2004 Offseason and Trades

If you're confused as to why I'm discussing the moves made by the Hawks in 2004, please refer to this article.

Now that the draft is over, it's time to take a look at the roster and see what other moves were made in the offseason. First, let's take a look at the other transactions that were done in 2004.

July 15 Hawks acquire Al Harrington from the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Stephen Jackson. This was a sign and trade transaction. Assuming that Stephen Jackson probably did not want to play for a rebuilding team, and assuming that no other star would want to sign with a rebuilding team, I'm simply going to approve this transaction. Harrington had some good moments with the team.

August 4 - Hawks acquire Antoine Walker and Tony Delk from Dallas in exchange for Jason Terry, Alan Henderson and a future first round pick. I am not a fan of either Delk or Walker. However, I think Terry was getting tired of Atlanta at this point. Plus Terry is a great 6th man, but he was never the go-to guy. On the Mavs team last year, he was the second best scorer, but not the second best player. Trading him for a first so you can take a gamble in the first round with a rebuilding team I think was ultimately the right decision, especially when you factor in the later trade with Antoine Walker, despite the fact he was a good guy.

December 23 - Hawks Acquire Tyronn Lue From Rockets In Exchange For Jon Barry. This trade gets a shrug of the shoulders from me. I'll ok it only because I hate Jon Barry as a commentator. Plus this team needs a PG of some caliber, and no, Boris Diaw does not count.

February 24 - Hawks Acquire Gary Payton, Tom Gugliotta, Michael Stewart and a Future First Round Pick From Boston In Exchange For Antoine Walker. The Hawks immediately bought out Payton so this was essentially Antoine Walker for a first round pick, to which I reply, "YES PLEASE!" I don't even care that this pick was not in the lottery. So, to be fair to Billy Knight, the Hawks received two first rounders for Jason Terry, which isn't a bad haul.

Finally, let's take a look at the free agent signings for the Hawks. Considering the full-on rebuilding mode the Hawks are in during the 2004 offseason, it is safe to say that the Hawks are not attracting any marquee free agents. However, there is one change I would make. Both Jason Collier and Joel Przybilla were free agents the summer of 2004, and were both on the Hawks roster the year before. Due to the tragic events surrounding Collier, I'm making the decision to resign Przybilla and not Collier.

Next post I'm looking at the new roster for the 2004-05 Atlanta Hawks and discussing the results of said roster.

2004 NBA Draft

As I stated in my last post, the beginning of this journey I am calling the Good Call Hawks is the 2004 NBA Draft. Let me remind you of what is going on with the Hawks. The Atlanta Spirit just announced the closing of the purchase of the Hawks on March 31st. The Hawks ended the season with a 28-54 record, good for 12th in the east, and was led by the trio of Jason Terry, Stephen Jackson, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim until Abdur-Rahim was traded to the Blazers for one day of Rasheed Wallace. Meanwhile the Pistons soundly beat the Lakers in the finals 4-1.

At the draft, the Hawks have a pleathora of picks that are intended to be used as the backbone of the rebuilding team. The Hawks have the 6th, 17th, 35th, 38th, and 43rd picks in the draft. While the smart thing to do would be to trade up for the 1st pick to snag Dwight Howard, that is not an option due to the rules of the game.

The 6th pick presents a tough choice, even with hindsight, but the choice to not take Childress is quite easy. Instead the choice is between Deng, Iguodala, and Al Jefferson. While I would normally lean toward the big man, I'm not a huge fan of Jefferson. He keeps ending up on poor teams, and I don't think it's a coincidence. That leaves Deng and Iguodala, who are actually quite similar. While Deng's offensive game is a little more polished, neither are able to carry the offense. Deng is a better shooter, but Iggy is a better defender so I am going to take Iggy with this pick.

The next pick is the 17th, which also presents a tough choice. The options are Josh Smith, Kevin Martin, Anderson Varejao, or Jameer Nelson. I think Nelson is off the table pretty quick compared to the other players. Also, I think I would pass on Martin for the same reasons outlined with Jefferson. While he can pour in the points, it never seems to translate into wins. That leaves Smoove vs. Varejao. While Smoove tends to drive everyone crazy with his shot selection, I think he presents a much more versatile option than Varejao. Plus, I think a better team and more disciplined players surrounding Smoove will push him to be more disciplined himself.

The next three picks are a little easier because there is not much talent left. The only two players left that have had any success by any standard are Chris Duhon and Trevor Ariza, so they will be taken with the 35th and 38th picks respectively. For the 43rd pick, since there really is no other decent alternative, I'm going to take the undrafted Damien Wilkins. For a rebuilding team coming off a 28-54 year, I think getting a Wilkins back invovled with the club will at least put some fans in couple of seats.

So wrapping up, that's Iggy, Smoove, Duhon, Ariza and Wilkins.

The Good Call Hawks

Scott Cunningham/NBAE/Getty Image

www.whatifsports.com is an absolutely incredible site. The website allows you to put together any players from any era on the same team and have them play against other dream teams, or against any regular team. For instance, you can have the '95-'96 Bulls play the '85-'86 Celtics to see who would win in a 7-game series.

Someone told me about the website about two years ago, and it killed my productivity at work. Luckily my work put up a firewall that does not allow me to visit the site anymore, but I have gone back to it recently. First, let me say that I love pretending that I am a GM for a team. I buy Madden merely to play around in Franchise mode. So I will be using the whatifsports website to perform an entertaining experiment.

I will be stepping into a time machine and traveling back to June 24, 2004, the date of the 2004 NBA Draft, and assuming the role of GM for the Atlanta Hawks. The reason I chose the 2004 draft is that it was the first draft after Billy Knight started the full-on tanking of the Atlanta Hawks in order to get some high draft choices. From there, I will assume the role of GM and control the destiny of the Atlanta Hawks with the full knowledge of the future of every NBA player.

A few rules to try and make this as realistic as possible, avoid pure speculation, and a few time-saving tweaks. I know that every move I change would have a domino effect on every other team, but to ensure that I make it to work every day, I'm not going to change every team accordingly. This will mean that players will play against themselves. For instance, I would take Andre Igoudala over Josh Childress with the 6th pick of the 2004 NBA draft. That means anytime the Good Call Hawks play the Sixers, it will be Iggy vs. Iggy.

Also, I'm not going to go through the schedule and simulate every game in order. To simplify, I'm just going to simulate a home and road game against every team. This will give a 58 game sample size. From there, I will figure out how many wins that equals in a 82 games season. This will probably skew the Hawks win total a little low most years since the West was much better than the east, and the Hawks play more games against the east, but I'm willing to live with that.

As for trades, I will only either approve or veto the trades made by the Hawks. For instance, I will probably approve the Joe Johnson trade, but veto the Anthony Johnson trade from the '06-'07 trade. Similarly, if I no longer have the players from the Hawks that were traded, I will say it is vetoed unless the missing player was inconsequential. I'm not going to step into pure speculation and try to swing trades that never occurred. There are too many factors to try and consider and there is no telling if the other GM would pull the trigger.

As for free agents, I'm going to make a rule that I can't change the length or size of the contract. For instance, come 2010, I have to either take or leave Joe Johnson's contract. I'm not going to speculate that he would be willing to take less money due to his new teammates. Also, I'm not going to just give the Hawks every good free agent. If the signing makes sense for both sides and I think the player would take the deal, fine. However, I will veto free agent signings that make no sense (i.e. Speedy Claxton).

I don't know about you, but I'm excited! Monday is the 2004 offseason!