Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Can the Hawks finally turn into a contender?

Well, the ping pong balls broke perfect for Atlanta last night and they got the #3 pick which prevented them from losing their pick to Phoenix. They also retained the #11. The hawks actually have a real foundation already with Joe Johnson and Josh Smith who are legtimate emerging stars. They also have nice pieces in Marvin Williams, Josh Childress, and Zaza Pachulia. They also have nice spot players in Sheldon Williams and Salim Stoudimire. They desperatly need a BIG, physical rebounder up front and a point guard. There are two guys I would love to have for this team PG Mike Conley from Ohio St. and C Roy Hibbert from Georgetown. Odds are we can't have both. Everyone says we have to take Conley and I can't really argue that he most likely would solve our PG problems and help in making this a playoff team next year. The PG's remaining in the playoffs are Tony Parker, Deron Williams, Chauncey Billups and Larry Hughes who is playing out of position, so you have three legitimate stars, whereas center wise I couldn't name one on any team. This would support drafting Conley. The league has become more of a small man's league with few if any dominant centers anymore with an aging Shaq. This to me though begs the question, in a league with few legitimate bigs, wouldn't a guy like Roy Hibbert who is 7'2 and with a body to match be more valuable allowing you to nightly exploit the other team's weakness. In the NCAA he more than held his own with Oden. And I believe you could more than adequatly address the PG problem with Acie Law, who I believe will be a more NBA ready player than Conley. Or you maybe even take a shot at 11 with local Javaris Crittendon who is very talented and 6'5 to boot. I would be very happy with Conley but I think there may be a better move here.

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