Free Agent Sweepstakes Start!

[fo_o_fo_404]

OK....fellow Hawks Real GM'ers, the free agent wooing starts in an hour and a half from now at midnight, and I'm sure that many teams will be on the doorsteps of many players at that hour.

Besides the obvious, with the two Joshes getting re-signed, we need bench depth...the 9th, 10th and 11th players on our squad. Who do you purpose we try to sign?

Many top five players are:

Desagna Diop (UFA)
Randolph Morris (RFA)
Jarvis Hayes (UFA)
Chris Duhon (UFA)
Sasha Vujacic (RFA)

Comments?

[JoshB914]

I don't see LAL letting Vujacic go anywhere. Add Roger Mason Jr. to that list.

The NBA offseason is a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens at midnight.

[raleigh]

The Hawks don't have enough room under the luxury cap to sign any of those guys.

Seriously, guys, it's pretty much the vet minimum for every remaining roster spot.

[HMFFL]

Don't expect much Hawk fans! Just hope both Joshes are here next year. Josh Smith is a given, but Josh Childress may be a different story, so pay close attention, and we need both of them back to make another run at the playoffs.

[MikeRice]

anybody else want to see if we can give kwame a chance?... i know he hasnt dont much but we could use the size and hes still only 25, maybe being closer to home would be good for him, worth the risk if we can get him cheap in my opinion

[td00]

Kwame still has life in the NBA, and more that the Hawks are willing to or can pay.

I still think he can get a $5M deal based on last year's numbers alone when he made $9M. He is the current version of Adonal Foyle. There are just too many GMs out there who think they are smart and can revive a young player's career.

Go with Morris, who will fit our plodding style of the coach, and be lucky if we get a Juan Dixon or Jarvis Hayes to play here.

[Rip2137]

Wow. The Golden State warriors are writing the book on how not to handle free agency right now.

I personally don't think they could do a worse job than they have done in the first 24 hours.

[lethalweapon3]

I'd really like James Jones on this team, but failing that I wouldn't mind making room for Ricky Davis. Perhaps Freddie Jones as a failsafe, although he's too short for a backup SG, or keeping up with my apparent Jones fetish, Eddie for defensive help. Upfront I'd like to see Ronny Turiaf or Randolph Morris get a reasonable offer.

~iyf

[evildallas]

Wow. The Golden State warriors are writing the book on how not to handle free agency right now.

I personally don't think they could do a worse job than they have done in the first 24 hours.

So I guess you do not like them offering Arenas the max?

[HMFFL]

680 the fan has really been bashing the idea of pursing Kwame Brown. I just find it to be rather odd considering we need size on this team and our options will be very limited.

[killbuckner]

Rip- just out of curiousity what do you think the Warriors did wrong? Baron was overpaid and he opted out of his contract. The Warriors now have 18 million in caproom and then can go back and extend Biedrins and Ellis. I mean I just don't see where they have made any kind of mistake....

[Rip2137]

Rip- just out of curiousity what do you think the Warriors did wrong? Baron was overpaid and he opted out of his contract. The Warriors now have 18 million in caproom and then can go back and extend Biedrins and Ellis. I mean I just don't see where they have made any kind of mistake....

Well, lets see.

Baron Davis and his agent were askign for a 4 year extension from the Warriors at 13 mill per year. So...52 million to Baron Davis, a oft injured, all star caliber guard.

Golden state said NO...he is 29 years old for chirst sake.

Then they offer Gilbert Arenas(a 26 year old oft injured, allstar caliber guard) over 100 million dollars to join the team.

So you A: Guarenteed that Baron would not sign back with your team by offering a another point a max contract when you wouldn't give him less than max.
B: Alienated a team leader who has great chemistry with his teammates on a playoff caliber team
C: Offered the contract to a team that everyone knew was going to resign the guy.
D: shown no loyalty to a guy that led your horrible team to the playoffs after years of mediocrity.

So now you have no pointguard, a fractured chemistry with your team(which could in turn end up costing you one of your other FA). Its just dumb.

