Extension talks for Joe
Joe Johnson in a Hawks uniform for a few more years sounds pretty good to most folks. The Hawks are talking to Johnson's camp about an extension.
HAWKSVILLE - Might the Hawks be interested in keeping captain and All-Star Joe Johnson off of the robust free agent market of 2010?
It seems so.
Multiple sources have confirmed that Hawks general manager Rick Sund is on an extended trip to the left coast, and part of his itinerary includes time in Los Angeles for face-to-face talks about a contract extension with Johnson’s camp (I mentioned this on Twitter late last night after hearing for sure that this was going on). A three-time All-Star, Johnson is heading into the final year of the five-year, $70 million deal he signed in August 2005 (which if traced back, you will realize was the rebirth of the franchise that has since made the playoffs in back-to-back years).
With superstars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh headlining next summer’s free agent crop, several teams are lining up to be major players. And that means more competition for the Hawks, were they to let Johnson get to next summer as an unrestricted free agent.
There’s plenty of time for these talks to progress, training camp is still nearly two months away. Just knowing that they are talking, though, is a good sign that the Hawks plan on taking a proactive approach where JJ is concerned. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.
Speaking of training camp, it appears blog-fav/road grader Garret Siler is headed back to the city for training camp, per our friends at the Augusta Chronicle. The big fella had a good showing at the Hawks’ rookie/free agent mini-camp last month. He was mulling training camp invite offers from both the Hawks and Minnesota, but the Timberwolves’ pursuit of Ryan Hollins helped make his decision a little easier.
The need for a veteran big like Joe Smith remains, but at least we know there will at least one true “big man” (6-11 or taller and at least 270 pounds) in camp along with Zaza Pachulia.
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502 comments Add your comment
Hoops
August 6th, 2009
4:56 pm
O’Brien,
You are right on the cap situation for next summer. That is the very reason that I have been saying that SOMEONE MUST GO. We cannot afford to keep Bibby, JJ, Marvin, Josh S, Horford, and Zaza after next season. Josh S. is the logical one to go. He is a tweener and all of these other players have a position. I like Josh S. and I think he has a tremendous amount of talent, but he is a PF in a SF’s body.
I feel a trade coming sometime in the next 12 months involving Josh.
Melvin
August 6th, 2009
5:02 pm
Rod,
I’m with ya. I want to see more out of Marvin myself. Heck, I would be happy if he could match Josh numbers….
Melvin
August 6th, 2009
5:06 pm
No wonder Rashad Lewis can shoot the 3’s so well, he had a little help. I hope this will give the Hawks an advantage in the win column for the division crown…
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-rashard-lewis-positive-for-steroid-080609,0,675108.story
The Truth
August 6th, 2009
5:09 pm
Ray
With the absence of hard facts regarding our current stalemate, all speculation has merit. Other then the Hawks inter-circle, no one can say for certainty what’s going on. Having said that, I tend to read actions and/or inactions and follow the money trail or lack thereof. Last year the Hawks salaries at full roster were about 69M. This year the current roster salaries stands at about 54M and that includes Marvin and West qualifying offers and the new contracts with Bibby and Zaza. Yes they do have to fill the roster out with some additional role players like Siler and perhaps Hunter and others, but those will be min salaries with little impact. Relatively speaking, they clearly have the money to make a competitive offer to another FA before drafting into luxury tax land if they so choose. If you believe this is all about money and Sund has a directive to take a budget haircut compared to last year down to where he can only offer peanuts to another FA, then your point is valid, it is the bosses’ drama. However, if the directive to Sund is to just stay away from luxury tax land, then this is Sund’s drama. Negotiation is part experience but mostly an art. Some people have it and some people don’t. It has been documented from Chill’s own mouth about how the negotiation style of Sund turned him off so it is not a wild idea to think to the contrary. At the end on the day, the truth will come to light. Maybe this will end in a positive way, I hope so. Until then, all we can do is speculate.
Annoying....
August 6th, 2009
5:10 pm
Marvin is becoming an annoyance with what he’s asking for…dang, what’s up with Atlanta players and asking for too much money…
doc
August 6th, 2009
5:19 pm
aj, my bad. thanks.
