Marc Steins Daily Dime from ESPN......on Kruger

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A change was needed in Atlanta

Thursday, Dec. 26

The idea behind the idea, Lon Kruger explained, was to generate a "buzz" around the Hawks.

Guarantee a playoff berth, with $125 refunds to season-ticket holders on the line, and you get people talking. Or so Kruger hoped.

Problem was, this is Atlanta. Nothing less than Mike Vick gets these locals interested. Even in the Hawks' locker room, where it mattered most, there wasn't much talk about the playoff guarantee or any other scheme Kruger hatched.

It has been about as lively in there lately as it is in the Philips Arena stands, which stands as one of the many reasons the Hawks could wait no longer. Management has undoubtedly known for a while that it had to make a coaching change to jumpstart its players. The Hawks were apparently just waiting for Christmas to pass to confirm it.

Historians will brand Kruger as yet another college guy who couldn't succeed at the pro level, but the college background wasn't his major failing. The bigger issue: Kruger was a laid-back nice guy who ranked as a curious choice from Day 1 and who consistently struggled to get the Hawks to play hard. Injuries gave him a disclaimer for two seasons, and Kruger is an undeniably fine gentleman, but Atlanta is 5-12 since the 6-4 start this season.

Worst yet, all six defeats in the past seven games were double-digit defeats. Strong signs, in other words, that the Hawks had stopped trying for him.

Much more was expected from a team, guarantee or not, that added a potential All-Star scoring forward the past two summers: Glenn Robinson this time, after Shareef Abdur-Rahim the summer before. Worst of all, even with center Theo Ratliff back from injury to join those two and purportedly fortify the defense, the current skid also has seen Abdur-Rahim and the unheralded Ira Newble openly question team strategy and desire.

So much, then, for any idea that Kruger could spark a turnaround in the new year. With the Hawks looking increasingly uninterested and with a well-prepped replacement on Kruger's bench in Terry Stotts, who has long been considered one of the league's most promising assistants, the move had become a must by Thursday.

Especially because there is still time to avoid paying out an estimated $500,000 to the reported 4,000 season-ticket holders the Hawks do have. The standings somehow show Atlanta just a game out of No. 8 in the East, in spite of its well-documented turnover trouble (27th in the league at 17.4 a game) and porous defense (24th at 98.6 points allowed a game).

"It's bittersweet, because I know I wouldn't have this opportunity if I didn't have the opportunity to join Lon's staff," Stotts said Thursday night after completing his first practice and just before consuming his first dinner (spaghetti, for the record) as a head coach.

"These opportunities are few and far between. I know how fortunate I am, because I've got a team with a chance to win right now. The goal of making the playoffs hasn't changed. We know we can do it."

Stotts spent more than a decade alongside George Karl in Seattle and Milwaukee before leaving the Bucks in August to join the Hawks and forge his own identity. If he can get the lifeless Hawks to start stopping people and stop giving the ball away, he might end up being the next Jim O'Brien instead.

O'Brien, remember, took over for a college guy in Boston named Rick Pitino and did so well that he made the Celtics' job his permanently. No one in Atlanta is about to issue any more basketball promises, but Stotts has a shot to do the same.

A mere playoff berth, mind you, isn't bound to generate much buzz in Atlanta, either. Not even Dominique Wilkins as Hawks coach could fill Philips more than once or twice. That said, the switch is a good step regardless. With Kruger in charge, his guarantee had no shot.

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