Insider Blueprint

[jeddelong]

This really hurt to read. I don't know how Chris Ford and others in the media get off thinking that they can bully the Hawks team and fans. After the trades he said we wouldn't win another game...not even close. He castigates us for trading Rasheed, who do we care Rasheed goes to he was gone anyway. My understanding is that Knight is in charge, no questions there. Just yesterday he was applauding a possible trade between Dallas and Orlando where Dallas would take on Grant Hill and get the first pick in the draft while also giving up antonie walker to give orlando flexiblity the following year. How is this any different from Atlanta sending Henderson to Orlando (8 million off next year) and taking Grant Hill in return for the pick and Grant Hill. Of course he doesn't really mention that...

Hawks starting from scratch

By Chad Ford

NBA Insider

Send an Email to Chad Ford Thursday, May 6

It's taken me months to muster up the wherewithal to write a Hawks blueprint. Like almost everyone else in Atlanta and around the league, I've lost interest over the last several years in one of the most bland, winless franchises in the NBA. What a difference a few years make. Two summers ago, the Hawks looked destined to be a real contender in the East. In fact, they guaranteed it. With Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Theo Ratliff, Glenn Robinson and Jason Terry playing together, the team had plenty of offensive firepower.

The playoff guarantee was the stuff of marketing genius and, for the first time in a long time, there was actually a buzz about the Hawks. Of course, a month into the season, we all recognized that GM Pete Babcock hadn't built a contender; he'd built a shanty town based on fragile knees and inflated egos. No one played defense. No one shared the ball. The coach lost his

job. Then the GM lost his job. Then the team started trading guys away. Before we knew it a For Sale sign hung outside the Philips Arena. All was lost.

This past season was a disaster. The Hawks' sale started with one owner, then mysteriously turned to another group of owners, led by Boston's Steve Belkin, at the last minute. In the meantime, the franchise was left in limbo. GM Billy Knight, determined to get cap space for the upcoming offseason, began trading away the entire team. Before it was over, Robinson, Ratliff, Abdur-Rahim and Nazr Mohammed would all be wearing different uniforms. Guys with names like Sura, Rebraca, Person and Przybilla were replacing former all-stars. But the killer was Knight's decision at the trade deadline to send Rasheed Wallace to Detroit for a host of expiring contracts and the No. 17 pick in the 2004 draft. With that one swift move, the Hawks turned the Pistons into a powerhouse and completely left the cupboards bare in Atlanta.

When the new ownership finally took control (ironically called Atlanta Spirit) it inherited the shell of basketball team, a flawed arena, six season ticket holders, five angry players and warehouse full of Big Dog jerseys. $250 million sure doesn't buy what it used to.

How long will it take for the Hawks to rebuild from scratch? Here's a look at what to expect as Insider continues its summer blueprint series.

Hawks Summer Blueprint

DRAFT: The Hawks own two first-round picks in this year's draft. They have the No. 6 overall pick and they also own the Bucks' No. 17 pick. The Hawks received the Bucks' pick as part of the Wallace trade via the Pistons. They need all the help they can get. Overall, the Hawks have a 10.4 percent chance of getting the first overall pick in the draft. Just as importantly, they have an 11.2 percent chance of getting the second overall pick. That's

because the Hawks are one of the few teams that covet high school start Dwight Howard as much or more than Emeka Okafor. Howard is a local kid with a huge following in Atlanta, and some within the Hawks, who are rebuilding from scratch anyway, think think he's the perfect kid to start building around. If the Hawks don't get either of the first two picks, they have several interesting players to choose from in the sixth position. Both Shaun Livingston and Luol Deng would be very interesting choices here. However, both should be gone by the time the Hawks are picking. More likely they'll have their choice of athletic high school forward Josh Smith and Stanford small forward Josh Childress, point guards Devin Harris and Ben Gordon, or several promising international big men like Andris Biedrins, Pavel Podkolzine and Kosta Perovic.

With their second first-round pick, don't be surprised if they go big. There are several freakish big men in the draft and several of them should be sitting there for the taking this far down. The Hawks, with two first-round picks, can afford to take a risk on one project, especially if they go with a point guard or small forward with their first pick. Figure them to look at players like Brazil's

Tiago Splitter, Colorado's David Harrison, Serbia's Peja

Samardziski, Puerto Rico's Peter John Ramos or BYU's Rafael Araujo.

