Blazers vs. Hawks Final Score: Atlanta Hawks 92, Portland Trail Blazers 89

Starting Collins makes our bench stronger.

Zaza’s production is part of the bench. And the bench is pretty good.

First, I am not going to ever say that Al’s not a valuable piece and so, Al has value and he must return great value to give him up. But you are correct – let’s just remember this is a rent a bench. If these guys do well, they aren’t coming back for table scraps. They will want raises and then, we are butting up against a salary cap and luxury tax, so let’s not get too excited – we aren’t building anything with these guys. After this season, you have to do it over again. As we’ve seen with other rent-a-bench years, it’s a crapshoot. So far it seems like we may have one that worked, but you aren’t getting a good bench to come back for $5-6M combined. So, let’s temper the excitement regarding the bench and what you can build around that. Al is much more valuable to the franchise. And yes, I agree with still need another player with the bench AND Al. So, I don’t buy PGS’ contention that Al is easily replaceable, nor do I think people were deferring to Al at ALL. I don’t believe Joe or Josh are EVER deferring to Al. His usage completely debunks any thought of that. Shoot, I don’t even see Teague deferring to some greatness of Al. So, that’s not true. The only part I think is true is that I don’t buy into the belief that if you asked Al to shoulder more of the offensive burden that he’d be able to produce in a linear fashion with what he currently does. I don’t think if you ran the offense through him that double doubles would be popping up everywhere. Now, it’s worth exploring to see if more touches and time would prove me wrong, but I haven’t seen any more than 4-5 games in his whole career where I said – hmmm, he put us on his back and drove us to victory (non-defensively). I’ve already seen more games from Teague where he did that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9iuKEe0B40&feature=youtu.be

When asked about Lebron James, Oscar Robertson went into teacher mode.

“I’m going to give you a little scenario about something,” he said. “People don’t think beyond a couple of years ago. When Shaq [O’Neal] was in Orlando, what happened to him? When Kareem was in Milwaukee, what happened to him? Wilt [Chamberlain] went to Los Angeles. [Good teams] are always going to make a key trade.”

“What’s the big deal, besides having your feelings hurt?” said Robertson, referring to Cleveland. “Everywhere there’s been a championship, there’s been a key trade. Bill Russell came to Boston from [the Hawks] because they didn’t allow black players down there [St. Louis].”
“You look at all the other situations. This is what’s happening. The Lakers have always been making trades. How did the Lakers get Gasol? How did Boston get Garnett? And Ray Allen? It’s almost like it was a setup deal.”

This is what separates good teams from the Cleveland’s and Atlanta’s they can’t decide how to build a team and pander to feelings and such.

Los Angeles has always built on size. Boston, best frontcourts of all time/ They are aggressive in trades.

Do you want Atlanta to repeat history and hold onto a player only to see Joe age out and Smith leave via free agency?

And then what? Horford will be 30 before you know it. He’s less than 2 years younger than Bogut. There is no rebuild with Horford or free agency without Joe or Josh.

Every year there will be a guy drafted that’s better than Josh, Joe, or Horford. You strike when the metal’s hot.
It’s hot now.

Thats what separates the Lakers from Cleveland. Gave up Marc Gasol for Pau, moved Pau to PF, Odom to bench. 2 titles.

My point in this thread is that all the Hawks media and national media wrote off the Hawks. They thought it was Horford who made the Hawks talented instead of the other way around.

Show me where I said that?

Of-course Hawks struggled, and I still wanted a big man.
Now with Al, we made it safely to second round three years running. And after first few games, I was beginning to get convinced we are a real threat for East Conference.

Without Al, at best this team is average. That is why we must add another player. You seem to think this group is ok as is because we are winning. You are using irrelevant examples of where Memphis which by the way still lost, went far into playoffs because they lost a player. To me that is no connection whatsoever to Hawks situation. It has to do with the fact that Memphis finally started to mature. They may have gone to Finals with Gay included. You ignore the fact that Gasol finally fulfilled his promise. That Conley became a more complete point guard. And Z-Bo immaturity ended. Instead you key on the fact Gay is injured to somehow convince yourself Hawks will be ok if they don’t do nothing, when they lose an All Star.
And for every Memphis, I can show you 10 examples where injury hurt a team’s chance (think KG knee problems hurting Celtics couple years ago during playoff)
I love Hawks first and foremost. If I am to rank players I like on the team, it will be Lion, Smoove, Teague and respect to JJ. So I hope I am wrong and your misplaced optimism wins the day. But my brain tells me we are in trouble. We need a starting center