For HALF the contract they were going to give Gilbert, they could have had their team leader and allstar caliber guard back. Now they have gone from allstar point guard to trying to convert Monta or having a significant downgrade at the position. I don't see how they could have handled the start of free agency any worse.

[killbuckner]

Rip- Golden State wouldn't give him more than a 3 year contract. Given his injury history I can't say thats a poor decision. They know his health status better than anyone else. Once that happened Davis opted out and wasn't coming back. The Warriors weren't a playoff team last year, I don't see why its important to break the bank to keep that team together. Now they have 18 million in caproom and still can go back and extend Ellis and Biedrins. I would greatly prefer that than locking myself into Baron Davis long term. Go throw money at Calderon. Make Atlanta weep over the offer to Smith. See how much Deng and Okafor are really valued. Bring in Maggette and flip him at the deadline for an expiring contract and a draftpick. Make teams pay you for luxury tax relief. I would EASILY rather have 18 million in caproom than Baron Davis.

[Rip2137]

Yet offering a 5 year 100+ million dollar contrac to another injury prone guard that at very best would give you the same offensive numbers with worse defense makes sense?

And on top of that, it gives them 18 million in cap space, sure. But Monta Ellis is going to demand more money from the team now because he knows they have no where else to go. half of the league wants to get him in a sign and trade. He can hardball for a 11 or 12 million per year contract with Baron gone. All they did was make monta's agents eyes light up when they saw they threw aways their season.

The Warriors missed the playoffs in the last week last year. Now, they are going to miss it in January. Golden State has never been a free agent hot spot...EVER. So don't expect it to start now. Especially when they have shown their loyalty to their arguably best player this offseason by letting him walk over ONE EXTRA YEAR on a contract.

You say their was no reason keeping a edge playoff team together. I say its better than losing the fan base again by troting out another lottery bound team. They ruined their team for at least the next couple of seasons with their dumb moves this offseason.

They also offered Brand a huge contract so I think the "Baron is injury prone" excuse is out the window.

[killbuckner]

rip- here are baron davis's games started for the 5 seasons prior to this one.
62
48
32

Arenas for the 3 seasons prior to this one
73
80
80

Brand for the 3 seasons prior to this one.
80
79
81

Arenas and Brand both had one time injuries, but both have been healthy players in their career. Baron Davis has always been a timebomb. I'll take the guy wehre the injury was the fluke over the guy where being healthy was the fluke. If you think giving Davis a 5 year guaranteed contract was a good move then more power to you- I would easily rather have Arenas or Brand and wouldn't want to be stuck with Davis.

[Rip2137]

While I will give you Brand, Arenas has been injured since the end of the 2006-2007 season. Hell, at one point Grant Hill was generally a healthy player, but things change. Arenas has attempted to come back from that knee injury 3 times and still hasn't gotten consistantly good results.

Hell, Baron davis didn't miss a game for his first 3 season. History is all fine and good to look at but the writing is on the wall for Arenas. And even if you want to look at history, Baron has played 46-54-63-82 games in the last 4 years. That is trending up more than down. And if you have watched baron play, he doesn't go haphazardly into the lane and ending up on the floor every play like he did when he was younger. He is simply playing smarter basketball and staying close to the floor.


But at the end of the day, I don't think its a baron health/gilbert's health thing. Its the fact that in no way is Gilbert arenas that much better of a player than Baron that you offer him a max, coming off missing over a year of basketball istead of taking advantage of the already small window to resign your team leader and still have the money to resign your other free agents. The Warriors WANTED to sign Arenas. They were going to give up either ellis or Biedrins if they did that. So basically this team tried to say Baron Davis + Andris Biedrins or Monta Ellis < a gimpy Gilbert Arenas.

In no way is that equation true and no GM in the league would be dumb enough to think so.

[JoshB914]

The argument for Baron would be that he is actually in his prime right now. Not only has he been more healthy than before, he's also playing better basketball.

[JoshB914]

Meanwhile, Diop looks to be headed for Dallas. And Tontoz is weeping somewhere.

I think Kwame would be worth a look if he could be had for cheap.