In the wake of high profile player movement like Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams, the Atlanta Hawks decided to make a move of their own, and acquire a PG to help them down the stretch, and with a playoff run. Early reports were that they were targeting Devin Harris or Raymond Felton, either of which would have been a significant upgrade over the decaying Mike Bibby. Alas, the Hawks were unable to put together a deal for either of those players, so, on Wednesday night, they pulled the trigger on a deal and acquired…
Kirk Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong? What? Wait ’til you hear what they gave up. That makes it even better. In exchange for a backup PG and Armstrong, who “is limited offensively and doesn’t rebound well for his size”, the Hawks shipped off Mike Bibby, Jordan Crawford, Mo Evans, AND their 2011 first round draft pick. What the hell? I thought that these kinds of ridiculous deals were a thing of the past for the Hawks. I guess not.
Is Hinrich an upgrade over Bibby? Yes. He’s certainly a better defender, and is much younger, but his salary is $700,000 more for 2011-12 than Bibby and Jordan Crawford combined. This makes no sense to me. Maybe some basketball minds that are more advanced than mine can explain it to me, but I just can’t wrap my mind around it at this point. Still the same old Hawks after all.
Original Story:
20
1