Blast
August 6th, 2009
5:27 pm
Lewis out ten games to start the season? The Magic might have problems getting out of the gate early on.
gwite
August 6th, 2009
5:49 pm
Rashard Lewis, all star, $16.4 mil. 2009 stats:
79g 36:12mn 43.9fg% 39.7 3pt% 83.6ft% 5.7reb 2.6a 2.0to 1.0s 0.7b 17.7ppg
Marvin $7.5mil:
61g 34:17min 45.8fg% 35.5 3pt% 80.6ft% 6.3r 1.3a 1.2to 0.9s 0.6b 13.9ppg
Hawks got a deal with Marvin, and Marvin is young enough to still have another big signing day ahead of him, if things work right.
ILL-logical
August 6th, 2009
5:49 pm
Another issue to consider in re-upping Joe now is that if you get it done prior to the season then he and the curent incumbant head coach won’t both be scheming for contracts at the expense of team goals.Yes he could get a big offer out there next summer but right now after the last 2 playoffs and his all-star game o-fer, his stock has dropped significantly. If he had to have a breakout season to get his market value up, there could be some friction betwwen his goals and the team’s.
Not what you need as the team trys to move up the NBA foodchain.
The Truth
August 6th, 2009
6:00 pm
I wonder how Marvin’s 6.5M incentive package works? Does it affects this year roster salary. This could become a sticky situation when considering adding another FA.
Mike
August 6th, 2009
6:41 pm
gwite…nice post. Lewis is the most overpaid guy in the league. If Lewis is making 17 mil a year then Joe is a steal at 15 mil per year. And Marvin is a steal at 7.5 per year. That is only 1.5 mil over the mid level and he is only 23 and not even close to his prime>
Come on Sund…get us a veteran big now and lets call it a summer
niremetal
August 6th, 2009
6:45 pm
Ray,
Ha – I don’t presume to know exactly how many double teams each player actually gets, and shouldn’t have stated my opinion like it was fact. I’ll try again.
Based on my observations from League Pass last year, JJ seemed to get more than anyone but LeBron and Kobe. Also, JJ tends to get “hard” double teams where they close in the SECOND he gets the ball because he has such a quick release and accurate jumper – they don’t cheat and do a “soft” double like LeBron, Wade, Anthony, and other guys who aren’t as accurate from deep get. Kobe is a special case. Thanks to the triangle, teams HAD to cheat when they doubled Kobe or else they’ll get burned by Fisher, Vujacic, or Ariza. There’s usually one guy playing Kobe close on the double, and the other cheating off a bit. Some teams mix it up, though…I remember the Suns used a hard double and it worked ok. The Magic seemed to prefer hard doubling, and that didn’t work out so well.
The hard double used to be effective on Kobe, but it doesn’t seem to work anymore. Why? Because Kobe used to try to do everything himself. Now he doesn’t. Now he’ll pass it if there’s a man open, and thanks to the Triangle, there almost always is someone open and in a good position to shoot when Kobe gets doubled. That means that hard double teams more often lead to wide open threes by Kobe’s teammates rather than off-balance jumpers by Kobe. Gee, think JJ and Woody could take note?
The only player other than Kobe/LeBron/JJ that I saw get double teams THAT consistently was Kevin Durant. And those were “hard” double teams too. Not too difficult to figure out why.
PS – I’m also just talking about perimeter players here. It’s a totally different ballgame when you’re talking about post players, since “doubling down” is something that most teams do even to mediocre scorers if they get the ball close to the basket.
Hawk n the Ham
August 6th, 2009
6:46 pm
I like grape jelly.
I also like what Sund is doing this offseason. I can’t help but wonder though, is Sund done now? Are we just going to fill the bench with RandMo, Mario, etc. Then wait near the trade deadline to figure out if there needs to be a trade or deal made for what he figures is holes in the Hawks game?
Sekou, thoughts?
niremetal
August 6th, 2009
6:54 pm
As for JJ playing on the bad foot, it is what it is. There’s two sides to how you view it.
