JJ will be happier with a balloon 20 mil payment. Its not personal, its buisness.

Memphis: They will never win anything with swift, Jwil and posey. I even doubt them (J and Posey), with walker will winn it all. Sheed slipped under the weight of pressure and did not have a good finals. IIuse this as an example of someone whom I don't think is that mentally strong. True he rose up the year before, but the opponent (lakers) were shot and detroit really handed it to them. Wade and shaq are the real deal, and the key to the Heat really winning are the mental toughnes of Posey, J.will and Walker. They Wwere available cuz they are 1st tier talent but are not mentally strong. By the way, our core group is similar, but they are immediate contenders as Miami.

For memphis to ever get it right they are correct to clean out the closet to have the room for new talent. It takes time to do this.

For our knicks, I would not get to uptight and try to finalize this roster or argue what moves should be done. Why, give th rookies time to show if they are prospects worthy. Give Sweets time to establish this year. Give Reezy time to establish and project if he is the man.

the longer we take, the better we can see what we have, what we need, and those expiring contracts can either fall, or be used.

If larry says its gonna take 3 years to contend, then Im gonna give him and Isiah that time. Its easy to argue the finer points of player personel and whom we should keep and get, but reality is you weaken your position when you do so.

[Edited by - nalod on 08/04/2005 14:56:57]

Exactly its a horrible deal for the Hawks and Belkin is right. Billy Knight should be fired for a couple of reasons and this being one. He told the city of Atlanta that he could free agents in here but he has to resort to a sign and trade. JJ is a restricted free agent, you know that his team will most likely match the offer. In my opinion, he isn't a max contract player, and is worry more about being the man in a small market.

Posted by Pharzeone:

Exactly its a horrible deal for the Hawks and Belkin is right. Billy Knight should be fired for a couple of reasons and this being one. He told the city of Atlanta that he could free agents in here but he has to resort to a sign and trade. JJ is a restricted free agent, you know that his team will most likely match the offer. In my opinion, he isn't a max contract player, and is worry more about being the man in a small market.

they guy doesnt want to do the trade because of the cash up front, he could obviously care less about the hawks, he wants to dump his own load asap and doesnt want to lose what would be 30% of 8mm$ or more. penny ante but true.

as for joe johnson, he is a LOT better than any 2G we have and hes 24. pheonix offered him 10+mm a year and he turned it down. the hawks had to give the suns two picks not to match

how much money is JJ getting? is it in the $12-16mil range or $18-22mil?

$12-16 is not bad when you consider bums like TT & Penny make that amount. It allows you to throw $20mil a superstar or top flight bigman

Posted by Marv:

i have no problem watching Phoenix disintegrate if that's what's going to happen. To me ttey were a miragae team last year anyway. Tho I did love watching Nash against Dallas and Amare against SA.

What I'll really enjoy is the years and years that those fools will be watching Nate the Great and saying WTF!!!!

forgive me for the following outburst of immaturity and glee:

Muahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!

pheonix, on paper, should get knocked down to the 50-55 win range. but man, watching amare vs. the spurs was like watching the birth of a mega-superstar. that 4th quarter where he was just dunking on everybody guarding him was just disgusting. when all is said and done, he will have revolutionized the game for bigmen like hakeem did in the early 90's.

Here's the thing--- watching Amare vs Duncan was eerily similar to Shawn Kemp vs the Chicago Bulls in the finals--- he got every rebound... and scored even when he took bad shots.

Back to Joe Johnson--- I guess if you think about it... he can make a whole lot of interest over the course of his contract with 20 million (vs 12 million) in the first year of his max deal.

$20 million x 3.5% interest... is $700,000... and that's if he's not trying hard to invest.

Sick... and I don't think he's even a top 15 player in the NBA... not even top 5 at his position...

Posted by bobs3304:

^ Watching Amare DOMINATE Duncan, sore ankle or not, really showed me something.

It showed me:

A.) Tim Duncan is consistent, solid, talented, but not one of the GOAT. No way I rank him ahead of the Mchales, Barkleys, or Malones. The guy has no fire in his belly. Some would call it being humble, and I'm not arguing that he isn't that, but watching the WCF, and ESPECIALLY the Finals against Ben Wallace, he just didn't assert himself. Not even close. He doesn't play with passion. It made me sick to my stomach. I was saying to my uncle, "Duncan's gotta come up with atleast 1 or 2 games of 40 and 20 to make it happen."

^ He didn't even come close. Big Ben shut him down completely.
Duncan is so overrated. If any of you had the chance to watch Bird or Worthy in the 80's, you'd know what I'm talkin about. Duncan has more "talent" per say than those guys, but he doesn't really come up big when it counts. He's rock solid consistent, but the level of his game doesn't really raise.


And B.) Amare is gonna be one of the GOAT. He's like a mini-Moses Malone, only better.

I said some of this as wel, Tim was not dominant at all this whole playoffs, but it just goes to show how good of a team they have. But you still can't underestimate his impact on the game. Without him they are lottery bound!!

And he played way tougher in his other plaoff appearances.


And last but not least, do you realize you are one of the youngest posters here?

Did you just say?

If any of you had the chance to watch Bird or Worthy in the 80's, you'd know what I'm talkin about.

Thats freaking hilarious. But yes we know what you're talking about.

Posted by BRIGGS:

Posted by Pharzeone:

Exactly its a horrible deal for the Hawks and Belkin is right. Billy Knight should be fired for a couple of reasons and this being one. He told the city of Atlanta that he could free agents in here but he has to resort to a sign and trade. JJ is a restricted free agent, you know that his team will most likely match the offer. In my opinion, he isn't a max contract player, and is worry more about being the man in a small market.

they guy doesnt want to do the trade because of the cash up front, he could obviously care less about the hawks, he wants to dump his own load asap and doesnt want to lose what would be 30% of 8mm$ or more. penny ante but true.

as for joe johnson, he is a LOT better than any 2G we have and hes 24. pheonix offered him 10+mm a year and he turned it down. the hawks had to give the suns two picks not to match

This is all a save face match as far as I am concern. Everyone is guilty. The Hawks wanted to land a quality big men with their "ample cap space" has yet to do so. Joe Johnson is a nice pick up but is not a max type player. Phoenix knows this but is kinda force to make him one because they didn't lock him up when they should have at the beginning of the season. Would have cost less, they can spin it anyway they want but that's just the facts. If the Suns had any idea that JJ didn't want to be a Sun you think they would have traded Q and the 21st pick just for KT and Dijion Thompson. If you believe the owner to get quicker and better defensively. I don't see how that trade makes you quicker and I have my questions about KT playing in the west a full season. His motor has been slowly down big time. So the Hawks had to put all their eggs in one basket because the guy they targeted Dalembert was only using them, Curry is only using them, Chandler was never even interested. Why is JJ worth two first round picks and a former one (no matter what you think of Boris). Knight made a made deal but he is the principle agent of the franchise and had to get the ok from the BOG to sign any free agent he saw fit. The Boston guy got his info on JJ from the Celtics and say that is too much for this guy. He hasn't been to a single Hawk game last season. As far as him not wanting ownership is wrong, he won't give up the BOG spot, Stern wants him to sell his share, the owners in Washington and Atlanta want him to sell his share and remove him from America's Spirit LLC, but he knows he won't get any other NBA team. He has been described as the new Donald Sterling of the NBA by other team execs.