Do you think we will be improved?

[Skar]

Face it, I really doubt we will be active in Free Agency, so do you think this team will be better now then before or flop?

[raleigh]

Flop.

[ATL DirtyBird]

Flop.

[HoopsGuru25]

If "flop" means avoiding NBA hell(re-signing Joe for 5-6 years) then I'll gladly take that.

[td00]

I don't think flop when I think of getting a return on Joe, but getting nothing qualifies it as a flop.

We'll see how Sund handles it.

[SAUCERY_SWEET]

Right now it's pointless to even speculate, just have to wait and see.

[evildallas]

Personal opinion - everything this season (and possibly next) depends on the development and play of Jeff Teague. If Teague's a revelation then we'll be good. If Teague can't hack it we will be mediocre. Joe or Salmons override the Teague impact somewhat but they also delay figuring out what we really have in him. I figure either of them would often assert primary ball handling role in the half court. Also if Teague struggles with this roster he'll likely lose minutes quicker as a Jamal Crawford/Joe or Salmons back court gets most of the minutes.

If we resign Joe it minimizes the chances of falling off the map but I don't think we improve at all nor do our long term options improve. Prediction 4th or 5th in the conference. Out in 1st or 2nd round.
If we sign Salmons as a Joe replacement I feel we drop of some and I don't think our long term options improve. Prediction 6th place in the conference. Out in round 1.
If we sign Matthews I think we'll have a bigger drop this year, but our long term outlook improves greatly. I say that because in addition to a young defensive minded SG, we'd more likely see Marvin, Al, and even Josh step into bigger roles and we'd get a quicker check on Teague as he'd be more prominent in the half court offense. Even if he struggles he should still get big minutes in the guard rotation. Prediction 7th place in the conference. Out in round 1. Although if Teague totally flops then we'd be lottery bound which works for me because next year should have some interesting PGs in the draft. I'd rather found out now about him.

Still a lot is up in the air. If we resign Joe will we have any money for anything but league minimum bigs. Essentially the same story with Salmons because it would use our cap room. Do we get anything out of Joe or Childress? If we signed someone young and less expensive do we have enough left for someone like Brad Miller?

I'm not going to worry about how we'll do until the dust settles. I've already committed for a single season ticket for next year (prices went up a lot for my seat). If I don't like the moves or the outcome of them then I can just not renew my season ticket for the following year although I figured the lockout would settle that for me anyway.

[MaceCase]

Is this the official "Tank for Harrison Barnes" thread?

[Lamrock]

If you guys retain Joe Johnson to a max contract, you are completely screwed. However, if you can get Josh Childress back, who's about a third of the price, younger, and arguably a better player, then you guys might just be fine. Biggest factor will be whether or not J-Smoove regresses back to his old, terrible ways.

Of course, your wins will likely decrease no matter what as a result of the Eastern Conference getting stronger this year. Getting Childress back, and another good bench player would be a good start.

[D21]

We'll see how Sund handles it.

Not sure if Sund will have all the responsibility of what will happen.
I have a feeling that owners will have more, and that this free agent market is for them this year.

Good : they succeed to keep Joe at less than the max, or sign-&-trade him for Max and get something in return, AND they get something from Childress by making a sign-&-trade or by matching WAS offer (they can still trade him later in the season), AND they spend to be at least just under the Tax, and not 5M like last year,
or
Flop : they loose Joe for nothing, or not very better they keep him for Max, AND don't use any money to improve the team, like not using the MLE to add a C like Brad Miller or Haywood,...

[Skar]

Is this the official "Tank for Harrison Barnes" thread?

We probably wouldn't have to tank.

[evildallas]

Is this the official "Tank for Harrison Barnes" thread?

Oh god no. It'll be quite some time before I feel comfortable drafting a freshman from North Carolina. But someone like Enes Kanter (UK), Kyrie Irving (Duke), or Perry Jones (Baylor) would be okay.

[SAUCERY_SWEET]

Is this the official "Tank for Harrison Barnes" thread?