The first way to look at it is the way you seem to – he should have benched himself or Woody should have benched him, and let him rest until he was healed. The other view, and the one the Hawks apparently took, is that the Hawks were better off playing JJ hurt but keeping his injury under wraps. That way, teams would still gameplan as if they were playing against a healthy JJ, but JJ would act as more of a facilitator than a scorer most days.
The argument for the first option is that the Hawks might have had a healthy JJ come playoff time. The argument for the second is that the Hawks might not have held home court in the first round if they benched JJ – especially once Marvin got hurt. As I’ve said, I don’t think the Hawks or anyone else can make the playoffs if Josh Smith is their #1 scoring option. Bench JJ with Marvin out, and the Hawks would have had a very tough time coming up with buckets. We might have slid to 6th in the standings and drawn a much less favorable first round matchup.
Also, we still don’t know what type of injury it was. It might have been something that needed a good 2 months of solid rest to totally heal (not unlike Bibby’s thumb injury a year ago).
In any case, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer on what to do in that situation. But I respect guys who at least try to play through pain. In my view, it’s the coach’s job to weigh the positives and negatives of playing. Better that than have a guy like Tracy McGrady, who apparently decides on when he’s healthy enough to play or not play without consulting his team…
Samuel
August 6th, 2009
6:56 pm
Mystical,
Nash is no longer a top 20 player. Id take D Rose or Rondo over Nash. Shaq, old or not, was 3rd team All NBA this year. A Stoudamire and KG should be in the injury list.
Somebody here debating Durant vs Harris. Durant, hands down. This will be Durant’s year. He’ll be All NBA player. mark it down. I’ll also replace Josh with Rondo. Josh hasn’t taken it to the level he is capable of yet.
Again, I think we will resign JJ. I can’t see him going anywhere else. He probably won’t be “the man” on many other teams. Maybe two or three but they definitely are not contenders. I still say 3 no more than a 4 year deal with a “slight” raise.
RealSquawk
August 6th, 2009
7:01 pm
this might sound crazy, but it isn’t and it might be late, but I must say if I could trade durant for johnson straight up I am doing it.
when did we all of a sudden need to take into account upping a players salary because of his lack of endorsements. That type of talk must stop. the type of endorsements a player gets is completely out of the teams control. if he wants endorsements tell him to start tweeting, start dunking, and to show some emotion and then maybe we will won’t see 2 seconds of him on a jordan commercial.
what type of foolishness is this. i am going to pay you more because you don’t know to properly market yourself like half of the nba.
Again it is a lot easier and a lot more effective to fire and sign a new head coach then it is to trade a player. It’s a full proof plan you fire a coach sign one that has a system thought up to utilize your teams strength. when you trade player you loose an asset you spent money on in return for either draft picks whose positions can be protected and its returned extremely unproven
or for a player who you do not know anything about except for rumors and the four times you play them on the court.
So when you have a team full of young players where no analyst in the league has said he will be no better than he is right now or he is overachieving or anything to let you know he is playing to his full ability then you find a coach who can achieve that for you instead of trading a player and having it blow up in your face.
you get rid of woody and whats the worst that could happen he signs with the grizzlies and in 4 years they make the playoffs and get to the third round. or and this is a much more damaging result; you fire woody and the new coach no longer runs the iso joe, which i will repeat joe seems to love so much and i will repeat joe seems to want to so much and
then joe decides to leave or he demands a trade. Well you know what if joe is the one holding reigns to our offensive scheme, which he is, make no mistake about it if joe said we need more movement then their would be more movement or no more woody,
but joe wants the ball and he wants the shots. and if joe isn’t ready to change then I am more than willing to move on without him no matter what the result.
niremetal
August 6th, 2009
7:03 pm
Truth,
Whether bonuses are added to the cap figure depends on whether the criteria are “likely to be achieved,” and that’s a determination made by the NBA. So yeah – we’d have to know what the incentives are before anyone could say how they’d affect our cap situation.
Samuel
August 6th, 2009
7:26 pm
Realsquawk,
You’re are absolutely right. JJ really plays selfish. He may not be that way at all but his mannerisms come across that way. He knows that Woody made him.
niremetal
August 6th, 2009
7:27 pm
He knows that Woody made him.
