Hawks Preseason Presser, 2006
Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:01 am
So, 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.
So, we brought in a whole bunch of players last year and, as our record shows, none of them were really able to give our team the leadership they needed. We're glad McDyess and Mason remained professional and are hopeful that those guys showing our youngsters the dedication needed to compete night in and night out will pave the way to future success.
The other "bright side" of a poor season last year was a good draft pick. After the lottery, we got the #3 draft pick which we were happy to use on Rudy Gay. The hope here is that he can be the foundational piece for the next Hawks championship run, much as McDyess was the first step in laying our last run.
We took a big swing in RFA and landed Luis Scola for mere hours before the 76ers decided to match. When that happened, we took shots at other big men in unrestricted free agency, but, obviously, none of those worked out. Antonio McDyess will be back, however, and we expect to start him at Center, since he put up great numbers there last year and managed an All-Star bid in the process. We're convinced that despite the slow advance of Father Time, he should be one of the more productive Centers in the league again this season.
We brought in Troy Muprhy from the Wizards; he's still young and has a favorable contract, and we'll experiment a bit with the idea of a stretch 4 this season. He'll also back up McDyess at center as we try a little bit of "small ball" this year. Of course it's by choice that we're doing so and not getting any true centers to ink with us in free agency has nothing to do with it.
Rudy Gay is going to get playing time right away at Small Forward; we want to see what we've got. Andrei Kirilenko will play behind him and will be our power forward in small-ball situations; we considered starting him but felt that it would be better to let him cover both forward positions off the bench so that we could take advantage of inferior backup players on other teams.
Our shooting guard spot will be manned by another player we acquired via trade, Josh Howard. Josh has been maligned since entering the league, and we plan to give him every opportunity to prove he deserves a contract extension with us. He'll get a fair look with the first unit to see what he can do. Behind him, we'll use Desmond Mason (who will also see some time at SF in our small-ball lineups) - despite what colors may tell you, he's basically the same player he was last season and while with the added scoring punch we have this season we don't think he'll put up 20 ppg again, he should still be a strong scoring threat.
At point guard, we're going to keep running with Devin Harris. He hasn't progressed as fast as we'd like, but he's got a ton of athleticism and has made steady progress as a floor general. The hope is he'll tone down the shooting a bit this year now that he has more weapons to pass to, and work on becoming a distributor. Behind him we will let Luke Walton start as the backup point; he's a bit slow, but has the instincts of a passing point guard and his size should allow us to take some occasional mismatches into the paint.
Jay Williams, Ben Gordon, and Martell Webster will be counted on to step up when the inevitable injury bug hits this season. We know that's always a matter of when, not if, and we're confident we have the backcourt depth to cope.
Sebastian Telfair, well, he's been a disappointment. For the second year in a row, he showed up to TC uninterested and fat. Expect him to be gone after this season, and sooner if we can help it. Jerome Williams has been a solid contributor for a long time in this league, but age is catching up to him. His contract is just barely above the veteran minimum, so we'll keep him on as a gesture of thanks for his past service - unless we need it to make a trade. Doug Christie is in much the same boat - while we were excited to grab him on the cheap during Free Agency, it was clear after Training Camp exactly WHY he was so cheap.
Our goals for this year? Don't pay the tax. Don't get Rudy Gay hurt. That's about it. We have a couple of veterans plugging holes that hopefully over the next season or two get filled by young players as we get this roster turned over - but we know we're not a title contender. We'll be active in trade talks, and just about everyone not named Rudy Gay is likely to hear their name swirl in trade rumors at least once. We are also one of the few teams with a significant amount of cap space and in a league where the tax man can crush teams (see: Orlando Magic) we're willing to use that space to help a team shed some of its tax burden - if the compensation coming our way in the form of picks and players is right. As we all know, cap space can't dribble a ball or make a basket or defend the three.
So, yeah. Pretty much the forecast is another forgettable year for Atlanta. Questions?
