High 5 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
To most Hawks fans, Paul and Roy were the obvious choices. Don't see why it's so ridiculous. I don't there's any question Roy will end up the better player than Joe, Joe's game isn't much more advanced at this point and Roy is already superior mentally. We also wouldn't have given up the draft picks or Diaw. Obviously no one knows how any "what if" scenarios turn out because they never happened, but I'd say my thoughts aren't too farfetched.
I know I said I didn't want to talk about this because its depressing but I want to clarify my point here. I didnt' say we shouldn't have picked Roy. I just said that not signing Joe because 2 years later a guy who may or may not have become as good or better than him is not good logic. I'm fine with the money we gave Joe as it hasn't impeded our FA signings since and we had to do something to prove our ownership was willing to spend after that 13 win season. Don't forget, we signed Speedy and Lo the next summer, that was as good as throwing 10 a year in the garbage, but we did it.
Now your "what if" is possible, sure... but who knows. You can't make moves based on the draft two years down the line unless there is a Lebron/Oden coming out. Maybe Paul would have been good enough to take us out of the running for Roy?
I will give BK credit for the 04' draft, Chil was a bad pick but Smith was a good one. I'll accept what we paid Joe and since I don't know exactly what happened between the Hawks and Suns, I'll give the benefit of the doubt for the purposes of this thread.
Where the chise' got off track was the 05' draft and subsequent makeup moves.