Uh…ok.
Samuel
August 6th, 2009
7:42 pm
Would JJ be where he is today if he was anywhere else? Hum……….
RealSquawk
August 6th, 2009
7:45 pm
Samuel,
I wouldn’t go as far as that. Woody, has helped Joe get the numbers, but he has definitely curtailed his effectiveness. What can Joe do? Shoot, move relatively quickly for his size, score around the basket without jumping to high, and simply by being a tall shooting guard he can post.
How many plays do you see run where Joe uses those skills? Joe should be able to put up more numbers in less minutes simply because he has the pull up three and can get by anybody. Unfortunately joe has settled into this woody system and more importantly than that based on his comments he is completely content.
Atl Resident
August 6th, 2009
7:56 pm
We need to keep the veteran J.J. Hawks finally trying to spend some cash.
niremetal
August 6th, 2009
8:06 pm
Samuel,
Uh…yes. He would. If he had stayed in Phoenix, he’d be “the man” there by now that Marion is gone (and JJ is better than him now anyway), Nash is older, and Amare is constantly hurt. Hell, on most teams in the league, he’d be the man and he wouldn’t be hamstrung by Woody movement-allergic offense.
He increased his scoring average each of his first 6 years in the league. The first four years was under coaches other than Woody. His biggest leap came in ‘03-’04, not when he joined the Hawks. By the time he came to Atlanta, he’d already averaged more than 17 points per game on a 60-win team.
So…how exactly did Woody “make” him? Please.
niremetal
August 6th, 2009
8:13 pm
Heh…look at how I’m talking to. Shouldn’t have wasted the ink…
niremetal
August 6th, 2009
8:13 pm
*who.
Samuel
August 6th, 2009
8:17 pm
Was he an Allstar and Olympian?
Samuel
August 6th, 2009
8:26 pm
He’d be the man on “most” teams in the NBA. NOT!!
Of the playoff teams, which ones would JJ be the best player? Detriot or Philly Maybe. If Brand comes back healthy. detriot. That’s it.
JerryWest
August 6th, 2009
8:33 pm
JJ ain’t signing a penny bellow Roy. He could even take it as an insult if he gets low balled.
I say pull a Tim Dunkin on him. Pop handed in TD a max contract to sign, and then gave an elaborate detailed presentation on how accepting a lower salary would help the team sign key free agents, and give them a higher probability of winning championships. Of course TD took the lower salary.
Do you think this would work with JJ? He already has more money than many small countries. This was Roy’s first big contract.
The Truth
August 6th, 2009
9:03 pm
niremetal
Yeah, can’t wait to see the details of Marvin’s deal to understand more about how the incentive impacts the cap. If it got divided evenly each year it amounts to an extra 1.3M. Maybe this year, at least, they just take from Solo qualifying offer.
gwite
August 6th, 2009
9:19 pm
How is signing below Roy being low balled?
I think, even with considerably less experience, and several younger, most would probably vote that Roy is better. Close, but a slight edge to Roy. Definitely more clutch.
Seems so far, whomever is negotiating for Atlanta(presumably Sund), has been able to convince a sense of reasonableness for all concerned. Hopefully that will continue with Joe.
Signing for slightly less than Roy could still be a raise for Joe, raising his GDP to more than twice that of the third world.
Samuel
August 6th, 2009
9:49 pm
“He increased his scoring average each of his first 6 years in the league”.
Come On. From 6 ppg to 9.6 to 9.8 Please.
Everybody knows your not considered an elite player until you can average 20ppg. In 06-07 he averaged 25ppg. How many players have gone from 6ppg to 25ppg. Not many. 41 mpg and 20 shots per game will get you there.
Ken Strickland
August 6th, 2009
10:22 pm
Isn’t it amazing how certain fans want to solve all of our perceived problems by getting rid of every one of our starters except AHorford? These clueless fans continuely place all of the blame for the teams problems squarely on the shoulders of the players while giving Woodson a pass.
Why don’t we consider the following before trying to dismantle the team in an futile attempt at getting better.
(1) What if we established an identity by committing to an uptempo OFF as our primary method of scoring? Force teams to matchup to our speed, quickness and athleticm instead of continuing to try matching up to other their size, height and halfcourt expertise.
