Hawks 2025 Presser
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:10 pm
The cat wanders into the press room, and blinks in surprise that there are actually people here. He looks at one of his staffers, shrugs, and sits down behind the microphone.
"So, I suppose you are here to talk about the team again. There's really not a lot to talk about. We had another disappointing season last year when we lost in the playoffs. We're turning into the Atlanta BRAVES - win the Division and flame out in the playoffs. No titles in forever. It's getting tiresome."
"Obviously, after last season, it was clear that we we had to shake up our core. The Donald-Ellinger-Randle-Baldwin-Tatum crew has had several seasons to get to a title, including a couple in which I've had to dip into my own pocket book to pay the (spits) tax man. So it was time to break things up because the salaries those guys were enjoying were making it all but impossible to bring in new blood."
"Ellinger and Randle went out the door to the Bobcats. We're of course going to miss them. But I love Kuzma's potential and even more so his contract, so I'm willing to live with the trade."
"We entered Unrestricted Free Agency looking for manna from heaven with just enough money to offer Anthony Davis a max contract. It would have kept us in the tax but, duh, he's AD. When he didn't sign, we brought back Tatum and prepared ourselves to be fiscally responsible."
"Of course, Training Camp happened. None of our insured guys got hit - thankfully - and in fact Dragan bender even jumped. We had loaded up on young players in the back end of the draft hoping some of them would take leaps. Well, that didn't go as expected. Will Baron and Ernest Riviera reversed all of last year's gains. Kendall Burgess died. Robert Nettles got hit. Randle took a hit, but he's older and we expected that. Merle Weisman took a mild hit too. All in all, not great."
"Our five starters are penciled in - Bender, Baldwin, Tatum, Bergstrom, and Kuzma. We'll probably play around a little with Randle being a supersub since he's shown the ability to play PF in the past, but I expect him to see time mostly in the backcourt this season since his strength got blasted in TC this year. I'm still trying to work out who will be in the back end of the rotation in garbage time."
"I'm still in the mood to make some moves this season with the roster. We've been 'good' but not 'great' for too long and I think it's clear with the Donald/Ellinger deal that I'm in the mood to deal. Everyone could be had if the deal is right (yes, even Baldwin and Tatum). If you're looking for cheap young dudes on rookie deals to fill out your bench, I might be amenable to that too."
"So, I suppose you are here to talk about the team again. There's really not a lot to talk about. We had another disappointing season last year when we lost in the playoffs. We're turning into the Atlanta BRAVES - win the Division and flame out in the playoffs. No titles in forever. It's getting tiresome."
"Obviously, after last season, it was clear that we we had to shake up our core. The Donald-Ellinger-Randle-Baldwin-Tatum crew has had several seasons to get to a title, including a couple in which I've had to dip into my own pocket book to pay the (spits) tax man. So it was time to break things up because the salaries those guys were enjoying were making it all but impossible to bring in new blood."
"Ellinger and Randle went out the door to the Bobcats. We're of course going to miss them. But I love Kuzma's potential and even more so his contract, so I'm willing to live with the trade."
"We entered Unrestricted Free Agency looking for manna from heaven with just enough money to offer Anthony Davis a max contract. It would have kept us in the tax but, duh, he's AD. When he didn't sign, we brought back Tatum and prepared ourselves to be fiscally responsible."
"Of course, Training Camp happened. None of our insured guys got hit - thankfully - and in fact Dragan bender even jumped. We had loaded up on young players in the back end of the draft hoping some of them would take leaps. Well, that didn't go as expected. Will Baron and Ernest Riviera reversed all of last year's gains. Kendall Burgess died. Robert Nettles got hit. Randle took a hit, but he's older and we expected that. Merle Weisman took a mild hit too. All in all, not great."
"Our five starters are penciled in - Bender, Baldwin, Tatum, Bergstrom, and Kuzma. We'll probably play around a little with Randle being a supersub since he's shown the ability to play PF in the past, but I expect him to see time mostly in the backcourt this season since his strength got blasted in TC this year. I'm still trying to work out who will be in the back end of the rotation in garbage time."
"I'm still in the mood to make some moves this season with the roster. We've been 'good' but not 'great' for too long and I think it's clear with the Donald/Ellinger deal that I'm in the mood to deal. Everyone could be had if the deal is right (yes, even Baldwin and Tatum). If you're looking for cheap young dudes on rookie deals to fill out your bench, I might be amenable to that too."