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Gearon gets no free pass. Gearon was a total douche throughout all that time. But perhaps the view of him softens a bit because he was responsible for throwing the final molotov cocktail that brought down the House of ASG.

Even if a mountain was indeed made out of a molehill, the GM and Head of Basketball Ops is obligated to address them. Ferry just slinked away (Shouldn't one be calling HIM Slinky?!).

I'm sure he'll at least interview in Milwaukee first. And there's still the chance that he finds his way into the Cleveland job. But otherwise, Atlanta appears to be his next best option. That would have to raise even the most ardent skeptic's eyebrows if that happens.

By the way, just to show where the Hawks Head Coaching job ranks amongst the current available openings: David Fizdale just interviewed with the Hawks today. He didn't even sniff around the Orlando or Charlotte openings. Heck, he took away from Saturday family time to meet with us. Certainly the Milwaukee job is better (at the current time), and I still think that Portland may open up, which would be a plum job. And it's always good to interview in New York for monetary and exposure purposes. But the best candidate out there not named Mike Budenholzer just spent the day in the ATL. And if Bud indeed gets the Milwaukee gig, then I wouldn't be surprised if the consolation prize for Fizdale is the Hawks roost.

Ah, more fact-based accusations. That is some high level investigative journalism. I smell a Pee-Ew-litzer!

So, they're cheap when they're being cheap. And they're not cheap when they're spending a lot of money. That sum it up?

You don't hire an established coach to finish off the last couple of years of a rebuild. You hire a Brett Brown type and then reap the rewards once the roster has ripened.

God help the team that sinks money into Marcus Smart!

The company Bud works for decided to change product lines based on market conditions. Employee Bud complained incessantly, without trying to understand the market, stating that he does not like this new product line. Employee Bud complained regularly about the new direction of the company, at times displaying insubordinate behavior, and created a hostile work environment. As a result, management was forced to capitulate to Employee Bud's disruptive behavior and agree to a separation. Bud was clearly not a company man. He forced his way out. He was in no way fired.

Clearly Bud was bitching and moaning at every opportunity. It's tough to keep that around.

Bud botched the roster and then bailed. He never liked playing youngsters and refused to do so moving forward. He's the only one who owes any apologies.

What do you base this draft prediction on? Schlenk nailed his first Hawks draft, and most of the ones with the Warriors too.

I actually sorta agree with this. I like Schlenk's drafting and cap management skills. But his trade and free agent negotiating skills are not his strong suits.

You seriously would rate the Charlotte and Orlando jobs ahead of Atlanta?! Two fellow non-playoff teams with bad cap situations and thus no hope of turning things around anytime soon? Heck, even Phoenix is not clearly ahead of Atlanta UNLESS Sarver/McDonough actually follow through on their bold promise to hit the free agent market hard this summer. Otherwise, Phoenix just consists of a Shooter (Booker), an OK (Warren), a Bust (Len), and two Probably Nots (Chriss, Bender). Even New York is a questionable job right now, with a similarly bad cap situation, and with Porzingis likely to be out most or all of next year. Only Milwaukee is a clearly better job, because of Giannis. I'll take a team with significant draft capital, cap flexibility, and a virtually new arena in the works, to attract an enterprising young coach, over those first 3 dead end jobs.

Great post TheNorthCydeRises. I think that this very important point has been lost amidst the "Ferry got screwed" argument. Professional decorum would have dictated that the reader of that statement either self edit it, or preface it with, "My God, this next scouting report is incredibly racist." Instead, he simply read it, and then compounded the transgression by trying to translate it. This was a clear HR violation. And when you have very few allies in the organization, you'd better be a model of decorum. Ferry, by multiple accounts, was not.

Those are definitely reasonable fears, especially if multiple assistants follow Bud out of town. This certainly points to Bud remaining and working with Schlenk as the ideal outcome of all of this. Perhaps Bud sticking around would also keep management on point and keep them from prolonging the rebuild, a system of checks balances that was not in place when Hinkie was rebuilding in Philly.

