Sund comments on coaches

[NJHAWK]

They have a few quotes from Sund at the Orlando pre draft camp on Hawks.com. He says he is looking forward to getting to know the coaches and players so they can build on the sucsess they created in the post season. That to me sounds like EXACTLY what came out of Gearons mouth in the days after the playoffs about Woody staying. WELCOME BACK TO ATLANTA MIKE WOODSON. Sad but true. I know an ajc article says he will have THE say in who the coach is but those comments sound like Gearon wrote them for him.

[KB21]

Rick Sund said that he will meet with the coaches and the players over the next week to get a lay of the land. He's not going to approach this job like a fan would and make personnel decisions based on knee jerk reactions. Rick will talk to the coaching staff to see what their concerns are, what their core philosophies are, and where they believe the team needs to go, and he will talk to the players to get a good feel on what this roster feels about this coaching staff.

Personally, I think Mike Woodson is gone, and that was not my initial opinion after the season. I've heard some speculation that Mike Woodson was going to get the same deal that they offered to Billy Knight....a one year extension on his contract. I've also heard speculation that Mike Woodson wants a longer termed contract, and the ASG isn't willing to do that with Mike. I think in the end, the decision to replace Mike Woodson will be made by Rick Sund, and the ownership will back the move. Who will Rick Sund hire? I have no clue. Rick has been around the league for a long time, so he has a lot of coaching connections.

[NJHAWK]

To me it was just that " build on the sucess of the postseason comment" when he talked about the coaching staff. I swear Gearon said the same exact thing. Maybe Woody will want a longer deal than Sund is willing to give. We can alwyas hope.

[HawkNJersey]

Woody, for us Jersey boys....do us a favor and want a longer contract. Please?

[KB21]

In my opinion, if the goal of the ownership was to find a GM that would keep Mike Woodson, they would have hired Billy King. Afterall, Larry Brown was openly campaigning for the Hawks to hire Billy King because he knew Billy would keep Mike Woodson as head coach. Instead, the Hawks have hired a general manager that has no history with Mike Woodson at all.

[Packfill]

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In my opinion, if the goal of the ownership was to find a GM that would keep Mike Woodson, they would have hired Billy King. Afterall, Larry Brown was openly campaigning for the Hawks to hire Billy King because he knew Billy would keep Mike Woodson as head coach. Instead, the Hawks have hired a general manager that has no history with Mike Woodson at all.

The fact that Sund has no prior relationship with Woody would make his decision to retain Woody, if that is indeed what he does, more circumspect and would evidence that Woody's retention was a condition of the job offer from the ASG. In my mind, that would cast a long shadow on Sund's "authority" as GM here in Atlanta.

[DrReality]

I think two important factors will influence their decision with Woody:

first is finding someone who will take the job and they won't go through this same embarassing thing they did with the GM.

The other is money.

Both of those don't seem to be in our favor for those of us who want Woody gone.

But I hope you are right.

[Packfill]

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I think two important factors will influence their decision with Woody:

first is finding someone who will take the job and they won't go through this same embarassing thing they did with the GM.

The other is money.

Both of those don't seem to be in our favor for those of us who want Woody gone.

But I hope you are right.

If Sund was a guy the ASG really wanted then presumably he had enough negotiating leverage to give him the ability to get the coach of his choosing (within reason, but at least a market rate contract) and to make the moves he wants to make.

If he doesn't have that authority and/or mandate, then he was more likely just happy to have a paying job and will run the franchise at the wishes of the owners. I hope this is not case for the sake of the franchise. I guess we will find out one way or the other relatively soon.

[KB21]

I'm not sure what was so embarrassing about the GM search. The owners conducted a thorough search process and hired the guy they apparently wanted after the interviews. Oh, I see you choose to believe the ESPN article that says Chris Grant turned the job down. Jeff Shultz, who is not one that will back down on criticizing the Hawks, says that report is somewhere between dubious and Sasquatch in it's truth. My guess is, the Marc Stein report came from Chris Grant's agent, who has a reason for making it sound like his client was the Hawks top choice and that his client turned them down.

Look at the date of that report by Marc Stein. On May 27th, he stated that the Hawks were "scrambling" after being turned down by their top choice. On May 28th, they hired Rick Sund. Now, does that look like they were scrambling to get someone else to you? Do you think they picked up the phone today, interviewed, and negotiated the contract with Rick Sund all in the matter of hours?

My guess is, the Chris Grant report came out when the Chris Grant camp found out the Hawks were going to hire Rick Sund. There is nothing embarrassing about it. We don't even know who the candidates the Hawks interviewed actually were and will likely never know.

[KB21]

According to reports, Sund was being coveted in other places. Most notably by Donnie Walsh and the Knicks. Now, he may not have been the top choice there, but the fact is, Rick Sund had other options. Considering his experience in the league, I don't see him as a guy who would take a job to be a lap dog just because he wants a paying job.

[mrhonline]

KB, your response begs two questions:

1.) Why do the Hawks always let themselves be "used" by the media?

