Obnoxiously early 2019 Offseason Thread

[jayu70]

Any word on how Omari is doing this offseason?

Just needs to lose about 20 pounds to unleash all that potential.

Looking...MUCH better.

Spoiler:

I can dig it.

Edit....didn't need the spoiler.

[hawks_fan25]

I'm guessing we start the year with Trae, Huerter, Hunter, Collins, Len as our starters. Bruno and Cam will push Huerter and Len for starting roles by midseason. I'd actually like to see Huerter as the 6th man and primary ballhandler when Trae sits. I think if Huerter is forced to be the decision maker and primary scoring option while on the floor he will be more likely to succeed.

[Jamaaliver]

I'm guessing we start the year with Trae, Huerter, Hunter, Collins, Len as our starters. Bruno and Cam will push Huerter and Len for starting roles by midseason. I'd actually like to see Huerter as the 6th man and primary ballhandler when Trae sits. I think if Huerter is forced to be the decision maker and primary scoring option while on the floor he will be more likely to succeed.

I suspect Hawks may give Reddish free reign as super 6th man...able to play the Point, SG or SF off the bench.

Give him a green light when Trae's on the bench and see what he can do with the ball in his hands.

[hawks_fan25]

I can get behind either Huerter or Reddish in this role. I think Huerter would probably be a little better of a facilitator, but I wouldn't mind unleashing Cam and seeing what happens. As long as we get away from Bembry and Baze facilitating that second unit.

[jayu70]

I'm guessing we start the year with Trae, Huerter, Hunter, Collins, Len as our starters. Bruno and Cam will push Huerter and Len for starting roles by midseason. I'd actually like to see Huerter as the 6th man and primary ballhandler when Trae sits. I think if Huerter is forced to be the decision maker and primary scoring option while on the floor he will be more likely to succeed.

I suspect Hawks may give Reddish free reign as super 6th man...able to play the Point, SG or SF off the bench.

Give him a green light when Trae's on the bench and see what he can do with the ball in his hands.

Cam is still out 4-6 weeks from his surgery. So no SL. TS said end of July he'll get on court.
How ready will he be to see significant minutes in preseason? Knowing schemes, personnel, etc. I'm hoping he has a Huerter like trajectory.

[Jamaaliver]

Tweet of the day:

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[Nathan2331]

Tweet of the day:

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What a dumb statement. It doesn't take much to be a playoff team in the east. At a minimum, two overpriced free agents would get us there for sure.

[ATL Boy]

Use this as the official thread for free agency news and rumors moving forward.

[hawks_fan25]

What about using the money we have left and signing Beverly? I like Lin for the leadership he can bring, but Beverly would light a fire in these young guys and not allow them to take any practices off. Add Vince to the mix and you’d have kind of a good cop, bad cop mentor scenario for these young guys.

Any time another point starts to take too much advantage of Trae’s lack of defense you could bring in Bev for a few minutes and frustrate the living crap out of whoever it is.

[tomaHAWKslam]

What about using the money we have left and signing Beverly? I like Lin for the leadership he can bring, but Beverly would light a fire in these young guys and not allow them to take any practices off. Add Vince to the mix and you’d have kind of a good cop, bad cop mentor scenario for these young guys.

Any time another point starts to take too much advantage of Trae’s lack of defense you could bring in Bev for a few minutes and frustrate the living crap out of whoever it is.

I'd love to bring him in, but I don't think we have the cap space to do it. I feel like a team would have to overpay him to come into a backup position. There will be team's willing to give him starter money and minutes. Plus, he's never had a big payday, so this will be his last chance to cash in.

[Years80HAWKS]

I'm guessing we start the year with Trae, Huerter, Hunter, Collins, Len as our starters. Bruno and Cam will push Huerter and Len for starting roles by midseason. I'd actually like to see Huerter as the 6th man and primary ballhandler when Trae sits. I think if Huerter is forced to be the decision maker and primary scoring option while on the floor he will be more likely to succeed.

I could ne wrong, because I haven't seen much of Hunter. But because of what I have seen, I see him now much more as a PF that a SF. He has no dribbling for being a SF and most of his best moves (the ones shown on highlights videos) are the typical ones of an athletic PF.

As of Huerter, I love the boy and he improved a lot in his ball handling during the season (I don't really think he improved, but probably he gained confidence as the season progressed). But I prefer Bembry to do exactly what you are demanding of Huerter. Bembry has good IQ, makes good decisions, is a good ball handdler and plays extremely good defense.

[CP War Hawks]

I'm in favor of Tyus Jones or Joseph for the back role to Trae. The team needs insurance if something happens to him. They both avg. 1 turnover or less. Actually Jones avg. 4.8 ast to 0.7 turnovers. Jones actually may be a semi defensive savant.

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[hawks_fan25]

I really like Tyus, but I think he’ll be more expensive than Beverley. I do have my eye on his little bro though. I think Tre is going to shine this year and I’m hoping we get a chance to draft him with a little bit of a later pick next year.

[hawks_fan25]

If we bought out Crabbe, do you think we could save a few million? Seems like he doesn’t want to be here and might accept a lower payout for a chance to sign somewhere else longer term. That might give us enough cash to chase someone like Randle or another big a little better than the bargain bin bigs we’d be looking at otherwise.

