AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2007 > July > 02
Monday, July 2, 2007
Somebody has to go … right?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You’re thinking it, too.
The numbers just don’t add up.
The Hawks have too many guys for too few spots, right?.
Maybe not.
I’m talking about all the forwards the Hawks have currently on the roster, as well as the fleet of point guards (though, contract situations will dictate the fates of at least a couple of those smaller guys).
Study the roster of most of the league’s best teams, nearly all of them in fact, and it’s obvious that you need at least five quality players at the forward spots. Not all of them will be Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett, obviously, but they’ll be guys that can play major minutes, if need be.
The Hawks have Josh Smith and Marvin Williams as starters and Shelden Williams, Al Horford and Solomon Jones as the reserves. But we can all agree that Josh and Marvin would probably fit best at the same spot (while each is fully capable of playing other positions).
If we break it down even further, there really needs to be a six-man rotation of big men that play the minutes. And if we go that route we’re including the centers and power forwards only - the small forwards are interchangeable on most teams with the shooting guards).
In that set-up the Hawks would have a six-man crew (with four guys playing major minutes and two guys as situational reserves) of Smith, Shelden Williams, Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia as the main four guys and Lorenzen Wright and Jones as the situational guys. They’re not the biggest crew, but as a whole they’d be more than serviceable (wouldn’t we all take a shot-swatting 7-footer who rebounds like Rodman and throws bows and intimidates like Dikembe but this is the real world, not a video game). Are you willing to go to training camp with that crew?
The point guard situation is in need of a bit more tweaking. There’s no way a team carries four point guards (five if you count Salim Stoudamire among them). That’s just too many, particularly when two of them (Anthony Johnson and my man Tyronn Lue, are going into contract years). Speedy Claxton and Acie Law are going to be here, barring something unforeseen happening, so we know we’re talking about either Lue or AJ heading elsewhere via trade (perhaps for another gritty swingman or a defensive-minded small forward type that can be used a situational defender against certain teams to take that extra pressure off of Joe Johnson).
Law’s arrival means that one of those veterans becomes expendable - my guess is AJ is shopped while Lue remains, but nothing’s set in stone. What would you do?
These are the hard decisions the Hawks will have to make between now and the start of training camp. Decisions that MUST be done and done correctly if the Hawks want to go into this season poised to make the necessary steps needed to rise from the ashes of their current state of dysfunction and not just compete for a playoff spot, but also snatch one.
So I’ll ask you again, what would you do?