FREE AGENCY: The Hawks are essentially losing their whole team to free agency this summer. Only Jason Terry, Boris Diaw, Chris Crawford, Alan Henderson and Travis Hansen remain under contract for next season. It will be pretty surprising if they sign any of their

current free agents to significant deals. Stephen Jackson is already claiming that he wants out of Atlanta. Most of the other players who hit the market -- Bob Sura, Zeljko Rebraca, Joel Przybilla and Wesley Person -- were spare parts picked up for trade purposes. The good news is that it leaves the Hawks with significant cap room to work with. Once you figure in cap holds and minimum roster spots for the Hawks, the team is looking at roughly $18 million in cap space to work with this summer. But here's the kicker . . . can they get anyone to take it? Atlanta isn't a hotbed for NBA recruiting these days. The team is in shambles, the fan support is awful, the team has no coach, and no one knows for sure what the new ownership is going to do with the team. There are several interesting free agents on the market, but the chances seem unlikely that the Hawks could ever lure them to Atlanta. Kobe Bryant, Kenyon Martin, Mehmet Okfur, Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson and Stromile Swift would all be nice fits in

Atlanta. But with the exception of Crawford (who'll do anything to get out of Chicago), can you really imagine any of these players signing with the Hawks? I could see the Hawks being contract leverage (for a restricted free agent like Martin), but in the end Hawks fans should keep their expectations in check.

TRADES: The only significant player left on the team is Terry, who continues to put up nice numbers, but is neither the point guard nor the franchise player the Hawks need him to be. Atlanta matched the Jazz's offer sheet to Terry last summer and have been regretting it ever since. Terry has been unhappy in Atlanta and it is believed the team will work hard to shop him this summer. The one catch is that the Hawks cannot trade Terry without his permission (or to the Jazz) until Sept. 25th. Securing his permission shouldn't be a problem. Finding a team willing to give up

something of value in return for Terry may be a trickier

proposition. In an ideal world the Hawks would love to unload Henderson's contract (1 year, $8.3 million remaining) as part of a Terry trade . . . but don't count on it. The Hawks can also use their extensive cap room to facilitate trades with teams that are trying to get further under the salary cap. The Suns, Magic, Pistons, Clippers, Spurs, Wizards and Cavs all fall in that category this year specifically. But the truth is almost every team has issues in this area. This may be the best, and only way, for the Hawks to rebuild quickly.

COACHING: The candidates are coming out of the woodwork now that coach Terry Stotts has been fired. The most prominent rumor floating around the league has Dallas assistant and former Lakers head coach Del Harris as the front-runner for the job. Mike Fratello and Lionel Hollins have also been mentioned for the position and the Hawks would be very interested in Warriors head coach Eric Musselman if the Warriors decide to let him go. For now, however, Harris is the front-runner . . . but I'm not sure what that really means for the Hawks. While Harris is an excellent

coach, he's looking at a long, major rebuilding project in Atlanta. Those type of jobs never really pan out for veteran coaches who get tired of losing, start playing the few veterans they have on their roster and, inevitably, get fired. Musselman is the perfect candidate, having served as a popular assistant here. He's a great motivator and knows how to get the most out of his young players, but knows when Chris Mullin is ever going to get around to firing

him.

FRONT OFFICE: For now it looks like Billy Knight is still running the show. The Hawks shocked a lot of people in the league when they hired Dominique Wilkens as the vice president of basketball. While Wilkens has always had a front office role with the Hawks, some read the promotion to mean that he, not Knight, was now running the Hawks. As far as I can tell, both Knight and Wilkens report to president Bernie Mullin, who then reports to an ownership board consisting of five of the owners who must approve everything from trades to coaching changes. Got all of that? If you don't, you're not alone. GMs around the league claim that they too are in the dark about who's really in charge in Atlanta. For now Knight is doing most of the hands-on work, but without the power to say yes or no to any deal . . . there are issues. What the Hawks need now is a rebuilding plan. Free-agent acquisition committees (which Wilkens is the head of) are a start, but they need a more comprehensive plan on how they are going to rebuild this basketball team from the ground up. The good news is that for the first time in a long time, the Hawks have the financial flexibility to make something happen. The bad news is that the team is so far in the tank, it's going to take awhile to convince players that Atlanta is a great place to play again. What does that mean for Hawks fans? The teams has probably hit rock bottom. But it's going to take several years to climb out of the hole it's suck in. Have fun.

[JTFan31]

Great Article!! Great Read!!

I do hope for somethings to happen this offseason. One of them is I believe we should re-sign Jax, Sura and Pryz. We all saw what Jax and Sura can do and I believe Pryz is what we need as a starting center, someone that can rebound and battle, block some shots and start a fast break and he is big.

Hopefully we can draft Howard, that will be a big plus. A starting lineup of JT/Sura/Jax/Howard/Pryz can make things happen. At the 17th pick, getting a guy like Splitter will also do wonders for this team. He can come in and run with the first unit to replace Pryz. We need to go after talent first. In the 2nd round we can go after 1 big banger inside, a swingman and a PG. That way we have backups in every position, by the looks of things this draft to me seems very deep (according to NBAdraft.net) they have Duhon going at 42nd pick. Picking a Duhon in the 2nd round to be a backup would be awesome, then going after a banger and a swingman, would make us deep next year, very deep.

