Archive for June, 2010

Free agency is 5 minutes away and will probably officially start by the time I’m finished with this entry.  Before I put my thoughts about free agency as a whole, I want to put forth what my philosophy would be if I were running an NBA team.  I’m a person that believes in building your team through the draft.  If you look at the history of free agency, great players rarely leave the team that originally drafted them.  To me, the Oklahoma City Thunder is a case study on how to build an NBA team, as that team has been [...]

Michael Cunningham is reporting that the Hawks will indeed offer Johnson a max deal when the clock strikes midnight tonight.  There is a lot of misinformation out there from a lot of publications, but I have a feeling that Michael is not one that will spread misinformation.  He is a very good writer who isn’t going to write about assumptions or supposition.  If he’s reporting this, then my guess is, he has heard something from inside that this will indeed happen. Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that Joe wants to stay in Atlanta.  I would too if I could get $27 million [...]

There are rumors galore out there about Joe Johnson right now.  One of the latest rumors is that Johnson is the top choice of the New York Knicks.  The Knicks appear to be angling for a Joe Johnson/Amare Stoudemire combo in New York.  The two have a great relationship with Mike D’Antoni, and they both have played in that wide open system before.  The one difference with their experience 6 years ago and what their experience now will be is the fact that New York does not have Steve Nash to make it work.  I’m sure both players would love [...]

ESPN Insider has an interesting article up titled The Buyer’s Guide to Joe Johnson.  Of course, if you don’t have an insider account, this link won’t do you much good.  I’ll try to hit some of the high points of the article. It’s interesting to note that this article states Joe’s worth is around $52 million over four years but that he will likely get $90 million over 6 years.  This is a point I would agree with, but it appears that Joe is going to be able to get a max deal from someone, whether it is the Hawks [...]

Looking through the Hawks news today, I found an interesting article.  Oddly enough, this is an article coming from a New York publication that doesn’t state the Knicks as the desired location for every free agent out there.  Mitch Lawrence has an article talking about Joe meeting with the Knicks.  In this article he states that Joe will also meet with the Hawks out in LA on July 1st, and the Hawks are going to LA to “get the deal done.” The Hawks are apparently trying to sell the idea that he will remain the face of the franchise if he [...]

With free agency set to begin on July 1st, which is just days away, this is a question the Atlanta Hawks front office and owners will have to ponder.  What is Joe Johnson’s proper value? It’s hard to determine exactly what is proper value for a player in the NBA these days, as players all over the league are being paid much more than what they are actually worth.  Many mistakes have been made by giving players max deals in the past, and those mistakes have become albatrosses that keep franchises from taking that next step.  More after the jump

As the names were coming off the board during the draft last night, I couldn’t help but think of the entry I had the night before the draft.  In that blog entry, I mentioned that I would hate to see the Hawks zero in on a player and pass a player that had unexpectedly fallen to them on draft night.  As the 14th, 15th, and 16th picks rolled off, I kept thinking to myself that this was actually happening.  Someone rated much higher than where they will end up going is going to fall to the Hawks.  In the entry, [...]

The draft is just minutes away from starting.  I’m not going to do a drawn out mock draft to make this projection, but I am going to state who I think the Hawks will take in this draft. Photo is courtesy of YardBarker.com Soaring Down South projects that the Atlanta Hawks will take Jordan Crawford with the 24th pick of the draft. I feel the Hawks are clearly looking for a perimeter player in this draft, and I think they will ultimately end up choosing Jordan Crawford over Dominique Jones. This will be a tough decision. Both players are gifted [...]

I thought it would be interesting to see who the major draft sites have projected to the Hawks and who the pick will actually be after the night is over.  The comments on each player are courtsy of Draft Express. Draft Express – Dominique Jones, SG, South Florida – Big combo guard with excellent size, length, and strength.  Aggressive slasher who gets to the free throw line at a great rate.  Capable of creating shots for both himself and others.  Outstanding man to man defender thanks to his physical tools and his toughness.  Must improve perimeter shooting range and cut [...]

Michael Cunningham over at the AJC appears to have decided to have two separate lists of players.  Last night, he talked about 5 players that could possibly help the Hawks right now.  Tonight, he has decided to put together a list of players that could help the Hawks down the road. The names mentioned on this list are Florida State’s Solomon Alabi, France’s Kevin Seraphin, Marshall’s Hassan Whiteside, and Kentucky’s Daniel Orton.  Of these, only Whiteside has not reportedly met with the Hawks.  Michael mentions that the Hawks met with Kevin Seraphin for several hours on Monday, which just happened [...]