Schlenk already messing up too much, and it's not about talent but about professionalism

[sturt]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/basketball/millsap-hawks-never-made-contract-offer/nFCnWsmkYiGUi3dMXhBFDP/

There's no excuse for this. You said what you said publicly. You should have AT LEAST, Colonel Schlenk, have had the balls to speak with Sap before July 1 to let him know you'd had a change of heart.

Professionalism costs you nothing, but the absence of professionalism can cost you everything.

Can't afford these rookie mistakes that keep cropping up every couple of weeks.

[AHF]

1 hour ago, sturt said:

ou should have AT LEAST, Colonel Schlenk, have had the balls to speak with Sap before July 1 to let him know you'd had a change of heart.

Sure they didn't meet?  This article doesn't make that clear to me.

Quote

Article:  "The Hawks were in touch will [sic] Millsap during the free-agent period."

Millsap:  "Atlanta decided to go another direction. They didn’t want to make an offer."

Sounds like they were in touch with Millsap, told him they were going youth on the team and wouldn't be making an offer and didn't.

[sturt]

I'll grant you there's some room there.

But when I read that, I read it differently.... being in touch during the free agency period suggests to me some on-going discussion. As opposed to, before the free agency period begins, saying "thanks, Paul, but we're going another direction after all."

Once that decision has been made, there's no reason for any further on-going discussion.

You may respond, "Well, maybe they said, 'We're still interested to make you an offer, but only if you find in speaking with these other teams that the money they're talking about comes down to a number we're comfortable with.'"

I hope that's the case. And it might have been. As you said, it's just not made clear. C-Viv normally is so good to ask all the questions and to get thorough answers... don't know what went wrong this time.

 

[red2play]

The entire league (with the exception of the wizards), even the nuggets with only paying him 90 mil (when people speculated he would get 200 mil) have started to realize that long term BIG contracts don't work.  Each team is trying to work through the draft to make a team.  GS built its team through the draft and then added one big player which helped make them two time champs.  Millsap opted out, hoping for the big contract, not the Hawks and I'm sure it was talked about.

[Randy]

Perhaps I'm wrong but I thought for sure Ressler said resigning Paul was the team's highest priority not too long ago. 

[GameTime]

4 minutes ago, Randy said:

Perhaps I'm wrong but I thought for sure Ressler said resigning Paul was the team's highest priority not too long ago. 

Ressler/Budcox would have given him the 200 million on Day one.

[Admin]

What offer did Millsap or his agent make to the Hawks? Sounds very unprofessional to not even attempt to stay with the team instead of leaving to be one of the highest paid players in the NBA. Sad when this guy is getting paid more than Kevin Durant. I mean if he came in and said I'm willing to take less to remain a Hawk then who knows he may have been here next year. 

[skimaskway23]

Somebody has to make the tough decisions. Some of y'all too soft for this business

[ATLBob]

3 minutes ago, Dolfan23 said:

What offer did Millsap or his agent make to the Hawks? Sounds very unprofessional to not even attempt to stay with the team instead of leaving to be one of the highest paid players in the NBA. Sad when this guy is getting paid more than Kevin Durant. I mean if he came in and said I'm willing to take less to remain a Hawk then who knows he may have been here next year. 

Dolfan, I think you forgot the sarcasm emoji.

Just trying to help. Squawkers might read this and think you're being serious.

[Admin]

2 minutes ago, ATLBob said:

Dolfan, I think you forgot the sarcasm emoji.

Just trying to help. Squawkers might read this and think you're being serious.

I'm being serious with a side of sarcasm. I think it's bullshit that he publicly tried to shame the Hawks after they made him into the player that he is. He expects class and professionalism from them but doesn't return it? Did they go after him on Twitter for expecting 30 million? Just pisses me off how it's not a 2 way street. 

[hawkster911]

The GM should have offered a contract for the respect to our best player, who wanted to remain a Hawk, a contract offer.  The absence of a contract offer Is poor class.  Other free agents wanting to come to ATL will think twice before coming to the A.  A marketing nightmare.

The new GM may have ideas for the future, but his lack of execution trying to do a sign and trade or contract offer are downright bogus.  BudCox made a mess of the situation the past two years.  The new GM is trying to clean things up and I am disappointed that his training and ideals from Golden State didn't transfer over to the Hawks. He may be a great talent evaluator for the draft but he lacks free agency marketing class. 

