You know, Billy Knight may have gotten a bad rap. We'll need to reassess his Atlanta legacy at some point. Among other solid draft picks (Josh Smith, Al Horford) and signings (Joe Johnson), the 2008 trade for Mike Bibby -- Knight's final move at the helm of the Hawks -- looks pretty good right now.
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The Hawks are officially back to square one in their search for a general manager to replace the outgoing Billy Knight. ESPN's Marc Stein reports that the team had offered the position to current Cavs front-office exec Chris Grant late last week, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Sekou Smith even went so far as to say "The only thing missing is the official announcement," but after thinking things over this weekend, Grant has apparently passed on the deal.
Okay, this is really bizarre. Not the fact that Mike Woodson is a candidate to get fired -- he has a seriously talented Atlanta Hawks team seriously underperforming in a very weak Eastern Conference. What's bizarre is the Atlanta Journal Constitution has had an article on and off the front page of the Hawks and Sports section for the past few hours, where Sekou Smith states that Billy Knight has approached ownership three times, the most recent on February 16 over the All Star Break (post-Mike Bibby trade) and stated the opinion that Woodson needed to be removed from his position as head coach.
It was not the first time Knight wanted to fire Woodson, two people familiar with the situation told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. On two previous occasions Knight sought permission to fire Woodson, the two people familiar with the situation said. Gearon said he would neither "confirm nor deny" those conversations took place.
"We evaluate every facet of our organization on a daily basis to determine what we need to do to get better," Gearon said.
Knight declined comment on Thursday.
Woodson insisted Thursday that he's never been approached about being fired.
After a seemingly interminable period of, well, drafting small forwards and nothing else, Hawks GM Billy Knight finally nabbed a point guard. And not coincidentally, with Acie Law on board, he now feels they're now done rebuilding. At least in the most literal sense of the word. From The Atlanta Journal Constitution: "Everybody we have is here because we wanted them here," Knight said. "Nobody is in a contract leftover from a previous regime or from a trade that had players added so it would work. Everybody is on this team because we want them on this team and want them to add to the collective that is this team."Part owner Michael Gearon, Jr. was even more optimistic (and explicit):
"We have high expectations, long-term expectations, for this team. And this is what we've been working hard for the last several years, to get to this point where we have a very athletic, deep team that wouldn't be some one-year wonder, but a team with a core group of guys capable of being competitive for many years in our league."Hey, why not. The East is still supremely weak. The Hawks do have a lot of talent and some semblance of a real distribution of height and skill. Josh Smith is about to blow up in a major way. And things can only get better as the Steve Belkin crisis is forced to find some resolution. So let's grant them their moment of hope, and then check back in February. At very least, I expect Atlanta to win over thirty games.
Bethlehem Shoals writes about the NBA without a conscience and sometimes, he can't be contained. When the hour is right, and the news demands it, you'll get more Shoals than usual. One of these hours has arrived, so here's another installment of Longform Shoals.
On draft night, every fan of a lottery team has the same fantasy: That somehow, their team will come up with a franchise-altering figure. That the night will offer them a quick a glimpse of paradise ahead.
Note that I say every fan, not just those who can expect an Oden or Durant. Fans want to be reassured about management, and the pressure they exert far outstrips the actual value of the players up for grabs. That's why the Hawks, Bobcats and Celtics desperately need a "statement pick."
The bell tolls for yet another Kevin Garnett deal, as Atlanta -- the team who was supposed to get Amare Stoudemire out of this -- screwed things up.
There's a persistent joke during the NBA's hot stove season, that a general manager who got killed in a previous swap with another general manager won't take calls from that guy anymore. Isiah Thomas and John Paxson would be an apt example. "Hey Zeke, it's John from Chicago. I've got a deal for you." "%&$@ you, Paxson."[In 2001,] the Hawks took a relatively unknown forward from Spain named Pau Gasol at No. 3 -- and traded him, along with Lorenzen Wright, to the Memphis Grizzlies for Shareef Abdur-Rahim.If they'd known you were ever going to end up in Atlanta, Billy, there's about a dozen Hawks fans who would've grown up rooting for the Atlanta Krunk instead.
The Grizzlies' general manager? Billy Knight.
"If I had known I was ever going to wind up in Atlanta, I would've never done that Gasol trade," Knight said.
The NBA buzz this week has been all about how Portland and Seattle struck gold. Yeah, with a chance to draft to of the highest rated draft prospects in the last ten years, I'd say that they both did pretty well for themselves. However, there is probably one other team that feels like they hit the jackpot on Tuesday. That team is the Atlanta Hawks.
As a provision of the Joe Johnson sign and trade deal, the Hawks would have had to send the Phoenix Suns their first round draft pick unless the pick ended up in the top three. With the Hawks finishing with the fourth best record, the odds were that they'd end up with a pick no higher than number four and end up having to send the pick to the Suns. Everyone (myself included) was already making plans for what Phoenix, not Atlanta should do with their potential first round pick.
The thought of losing their first round pick in a draft this deep was almost too much for their front office staff to handle. Things became so tense that Hawks GM Billy Knight didn't even watch the draft. Instead he sent fellow Hawks front office mate, Dominique Wilkins to represent the team at the draft lottery.
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