Potential Roster:
PG: Deron Williams
SG: Joe Johnson
SF: Luol Deng
PF: Al Horford
C: Rasheed Wallace
Bench: Brandon Roy, Monta Ellis, Sean Williams
Yea. I know. That's one hell-of-a lineup. Here is how they could have done it...
2004
- Keep Rasheed Wallace instead of trading him for what amounted to be Zeljko Rebraca, Bob Sura and 2004's 17th draft pick (Josh Smith)
- Draft Luol Deng at #6 instead of Josh Childress
2005
- Draft Deron Williams at #2 instead of Marvin Williams
- Draft Monta Ellis at #31 instead of Salim Stoudamire
2006
- Draft Brandon Roy at #5 instead of Sheldon Williams
2007
- Draft Sean Williams at #11 instead of Acie Law (no need for a PG with Deron Williams)
Tell me that team wouldn't win the 2007-2008 championship. Please. This is ignoring the fact that Atlanta took Jamaal Tinsley at #27 in 2001 instead of Tony Parker at #28. But Tinsley ended up turning into the Boris Diaw, whose trade helped Atlanta get Joe Johnson. I love Joe Johnson’s game. That’s why I left him on the team even though through a series of moves Atlanta gave up Antonie Walker, Boris Diaw and their 2008 first round draft pick for him. That might sound like a little too much but my version of the Atlanta Hawks wouldn't need those players and their 2008 pick would be the 30th pick because they'd win the championship.
Would that team beat my Coulda/Woulda/Shoulda New York Knicks team?
11 comments:
Any team that has Roy coming off the bench is certainly a contender. This squad would certainly make it to the Eastern Conference finals, and maybe in the SHIP.
But coming from, as Stephen A. Smith says, "A JV League in the Eastern Conference," they wouldn't find rings on their fingers paying against most teams from the West. Still, their potential team is a helluva lot better than they are now.
This team would be a poor man's Phoenix Suns. They would put up points, finish with a great record, and be very entertaining...but NO RINGS. At best they would win an eastern conf. final, but most likely they would fold in the conf. finals just like the real Suns.
The main point of the post was to explain how much better could could be if they made some different (better) decisions. But I actually do think that that team would win the Championship
Okay... tell me what Eastern conference team would beat them in a 7 game series.
Then tell me if, and how/why Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, Utah, Houston, LA, etc. beats this team. Break down each matchup.
Tell me what's wrong with the team, why don't they would win?
Holy Shit. What a team.
They'd win the east. Celtics would be only team to give them a run for their money since Detroit is Rasheed-less and Chicago is Deng-less. Cavs and Heat don't have enough fire power to hang. Sheed guards KG better than anyone else in the league. Sean Williams and Horford coming off the weakside to contest his shots. Deron Williams would probably average a triple double against Rondo/Pruitt/House. Johnson, Roy and Deng will play solid D on Ray Ray and P^2. D-Wade can't carry Shaq and the Heat past this many studs.
So let's all agree they make the NBA Finals. Who do they play and do they win?
Dallas - Rasheed doesn't let Dirk lead them to the title. Deng doesn't let Howard lead them to the title. Deron > Terry. Roy > Stackhouse. Ellis = Harris. Horford/Williams > Dampier/Diop. ATLANTA WINS.
Spurs - Wallace guards Duncan better than anyone in the league. We all saw what Deron Williams did to Tony Parker last year. And you can't seriously say that Manu, Finley and Bowen are better than Roy, Johnson and Deng. That leaves who, Brent Barry? LOL LOL LMFAO! ATLANTA WINS.
Suns - I'd watch every second of this series. This is the only team I could see beat your Hawks. So besides crossing fingers that they don't make it through the "varsity" conference, the Hawks will have to take advantage of the fact that they can win with their halfcourt offense. Not saying turn into the ol' school Jazz, but make sure you control the tempo. At the same time though, teams who run hate to be ran on. Let's go through their lineups:
Nash - Williams
Bell - Johnson
Diaw - Deng
Marion - Horford
Stoudamire - Wallace
I'd play Roy a lot in this series.
Williams, Roy, Johnson, Deng and Wallace would be the 5 I'd have on the court whenever I could. But I'd take advantage of Horford and Williams off the bench. PHX let go James Jones and Kurt Thomas, they only have Shawn Marks as a Big off the bench. I hope they don't expect Grant "Baby Ankles" Hill to guard one of ATL's Bigs.
