Atlanta Hawks: Hawks waive Sy, Wanamaker, Rolle (Update: Benson also released)
The Hawks waived forward Magnum Rolle and guards Pape Sy and Brad Wanamaker today. More cuts are coming later today: The roster now stands at 16, one more than the maximum, and it’s possible Atlanta will carry the minimum 13 players for the regular season.
UPDATE: The Hawks waived center Keith Benson, their only draft pick in June. The team plans to carry 15 on the roster to start the season. There are four players on the roster with non-guaranteed deals: Ivan Johnson, Jannero Pargo, Donald Sloan, and Jerry Stackhouse.
The decisions on Rolle and Wanamaker were not unexpected but the Hawks gave up on Sy after investing in him as a long-term prospect. Coach Larry Drew said Sy’s inability to develop as a point guard played a part in the decision.
“We, the coaches and the management, came to an agreement that he’s been a little bit more effective off the ball than at the point,” Drew said. “With that and the acquisition of Willie Green and [having] a number of other guys that are veterans that can play two, he became expendable. We were hoping he would mature and develop but he just seemed more comfortable at that two-guard spot. With that, we made the decision to go in a different direction.”
Sy, a native of France, made his way to the NBA as a a rare unknown prospect–prominent Web sites that track numerous draft-eligible players had no file on Sy before Atlanta selected him in the second of the 2010 draft. Sy had paid his own way to work out for the Hawks, the only team to grant him an audience, and impressed Drew.
The Hawks paid about $125,000 to buy out Sy’s French contract last year and paid him $473,604 in salary in 2010-11. He played a total of 21 minutes for the Hawks last season and spent 23 games with Atlanta’s D-League affiliate.
Sy had a good training camp but Atlanta’s payroll is pushing against the luxury-tax line, leaving little room for carrying players who can’t help the team now. The Hawks added guards Green and Pargo during training camp.
“It was a really tough decision,” Drew said. “There were a lot of things we liked about Pape.”
When the Hawks drafted Benson, they said he was a long-term prospect because he needed to add bulk and strength. But Benson, like Sy, appears to be a victim of Atlanta’s focus on veterans at the expense of carrying prospects who need time to develop. Benson was released by a club team in Italy during the lockout.
Rolle signed with the Hawks near the end of last season and re-joined the team following a stint in South Korea. He came into camp out of shape after he said a right foot injury hampered him from maintaining his conditioning.
Wanamaker, a rookie free agent out of the University of Pittsburgh, struggled during last night’s exhibition victory against Charlotte.
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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771 comments Add your comment
mykhalc
December 26th, 2011
6:34 pm
WHOA!!! Joe Johnson wants to be GREAT!!!??? that’s a change…
Sautee
December 26th, 2011
6:39 pm
Emir,
I’m not sure about the torch passing yet, but Rose is certainly becoming more beastly by the game. If he can stay healthy, he’ll be a handful for anyone to guard.
Not So Casual Observer
December 26th, 2011
6:41 pm
History Channel,
If you are looking for an argument with me you will have to pick another subject. The current income tax (the first was during Lincoln’s Presidency) and the Federal Reserve were created at approximately the same time. Kicking all 535 out of Congress and starting over would be ideal for me. Lower, not higher taxes!
The quote from me that you cited was in opposition to the statement that the highest tax rates occurred during a time of prosperity and while true that was only a part of the story. The high tax rates certainly did not create prosperity.
Sautee
December 26th, 2011
6:41 pm
myk,
Good to see you back at the liar’s table. Hope you have a great holiday season.
Keep on keepin’ the groove goin’
northcyde
December 26th, 2011
6:41 pm
smh . . . Michael Wilborn just picked the Heat to go 58 – 8. No way does that team does that. They could win 50 though.
mykhalc
December 26th, 2011
6:45 pm
yo Sautee!!! same to ya bro. what a team eh?
northcyde
December 26th, 2011
6:48 pm
Things to watch in tonight’s NBA action
- the rookie guards: Kyrie, Jimmer, Kemba, Rubio
- Dwight Howard ( who should dominate tonight, if he’s on his game . .if not, the speculation will increase on if he wants to be in Orlando )
- the supposedly improved Pacers
- Memphis vs San Antonio ( feature game of the night )
Sautee
December 26th, 2011
6:52 pm
myk,
Like Horford said last year, we’ll go to war with what we’ve got.
Who knows, maybe Stack and T-Mac find the fountain of youth.
Yeah, right.
LOL!
I guess the worst for me is Gearon’s “out of touch with reality series”. It’s horrifying to have an owner who thinks so highly of his team that he loses perspective. They’re just not that good. And he’s not only okay with that, he thinks we’ll somehow prosper!
It’s nuts, really.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 26th, 2011
6:58 pm
Does this blog really have to include class warfare political nonsense too? I was under the impression that Kyle Wingfield and Jay Bookman have that discussion covered.
Slimjr
December 26th, 2011
7:01 pm
Sautee:
My gut is telling me Gearon is in sell mode so he is trying to pass off a Ford escort as an Mercedes AMG…..LMAO!!!!!
