KB21

Presser and Hawk Talk

The summation is basically this.

*The Hawks felt they needed to address their interior defense and rebounding.
*The Hawks were second worst in the NBA in giving up points in the paint and in defensive rebounding.
*Offense wasn't a problem for this team last season.
*The Hawks do need to get a point guard and will get a veteran point guard this offseason.
*Shelden Williams was the guy they had targeted with the 5th pick all along.
*Their philosophy is based around versatility.
*They believe that the four and five positions are interchangeable.
*The believe the league is changing because there aren't many dominant big men, and that a team can be successful if they have 6'8" to 6'9" guys playing in the paint.
*Mike discussed the line up of Joe Johnson, Josh Childress, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, and Shelden Williams being a line up that will give the team tremendous versatility on the floor.
*You have to play defense and rebound in this league to win in this league.
*Sekou Smith believes the NBA has a double standard in that they won't let American high school players declare for the draft, but they will let 18 year old international players declare and be drafted.
*Sekou was really perturbed that a team would be more willing to take Joel Freeland in the first round and keep him overseas than take a player like Paul Davis, who has put in four good years at the college level.
*Sekou thinks that maybe the NBA should cut the draft to one round and let everyone else be free agents.

ATLien

All good stuff.

I think the NBA should eventually put the age limit back to 18. And a veteran point guard would help much more than a rookie point guard would, no question.

o.iatlhawksfan

Did you see all those gap Billy had when he was ask about harrington, it look like he was leaning toward letting harrington go.
As for Shelden he sounds like a really good young man, lets hope he's not that nice on the court.

KB21

To add, Shelden Williams is going to be a horrible interview. He appears to have a very introverted personality, and he's not going to be very talkative when giving interviews.

o.iatlhawksfan

good, being talkative usually gets you in trouble. he seems like an alright interviewer to me, maybe his word weren't really clear but you could still understand him.

KB21

Yeah. Previously, Billy would always say that they wanted Al back. He was very noncommittal about Al when asked that question today. It definitely appears that Al will be on his way out. It will be interesting to see if we are able to do a sign and trade with the ownership situation, and if we are, who the Hawks will be able to get. I still think Chicago is an option, and Chris Duhon could be a big part of the trade. Duhon isn't really a shot creator, but he's a guy that can defend the point guard position very well.