Anything is possible, and there is a possibility that we can have a chance of getting Howard.

[cyman3]

are u sure Stephen Jackson wants out of ATL?

or are they assumin this?

[Weez]

no, the whole article is spun that way, perhaps to make Ford's job of writing it easier. Granted that he's got some hx/reasons for it....but it's still sad, given the attention that he put into most of the other blueprints (even washington)

-as we all know SJax opted out for money. He's stated that he wouldn't mind being back in Atl, though has also hinted that he has a "feeling" that he could wind up back in SAN. Other than that, he's mentioned no cities, suitors, or conditions to his return. Simply put, he wants Dave Chappelle's catch phrase ~ I'm rich bitch!

- he fails to mention any of the "records" of the teams going into or coming out of the trades. to the point of failing to mention SJax's breakout here as well.

-unless I'm mistaken, the ownership group is has two "front-men" in Belkin and Gearon. I'm sure that they all have some input...but those two have most of the "regular input" and it's been long-stated that Knight has complete control.

- JT and trading him ~ The one catch is that the Hawks cannot trade Terry without his permission (or to the Jazz) until Sept. 25th." WE've all argued on this, but thought I had full understanding of the situation...that being that with the Hawks now under the cap, they can trade JT despite it's not haivng been a year since he signed his deal.

- While discussing "FA's don't want to come to ATL," he doesn't even mention, even in the backhanded way, the general followup line to that statement..."despite many NBAers and pro players living their in the offseason and the city having a great night life, esp. for those of celebrity status." Nor is mention made (and I've discussed this agnosiom) about why, as things stand right now, ATL would be one fo only two teams outside of the LAL with the ability to sign Kobe...

Like I said, the article is fraught with spin and inaccuracies. I understand why he didn't put more effort into getting things right or attempting to write a more positive artictle, or any positives really (other than they have cap room....which you can't help but mention). If you're not a fan of one of the players that's been in Atlanta since "the shakedown of '99" then you most likely have little reason to understnad or care about the happenings here....but wait, a journalist's job is to....

[TheDude]

i agree with weez...chad ford's a bumbling idiot... how is in any way Phillips a flawed arena? It's considered one of the nicest arenas in the league... He seems more intent on continuing with the low confidence, Hawks-won't-do-anything, doldrum verbage in talking about them. Reality is, Atlanta had a blueprint down but it failed and therefore fan support was low.

If we show committment to getting free agents in and hiring a good coach and making solid draft picks, players would have no problem coming here. BUT those things will need to be shown.

And what the heck is he talking about one of the worst losing franchies in the history of the league? yeah we've had like 5 bad years but before then we were in the playoffs all the freakin time...

I agree, he needs to evenly evaluate the situation with a clear mind instead of just automatically figuring that with a NEW coach, and NEW ownership, and NEW cap space, and NEW high draft picks, that we'll continue to be bad.

what a tool.

[Diesel]

Ford is a trip. I think that he is a Hawks fan or at least was a Hawks fan. In his early days he would lurk here to take part in things like Ask the GM and things like that as well as other discussion. Now, it's funny to see the pros treat him like a b---- on Tuesdays. About our blueprint.

I think that we have to pick the right coach, go into the draft and make some good draft picks.

FAcy is a serious question mark. Who can we get?

I don't want Kmart... But a guy like Kobe could give us national attention. We need our Vick.. So I wouldn't be so fast to sign Jax to a big Contract until I have exhausted pursuit of Kobe.

JT/Kobe/Jax/Howard/Pryz...

That's a good starting 5, I would even trade JT if neccessary.

[OGRat]

I agree that Ford's an ahole and I wish there were something we could do to get over to him and other journalist/analysts that Atlanta has not lost interest in the Hawks. I believe that the city will support the team once things rebound a bit more.

One thing he mentioned that does concern me though was the fact that other GMs do not know who is making decisions for the team. May be this is not so much a question of who is running but how things run.

I can't help but think that there may be some deals that will not get done in Atlanta because it will take too long for the team to confirm decisions. I think that other GMs may be concerned about what it will take for the team to make a decision.

[Diesel]

For all that are concerned, I would hope that Knight is given room to work and that he can establish a relationship with Nique and Mullin where they share power without having to run to the Owners all the time.

Unless our Owners plan to be like Cuban and have their hand in everything, they should sit back and let the people they have hired to run things.

[Plainview1981]

Personally, I think the new owners wanted to keep Stotts

and Billy didn't want to...Guess what, Terry got fired. That

has to say something about how much control Knight has.

[Lascar78]

what basis do you have for thinking the owners wanted to keep stotts?