Not So Casual Observer
December 26th, 2011
7:07 pm
Sautee,
The topic was “income taxes” not payroll taxes. Social Security and Medicare “taxes” are payments by an individual and the employer into an insurance fund for retirement (social security) and health care (medicare). The SS and Med paid does not build infrastructure, contribute to defense or any of the other common good items. Simply paying into a fund for yourself can hardly be considered paying taxes.
The number of people who do not pay income tax has risen as a result of give-away programs built into the Internal Revenue Code by members of Congress simply attempting to buy votes. This does not mean we have more poor people than in prior years, in fact I would suppose just the opposite is true.
Congress controls spending and the balancing of the budget. The surplus occurred during the Clinton term in the WH but the Congress balanced the budget and eliminated the deficit spending created by Congress in prior years.
The highest corporate tax rate during the 8 years of the Clinton Presidency was exactly the rate today – 35%! That rate was 1% higher than during the Reagan Presidency. Corporate jobs have been driven overseas by the 2nd highest tax rate in the industrialized world and the ever-growing regulations that extend the time to plan, design, seek government approval of and build factories and refineries, to decades rather than months – just one of many “non-taxing” ways to destroy an economy.
The 15% rate you mention is on dividends that have already been taxed at 35% prior to payment, so the effective rate on dividends could be as high as 50%.
This is not the place for this discussion but once the first inaccurate statement was made, the others, including yours, need to be addressed.
History Channel
December 26th, 2011
7:07 pm
The Federal Reserve Bank in its 4th present configuration went operational in December of 1913. This private banking system just had its 98th birthday!
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913!! We’re screwed…………………………
Big Ump
December 26th, 2011
7:15 pm
Grandad glad too see you back in the house.
Big Ump
December 26th, 2011
7:16 pm
Grandad
How were your holidays?
History Channel
December 26th, 2011
7:17 pm
Clinton signed the NAFTA and GATA Treaties which encouraged corporations threw tax breaks to outsource jobs by the tens of millions over seas these past 17 years..We’re screwed….
“Well now that our two major parties have implemented NAFTA, GATA, unprecedented levels of both legal and illegal immigration and the practice of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries — all to improve our ability to compete – IS IT WORKING?
How is our country faring the great age of globalization?
If these great concessions and sacrifices made by American citizens have been done in the name of being competitive in the new world of globalization we should be leading the world in trade – shouldn’t we? We were before we started down this road of Immigration Reform, NAFTA, GATA, intrusive government regulations, “outsourcing” and so on. So if the two parties have been working for the citizens we should be leading the world in international trade shouldn’t we? So the question is:
IS IT WORKING?
NO – it is not working. We have gone from the world’s greatest creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor nation.
This answer is not something to get excited about. We are not competitive in international trade, as the report below will show – our country is going in the wrong direction! We are getting our rears kicked in international trade!
Maybe it is time to kick some politicians and even political party rears!
How long can our country continue to run massive, record breaking trade deficits while sacrificing American jobs and our Founding Principles in the name of being competitive? I am not sure that it will be a good thing to find out!”
Not So Casual Observer
December 26th, 2011
7:17 pm
Najeh,
Agreed but I do not read class warfare into any of this, just a recitation of the facts contradicting an earlier post claiming Gearon, Jr. was a member of the “1%” and “clueless”. The other started as a result of comparing Gearon to the Congress that ignores the “72% who want higher taxes on the rich”. By the way, how does that square with the 70-80% who do not want the healthcare law or the majority of Americans opposed to the 1964 Civil Rights Act? Sometimes the majority is right and often the majority is wrong – the very reason we do not live in a democracy.
Many here, maybe most everyone, disagrees with draft picks and management decisions but that is no more a reason to attack the man personally than disagreeing on the best ice cream.
Does not take much to go completely off topic.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 26th, 2011
7:17 pm
“This is not the place for this discussion but once the first inaccurate statement was made, the others, including yours, need to be addressed”
Not on this blog, they didn’t. Kyle Wingfield would be happy to have you though.
mykhalc
December 26th, 2011
7:24 pm
Sautee, TMac was just lookin’ for per diem and struck GOLD!!! this team is a joke!!!
Not So Casual Observer
December 26th, 2011
7:24 pm
Najeh,
The written word that goes unchallenged becomes fact and there are more “baseless facts” concerning the operation of the Hawks and the government than most topics. When the operation of the Hawks is compared to the government with erroneous information then the monster of gossip is fed and the frenzy of name-calling begins.
The blog should be above the name-calling and falsehoods regardless of the topic.
Michael Cunningham
December 26th, 2011
7:29 pm
new blog is posted. shutting down this thread.
Sautee
December 26th, 2011
7:29 pm
Not So Casual,
I have made my promise to not blog anymore tonight about politics on the hawks blog.
here’s a link that explains my position on the unfairness of the Corporate tax issue:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/economy/03rates.html
That’s all folks! See ya’ll another time.