(2) Expand our basic rotation from 8 to 9 by decreasing the mins of each starter by at least 3-4mins each, which would create an extra 15-20mins. Crawfprdd would get Flips mins, Teague would get ALaw’s 10MPG plus 5-7 additional mins, without having any DNP’s next to his name. RMorris and or Siler should get Solo’s 10-12MPG, but without DNP next to their names as well.
(3) What if we expand our OFF to include back picks and cuts to take advantage of our athleticism by using lobs?
(4) What if we relied less on our current switching halfcourt DEF and played more pressure and trapping DEF.
Now, is there anyone out there who thinks there’s a player available that can have a greater impact on our team than these suggestions? And who do you think would be responsible for implimenting these suggestions, or deciding not to?
Big Ray
August 6th, 2009
10:32 pm
I’d rather sign Joe for 5/75 or 5/80, than have him hangin’ in the last year of his contract. I just think it’s good asset management.
Either way, something needs to be done to get Joe fully healthy. And to keep him that way. One way is to involve other players in the offense more, and play him less minutes. The excuses are running out. Give Horford and Williams greater roles in the offense. But we’ve been over this a thousand times.
Signing Williams is also a good thing, just like signing Smith was a good thing last year. Worst case scenario, if you have to move them, then you move them.
More and more it looks like Josh is the one to move, or at least that’s what people generally prefer. Fine. Now who/what to do you move him for? And PLEASE STOP with the Smith for Amare talk! Why does this keep coming up? Smith may be brilliant one minute and infuriating the next, but he doesn’t have a scary injury history, and he’s signed up for 4 more years. Trade him for Amare and you get a guy who’s signed for next season only, and might decide to go elsewhere right after that.
People talk all day about teams missing on the Lebron/Wade/Bosh sweepstakes, and then taking a shot at a guy like JJ. Guess what? Amare is a similar consolation prize! Sure, trade for him, let him play one year, then watch him waltz down to South Beach to play with Wade, or uptown to play for D’Antoni. Why do you think nobody has managed to make a trade with Phoenix for him? I’ll tell you: Phoenix wants too much for him, as they know what they are losing….and other teams would rather wait until he’s a FA, so they have a much better shot at getting him without giving up too much. It’s a chess game. And it’s one we’d lose at. Because unless we showed we were good enough to contend with him in the fold…..he wouldn’t return.
I’d much rather trade Josh for Andris Biedrins, and watch Horford blow things up at the PF spot. Or trade him and somebody else (Mo Evans) for Bosh, which won’t happen unless a series of dominos falls just right. And it won’t. And that doesn’t make us bigger anyway, but it does make us more potent on offense (any day) and steadier on the boards, while detracting from our defense.
Fact is, trading Josh probably means getting something less valuable in return. But if it makes for a better fit, and allows other players to expand their games significantly, then I say do it.
I am tired though of the suggestion that Josh is the primary, or even one of the bigger problems on this team. He has his issues, and they DO affect this team. But he’s not the primary problem. If you think that, I don’t know what to tell you, other than that eye exams really don’t cost that much…
Big Ray
August 6th, 2009
10:51 pm
Truth,
I understand what you’re saying. No, it’s not a wild idea to think that this is Sund’s drama. But it’s not a wild idea to think there’s more to it than just him. Why ignore what is such an obvious issue with this team? Why would a guy who is KNOWN for handing out contracts to big men (bad contracts even) suddenly gun shy in that area?
Sund attempted a trade of Speedy and some other filler for Chris Kaman last year. The Clippers were going for it, as they needed the cash space something fierce. It got nixed. No, I can’t prove that this is how the whole thing went down, but that was the gist of it that I got. Yes, we clearly have enough money to make a decent offer to a free agent. So why aren’t we? So Sund can engineer some drama? I’m not buying it.
