It

[HoopsGuru25]

Joe for Martin makes sense for both teams.

[ATL DirtyBird]

Via Michael Cunningham twitter:

Joe Johnson is expected to meet with the Hawks again Thursday in L.A. and all indications are that he will accept their max offer.
Johnson reportedly loved what new coach Larry Drew had to say last night and probably also loved the $120-plus million they're throwing at him. A few teams are still in play for Johnson via a sign-and-trade, but it appears very unlikely that he'll play anywhere but Atlanta next season.

Via NBA.com:
The Hawks are "cautiously optimistic" that Joe Johnson will accept the six-year, $124 million offer they made to the scoring guard at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday morning.
Johnson would be insane not to accept the offer, even though he'll probably still hear what some other teams like the Bulls and Knicks have to say. Although the deal sounds crazy from the Hawks' perspective, David Aldridge points out that Johnson will only be 31 in the summer of 2012 and he'll still have significant trade value. And even more interestingly, the current Hawks ownership likely won't be running the team when Johnson is in the fifth and sixth years of this deal.

Not sure I agree with the bolded part. Im gonna keep putting these tidbits in here if they are relevant.

[evildallas]

like mike Bibby said a few years ago "who is yahoo sports?" This dont bother me, sorry but I dont really respect their opinion. they are more concerned about causing drama and creating a stir than reporting anything intelligent and newsworthy. I dont even think the bloggers who write for yahoo would disagree with that.

Tell that USC or Connecticut. Yahoo! Sports is for real. Maybe they are better on college level because they bought Rivals, but far too many other people including ESPN routinely cite Wojnarowski and Spears. They are as credible as anyone else on NBA reporting.

Kelly Dwyer is the blogger who panned the contract writing for Ball Don't Lie. Is he using hyperbole when calling it the worst contract ever? Yes. Is it still a bad contract? Yes. A lot of us have been railing against offering Joe the max since the playoffs. It can be pointed out that his stats are inflated by his ball dominance. It can be pointed out that he disappears in the playoffs. It can also be pointed out that he doesn't handle any criticism well. Furthermore his presence doesn't see out the arena. Finally, his leadership skills leave a lot to be desired as well. I'm basing this on his criticism in the media of the locker room atmosphere of a team he's been top dog on for half a decade. A leader would have set the tone of that locker room, not whined after the fact.

All those things can be said but the most damning thing is that the Hawks are bidding against no one on that 6th year. A 5 year Max Offer from the Hawks is more than any other team can offer cash wise. The 6 year at approx. 30M is total overkill.

I pray that the offer is only as part of a sign & trade and that a deep pockets owner can afford to overpay so much to make Joe their #2 option. If not I pray that enough articles get written that maybe the Hawks have second thoughts and take the offer of the board before Joe agrees.

[SpinninHouse]

Bulls fan here. just be thankful you didn't sign Luol Deng to a 5-year/$72M deal. yes, Joe Johnson will get a lot more, but at least he plays every game. seriously Deng cuts himself shaving and is out for 9 months. Joe Johnson is at least an All-Star. Deng is a 7th man getting paid $72M....

[geeman]

Re: It’s official! We're A league wide laughing stock!!
by D21 on Thu Jul 01, 2010 4:48 pm

Isn't there a rule saying that if half the arena sign a petition asking to cancel a trade, they can ?
It's something Stern need to add, because it's the only solution to control these clowns making decisions like that.
They got to buy a brain.

And in the same time, we hear that MIL gets Gooden for 33M/5yrs, keep Salmons for 39M/5yrs, are on keeping Delfino, got Maggette,...

ASG, do you realize that MIL have Salmons for 1/3 of Joe
or Salmons/Gooden/Maggette for the same price ?

Unbelievable, simply unbelievable.

O god! Now when I see it like this... I think I going to be sick

[Space Jam]

I will be booing Joe EVERYTIME he touches the ball. None of us like him. He forced his way out of Pheonix and then called out the fans in ATL for booing him when he was scoring 10 pts a game, he is one of the most unloyal players in the NBA. I wish our front office would get off his d*ck and shut the door for him on the way out. How can we trust him with 120 million dollars?

[D21]

Re: It’s official! We're A league wide laughing stock!!
by D21 on Thu Jul 01, 2010 4:48 pm

Isn't there a rule saying that if half the arena sign a petition asking to cancel a trade, they can ?
It's something Stern need to add, because it's the only solution to control these clowns making decisions like that.
They got to buy a brain.

And in the same time, we hear that MIL gets Gooden for 33M/5yrs, keep Salmons for 39M/5yrs, are on keeping Delfino, got Maggette,...

ASG, do you realize that MIL have Salmons for 1/3 of Joe
or Salmons/Gooden/Maggette for the same price ?

Unbelievable, simply unbelievable.

