Post by amanuel0620 on Jan 23, 2011 1:57:18 GMT -5
The Augusta Chronicle
After the departure of JCarter, new GM Amanuel did not waist any time putting his stamp on his new team. The Atlanta Hawks come into this offseason without direction and many fans did not know if they would contend or rebuild. But after some of the moves the Hawks have made, these same questions still appear. Altough the previous managment dumped Erick Dampiers and his contract for picks, new managment under Amanuel, has decided to make moves that have raised some eyebrows.
The First move the Hawks made after the Erick Dampier, was a almost eye popping deal involving 4 players, 1 first rounder and cash consideration. The Hawks sent swingman Stephen Jackson and Mikeal Peitrus to the Hornets for another swingman Caron Butler. From my stand point, the Hawks saw Jacksons 3 year deal as a waist of money and wanted to send it along with Pietrus for a legit 2nd or 3rd option in Caron Butler. Bill Plaschke of the LA times wrote in his article on the trade that,
"Pietrus/Butler deal is pretty bad for Atlanta. Honestly, I'd want Pietrus over Butler head-to-head. Mediocre player with severely inflated numbers due to his bottom of the barrel team with a huge contract for a guy of his talents."
Altough Bill might be right to a certain degree, I have to disagree with him on that. Yes Butler did play on a bad team with not that many scorers and that may have lead to his numbers to be inflated to a certian degree. But as you can see the guy shot 45% from the field last season and a staggering 45% from downtown which ranked 5th in the league. Altough Mikeal Pietrus does look a solid player he hasn't proven anything. To get a player who has already established himself is a plus. And his contract, is actually below market value for players of his calibur Ron Mercer of the Celtics gets payed almost 7.5 million, Jason Richardson nearly 10 million, Ron Artest 6.1 (and hes going to get a fatter contract after his contract runs out), Richard Hamilton 9.1. Caron Butler at 6 million seems like bargin compared to his peers. And the guy is only 26 years old.
Caron Butler Aka "tough JUICE" is the type of player GM Amanuel wants with the Hawks.
The second deal the Hawks ended up making was a 2 player swap with the Toronto Raptors. The Atlanta Hawks trade fan faveroit Scott Pollard for Danny Fortson. From the Hawks stand point shading almost 38 million for a slight downgrade wasnt a bad idea. The Raptors who are throwing everything at the kitchen are ready to make a deep run at the playoffs. Scott Pollard should give the Raptors some interior D and help Yao Ming. I have no problem with trying to win it all but 3 years from now mother nature might catch up with the franchise. Altough they are the richest franchise in the league and eat up the last 2 years of Pollards deal, they cant always buy more time. Psssstttt just between me and you, Jason Kidd is good but hes 34 years old
Last but not least who doesnt like DRAMA Yesterday rumors had started going around the league that paper works had been sent to the league office for a 7 player blockbust trade. The two key players were Steve Nash and Shaun Livingston. The Hawks looking to get younger had their guy Livingston. At 6'7 this young PG was the type of PG's GM Amanuel wanted to have. The Mavericks desperate to win now needed to win now and were looking for a vetran PG to take the keys. Speculations around the league were that Hawks GM had become increasingly aggrevated with the Mavs GM because of small things they demande i.e. cash consideration, second round picks and were even rumored to back out of the deal if Rickey Paulding of all people was not included in the deal. But after hard negotiation the two sides came to a verbal agreement where the Hawks on top of Livingston would also aquire center Zaza Pachullia, 2 forwards in Tommy Smith and Jamario Moon, and their 2007 first round pick and cash consideration in exchange Steve Nash, Ricky Paulding and Heats 2007 First round pick. But after the league denied the deal because of previous deals made that lowered the Mavs cap space the deal had to be reworked. After short negotiation with the Mavs GM, Hawks GM for no reason shared to us blew off the deal and the two sides are rumored not to be talking about the deal anymore.
Seeing how the deal had almost went down, Hawks GM has gotten calls about Steve Nash but is looking over his options. We asked Steve Nash, what his thoughts were on the possiblity of him being dealt...
Well this is a business and I know things can happen anytime. I have talked with Amanuel a few times and he didn't promise me anything but told me he would that I would be the first person to know about any deal that goes down. He told me he did not want to drag me down with any rebuilding. He was aware that I wanted to win another ring before my time was up with this league. But Yesterday at about 3:00AM I got a call that woke me up and it was Amanuel. True to his word he told me that the final paper works were being done and by the morning I should be a Maverick. But after waking up and turning on ESPN I find out that deal had broken down and I had 12 new voicemails from Amanuel. So as long as I know whats going on I know that I trust in him. I never mentioned anything about wanting to leave Atlanta and I enjoyed my time here. I was fortunate to win a ring here and I hope I can stay here and make another run at it.
With free agency about to begin there has rumblings and talks going around about the possbility of SF free agent Antoine Walker resigning with the Hawks. Rumors have it that there has been internal discussion of the Hawks not resigning Walker to simply trade but instead sign him and try to win now with him. But we have no sources to either agree or disagree with us. But it looks like Atlanta is in for doozy this offseason. I cant wait until the season starts, tip off is in 31 days, 18 hours, 32 min. and 39, 38, 37, 36... seconds away.
