Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[khaled1987]

2014:

DWIGHT POWELL

Jokic
Embiid
Feel like mostly these days the busts are more related to injuries or off-court issues than bad basketball skill assessment.

So, one franchise player in the lottery, and one of the GOATs in the 2nd, so I get the sense you agree with my post? Those points support what I am saying. 
Because no way in hell that was a generational draft, like at all. 

Darko latter admitted to hating basketball. That´s a hard thing to scout, when a guy from a poor background is faking it to earn himself life-altering money. And I swear whoever thought Thabeet could play in the NBA after watching him run for 10 seconds is a complete moron.

If you are that scared of your own judgment, you should not work in basketball.

Which is the same for most draft prospects, work ethic, personal life, injuries are all part of the decisive process that you can't control. 

NO pick could land a franchise player, or someone far worse than Queen whom they got the pick for. And luck is 50% of the process.

Hawks have traded Trae for Luka, drafted Risacher because others refused to play for them, have long history of not drafted BPA. Why do you think they will be super confident of getting the best player? 

Here is where we don't agree, which impacts our evaluations. In my opinion, Atlanta would get better with AD, but far from becoming a true contender.

You keep mentioning the term contender, and I am not sure what it means for you tbh. Can you define it in this context? 

Because I fail to see a true contender in the East, a team that was supposed to tank like Boston is 3rd atm, Knicks with Mike Brown, who hasn't won a playoff series in 13 years. are 2nd and a young Detroit team is the first. It is all over the place, Chicago were 9-7 and looked legit and then they lose 7 in a row and out of the play-in place. 

A trip to the Finals is more than possible with AD, the last one in their history? In 1961 when the NBA was 9 teams, playoffs were 4 teams and Hawks were in St. Louis playing in the Western Conference. Hawks had plenty of top 5 or top 10 picks in this century alone with nothing more than conference finals to show for, so winning the East and getting spanked by OKC would still be the greatest season in their history (in Atlanta) and would be worth it. I think AD gives them one of the best chances to do, and this is probably the reason they are interested.

If I were them, I would try to get Giannis first, but I won't make the pick untouchable