Take a look this summary of a scientific study that was done looking at the effects of tanking in the NBA (I guess these "scientists" had a lot of extra time on their hands): http://www.jonahlehrer.com/blog/2016/4/25/is-tanking-an-effective-strategy-in-the-nba The study defines tanking as having multiple consecutive years with a top 10 pick in the first round. They concluded that such a scenario is not conducive to building a winning team. So, tanking, in this manner, does not succeed. They also concluded that the two factors that most contributed to a successful rebuild are: 1) The expertise of the person drafting the players 2) Player development You'll notice that there is no mention of arbitrary win totals, such as 25 wins in a season, as being predictive of an unsuccessful rebuild. It comes down to the General Manager's drafting prowess, and the organization's Player Development program. That's it. So, think about it. If you're hitting on a good percentage of your #1 draft picks (especially if you have many of them), and developing those players, then you should not be drafting in the Top 10 for more than 2-3 years in a row. Once you're in the 11-14 range, then you're knocking on the door of the playoffs, which is a sign of progress, both in this study and in reality. These findings just point further at what the focus of the Hawks rebuild is and should be. If they have the right person picking the players (and in our case, they have numerous chances to pick in the first round the next couple of years, even before possibly accumulating even more picks in trades this and next summer)... and they maintain Hawks University (losing Bud would hurt in this regard, but the infrastructure for player development would still be there. When a University loses its Chancellor, the whole college doesn't just crumble to the ground)... then they would remain on track for an approximately 3 year rebuild, as many of us on here foresee. This doesn't even take into account the horrid salary cap situation league-wide that puts us in a very advantageous position for picking up quality veterans over the next couple of years. And when we're picking up other people's #1 picks, that further lessens the pressure on the Hawks to lose games moving forward. So, we've got to give Schlenk, who already has a stellar drafting track record, the requisite time (at least 3-4 years in total) to follow this formula. Pick the right players. Develop those players. It's that simple. It's... !

Supes, I think you meant to say Bud-Cox passed on Al by not offering the max. That was a year before Travis came aboard.

You're right. The original deal was reported as a multiple team trade, but then it was simplified for technical reasons. But the pick was sent as part of all of the machinations surrounding the signings of Galinari and Millsap.

When Schlenk assumed the GM role in May of 2017, he was left with the following expiring contracts: Jose Calderon, Mike Dunleavy, Tim Hardaway Jr, Thabo Sefolosha, Kris Humphries, Ersan Ilysova, Paul Millsap, Ryan Kelly, Mike Muscala Remember, the era of big sign-and-trades has passed us by. We were lucky to get a late 1st rd pick for Millsap. So, he was really only left with the following assets: Dennis Schröder, Malcolm Delaney, De'Andre Bembry, Kent Bazemore, Taurean Prince, Dwight Howard This collection of assets includes 3 bloated contracts (in a tight financial market), 1 Euro refugee, and 2 unproven youngsters. That's a pretty bare cupboard.

These are crucial points, AHF. I too think that Ferry would have likely retooled on the fly, getting real return for Horford in the summer of '15 and then for Millsap in '16. He seemed to understand asset management. And, yes, he would not have signed any horrible contracts, such as Bazemore's. But once Bud-Cox mismanaged their assets, the window for retooling on the fly had slammed shut. And a rebuild became the only alternative. If Danny Ferry had been hired in '17, I believe he would have come to the same conclusion. So, a retooling on the fly is always preferable to a rebuild. On this I think we can all agree. Bud-Cox simply left the cupboard too bare to even have that option.

To be fair, I did overlook his astute free agent signings: Millsap, Carroll, Bazemore. And he did change operations culture in a positive way. I just worry that his Draft failings would have soon caught up with us. And signing bargain bin free agents only gets you so far, that hollow 60 win season being an example. It was just adding up to more treadmill time.

We can all agree that Michael Gearon, Jr. is indeed evil incarnate. But, Danny Ferry is not without fault. He was not the main culprit in the PR disaster that led to his ouster. But he was widely known as being difficult to get along with, and the situation escalated particularly because he didn't have too many people in his corner. And let's not sugar-coat Ferry's personnel track record. He whiffed on 3 of his 4 first round draft picks. He did pick a great coach. But outside of the Joe Johnson trade (which, as we found out, was due much more to Billy King's failings than's Ferry's prowess), what other great moves did he make? I would term Ferry's tenure an INCOMPLETE at best. In fact, for now, I would put Stan Kasten as the best GM in our history. He traded for Dominique. He drafted Doc Rivers, Kevin Willis, and John Battle. And he's the only person ever named NBA Executive of the Year in back to back seasons, in '86 and '87.

Here we can agree. An extension for Bud would be the optimum result from all of this. But, now Schlenk is a "sleazeball?" Come on, man, did the guy sell you some hair tonic that turned your scalp into his?

Keep in mind, some of the sources cited in the article include the all-knowing oracle known as "one NBA executive." Gotta love the certainty of biased speculation.