Atlanta Hawks finally making some moves

[Agent Kev]

Busy week so far for the Hawks as we got a new coach (finally). Have offered Kenyon Martin an $80+ million deal for 6 years (for which the Nuggets have matched so K-Mart still has to choose which offer he wants). And now they have signed and traded Stephen Jackson (who was not going to stay anyway) to Indiana for Al Harrington.

The Atlanta Hawks and the Indiana Pacers have agreed to a sign-and-trade deal with guard Stephen Jackson, ESPN the Magazine's Ric Bucher reported Saturday night.

The Hawks will re-sign Jackson to a six-year, $44 million deal and then trade him to the Pacers for forward Al Harrington. The trade cannot take place until at least July 14th, per NBA rules.

Earlier Saturday, ESPN Insider Chad Ford reported that Jackson was on his way to the Pacers and that Indiana was now looking to offload Harrington.

Harrington is a real solid pick-up for the Hawks as we have NO inside players right now. He averaged 13.3 points, and 6.4 rebounds per game last year and also led Indiana in Field Goal %.

[IWSfan4life]

Yeah thats a good signing for them, but the lack of size and big man presence still kills them. If they do indeed sign K-Mart (which i'm doubting right now), that'll be a huge help to them. Harrington has breakout potential he showed in Indy that Jackson never had.

-jason Burke

[Agent Kev]

Rumor has it that K-Mart is leaning toward Denver over the Hawks (no big shocker)

[IWSfan4life]

Thats what i was thinking he would do. They are a young and exciting playoff contender with an outside superstar in Carmelo, so this is the best thing for him IMO. Sorry to say but the Hawks should have let Shareef play with Terry awhile longer to improve, and they would have been dangerous.


-Jason Burke

[Agent Kev]

I'm glad they let Shareef go. He has no heart or desire. He's not a leader.

They need to resign Bobby Sura to come off the bench. He was a nice spark plug last year.

[IWSfan4life]

maybe he cried alot or didn't always bring it, but they still got mad production from him and won way more games with him. Now Terry is practically alone out there. Maybe good for the long term, but for now the Hawks could sure use Reef.

-jason Burke

[Agent Kev]

Sources confirm they took one more step by agreeing to deal Antoine Walker, Tony Delk and a first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for Alan Henderson and Jason Terry. The deal will not be announced until Wednesday because the NBA offices were closed Tuesday.

So this would mean that this would be our line-up:

C Jason Collier, 7-0/260 PPG: 11.3 RPG: 5.5 BLK: 0.6 (Stats are probably not indicative of how he will do as his stats are probably WAY better here than he will perform).

F Al Harrington, 6-9/250 PPG: 13.3 RPG: 6.4 BLK: 0.3

F Antoine Walker, 6-9/245 PPG: 14.0 RPG: 8.3 BLK: 0.8

G Josh Childress, 6-7/205 Rookie

G Tony Delk, 6-2/189 PPG: 6.0 RPG: 1.8 BLK: 0.2

Looks to be a long year. We seriously need a point guard and to re-sign Bobby Sura. On the upside High-schooler/first round draft pick Josh Smith kicked ass in Summer Ball average around 15 ppg and shooting the 3 particularly well.

Here's something that could help us out:

By giving up nearly $15 million in contracts with Henderson and Terry, it allowed the Hawks to absorb the more than $14 million of Walker and $3 million of Delk, yet retain enough room to sign free agent center Erick Dampier.

Sources continue to insist the Hawks aren't as interested in Dampier as they are in turning him over to the Memphis Grizzlies and acquiring Bonzi Wells and, hoping, for Stromile Swift, whom the Grizzlies have been reluctant to trade.