O god! Now when I see it like this... I think I going to be sick

And other teams are doing good things, like MIN keeping Milicic for 16M/4yrs !!!
Even if we don't know at this moment what to exactly except from Darko, at 4M/yr, it's good.
This the kind of addition ATL could get with the MLE and that we never see.

I will be booing Joe EVERYTIME he touches the ball. None of us like him. He forced his way out of Pheonix and then called out the fans in ATL for booing him when he was scoring 10 pts a game, he is one of the most unloyal players in the NBA. I wish our front office would get off his d*ck and shut the door for him on the way out. How can we trust him with 120 million dollars?

The horrible thing is that Joe already cost us a lot in the past, because of incompetence from the owners.
He came here with a big contract (which would match his value) but cost us Diaw + two first ending up to be Rajon Rondo and Robin Lopez. Even if some guys can't stand Diaw or would not like Rondo (I don't know...), we can still trade them and get something.

We lost lot of value while giving him 70M/5yrs, we have to keep it in mind !!!
And now, he cost us 120M/6yrs, having not shown anything more than when he came, except we know now that he doesn't produce in playoffs, except this fantastic 4th quarter two years ago against BOS, where we could expect the born of a true Star, worth a Max contract.

EDIT
I just compared this 120M deal to Ginobili at 40M/3yrs, thinking lots of people said SAS overpaid.
When you think that Ginobili is just the example of a leader, that the guys gives everything in playoffs...

[SAUCERY_SWEET]

I will be booing Joe EVERYTIME he touches the ball. None of us like him. He forced his way out of Pheonix and then called out the fans in ATL for booing him when he was scoring 10 pts a game, he is one of the most unloyal players in the NBA. I wish our front office would get off his d*ck and shut the door for him on the way out. How can we trust him with 120 million dollars?

I have no respect for fans who do that, if you have nothing good to contribute just don't say anything at all. And the thread title is a laughing stock. Officially.

[evildallas]

I can't boo our own players. I didn't even boo Joe during the playoffs. I was frustrated and made but nothing good can come of it. When I don't like what the team does I don't go to games and I tell them about it (whether that info makes it to someone in power, I have my doubts). When the rumor was that we were going to draft Shelden Williams I called my ticket rep and said I won't renew if we do that. I stayed home the next year out of protest for a completely stupid move. I'd already renewed this year so I can't do that. I'll see what other moves are made and try to enjoy the season. If the doomsday predictions seem right I just won't renew the following year, but to be honest with the lockout possibility I was on a wait and see plan anyway.

As for the thread title, we were a league wide laughing stock for years. There are worse things to be laughed at than spending money.

[_BBIB_]

Yahoo is far more accurate than ESPN. They were the 1st to say that the Hawks had a 2 million dollar budget for their coaching search when people here were discussing names like JVG and Byron Scott.

Too bad that was nothing but an opinion piece with all sorts of agenda.

We would be a joke if we DIDN'T spend money to keep the team together and make it as competitive as possible.

Why break up the team when they have the money not to?

As far as we know this team could keep improving as it has done the last 5 years, but it definitely doesn't do that if we lose Joe.

[HoopsGuru25]

The Hawks didn't really improve from 2009 to 2010. This was evident during the playoffs. The reason for the differential in wins is because they were the healthiest team in the East by a wide margin.

[SAUCERY_SWEET]

The Hawks didn't really improve from 2009 to 2010. This was evident during the playoffs. The reason for the differential in wins is because they were the healthiest team in the East by a wide margin.

So you think that team that had Flip coming off the bench as the 6th man and that walking suit Speedy eating up the bench and a lame Acie Law and etc. was as good as last years team??

[HoopsGuru25]

Crawford was better than Flip and Horford and Smith improved. You could also say that Marvin,Bibby,and Zaza regressed.

The biggest difference between the 2 teams was that our starting 5 missed 51 combined games due to injury in 2009. That number dropped to 12 in 2010.

[_BBIB_]

Crawford was better than Flip and Horford and Smith improved. You could also say that Marvin,Bibby,and Zaza regressed.

The biggest difference between the 2 teams was that our starting 5 missed 51 combined games due to injury in 2009. That number dropped to 12 in 2010.

We played a team that was a matchup nightmare for us in the playoffs. Even during regular season games the Magic destroyed us so the playoff result was no shock.

By switch of offensive scheme alone we should be improved from last year, not to mention a coach that will be a whole lot more patient with Jeff Teague and the acquisition of Jordan Crawford and Smoove and Horford still with room for improvement yet again

[dms269]

We will also have (hopefully) a different defense. The switching off on players is fine, until the other teams knows how to exploit that.

[SAUCERY_SWEET]

We will also have (hopefully) a different defense. The switching off on players is fine, until the other teams knows how to exploit that.

In other words, no more gimmicks and smokecreens.