If McGrady replaces Crawford, Hawks have problems
Tracy McGrady can't score like he used to.
The Hawks are scheduled to play their lone home exhibition Dec. 22 against Charlotte.
Let us hope the Atlanta Spirit doesn’t plan to fund raise between quarters.
The Hawks plan to sign veteran Tracy McGrady to a one-year contract for the NBA minimum. This can be taken either as a pretty good sign or a really bad sign. It’s a good sign if McGrady’s addition is meant only to add depth on the bench. It’s a bad sign if his signing is intended to soften the blow for the possible loss of Jamal Crawford.
This is the McGrady of 2011. He is long past his All-Star days in Orlando and Houston, but he can still play a little bit. He
Jamal Crawford averaged over 15 points per game for the Hawks last season. (Johnny Crawford)
showed last year in Detroit (39 starts, 72 games) that he can still handle the ball and give the Hawks some quality minutes off the bench.
What he can’t do is provide the scoring Crawford can, and this is where the Hawks’ financial issues come in.
The team has been for sale. It already has salary-cap issues. You can once again blame Joe Johnson’s contract, which will pay him $18 million this season. Add Al Horford ($12 million) and Josh Smith ($12.4 million), and that’s already $42.4 million for only three players.
General manager Rick Sund, who takes his cue from ownership, isn’t anxious to go over the cap (which was at $58 million last year) and play a luxury tax, which is probably would it would take to keep Crawford.
But the Hawks are kidding themselves if they don’t think they need Crawford’s scoring (15.4 points per game last year, which was No. 2 on the team). The condensed NBA schedule, which will provide few days off, means depth is more important than ever.
Among those pushing the Hawks to re-sign Crawford is Al Horford, who told our Michael Cunningham, “We are a much better team with him,” Horford said. “We need his scoring and his presence, and he just makes our team better.”
Even ownership can’t dispute that. But as we’ve seen over the past few years, the financial decisions this organization makes don’t necessarily equate to success.
By Jeff Schultz
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175 comments Add your comment
cdog
December 8th, 2011
6:35 pm
GOOD MOVE WITH MCGRADY. NOW WHATEVER IT TAKES, BRING IN DWIGHT HOWARD NOW BEFORE THE LAKERS LAND HIM. I DON’T KNOW WHERE THE HAWKS STAND WITH MONEY BUT THERE’S 3 PLAYERS( JOE JOHNSON, JAMAL CRAWFORD- SIGN AND TRADE AND ZAZA PACHUAILLA WHO SHOULD BE SHIPPED OUT AND TRADED PLUS WHATEVER DRAFT PICKS THE MAJIC WANT. THE HAWKS DON’T DO ANY QUALITY DRAFTING ANYWAY SO GET ON HOWARD NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE
cdog
December 8th, 2011
6:40 pm
THE LAKERS JUST LANDED CHRIS PAUL SO GET ON DWIGHT HOWARD NOW. FIND A WAY TO KEEP CRAWFORD OR TRADE HIM PLUS GET A SHOOTER ALONG WITH HOWARD
moneyman
December 8th, 2011
6:41 pm
Sign Allen Iverson for the Vet minimum & then you will have two decent players with BALL’s to show JJ how to be an assassin in this league.
yodaddybrother
December 8th, 2011
6:44 pm
T-Mac is about to surprise the non believers. He’s 32….that’s not old. Fully recovered from surgery. He can still score and more importantly he can still attack the rim. He does play defense because he has something called pride.
Kobe is 33.
diezel
December 8th, 2011
6:56 pm
Tellem again bro
washed up
December 8th, 2011
7:09 pm
get another washed up name!!! Yes–!!!! I can’t wait to buy overpriced tickets to see him play!!! YESS
Ray(Original)
December 8th, 2011
7:49 pm
I doubt D12 goes to L.A plus I don’t think CP3 stays in L.A either I don’t think CP3 will like that idea of playing second fiddle in Kobe’s town if you catch my drift.
Nugent, Ted Nugent
December 8th, 2011
8:22 pm
Judy? Are you JJ’s mom?
Nugent, Ted Nugent
December 8th, 2011
8:23 pm
Hawks
Nobodddddddy Carrrreeeessssss!
Nugent, Ted Nugent
December 8th, 2011
8:42 pm
Who cares?
The action is the Lakers just got Paul from the NBA owned
Hornets. Guess the NBA wins both times.
richie
December 8th, 2011
8:48 pm
Tracy McGrady > Marvin Williams
Ken Strickland
December 8th, 2011
9:32 pm
Tracy McGrady isn’t being signed to replace Jamal Crawford or his production. He’s beibg signed to replace Damien Wilkins and his production. The player that will replace Jamal Crawford’s production will be starting PG Jeff Teague. Teague will give us exponentially better DEF, more assists, as well as comparable and more consistent scoring.
McGrady will definitely give us more of just about everything than Damien gave us. Replacing Damien with McGrady, and replacing Bibby with Teague, automatically makes us a much better team. I don’t think Orlando will be as good as they were last yr, nor will Boston.
I’m not certain, but wasn’t CAnthony one of several players who signed a contract to play in China? If so, he’ll be required to honor that contract, which means he won’t be joining the Knicks until sometime in March. I wouldn’t be as quick as some of you when it comes to predicting the rise of the Knicks.
I also don’t see what Philly and Indy have done that would automatically elevate them ahead of the Hawks. The only teams that should finish ahead of the Hawks are Chicago and Miami. We need to sign a vet PG that can facilitate and play DEF. Improving our overall perimeter and transition DEF, which were major weaknesses with Bibby and Crawford, will provide us with tremendous overall improvement.
