Hawks' PreSeason Presser

[WigNosy]

welcome all to yet another preseason presser following a disappointing season. Yes, every season that doesn't end in a championship is a disappointing season. Pretty much the only good thing that happened last season was that we got under the salary cap and reset our tax bill. Those of you who know me know the only thing that comes close to championships in terms of what I like... is money. I hate parting with it. So getting under the cap and quitting those gosh-awful tax payments was huge for us last year.

The biggest disappointment about last year's playoffs was the Rudy Gay injury. We took the eventual Eastern Conference champs to Game 7 without him, and while it's quite possible they would have won anyway, I would have at least liked to see this team go down with all hands on deck so I know for sure what I have. It's hard to gauge whether or not you're truly a title contender when healthy if you don't get to see the healthy version of your team performing against other top teams in the league.

The biggest disappointment of the offseason was the face of the franchise, Antonio McDyess, deciding to hang it up after 16 seasons. He was a career Hawk, and his 20,000+ points scored puts him in elite company - only four other players have scored as many points for a single PBSL Franchise - as do his 7,000+ career rebounds for us - another stat that has only four other players grabbing that many for a single PBSL Franchise.* We wish him well as he moves off the court and into the front office as a special consultant to our basketball operations.

We took a big swing in RFA and landed DeAndre Jordan for mere minutes before the Warriors decided to match. It would have been nice to have a lock-down defensive frontcourt, but no matter. We regrouped and went into UFA with a primary plan and a backup plan. The primary plan was "sign a superstar." The backup plan was "sign some under-the-radar quality players and get deeper."

Carmelo Anthony saw what we have been building here and decided to join us. Yes, we had to offer max dollars but I think I've shown I'm willing to spend money when the talent is right. Pau Gasol decided to come back at a discount as well, allowing us to reprise the team that finished the season last year except with Carmelo instead of Tim Thomas. While we love Tim, his game is in decline thanks to Father Time while Anthony is currently in his prime and is much better as a longer-term solution. With Melo in the fold, I feel we are a little better-balanced - Rudy and Melo will clearly lead our offense but we're no longer a single injury away from disaster on the offensive end.

We continued to inquire after young up-and-comers that other teams might have overlooked in trying to land a star. We were fortunate to have Yi Jianlian and Chris Douglas-Roberts decide to join us as well as a cast of quality veterans like KG, Ryan Hollins, and Reggie Williams. We tried to go young-ish where we could with our veteran signings and no it has nothing to do with the fact that they're cheaper. Why would you even suggest that?

For the first time in a long time, I had a young-ish team going into TC and it showed. Pau and KG felt the cold fingers of father time, but we saw some nice progress by Jeremy Lin and Jeff Adrien. Yi continues to improve and even projects like Bojan Bogdanovic are showing some progress. Of course, for every good story, there's a bad one... CDR was obviously enamored with the $14 million contract he got from the Bucks a couple seasons back and it clearly affected his work ethic. Commercials have been running in Atlanta for "The Do-Nuttery" starring CDR since he signed his contract and it's clear he's got other priorities right now.

Our starting Center is clear - last year's DPOY Noah.

Power Forward is still to be determined - we have Pau's silky smooth offensive game, Jeff Adrien's defensive-focused game, or Yi, who falls somewhere in between. We'll probably try some things until we figure out what works. The good news is we have a nice rotation of big men to cover both the PF and C spots.

Melo is going slide into our Small Forward spot with Rudy Gay reprising his all-star turn last season at Shooting Guard. While I had hoped CDR would be our primary backup at both spots, his focus on Donut Holes instead of hoops means I may have to try to make a trade to bring in a backup swingman.

At point guard, we're going to keep running with Jeremy Lin. He did a great job filling the shoes of the departed Devin Harris last season and I think he has tremendous potential to grow. And since he won't have to be a primary scorer or primary defender on this squad, I think even though he's young, we can give him space to do that. He'll definitely have his work cut out for him with all the great PGs in the Central.

Our backup guard spot will be kind of open auditions - Alonzo Gee has shown surprising promise in training camp, and we know his game pretty well after three years of him. Jeff Teague and Reggie Williams will also get shots at some point in the season, but we see this as another area that we would like to address via trade.

Our goals for this year? Stay healthy. Compete for a title. That's about it. We may be making a bit of a shift toward a more offensive-minded team but make no mistake - the cat still likes defense and I have made it clear to Melo that if he wants to be a star in Atlanta, he needs to play both ends of the ball.

* In case you're wondering who those players are:
Shawn Kemp - 27,384 career points with the Warriors
Tracy McGrady - 24,535 career points with the Kings
Tim Duncan - 24,018 career points with the Jazz
Antonio McDyess - 20,999 career points with the Hawks
Chris Bosh - 20,927 career points with the Wolves

Shawn Kemp - 9,948 rebounds with the Warriors
Tim Duncan - 8,762 rebounds with the Jazz
Alonzo Mourning - 8,189 rebounds with the Celtics
Antonio McDyess - 7,323 rebounds with the Hawks
Chris Webber - 7,154 rebounds with the Wolves

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: Obviously, you're the clear-cut favorites to win the Central after a very strong offseason. However, do you see any other threats within the division, and if so, for what reason?

[78#]

Can you discuss the success of your training camp and what it means long-term to have 3 potential blue players around a star like Rudy Gay?

[Eazy P]

Your team is stacked is it Title or bust?

[WigNosy]

Random Reporter: Obviously, you're the clear-cut favorites to win the Central after a very strong offseason. However, do you see any other threats within the division, and if so, for what reason?

I don't think it's obvious at all. The Cavaliers and Pacers both finished ahead of us last season and last I looked, CP3 and Deron Williams didn't exactly fall off the map, so I'll be shocked if they aren't in the race. The Pistons' frontcourt - even with a young AD next to LA - looks pretty scary as well. The Raptors still have Wade and Whiteside keeps getting better. The Bulls' young guards took a big step forward in TC. The Bucks... well, they'll still probably be starting Kanter so never mind. And the Hornets did not fare well in TC this year, but knowing Nick, he has some moves in him. I don't think the Central is ever an easy place to play and with all the great PGs - Lillard, Kyrie, Kemba, CP3, Deron, Parker, geez... is there any team that DOESN'T have a stud PG?

[WigNosy]

Can you discuss the success of your training camp and what it means long-term to have 3 potential blue players around a star like Rudy Gay?

It means we had better not screw this up. I have to say, I was pleased TC has FINALLY decided to smile upon us... it seems like all the way back to blasting Antonio McDyess, Ricky Davis, and Al Harrington back in the day when I first tried to get the Old-lanta Hawks into a young team, TC has taken sadistic pleasure in ripping young Hawks to shreds. Nice to finally have a positive TC.

[WigNosy]

Your team is stacked is it Title or bust?

It's always title or bust in Atlanta.

[garbageman]

Are you worried at all about Rudy walking next year if expectations for this very stacked team are not met?

[WigNosy]

Are you worried at all about Rudy walking next year if expectations for this very stacked team are not met?

Not at all. I feel we've demonstrated we are loyal to our greats by the way we treated McDyess. Rudy knows he is now the face of the Hawks.