Atlanta trade rumors

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Pitino mentioned on his show that Atlanta is on the decline and is
probably looking to go into a Chicago/Orlando style rebuilding 
mode, which means dump most of your veterans and try to get way
under the cap. When you look at their roster, they have quite a 
few players with contracts expiring in '00 or '01, which means
that 2001 is a likely goal for them to completely clear salary.
In addition they'd probably be very interested in receiving 
draft picks.

Who is on their cap past 2001? The big names, other than rookie
contracts, are Lorenzen Wright and Alan Henderson, who each have
big 7 year, $40M+ contracts. Henderson seems to be the more 
proven performer over his career and during this season. The 
Hawks traded their former All-Star, Laettner (to be fair he was
underperforming), because Henderson had beat him out for a
starting position. His rebounding seems relatively low but you
have Mutombo gobbling up defensive boards; his offensive
rebounding is solid. The problem is that I think he only
plays one position (PF) which means, where does he get his
minutes? You don't want to pay this big money for someone 
playing 10 minutes per game behind Antoine.

Wright is intriguing because he has length and shotblocking
and rebounds well. He hasn't gotten many minutes this year
behind Mutombo and Henderson. He'd probably get minutes at
both the 4/5 spots, maybe even beating out Battie as the backup
center. He fits in with the idea of getting more athletic at
the 4/5 spots. I think Atlanta paid two first round picks in
the sign-and-trade for this guy. I don't know if they're 
thinking of him as a project or if they were hoping for 
immediate dividends in which case he's a bust. 

Assuming that the Hawks are indeed looking to go into rebuilding
(and why not? No future with their current crew) they'd be 
interested in all of our expiring contracts in the next two years,
Ellison, Fortson, Barros, Minor. Plus draft picks. I doubt they'd
be willing to take on any of our bad long-term contracts like
Eric Williams. There's also some discussion about us getting guys
like Jim Jackson and Jason Terry. I don't see that happening unless
we're throwing in more value thru first rounders.

Alex