I read all that Childress had to say. And I railed against that situation for a long time (still don’t like it). But I’m over that. So Chills didn’t like Sund’s tactics. I didn’t particularly like the Josh Smith situation either, but that doesn’t count. Why? Because Smith was offered a contract before Sund ever came, and he turned it down. Sund matched the offer he got very quickly. How about Bibby and Zaza? Think they have complaints? Marvin hasn’t had any gripes. And if things go well with Joe, then I’d say Sund’s tactics are working just fine.
But making offers to free agent bigs. Something is just not adding up here.
niremetal
August 6th, 2009
10:58 pm
Josh for Biedrins? Now where on earth would you come up with a crazy idea like that
.
To be quite honest, Biedrins is one of the select few players in the league that I might trade Josh for. Makes you wonder about whether it was Phoenix or Golden State that nixed the Amare-for-Biedrins trade talk…
O'Brien
August 6th, 2009
11:03 pm
Ray,
I’m a fan of Josh Smith too, but I think he would be the easiest one to move if we could get a starting center (shift Horford to PF) and another valuable piece. I just dont know if such a deal is out there.
bigdave
August 7th, 2009
1:48 am
a walk off… pfff… im bout to throw up…
Ariose
August 7th, 2009
3:34 am
From a few blogs ago:
Doug, Based on the stats, Flip is a better defender.
Also, just because Jamal Crawford gets to the line more than Flip doesn’t mean he attacks the basket more. Jamal gets half of his fouls in the riskyist(especially in crunch time) way possible, off his jumpshots. Yes he’s good at drawing fouls whie in the act of shooting, but do you honestly think him getting the madjority of his fouls that way is a good thing? Do you know how many people try to draw fouls in the act of shooting at the end of games only to be dissapointed because the refs swallow their whistles? That’s not to say that Craford doesn’t take it to the rack, he does. I’m just pointing out where a lot of his trips to the FT line come from. It may or may not be beneficial to us next season. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.
…and YES FLIP MURRAY is a paint junkie. I can’t find the offical stat but i’m willing to bet that like Childress, around 50% of his shots come from 0-15ft. He may not get fouled as much as Crawford buy that doesn’t stop the guy from attacking the basket….and he does it early and often.
I do agree that Crawford is a more potent scorer…..but we’ll see how that works out when he inherits Flips minutes next season(25mpg AVG).
Again, I’m pro-crawford. I just beleive Flip deserves more credit that you’re giving him for his services on this team last season.
Ariose
August 7th, 2009
3:36 am
I tried using the NBA Shot Spotter(Hot Spot….or whatever lol) but it’s not working right now over on NBA.com
Ariose
August 7th, 2009
3:59 am
……extending JJ and keeping our roster intact for 210 could possibly draw a UFA to come here because of whats already in place…
Looks like we can put that Early saon game agains Orlando in the Win column. No Rashard Lewis:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4381822
Ariose
August 7th, 2009
4:01 am
..I think they’re counting Pre-Season games as well so we may play against him…
Sekou Smith
August 7th, 2009
8:05 am
To answer Daniel’s question way up at the top of this page, FWIBT, the structure of the incentives package for Marvin is designed to reward him for exceeding anything he’s already done in a Hawks uniform (which should be the goal). It’s reasonable to expect him to cash in on $40 million, the extra $3 million, however, will be tough to achieve (I suspect it has something to do with making the All-NBA team, All-Star team, etc., the standard stuff teams love to put in an incentive-laden contract knowing that the chances of the player reaching those goals are slim).
Another question above asked whether or not Sund was done working this summer? I think they still have to secure two more bigs for the rotation and then they’re ready for training camp. If there’s a big trade coming, it’ll be a surprise to me. Haven’t heard any rumblings on that front. Not sure why a team would dive into that water right now anyway with the way the economy is twisting and turning.
Daniel
August 7th, 2009
8:40 am
thanks for the updates Sekou.
So now all we need is joe smith to sign.
then work on Joe Johnson’s contract.
Doug
August 7th, 2009
8:47 am
Ariose: I have no problem acknowledging that Flip was a great addition and played, on balance very good basketball for the Hawks last year. My point is twofold: 1. Jamal is a much better player 2. Signing Flip would be duplicitous, unnecessary and a poor use of limited resources. Also the article at Peachtree Hoops does not…even using that defensive metric, prove that Flip is a better defender. Jamal was the best defender of the two during his time with the Bulls…similar and sometimes better with the Knicks and unquestionalble worse with the Warriors…let’s see what happens when playing with a different team in a different system…and able to have a real reasonable chance for success for the first time!!