So, we brought in a whole bunch of players last year and, as our record shows, none of them were really able to give our team the leadership they needed. We're glad McDyess and Mason remained professional and are hopeful that those guys showing our youngsters the dedication needed to compete night in and night out will pave the way to future success.
The other "bright side" of a poor season last year was a good draft pick. After the lottery, we got the #3 draft pick which we were happy to use on Rudy Gay. The hope here is that he can be the foundational piece for the next Hawks championship run, much as McDyess was the first step in laying our last run.
We took a big swing in RFA and landed Luis Scola for mere hours before the 76ers decided to match. When that happened, we took shots at other big men in unrestricted free agency, but, obviously, none of those worked out. Antonio McDyess will be back, however, and we expect to start him at Center, since he put up great numbers there last year and managed an All-Star bid in the process. We're convinced that despite the slow advance of Father Time, he should be one of the more productive Centers in the league again this season.
We brought in Troy Muprhy from the Wizards; he's still young and has a favorable contract, and we'll experiment a bit with the idea of a stretch 4 this season. He'll also back up McDyess at center as we try a little bit of "small ball" this year. Of course it's by choice that we're doing so and not getting any true centers to ink with us in free agency has nothing to do with it.
Rudy Gay is going to get playing time right away at Small Forward; we want to see what we've got. Andrei Kirilenko will play behind him and will be our power forward in small-ball situations; we considered starting him but felt that it would be better to let him cover both forward positions off the bench so that we could take advantage of inferior backup players on other teams.
Our shooting guard spot will be manned by another player we acquired via trade, Josh Howard. Josh has been maligned since entering the league, and we plan to give him every opportunity to prove he deserves a contract extension with us. He'll get a fair look with the first unit to see what he can do. Behind him, we'll use Desmond Mason (who will also see some time at SF in our small-ball lineups) - despite what colors may tell you, he's basically the same player he was last season and while with the added scoring punch we have this season we don't think he'll put up 20 ppg again, he should still be a strong scoring threat.
At point guard, we're going to keep running with Devin Harris. He hasn't progressed as fast as we'd like, but he's got a ton of athleticism and has made steady progress as a floor general. The hope is he'll tone down the shooting a bit this year now that he has more weapons to pass to, and work on becoming a distributor. Behind him we will let Luke Walton start as the backup point; he's a bit slow, but has the instincts of a passing point guard and his size should allow us to take some occasional mismatches into the paint.
Jay Williams, Ben Gordon, and Martell Webster will be counted on to step up when the inevitable injury bug hits this season. We know that's always a matter of when, not if, and we're confident we have the backcourt depth to cope.
Sebastian Telfair, well, he's been a disappointment. For the second year in a row, he showed up to TC uninterested and fat. Expect him to be gone after this season, and sooner if we can help it. Jerome Williams has been a solid contributor for a long time in this league, but age is catching up to him. His contract is just barely above the veteran minimum, so we'll keep him on as a gesture of thanks for his past service - unless we need it to make a trade. Doug Christie is in much the same boat - while we were excited to grab him on the cheap during Free Agency, it was clear after Training Camp exactly WHY he was so cheap.
Our goals for this year? Don't pay the tax. Don't get Rudy Gay hurt. That's about it. We have a couple of veterans plugging holes that hopefully over the next season or two get filled by young players as we get this roster turned over - but we know we're not a title contender. We'll be active in trade talks, and just about everyone not named Rudy Gay is likely to hear their name swirl in trade rumors at least once. We are also one of the few teams with a significant amount of cap space and in a league where the tax man can crush teams (see: Orlando Magic) we're willing to use that space to help a team shed some of its tax burden - if the compensation coming our way in the form of picks and players is right. As we all know, cap space can't dribble a ball or make a basket or defend the three.
So, yeah. Pretty much the forecast is another forgettable year for Atlanta. Questions?