing Zaza is atop our offseason plans(hopefully). Im counting on him being back, but we still need more size, not just Zaza, cuz as you noticed Zaza isnt enough. We need another tough, tenacious player like him to provide that energy that our starters dont seem to bring consistently.

Butter wrote:Do you guys want a sign and trade for Steve Blake/Travis Outlaw?

I'm assuming with all of your athletic combo forwards, Outlaw wouldn't be of much value though.

I like Steve Blake but only see Outlaw working with me due to his contract. Surprise me and say Portland would move Joel Przybilla.

Jamaaliver wrote:I understand your concern about the lack of depth in the frontcourt. But we have to remember that our team didn't gain any semblance of stabilty or even begin to look like a playoff team until got here.

I know we got JC and Teague, but let's face it, they have never won ANYTHING. The PG isn't fully settled without Bibby.

The frontcourt issue will be easily resolved; we simply need to replace Zaza, right?

Not really valuing the 1 like you. We'll just bring the ball up between JC and Joe like we did with Mike Bibby and Joe. It's not like Mike Bibby is actually a factor for us like Steve Nash is for Phoenix. I would like to see us acquire two big men for our bench that we can actually rely on. Sund is setting us up to have a lack of size and Cleveland will man handle us.

We struggled enough against Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao. Does Sund actually believe we can contain Shaquille O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The NBA Finals is the goal, right?

^^^ True, HM, Bibby is replaceable. However, I don't think Crawford is that replacement. Bibby brought some very important pieces to the puzzle that Crawford simply doesn't bring. I'm just a little worried that we might decide to trot out JC as our starting PG.

As for the negotiations, I would hope that "common ground" means we are giving him 3 years/8M at most. If he is going to make Andre Miller money then we would have to let him walk. But I would still want us to be in the market for a starting PG, making Crawford our 6th man.

I think this is great. As Jamaaliver stated, we SUCKED before Bibby got here. Please don't forget how atrocious we were before he came here. If we let him walk for nothing, it's a large step backward for this team. He brings a lot of intangibles to this team besides just outside shooting.

Also, I think we should try to resign everyone. This is a team that is going to have to make a trade for a premier inside scorer (Stoudemire) to ever truly contend, and we're not going to have the money to sign one in free agency or be drafting high enough to get one in the draft. That leaves one option open: a trade. The more quality players we have with cheap contracts, the better chance we have of pulling off a blockbuster trade. If we S & T Childress, and resign Bibby and Zaza, we have a LOT of attractive names with good contracts that we can put into a trade package for a star inside player.

Personally, I would love a S&T trade for Blake and Outlaw. Both are expiring deals (4M and 3.6M respectively). I worry about Bibby on a 3 year deal, but I'm probably looking too far down the road. Outlaw is good money time player which is an area we often lack in.

I think the Hawks would prefer to keep the core together and see if they can progress via continuity. Bibby was strong in a contract year and played very well at playoff time. He's still got gas in the tank, so I can't begrudge resigning him. I don't see us as a contender for any real upgrade at the position and it obvious that a veteran presence is still needed. As long as the price is good, signing Bibby is far superior to most options. It would theoretically allow for the usage of the MLE (or at least part of it) on the extra front line player.

The quality big men are starting to thin out fast. Boston is set to offer Rasheed Wallace 2 years and the full MLE. I expect ZaZa to receive the full MLE from some team. Probably the Spurs now. I know many of you want Mike Bibby back, but at some point we need to add some quality size. Having this 9,360,000 and 10,080,000 coming off our bench with Jamal Crawford is going to make me sick of we sign Mike Bibby to a three year deal.

^^^ I thought signing Bibby doesn't make any difference regarding how we can use the MLE (so we could still go and get that low post depth)?

JoshB914 wrote:^^^ I thought signing Bibby doesn't make any difference regarding how we can use the MLE (so we could still go and get that low post depth)?

You're right. We can sign Bibby and will still have the MLE to work with. If a team offers ZaZa the full MLE, do you think we're prepared to beat that?

HMFFL wrote:The quality big men are starting to thin out fast. Boston is set to offer Rasheed Wallace 2 years and the full MLE. I expect ZaZa to receive the full MLE from some team. Probably the Spurs now. I know many of you want Mike Bibby back, but at some point we need to add some quality size. Having this 9,360,000 and 10,080,000 coming off our bench with Jamal Crawford is going to make me sick of we sign Mike Bibby to a three year deal.

Agreed.

HMFFL wrote:

JoshB914 wrote:^^^ I thought signing Bibby doesn't make any difference regarding how we can use the MLE (so we could still go and get that low post depth)?

You're right. We can sign Bibby and will still have the MLE to work with. If a team offers ZaZa the full MLE, do you think we're prepared to beat that?

I'd be surprise if Zaza got offered the full MLE... from the Spurs nontheless. They can get a random bigs on the cheap and still play the same level as Zaza. I'd rather go after Mcdyss.

Sign and trade for Jordan Farmar?

i personally dont think Farmar has any potential and is a borderline bench player

Fair enough. I think he'd actually work really well and is actually quite a bit like Bibby except with more skill to drive.

If Bibby is turning away other teams like is rumored then the price tag they are agreeing on is going to be higher than I hoped. While I agree that Bibby is an important signing, paying too much is likely to cost us someone else important.

^^^ My hope is that no one else has offered him more than MLE, meaning the best deal he can get is to resign with us for 7-8M a year.

The years of the contract also interest me. I could live with maybe overpaying a tad if it was just a two-year deal.