ILL-logical
August 7th, 2009
9:04 am
So…how exactly did Woody “make” him? Please.
The 3 All-Star appearances and Olympic Trials invite all came under the Woodson “system”.
With regard to the Flip vs. Jamal debate, Jamal does a much better job of connecting with the public and is a huge civic force in his hometown of Seattle. Flip just balls. And the Hawks need more media friendly guys that can be portrayed as having an interest in the community. Which is my bone of contention with joe; $80+ million later and he doesn’t live here, doesn’t interact with the community here and is not a viable marketing force. Oh, FYI guess whose jersey is the biggest seller? Remember the NBA is a business.
Anakin Joe
August 7th, 2009
9:21 am
My hope is that Sund (or his assistant) is talking to the agent of Etan Thomas, Kurt Thomas and any other “most likely to be bought out and looking for a team in February/March” candidate. Start sweet talking those guys now in hopes that they will strongly consider joining the Hawks and not the super-elite. Just review the rosters of the 5-6 seemingly worse teams in the league and find the experienced bigs with 1-2 years left on their contracts. Etan and Kurt jumped out immediately, I’m sure that there are others. Start the process NOW, especially if it appears that we may have to sign community-college all-stars as fillers to start the season. Leave a roster spot (or two) open and make sure to send those vets a few greeting cards throughout the season. Does Hallmark have a card that reads “Congratulations on getting 15 minutes last night during that blowout loss. We look forward to bringing you back to the the NBA playoff chase in February. Yours truly, Rick Sund”?
newkid
August 7th, 2009
9:32 am
Sund’s negotiating prowess creating leverage? With Bibby, Zaza, and Marvin each agreeing very reasonable contracts rather than attempting to rob the bank (Roddy is that you?), mustn’t JJ and his agent mimic this ‘team first’ approach to negotiating an extension? Worst contract on Hawks’ books is Jamal’s, and it’ll either expire after ‘10/’11 season, or be traded away at the trade deadline during his 2nd season. Sund’s really creating opportunity to reasonably extend Al, AND add a prime time player (perhaps using a sign n’ trade) to the mix next summer. If everyone continues organic growth and stays reasonably healthy, looks like we’ve got a chance to wreak MAJOR havoc for several years.
Anakin Joe
August 7th, 2009
10:12 am
newkid, great point. I recall that the previous GM (who shall remain nameless) talked about not building a team for an occasional run at the playoffs but one that would maintain a consistent postseason appearance. I think that the previous GM laid the foundation and Sund has done a very nice job of adding and maintaining. What is not yet clear is if the equation will result in something more than 2nd round playoff appearances. I support letting this play itself out for maybe one more season and then seeking a trade that gets us to the next level sometime during the ‘10-11 season. But to your point, the key is continued growth, both individually and as a team. Individual scoring averages can go down as long as we’re more efficient and balanced. But field-goal percentages, rebounding and forcing turnovers need to improve. There is no doubt that we’re built to maintain our place in the league’s hottest night club. But do we have what it takes to get into the VIP room? Not yet.
Daniel
August 7th, 2009
10:26 am
Anakin Joe- that 9:21 post is hilarious.
Ill- your 9:04 post is down right, dare I say it…. logical!
newkid
August 7th, 2009
10:40 am
AJ, with ‘his plan’ now apparently evolving quite well, have you ever wondered why that nameless GM decided to jump ship in the middle of what now appears as if it could become quite a successful voyage? Could he have been convinced that his first mate didn’t have the grist to manage the sailors through to the designated port of call (yet didn’t have the support he needed to throw him overboard), or was he perhaps beginning to doubt that his ‘in-fighting’ financiers were up to the chore of seeing the project through to completion? Will the first mate make it? Will the nameless GM – in June of 2011, ‘12, and ‘13 – reflect in HUGE regret as we celebrate under a Woody hoisted O’Brien trophy on hot afternoons on Peachtree Street?