I'm giving the edge to ATL because they have a more diverse team and they have the star power to matchup against the Suns. Williams, Johnson and Roy can all create. To tell you the truth, I don't think the Suns could put up enough points to beat these Hawks, yes I just said that. ATLANTA WINS.
Great blog - just bookmarked it. Keep it up.
Go USA.
fuck this team. they didn't actually do the things you said they "coudla" done so they are stuck with being the 2007-2008 version of the 1999-2007 Atlanta Hawks. For the hell of it, they should try to entice Dominique Wilkins out of retirement. Or maybe Mookie Blaylock.
They wouldnt have had top 2 or 3 picks this and last year if they had selected better players earlier. You guys can do better than this.
Good point. It's impossible to predict what pick they would have had though. If you want to predict their record for the last 5 seasons, then forecast they position in the draft, they draft for them, be my guest.
Also, with a contender in Atlanta they would be picking up some good free agents, and I'm SLIGHTLY DISAPPOINTED you didn't consider that. Webber this year? Lewis this year? Boozer in 2004? Camby in 2004? Crawford in 2004? Chandler in 2005? Curry in 2005? Get the point? I tried to keep the post simple. Didn't want to many hypothetical situations in there.
Also, they could have packaged 2007's 11th pick from the Pacers with their pick (in the 20s), move up a couple spots and get Noah or Wright. Neither is the player Horford is but they aren't needed to score on this team.
Good insight though.
I do understand the point and agree that the Hawks could potentially be way better than they are right now if they made some of these moves. I even think that this team u assembled would be favorites to win the eastern conf. and finals. All I was saying is that I don’t see them as a lock to do either. I thought at best they would win an eastern conf and I am willing to concede that since the conf is garbage. So for the sake of argument lets say they win the east.
And to echo what the last comment said, if they had Joe Johnson, Rasheed Wallace, Luol Deng, Deron Williams, and Monta Ellis already they probably would be so good that they wouldn’t have the #5 pick in ’06 or the #3 pick in ’07(And actually if the Hawks had either made the playoffs in ’06 or did better than pick #3 in ’07, either of those picks would have gone to Phx b/c the trade said that the pick is lottery protected (1-14) in 2006, has protection through No. 3 in 2007, and has no protection in 2008. So not only would they not have been picking that high, but they would’ve also had one less pick). But like u said its impossible to perfectly predict how things would happen when u do these types of lists and this post was just for fun and to point out how much nicer they could’ve been so I will ignore that fact for now and deal with what you have listed.
Even if this team were to make it to the NBA Finals I really don’t see them beating a team from the west. I mean for one this team is very inexperienced and young, with their oldest leader being Rasheed Wallace. You really think Rasheed can be the player that steps up in difficult moments and unites them (if he can even make it that long in the game w/o being tossed)? Personally I’d like some more veterans or at least some that are mentally stable. After him, the next oldest player is Joe Johnson at 26, but I don’t see him bein able to carry a team in the way that LeBron, Kobe, or DWade could. Then after him u have deron 23, roy 23, deng 22, horford 21, ellis 21, Williams 21. The talent and potential is definitely there, but I don’t think its crazy to say that their inexperience makes it likely that they will fold in the playoffs, esp. against serious competition from the west. Basically you have a better version of the Baby Bulls. That may be good enough to put them through the eastern finals but Im not sure they would beat a western conf. team
To say, “well lets just match the starters up and who ever wins the most matchups is the winner” is not always true. Maybe that works in NBA Live, but in the real world it doesn’t always happens so conveniently. For example Manu, Finley and Bowen might not be better than Roy, Johnson, Deng on paper, but when it comes to the NBA playoffs, that spurs team is pretty damn hard to beat as a whole. Lets look at this past playoff as an example. You could use matchups and argue that Utah should’ve beat SA. To some, deron, giricek, boozer, AK47, and okur is a better matchup than parker, manu, finley, duncan, bowen. But as we all saw, Utah got worked and no matchup could save them.
My main point was just to say that I was skeptical, and I’m skeptical in general, of crowing teams champions based off of some personnel moves that make them look nice. That’s why I’m skeptical that these new look Celtics are just gonna cruise their way to a title. They’ve still got a long way to go, and as the mavs and suns have proved so many times, the intangibles matter a lot in the playoffs and the best team on paper doesn’t always win.
they dont get hortford or williams because they are not as bad
Got that the first time. Don't get Horford/Williams but pick up some top of the line free agents... It's a WASH
i dont agree with the first part. if they keep rasheed wallace odds are they wont have the worst record and couldnt draft deron williams....even with that them might not of had the 6th pick to take luol deng and so on and so on.
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