C'mon we can afford these guys to round out the bench. Smith's PER is off the charts. Barnes will be tough and a 'glue guy'. Neither are centres, but we have a lot of second round picks to trade for a 7 footer! The we would have a line-up like this:

PG: Teague, Bibbly

SG: JJ, Crawford, Crawford

SF: Marvin, Barnes, Evans

PF: Smith, J, Smith, C

C: Horford, Zaza

C'mon sund!

As this is considered a strong draft there are probably many teams in the Top 10 who would be willing to get rid of (or choose not to pick up options) on some of their players to give space to highly regarded rookies. Would the Hawks be able to pick up any bargains?I am not tlaking stars, but players to boost the bench.

If Washington picks Wall, would that mean Randy Foye doesn't get resigned? He might be a decent backup 1/2. He averaged double figures and seemes to have kept his head in the Wizards disintegration. Would he be worth sigining if Mo doesn't resign?

If Philly takes Turner, who does that leave on the outer? Lou Williams? Meeks?

DeAndre Jordan from the Clippers?

There are other possibilities further down- Julian Wright from N.O, one of the Wolves point guards?

Any ideas?

Can the Hawks get Brandon Bass? He could be a Joe Smith upgrade. In Dallas he averaged 8.5 pts and 4.5 boards in 19 minutes. This could give the Hawks a huge athletic boost off the bench and limit the wear and tear on our 4 and 5- Al and Josh if that stays the same.  The Magic never play him, he is young, and big in the paint. But does he get paid too much for us to offer a trade with spare parts?

There is a lot of speculation about letting Joe go (or a sign and trade) and bring in a center and let Al play the 4. But are there any quality centers out there that would be available? Take the All-NBA teams; Howard, Stoudemire, Bogut. The only one who will be a free agent is Stoudemire and it is unlikely the Suns would see him go after making the conf. finals. Though a sign and trade is possible. He is 28, so figures to give 4 or 5 more good years if his body can stand it. But it would be pretty unlikely he would end up in ATL. So who does that leave? Oden? Would he be worth the risk? Noah, would be a great fit but seems very unlikely Chicago would let him go, espeically having cleared so much cap room. Hibbert? He passes well and has post moves, but seems like he would be pushed around by Howard and has the reputation as a complainer. After that most centers are either too old (Camby, Chandler, Haywood), unlikely to be traded (Bynum, Kaman, B. Lopez, Nene) or out of position 4s anyway (Bargnani, Harrington, Jason Thompson). The only centers I can see being on the market are Jefferson from the Wolves and Okafor from the Hornets. Would we be better off replacing Joe with another wing?

After Game 7 and in the various previews of the Hawks vs. Magic it is clear that the media  think the Hawks are inconsistent and dramatically overmatched by the Magic. Well, nothing new there. What is interesting is that most of this criticism comes from 'squeezing past' the Bucks in 7 games. As the only series to go 7 games in the first round, the Hawks vicotry is seen as illegitimate or somehow lucky. In pervious years when the Celtics were pushed to 7 games in the early rounds it showed their 'championship mettle' in 2008 and their 'championship heart' in 2009. The Lakers going 7 games with Houston in 2009 was 'good for them'. The Magic's series with Philadelphia in 2009 was 'character building', etc etc.  But the Hawks? Never! Yes the 4th Quarter of Game Five was an absoulte meltdown, taking that out, the two losses in Milwaukee were not too shameful given the Hawks poor road record and the Bucks being one of the best teams in the league after the All-Star Break (though the Bogut injury is a factor). The Hawks controlled all their 4 victories  and played their hearts out with their backs against the wall. For any other team that is 'character' for the Hawks it becomes a sign of  weakness. Oh well, seems we can never make anyone happy!