Not sold on him being the 2nd coming. Another guy from North Carolina we drafted 2nd didn't exactly turn out.

[raleigh]

Is this the official "Tank for Harrison Barnes" thread?

Oh god no. It'll be quite some time before I feel comfortable drafting a freshman from North Carolina. But someone like Enes Kanter (UK), Kyrie Irving (Duke), or Perry Jones (Baylor) would be okay.

Don't like Barnes' lack of handles.

The Hawks do need a star player, but I believe they'll rebuild "on the fly" this time instead of from the ground up. Probably won't be bad enough to get a top lotto pick.

[SAUCERY_SWEET]

If you guys retain Joe Johnson to a max contract, you are completely screwed. However, if you can get Josh Childress back, who's about a third of the price, younger, and arguably a better player, then you guys might just be fine. Biggest factor will be whether or not J-Smoove regresses back to his old, terrible ways.

Of course, your wins will likely decrease no matter what as a result of the Eastern Conference getting stronger this year. Getting Childress back, and another good bench player would be a good start.

Who in their right mind is arguing that Childress is a better player than Joe Johnson?? Just curious since you stated it.

[BrazilianHawk]

If you guys retain Joe Johnson to a max contract, you are completely screwed. However, if you can get Josh Childress back, who's about a third of the price, younger, and arguably a better player, then you guys might just be fine. Biggest factor will be whether or not J-Smoove regresses back to his old, terrible ways.

Of course, your wins will likely decrease no matter what as a result of the Eastern Conference getting stronger this year. Getting Childress back, and another good bench player would be a good start.

Sorry man, you lost me

[Space Jam]

If you guys retain Joe Johnson to a max contract, you are completely screwed. However, if you can get Josh Childress back, who's about a third of the price, younger, and arguably a better player, then you guys might just be fine. Biggest factor will be whether or not J-Smoove regresses back to his old, terrible ways.
Of course, your wins will likely decrease no matter what as a result of the Eastern Conference getting stronger this year. Getting Childress back, and another good bench player would be a good start.

[Lamrock]

Joe Johnson has got to be the most overrated player in the NBA. He does everything slightly above average, but fails to truly excel in any area. The only stat of his that screams "franchise player" is his usage. Despite him playing the most minutes and taking the most shots, both Josh Smith and Al Horford still managed to generate more wins for the team.

Furthermore, his offensive rating of 112 is only good for 6th on the team, and barely exceeds his 109 defensive rating (for comparison's sake, Horford's offensive is 121, and defensive is 105, while Smith's ratio is 109-101). In his last season with the Hawks (in which he improved every year), Childress generated .16 wins per 48 minutes (as opposed to Johnson's .14), had an astonishing offensive rating of 127 (with a comparable 110 defensive rating), and had a phenomenal true shooting percentage of 64.7% (Johnson's was 53.8%...). And I'm not even going to bring up Johnson's pathetic playoff performance this year.

I'm not even saying Johnson's a bad player. Childress is just a far more efficient player, and would be a far better investment than Joe Cool. You can laugh it off if you want, citing how much that 8 year playoff drought sucked and Johnson's core stats, but I still think the only way the Hawks will improve is by letting Joe go.

[D21]

Lamrock, there is some other things you don't see, as Childress playing more with the bench against opponent bench players,... meanwhile he was playing lots of minutes, and even if it's not like Joe, he was playing a lot against opponent starters.
His offensive rating is also high because he was doing majority of putback, not bringing a team vision on offense, which reduce the rating of the others, and generate more missed shots that Childress can put in the basket because he was focus on that.
But I agree that he did some put-backs that other player would have missed, and that we can't be sure he was playing like that because of his decision, or because of Woodson.
I already said that with some systems build to end on Childress free in the corner, he could average lots of 3s, but it never happened.

Now, which is sure is that we are better with Joe than Childress, but we can be better with Childress+what we can get from the difference in money.
The problem is how to manage to get that done.
If rule was you can send Joe for 17M anywhere, and then you have 17M to spend on what you want, it would be different, but it's not so easy.