After the departure of JCarter, new GM Amanuel did not waist any time putting his stamp on his new team. The Atlanta Hawks come into this offseason without direction and many fans did not know if they would contend or rebuild. But after some of the moves the Hawks have made, these same questions still appear. Altough the previous managment dumped Erick Dampiers and his contract for picks, new managment under Amanuel, has decided to make moves that have raised some eyebrows.
The First move the Hawks made after the Erick Dampier, was a almost eye popping deal involving 4 players, 1 first rounder and cash consideration. The Hawks sent swingman Stephen Jackson and Mikeal Peitrus to the Hornets for another swingman Caron Butler. From my stand point, the Hawks saw Jacksons 3 year deal as a waist of money and wanted to send it along with Pietrus for a legit 2nd or 3rd option in Caron Butler. Bill Plaschke of the LA times wrote in his article on the trade that,
"Pietrus/Butler deal is pretty bad for Atlanta. Honestly, I'd want Pietrus over Butler head-to-head. Mediocre player with severely inflated numbers due to his bottom of the barrel team with a huge contract for a guy of his talents."
Altough Bill might be right to a certain degree, I have to disagree with him on that. Yes Butler did play on a bad team with not that many scorers and that may have lead to his numbers to be inflated to a certian degree. But as you can see the guy shot 45% from the field last season and a staggering 45% from downtown which ranked 5th in the league. Altough Mikeal Pietrus does look a solid player he hasn't proven anything. To get a player who has already established himself is a plus. And his contract, is actually below market value for players of his calibur Ron Mercer of the Celtics gets payed almost 7.5 million, Jason Richardson nearly 10 million, Ron Artest 6.1 (and hes going to get a fatter contract after his contract runs out), Richard Hamilton 9.1. Caron Butler at 6 million seems like bargin compared to his peers. And the guy is only 26 years old.
Caron Butler Aka "tough JUICE" is the type of player GM Amanuel wants with the Hawks.
The second deal the Hawks ended up making was a 2 player swap with the Toronto Raptors. The Atlanta Hawks trade fan faveroit Scott Pollard for Danny Fortson. From the Hawks stand point shading almost 38 million for a slight downgrade wasnt a bad idea. The Raptors who are throwing everything at the kitchen are ready to make a deep run at the playoffs. Scott Pollard should give the Raptors some interior D and help Yao Ming. I have no problem with trying to win it all but 3 years from now mother nature might catch up with the franchise. Altough they are the richest franchise in the league and eat up the last 2 years of Pollards deal, they cant always buy more time. Psssstttt just between me and you, Jason Kidd is good but hes 34 years old
Last but not least who doesnt like DRAMA Yesterday rumors had started going around the league that paper works had been sent to the league office for a 7 player blockbust trade. The two key players were Steve Nash and Shaun Livingston. The Hawks looking to get younger had their guy Livingston. At 6'7 this young PG was the type of PG's GM Amanuel wanted to have. The Mavericks desperate to win now needed to win now and were looking for a vetran PG to take the keys. Speculations around the league were that Hawks GM had become increasingly aggrevated with the Mavs GM because of small things they demande i.e. cash consideration, second round picks and were even rumored to back out of the deal if Rickey Paulding of all people was not included in the deal. But after hard negotiation the two sides came to a verbal agreement where the Hawks on top of Livingston would also aquire center Zaza Pachullia, 2 forwards in Tommy Smith and Jamario Moon, and their 2007 first round pick and cash consideration in exchange Steve Nash, Ricky Paulding and Heats 2007 First round pick. But after the league denied the deal because of previous deals made that lowered the Mavs cap space the deal had to be reworked. After short negotiation with the Mavs GM, Hawks GM for no reason shared to us blew off the deal and the two sides are rumored not to be talking about the deal anymore.
Seeing how the deal had almost went down, Hawks GM has gotten calls about Steve Nash but is looking over his options. We asked Steve Nash, what his thoughts were on the possiblity of him being dealt...
Well this is a business and I know things can happen anytime. I have talked with Amanuel a few times and he didn't promise me anything but told me he would that I would be the first person to know about any deal that goes down. He told me he did not want to drag me down with any rebuilding. He was aware that I wanted to win another ring before my time was up with this league. But Yesterday at about 3:00AM I got a call that woke me up and it was Amanuel. True to his word he told me that the final paper works were being done and by the morning I should be a Maverick. But after waking up and turning on ESPN I find out that deal had broken down and I had 12 new voicemails from Amanuel. So as long as I know whats going on I know that I trust in him. I never mentioned anything about wanting to leave Atlanta and I enjoyed my time here. I was fortunate to win a ring here and I hope I can stay here and make another run at it.
With free agency about to begin there has rumblings and talks going around about the possbility of SF free agent Antoine Walker resigning with the Hawks. Rumors have it that there has been internal discussion of the Hawks not resigning Walker to simply trade but instead sign him and try to win now with him. But we have no sources to either agree or disagree with us. But it looks like Atlanta is in for doozy this offseason. I cant wait until the season starts, tip off is in 31 days, 18 hours, 32 min. and 39, 38, 37, 36... seconds away.