2.) Do front office staff have agents?

[KB21]

1. The Hawks have been a common target for ridicule by the national press for a while now. Even when they were winning 50+ games a season under Lenny Wilkens, the Hawks were still just the Hawks to the national media despite Jeffrey Denberg's national status as a beat writer for the Hawks. Chances are, without Jeffrey Denberg during that time, the coverage of the Hawks back then would have been even worse.

2. Yes. Front office personnel have agents just as players and coaches have agents.

[Packfill]

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According to reports, Sund was being coveted in other places. Most notably by Donnie Walsh and the Knicks. Now, he may not have been the top choice there, but the fact is, Rick Sund had other options. Considering his experience in the league, I don't see him as a guy who would take a job to be a lap dog just because he wants a paying job.

Let's hope so. But, Walsh was not bringing him in to be a the decisionmaker (Walsh fills that role).

Again, what he does with Woody will be very telling of the type of mandate he was given.

[Jammin29]

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They have a few quotes from Sund at the Orlando pre draft camp on Hawks.com. He says he is looking forward to getting to know the coaches and players so they can build on the sucsess they created in the post season. That to me sounds like EXACTLY what came out of Gearons mouth in the days after the playoffs about Woody staying. WELCOME BACK TO ATLANTA MIKE WOODSON. Sad but true. I know an ajc article says he will have THE say in who the coach is but those comments sound like Gearon wrote them for him.

i dont care if this came out of Gearons mouth first, this is a good thing people, i think woody can do it this year, he impressed me with some of the things in start during the playoffs. Coaches get to much pressure put on them to win, i spose every team under 500 shoudl be replaced ? there were streches during the season where we just didnt shoot good at all and gave us losing streaks woody cant improve shooting, coaches that try do that screw dey shot up more, there are somethings i dont like about woody like isolation plays for JJ and his rotation is horrible. This team never ever had a good focus of what we needed to do to win at all, i believe now we do have good focus on how things need to be done on gamenight, unless we can get A.Johnson Woody is the best coach out there for us, stop hatin, he might not even end up as coach, i just hope Sund is allowed to do what he wants to do

[frosgrim]

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Rick Sund said that he will meet with the coaches and the players over the next week to get a lay of the land. He's not going to approach this job like a fan would and make personnel decisions based on knee jerk reactions. Rick will talk to the coaching staff to see what their concerns are, what their core philosophies are, and where they believe the team needs to go, and he will talk to the players to get a good feel on what this roster feels about this coaching staff.

Personally, I think Mike Woodson is gone, and that was not my initial opinion after the season. I've heard some speculation that Mike Woodson was going to get the same deal that they offered to Billy Knight....a one year extension on his contract. I've also heard speculation that Mike Woodson wants a longer termed contract, and the ASG isn't willing to do that with Mike. I think in the end, the decision to replace Mike Woodson will be made by Rick Sund, and the ownership will back the move. Who will Rick Sund hire? I have no clue. Rick has been around the league for a long time, so he has a lot of coaching connections.

So KB, you can site "uncomfirmed sources" and other pieces of speculation. But the minute someone else uses these sources, they are just using the media and that can't be trusted? Come on man, its one way or the other.

[Wretch]

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...there are somethings i dont like about woody like isolation plays for JJ and his rotation is horrible.

You do realize that this is the entirety of Woodson's offense right?

[KB21]

There is a big difference in what I said in this post and what some of you say about the ownership group. I said in the post that I heard speculation. Speculation means it could be true but may not be true. Nowhere in the post did I say that anything I heard was a matter of fact, and that is very unlike what some of you have said.

[Swatguy]

Even at retaining Woody, his staff will more than likely have to be replenished. Drew and Fiz wanted out last year. I talked to Fiz last season and he was pissed. However his options may have changed. Does he still have a spot on the Cavs bench? Or is some place else for him? It is not clear if BK or the owners stopped them from moving. I think it was the owners because BK allowed them to interview.

So all of the staff are short timers right now.

That being said, unless Woody has coaches lined up, he may be gone.

[frosgrim]

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There is a big difference in what I said in this post and what some of you say about the ownership group. I said in the post that I heard speculation. Speculation means it could be true but may not be true. Nowhere in the post did I say that anything I heard was a matter of fact, and that is very unlike what some of you have said.

So how is this different from citing published reports and radio interviews? Just because someone doesn't post the source EVERY time, I think everyone on the board knows the sources of information, esp when we all cite the same articles about the refusal to fire Woodson, the Childress trade, etc.

[KB21]

It's different because you guys are stating speculative statements as if they facts. Like the Josh Childress and the 11th pick for Calderon trade. Because someone speculated that a deal was talked about, you guys took it up as facts and blamed the ownership for meddling when the deal didn't go down. First off, there is a great chance that deal was never discussed, and secondly, it would have been a very bad deal for the Hawks. Calderon isn't worth the 11th pick and Josh Childress. I would have done it for Josh Childress straight up, but not for both.