[Plainview1981]

Some of the articles I read from it seemed like they liked

Stotts and wanted to keep him or would be just fine with

keeping him. Seems like Knight really wanted to get rid

of him. Actually there was one or two articles but it's

tough to really know I guess. I think the owners are going

to back whatever Knight wants and say it's good for the

team.

[OGRat]

Even in the original post, it was stated the Billy wanted to can Stotts earlier, but that he had to win over some of the owners. This is what I mean about it taking the organization a lot of time to make decisions. I just hope they are smart enough to realize that they can't continue to manage by committee.

[emeans]

I am so sick of these outside writers acting like they know everything that is going on in Atlanta. First of all this is not the sorriest franchise in the NBA. The last I check we are in the 6 slot in the lottery and not the 1 slot. We won a lot of games after the trades and was always competitive even though it was said we wouldn't win a game after those events. Actually this team was better than before. He failed to mention this.

Stephan A on ESPN said the same thing when I don't think they actually saw these guys play 1 time they are just going by perceptions.

This team is not as bad as some teams in the NBA....the difference is that they have a plan and I think it will all work out

[DominiqueWilkins]

I'm sick of Chad Ford and ESPN when it comes to the Hawks. They never have anything good to say, and will they ever? Even if we are one of the top teams in the league they will always have something negative to say.

We can't listen to them, as they have no control over what goes on with our team.

There are many Hawks fans out there, that are hurt by what has happened over the years. I know alot of them who are ready for the upcoming season, now that the new ownership is in control. They disliked AOL Time Warner so bad they refused to go to a Hawks game, even with free tickets(by myself).

This is a new start and our new ownership needs to gain respect from players around the league, and the fans.

Chad Ford and anyone else around the league can say whatever they wish, but the Hawks will one day be on top, and all we need to do is add a solid core of guys who work together.

[Weez]

"other GMs do not know who is making decisions for the team"

I doubt that this is true, simply because he's been the GM here for a little bit now...and has a long history as GM in the L therefore knows most of the other GM's....a very nice thing when trying to communicate. There's only 30 teams (now)...30 GM's....they know what's going on in each franchise.

"I just hope they are smart enough to realize that they can't continue to manage by committee."

I agree...but at the same time, I won't hold this against them and don't think others should. I mean, we're talking about the coach, the face of the franchise to an extent...and moreso for a muribund team in most's mind that now has a golden opportunity to do almost anything it wants (except draw mid-upper level FA's this year that want more than simply money or think that they're ready/shoulda been the man and a superstar two years ago).

And it does say volumes if Hots' suspiciouns are right, about the difference of opinion regarding Stotts, and what untimately happened. They have a right to care...but trusted the man the hired/kept in place as the GM and talent evaluator.

[Plainview1981]

I don't think Billy Knight is that great. However, I believe

ownership has FULL trust and him and that Knight will get what

he wants even if Ownership has other beliefs they'll come to

the conclusion that Knight is smart and what he wants is the

best.

[Weez]

which is the way it should be. If that changes, then they'd need to replace Billy...but they've got to put faith in the man they hired for the job.

[Gray Mule]

Hotlanta1981 is on the right track. I, too have read

about the firing of Stotts. Some of the owners were

wanting to keep him here.

Replacing Stotts apparently is going to happen fairly

soon, but it will be a G.M. decision, with the approval

of the owners. Our G.M. seems to know what he is doing

and what type of coach and team he wants.

The Atlanta Spirit need to trust someone who is very

knowledgeable about all the inside workings of the N.B.A.

I believe that they have such a person in our G.M.

He has dis-assembled the Hawks. Now, he has the task

of taking what he has left over, the draft picks and

all the cap space and rebuilding a team of his liking,

along with the coach that will be able to deliver the

goods with this new team.

I gotta believe he WILL get the job done. Time will tell.

[DominiqueWilkins]

I read alot of the articles also about how the owners seemed to like Terry Stotts. I was thinking myself that they may let him ride out another year, but he ends up being fired. Once I heard/read he was fired I was thinking back on some of those articles I read.

The owners seemed to like him in alot of ways, but Billy Knight must of had the final say!!

I hope the owners let Billy Knight have the final say, considering he is our GM. We all don't have to trust Billy Knight but he is our GM, and he needs to call the shots until he is untrusted by our owners.

I'm going to give Billy Knight this offseason/draft to make a final judgement on him.

[KB21]

What I got from the comments is this. The owners wanted to keep Terry Stotts around while they go through who is available. It seems that the owners wanted to interview candidates while Terry Stotts held onto the job. If they didn't like what they saw, they would let Terry finish out his contract.

I think Billy Knight convinced them that it would be tough to get interviews if the job isn't open, and I've got a feeling that Billy Knight has someone in mind that helped do the convincing.

IMO, I think Billy Knight is waiting to see what Golden State does with Eric Musselman. If they fire him, then I believe Billy Knight will offer the Hawks coaching job to him.