The Hawks will be better than they were last yr due to what will be a much improved perimeter DEF. With Teague handling the ball and running the OFF, the days of watching JJ and Jamal going ISO, and pounding the ball, won’t be an issue like it’s been in the past.
diezel
December 8th, 2011
9:45 pm
Tmac will start the 3 and make the young hawks better with his experience and leadership…….
Ray(Original)
December 8th, 2011
10:04 pm
That deal with CP3 is off according to ESPN and other websites kind of glad too.
Wow
December 9th, 2011
7:44 am
The Hawks are history until they get owners who give 2 craps. This group certainly doesn’t.
hawk fan
December 9th, 2011
8:00 am
the atlanta spirit id ruining the season before the season even starts why in the hell would you sign this bum he hasn’t done anything since the debacle in orlando when they gave up 4 straight games
Ken Strickland
December 9th, 2011
10:31 am
We certainly have our share of fans who just love to b!tch just for the sake of b!tching. There are those who berate the owners for not going, or wanting to go, into luxury tax territory. Since when did going into luxury tax territory automatically guarantee improvement, or that we’d become an automatic title contender?
Then we have those who accuse the team of being unwilling to spend the money to field a quality team. Yet, we hear most of these same whiners constantly complaining about JJ’s, Horford’s, Marvin’s and Josh’s contracts, and that they’re being overpaid. Then we have the finger pointers, who love to focus blame for everything on either our ownership, GM, HC, or certain players.
Whether you want to admit it or not, this franchise has had a pretty damned good run over the last few yrs. We’ve managed to make the playoffs 4yrs running, achieve high playoff seedings, and advance to the semifinals. Prior to us starting this streak, how long did we go without a playoff appearance, or win?
And then there are those who have made a name for themselves by focusing on one particular player, like Marvin, JJ, Josh or Horford, to be specific, and bashing him with lies, misrepresentations, and assumptions. Bottom line, even if everything these whiners and finger pointers have said about these players is true, we’ve still managed to do a lot better with them than most NBA teams have done, and a lot better than most of our fans have predicted.
Each yr we have these clowns who post one negative expectation after another for the Hawks. They usually predict that either Philly, Indy, Milwaukee, Boston, Miami, Orlando, New York, New Jersey, and/or Chicago, will have a better team and finish ahead of us. And each yr the Hawks prove these fools wrong. Yet, it doesn’t seem to stop their stupidity.
Here’s why I feel the Hawks will be much improved over last yrs team.
1-JTeague at PG rather then MBibby.
2-Having TMcGrady coming off the bench rather than DWilkins.
3-All of our returning players having a yr of experience under HC LDrew, and being familiar with his OFF/DEF systems, expectations and terminology.
4-Finally having a solid perimeter DEF, the ability to penetrate, run fast breaks, and do it consistently.
5-Having a solid perimeter DEF will eliminate the 5 on 4 DEF we usually had to play. It also allows our frontline players to concentrate more on playing their man, rather than concentrating on protect the basket and lane against players who constantly Bibby or Jamal’s man blows by them and attacks the basket.
diezel
December 9th, 2011
1:46 pm
Ken strickland…….I feel u on all that. These naggin a** h*es always complaining bout the futre they can’t see. Not mention they don’t know basketball. And as for you “Hawk Fan” just from the way U speak I can tell u shi* about basketball and the business. U talk about bums, if anything, tmac is better than marvin and joe. His only problem in the detroit is they had to many perimeter players for everybody to get steady min. To, he was never given the green light to shoot the ball. When he did shoot, he shot 44% from the field. I believe that’s better than joe and marvin. Not only didd he shoot 44%, he only took 9 shot a game u dumb a**. So wit him being in the ATL, I guarntee they brought him here to give him the greenlight on shoot because he going to do it in a more efficient way then Crawford with add defence to the mix. Not taking anythin from crawford, he’ a hell of a player, but he only shot 30 somethin % from the field. All in all, his efficient per game wasn’t better than Tmac despite playing more min and taking more shots. Get on yo game and basketball knowledge befor U call a professional a bum U Bum! Lol!!!
LawDawg
December 9th, 2011
1:56 pm
Atlanta should rename the team “Clippers East”. If you still invest any emotion in this trainwreck of a franchise, you are crazy.
AtL!
December 9th, 2011
5:48 pm
Atl = loserville—it never changes in this city. More bad ownership / personnel moves, signing over the hill stiffs, but charging premium prices. Funny stuff!!!
diezel
December 9th, 2011
5:56 pm
How about the Hawks critics and Tmac critics put ya money where ya balls is and see what the Hawks is all about? Who in?
Diezel
December 9th, 2011
7:36 pm
Wat up tho! Guess who’s in the Building? I’ll give u clue……..his jersey is #1
will all
December 11th, 2011
5:36 pm
its like this, if the hawks didnt get rid of jordan crawford we would be a little better than what we are now at this stage of a beginning of the season
Free
December 11th, 2011
7:34 pm
Sometime we have to let people go referring ( Jamal Crawford) .Now with T Mac we get a player who can play defensive and give us assist something Crawford could not do.We are going to need a lot of help at the Center position. Hawks are going to surprise a lot of people this year 2012. Jeff Teague step his game the Hawks will do with what is necessary to go to next Eastern Final.
djthescorpian
December 12th, 2011
3:59 pm
No Defense for both. A lateral move. Good aquisition. Nothing gained, nothing lost.