[sturt]

This thread isn't about whether he should have offered or shouldn't have offered. That's another thread. This is simply, if you say you're going to do something, do it... or if your plans change, then simply communicate that.

I'd like to think that it went down in the ideal way mentioned above to AHF. Maybe it did.

[Admin]

26 minutes ago, sturt said:

This thread isn't about whether he should have offered or shouldn't have offered. That's another thread. This is simply, if you say you're going to do something, do it... or if your plans change, then simply communicate that.

I'd like to think that it went down in the ideal way mentioned above to AHF. Maybe it did.

So you want the thread to be more about a hypothetical that makes the Hawks look bad instead of a certainty that also makes the Hawks look bad? 

The only thing you'll hear about this will be from Millsap and his agent trying to make the Hawks look bad instead of remaining classy and professional and keeping private matters private. The Hawks organization isn't going to give this the time of day to the media. 

[phoostal]

1 minute ago, Dolfan23 said:

So you want the thread to be more about a hypothetical that makes the Hawks look bad instead of a certainty that also makes the Hawks look bad? 

The only thing you'll hear about this will be from Millsap and his agent trying to make the Hawks look bad instead of remaining classy and professional and keeping private matters private. The Hawks organization isn't going to give this the time of day to the media. 

How is Milsap making them look bad?  He was asked a question he answered it.   Maybe you didn't like his answer, but he just answered a reporter.  Neither of us were there so we don't know what was said behind closed doors.   The only one that does was Milsap and he doesn't strike me as a person who would lie to make the Hawks look bad. 

As far as the Atlanta FO they might not care, but they certainly haven't been honest with their fan base so far.   That's a fact.   Maybe whatever their plan is will work out, but their approach with the fans and media has been horrible to say the least. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, skimaskway23 said:

Somebody has to make the tough decisions. Some of y'all too soft for this business

This is not tough.  Anybody could've refused to re-sign someone not under contract anymore.  Breaking up a team is one of the easiest things to do in sports.  Building a team is hard as hell.

[sturt]

@Dolfan23, should C-Viv asked Sap for some greater clarity?

As a customer of the entertainment product that the Hawks are selling, I would have liked to have seen that... and given that C-Viv's employer is a media outlet also considers this (ie, Hawks news) to be a good component in the interest of selling their product, I would think it only makes sense for them to want to appeal to Hawks customers like me.

Sap's liability in this?

He seems to have been asked a question, and he answered it at face value.

My only thing is, you want players league-wide to have a generally positive impression of the professionalism that exists with the ownership, the FO and the coaching staff.

I believe, as I said in the initial post, it costs you nothing to conduct yourself in a professional manner at times like this, but if you fail to conduct yourself that way, it holds the potential to make a difference in how other players on the market, both now and later, regard your team.

That's all I'm getting at.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

 

4 hours ago, sturt said:

http://www.ajc.com/sports/basketball/millsap-hawks-never-made-contract-offer/nFCnWsmkYiGUi3dMXhBFDP/

There's no excuse for this. You said what you said publicly. You should have AT LEAST, Colonel Schlenk, have had the balls to speak with Sap before July 1 to let him know you'd had a change of heart.

Professionalism costs you nothing, but the absence of professionalism can cost you everything.

Can't afford these rookie mistakes that keep cropping up every couple of weeks.

Well that;s twice he's done this.  Because he didn't talk to Dwight either, before he was traded.  Dwight had to hear about it from people trolling him on Twitter.

[AUhawksfan]

Sap is a professional and moved on.  I'll miss the guy, and it's nice for once to read about a player leaving and speaking good about the fans. Nothing for the fans to hate about him either. Best of luck Paul.

[tonegully]

Best of luck Paul. Travis did you dirty. 

[KB21]

1 hour ago, phoostal said:

How is Milsap making them look bad?  He was asked a question he answered it.   Maybe you didn't like his answer, but he just answered a reporter.  Neither of us were there so we don't know what was said behind closed doors.   The only one that does was Milsap and he doesn't strike me as a person who would lie to make the Hawks look bad. 

As far as the Atlanta FO they might not care, but they certainly haven't been honest with their fan base so far.   That's a fact.   Maybe whatever their plan is will work out, but their approach with the fans and media has been horrible to say the least. 

That's definitely a fact.  Travis Schlenk is definitely not an honest person at this point.  In fact, it will not surprise me to see him fire a big portion of the front office after free agency.  He did tell them afterall that he wasn't firing anyone.