Good Article in the AJC on Hawks Organization

[phoostal]

Mark Bradley tells it like it is in the below article. I'm sure all our Billy Knight lovers will be pissed about this article. I love the line of a 6'8" guy at every position. This guy is a mad scientist that is ruining this team with reckless abandon. Oh well.

P

15 out of 100 is failing grade

Under Knight, Woodson, Hawks look even worse

Mark Bradley - Staff

Saturday, December 10, 2005

They signed a $70 million free agent and took one player regarded as the draft's biggest talent and another believed to be the steal of the second round. And here the Hawks are, having done the impossible. They've gotten worse.

They were 3-15 this time a year ago; they're 2-16 now, having already fashioned losing streaks of nine and seven games. They're on pace to finish 9-73, which would match the worst record in NBA history. Since Feb. 7, they're a mind-numbing 5-48. As reviled as the Hawks were in the final throes of the Pete Babcock era, they were merely bad then; they've since become historically awful.

Billy Knight replaced Babcock and took the painful but necessary step of blowing up the roster. That, however, was always going to be the easy part. Nobody expected Knight to build a champion in three drafts, but neither did anyone imagine the Hawks could be this wretched after this much reconstruction. The revelation in their loss to Toronto last Friday was that they could make 55 percent of their shots and still not beat a 1-15 opponent.

When you're 2-16 after 13-69, it calls into question every single choice. This correspondent has been willing to give Knight the benefit of the doubt, but the doubts have become too many and too blatant. Was it smart for Knight to pick Boris Diaw (who averaged 4.6 points with the Hawks) over Josh Howard (10.7 points his first two seasons) in the 2003 draft? To choose Josh Childress (averaging 7.3 points) over Luol Deng (averaging 15.2)? To take Marvin Williams, who ranks eighth among scorers on the NBA's worst team, and ignore Chris Paul and Deron Williams when you have no point guard?

It was likewise Knight's choice to hire Mike Woodson as coach over Dwane Casey and Mike Brown. Advertised as a defensive coach, Woodson presides over the league's fourth-worst defensive team. Even more distressing has been the disconnect with his players, some of whom have decried the absence of leadership. The dour Woodson seems to take after his two coaching mentors, and not in a constructive way: Bobby Knight is a notorious browbeater, and Larry Brown infamously sours on players overnight. The more nurturing Casey, now Minnesota's coach, would have been better suited for a young roster.

Case study: Diaw. Having done nothing as a Hawks player, he's averaging 10.8 points for Phoenix. That, folks, is player development.

Knight speaks of the need to change the culture of this organization, but putting a pool table in the players' lounge doesn't constitute change. Only by starting to win do you reshape a forlorn franchise, and Woodson has lost too many games in too short a span --- he's 15-85 --- to have cultivated any credibility. Even poor Tim Floyd, who inherited the Bulls after Michael Jordan retired and Scottie Pippen left, won 25 of his first 100 games.

Woodson needs to go. Among the six Hawks assistants, only Larry Drew and Herb Brown, brother of Larry, would be candidates to move up, but a more daring option exists: Let Knight coach the team he created.

Over the summer, owner Michael Gearon Jr. speculated that Knight's vision of a 6-foot-8 guy at every position might revolutionize the sport. (Obviously Woodson missed the memo. Joe Johnson, imported to play point guard, lasted two games as the starter there.) If there's indeed a design to what Knight is doing, he should be better able to implement it than anyone else. No, he hasn't ever coached, but how much worse than 15-85 could he be?

Every process requires patience, but 15-85 is abjectly unacceptable for a professional team. Something drastic needs to happen. The GM-as-coach tack worked for San Antonio, which became a champion only after Gregg Popovich moved downstairs. Besides, if having Knight coach doesn't pan out, the Hawks' many owners would only have to fire one guy the next time.

mbradley@ajc.com

[Blunt91]

Knight would probably resign before he is made a coach. Never thought of that idea. He created this mess so let him coach it.

[gsuteke]

if we could only coax magic johnson and charles barkley out of retirement we'd have our PG and C to finish that magical 6 foot 8 lineup. oh wait, Chuck is like 6 foot 6 right? maybe danny fortson. he's still in the league.

what a joke.

draft a true PG or C this year and get the other next. and get used to losing for another year.

[RAHMOR]

Quote:

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The revelation in their loss to Toronto last Friday was that they could make 55 percent of their shots and still not beat a 1-15 opponent.

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When it is put in this perspective it is pretty sad. We need some help in the post defensively YASAP.

[Blunt91]

Quote:

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draft a true PG or C this year and get the other next. and get used to losing for another year.

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The only problem is that we won't have a draft pick in 2007 unless we get a top 3pick. We need to figure out a way to get another pick either in 2006 or 2007. Joe Johnson wasn't worth giving up 3players(Boris Diaw & 2draftpicks). No matter whether they are mid teens or not. The pick in 2007 will probably be in the 10 to 14range.

[exodus]

Quote:

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When you're 2-16 after 13-69, it calls into question every single choice.

This correspondent has been willing to give Knight the benefit of the doubt, but the doubts have become too many and too blatant

. Was it smart for Knight to pick Boris Diaw (who averaged 4.6 points with the Hawks) over Josh Howard (10.7 points his first two seasons) in the 2003 draft? To choose Josh Childress (averaging 7.3 points) over Luol Deng (averaging 15.2)? To take Marvin Williams, who ranks eighth among scorers on the NBA's worst team, and ignore Chris Paul and Deron Williams when you have no point guard?

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I think that pretty well sums it up.

[jumpshot]

I think that he makes valid points. I hope they have a new coach picked, before firing Woody. This organization is a mess.