according to an atlanta hawks insider:

-BK has a list of 6 guys that he deems the 6 top guys in this draft. Basically he'll be taking one of these 6 guys unless something new comes up. I'm not going to repeat the list, because obviously it could help other teams to know.

-The rumors that BK likes Shelden are true. He alluded to him directly or indirectly several times. I certainly don't think that he is his first choice, but the widespread rumors that he likes him are definitely true.

-As we already knew, BK wants a big, preferably a defensive big. When asked specifically about the top 5 bigs in the draft, all he really said was that what he saw in common between all of them was good shotblocking, which we can use. He said that how big you play was more important than how big you are, and that we can use a banger (which would be one of the indirect shelden comments). Other than that his scouting was pretty standard, stuff we all know.

-They know we don't have a starting caliber PG, and will get one if they find one. BK still maintains that while we need a PG and bigs, he sees lack of bigs as our biggest problem right now.

-BK still hopes to re-sign Al IF it's at the right price, but as always, the team's price and the player's price might be far apart. So no real sign here either way, my gut feeling is still that Al gets SNT (personal opinion)

-No calls have come in about the #5 pick. There are plenty of calls about our young talent, but we're not interested in giving up on them while we're developing them.

-There is a $5 million fine from the NBA if any free agents' names are mentioned, so no names came out. But let's just say I don't expect JohnnyBravo's dream to come true as far as a certain player (iverson) who would put people in the seats. Ownership is very proud of all the big contracts that BK has NOT given out, and not looking to screw up what they've done by taking on overpaid players at this point. He also said that the reason he keeps quiet is that it allows him to do things like going after Zaza and JJ without anyone seeing it coming

-He was authorized to spend more last year, didn't see anyone he wanted to tie our money in. This year he will be authorized to spend the cap, but knows this is a weak free agency year. If he doesn't find the right people, he won't spend just to spend.

[Edited by - djsunyc on 06-16-2006 7:06 PM]