[Jamaaliver]

Q. Is it time [for a big move in Free Agency]?

“No,” Schlenk said. “Our young group has to show they’re capable of winning, and then that one player can say, ‘I can put them over the top.’”


Schlenk was with Golden State when the rebuilding Warriors made the playoffs in 2013 and upset Denver in the first round. It was only then that the Warriors made their first significant move in free agency, signing Andre Iguodala — from Denver.

“We had just beat them, and he said, ‘I want to go play with those guys,’” Schlenk said. “He ended up taking less money to come to us.”

Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce is on board with the strategy to wait a year, given the team’s development and the mindset of free agents.

“They have to decide: This is a destination,” he said. “When players start talking to us, and the media starts talking about us, there will be a reason. We’ll know. The third year can really be good. Free agents can say, ‘Man, here’s a roster that’s going to be really good for the next five years. Imagine if I join them.’”

The Athletic

[hawks_fan25]

It seems like we essentially have a rotation that will look like this now:
Young, Turner
Huerter, Bembry
Hunter, Reddish
Collins, Spellman
Len, Fernando

I don’t like the idea of small ball with Cam starting in place of Len, so I’d say our biggest weakness is at the 5 right now. I’m a fan of Dedmon, but if we can cut Adams and somehow get some combo of buyouts from Crabbe, Hill and Plumlee where they take less to sign contracts elsewhere then we might be able to sign someone like Horford or Randle. I’m a fan of both. You insert either into that lineup as the starting center and we are easily a playoff team.

Thoughts? I only consider Horford because I read that he’s been linked to Atlanta and Sacramento as possible surprise landing spots.

[jayu70]

It seems like we essentially have a rotation that will look like this now:
Young, Turner
Huerter, Bembry
Hunter, Reddish
Collins, Spellman
Len, Fernando

I don’t like the idea of small ball with Cam starting in place of Len, so I’d say our biggest weakness is at the 5 right now. I’m a fan of Dedmon, but if we can cut Adams and somehow get some combo of buyouts from Crabbe, Hill and Plumlee where they take less to sign contracts elsewhere then we might be able to sign someone like Horford or Randle. I’m a fan of both. You insert either into that lineup as the starting center and we are easily a playoff team.

Thoughts? I only consider Horford because I read that he’s been linked to Atlanta and Sacramento as possible surprise landing spots.

Hawks have $13 mil in capspace with Dedmon's cap hold.

Dewayne Dedmon

Atlanta will have Early Bird rights on Dedmon, which allows the team to give him a contract with a starting salary of up to 175% of his previous season’s salary. He made $7,200,000 last year which will allow Atlanta to offer a contract starting at $12,600,000 versus his cap hold of $9,360,000 which would actually allow Atlanta to sign Dedmon after using up all of their cap space. The team could eschew Early Bird rights and re-sign Dedmon with their cap space, but that would appear to be about $13.66 million at the moment (or $14.98 million after waiving Adams).

Those 3 won't give up much money unless they can recoup it in FAcy. For reference Melo gave back ~$2.5 mil.
Reports are Horford is seeking $25 mil per, not sure what Randolph's market is.
Then there's this....

. Is it time [for a big move in Free Agency]?

“No,” Schlenk said. “Our young group has to show they’re capable of winning, and then that one player can say, ‘I can put them over the top.’”

......Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce is on board with the strategy to wait a year, given the team’s development and the mindset of free agents.

[DS5]

I'd be OK trading crabbe for another expiring bad contract, thinking either mozgov or Whiteside. We really don't need another wing in crabbe and could use the help in the bigs rotation.

[Jamaaliver]

Dewayne Dedmon

Atlanta will have Early Bird rights on Dedmon, which allows the team to give him a contract with a starting salary of up to 175% of his previous season’s salary. He made $7,200,000 last year which will allow Atlanta to offer a contract starting at $12,600,000 versus his cap hold of $9,360,000 which would actually allow Atlanta to sign Dedmon after using up all of their cap space. The team could eschew Early Bird rights and re-sign Dedmon with their cap space, but that would appear to be about $13.66 million at the moment (or $14.98 million after waiving Adams).

DD will have options, apparently:

Hawks center Dewayne Dedmon has been receiving plenty of interest from teams as a mid-level target, according to Lowe, who refers to Dedmon as “sneakily the most coveted under-the-radar free agent in the league.”

-ESPN Radio

Hoops Rumors

[hawks_fan25]

Yeah, my thoughts on Al are that he messed up not taking the $30m this year and the early reports of him getting $100m contract are all false. I’d be comfortable with him at 3yr/$60m and letting him try to find something better. For Randle, I must be missing something since there aren’t teams knocking down his door. I love the guy. I’d offer 4yr/$60m with the 4th year being a team option and see what happens. DD will get paid this year simply because he has become a 3&D center. A little bit of a rarity.

I’d also be okay with just filling out the roster with quality vets, but I don’t want Crabbe here if he doesn’t want to be here. Too easy to be a bad influence on the young guys. Crabbe might take less than Melo did because he actually has value on the open market and is much younger. He’d get a 3 or 4 year offer if he is bought out.