Hawks have hired Rick Sund as new general manager

[GameTime]

http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/ha...hawks_0528.html

Quote:

---

Hawks hire Sund as new general manager

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 05/28/08

The Hawks have hired Rick Sund as their new general manager. Sund most recently served as general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics.

An official announcement will come later this afternoon.

More to come.

[AnakinJoe]

HE HIRED BOB WEISS AS SONICS HEAD COACH IN 2005!

[NJHAWK]

Good work sir. Ya beat me by a mila second. Ive heard the name, who knows the deal on this cat.

[AHFan]

Didn't he hire Nate McMillan too though?

[JackB1]

apparantly, Sund was a top candidate for the Knicks weeks ago....

https://nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/k...nie_wals-3.html

Does anyone know anything about this guy? This seems to have come out of left field and it does look like the Hawks are looking to cut costs.

[Diesel]

Rick Sund

[NJHAWK]

Bob Weiss aint that bad, lol. Didnt he rape the Bucks in that Gary Payton trade a while back?

[bronnt]

His top draft picks from his 6 previous drafts with Seattle.

6-10 Vladimir Radmanovich

6-11 Peter Fehse

6-9 Nick Collison

7-0 Robert Swift

7-0 Johan Petro

7-0 Saer Sene (at 10th overall!)

Anyone noticing a trend? He was determined to find himself some frontcourt solutions. No matter the cost.

[Guest]

Well at least we know Walter is happy. This is the sucker who drafted Saer Sene.

Not too sure what to think of this right now. Sund must know what it is like to go through transitional ownership (Sonics being sold) which is a plus. But also, his record isn't that great and he has made some questionable moves, although no moves that were huge goofs (Sene might be the worst, but who else was there for him to pick?). Hard for me to judge until he actually makes some moves.

[AnakinJoe]

Quote:

---

Didn't he hire Nate McMillan too though?

Not from what I saw... he inherited McMillan. But I could be wrong. Still no excuse of hiring Weiss during an off-season when you had about 237 better qualified candidates.

One thing, the only other team that has had comparable ownership issues recently is the Sonics franchise. With the owner selling the team, fighting over a new arena with Seattle officials and ultimately preparing to leave the city.

Fans have been screaming for a center, he drafted 3 in 3 consecutive years.

But I don't think this changes much... he'll still likely will be Gearon's puppet.

[skyhawk]

I'm neither for or against the hire but found an interesting link on the worst NBA GMs from 2003 - 2007. Both BK and Sund are on this list - which of course, is headed by Isiah Thomas.

http://www.bullz-eye.com/paulsen/2007/0307.htm

[GameTime]

With this hire I don't see Woody staying. Sund loves high-powered offensive coaches.

[Guest]

No, McMillan was hired in the 00-01 season and Sund didn't come until the 01 draft.

[NJHAWK]

Quote:

---

His top draft picks from his 6 previous drafts with Seattle.

6-10 Vladimir Radmanovich

6-11 Peter Fehse

6-9 Nick Collison

7-0 Robert Swift

7-0 Johan Petro

7-0 Saer Sene (at 10th overall!)

Anyone noticing a trend? He was determined to find himself some frontcourt solutions. No matter the cost.

That is 10 times worse than BK's draft record. However before you JUMP on him for picking those foreign bigs you must remember that heir ownership wanted guys picked who werent going to cost them money right away. They wanted guys they would hold the rights to for a year or so before paying them money was necesary.

[NJHAWK]

Quote:

---

With this hire I don't see Woody staying. Sund loves high-powered offensive coaches.

I know he likes Detleff Shrempf. I remeber there was heavy speculation Detleff would be Seattles future coach before this OK City thing came into play.

[Admin]

Well he's not here to hire a head coach (at least not this year) so that's not an immediate worry.

He has a pretty poor draft record, reaching to take project bigs, and I don't think he has drafted anyone that is worth a damn except maybe Collison.

I don't remember Seattle signing any solid FAs either during his time.

Notable trades he made:

[*]Traded forward Vladimir Radmanovic to the Los Angeles Clippers for forward Chris Wilcox.

[*]Traded guards Gary Payton and Desmond Mason to the Milwaukee Bucks for guards Ray Allen, Kevin Ollie and Ronald Murray and a conditional 2003 first-round draft pick; traded guard Kenny Anderson to the New Orleans Hornets for center Elden Campbell.

[*]Traded forward Vin Baker and guard Shammond Williams to the Boston Celtics for center Vitaly Potapenko and guards Kenny Anderson and Joseph Forte.

[*] Traded the draft rights to forward Bobby Simmons to the Washington Wizards for the draft rights to center Predrag Drobnjak.

I hope I am wrong but this is a very underwhelming selection of a GM.

[bronnt]

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

His top draft picks from his 6 previous drafts with Seattle.

6-10 Vladimir Radmanovich

6-11 Peter Fehse

6-9 Nick Collison

7-0 Robert Swift

7-0 Johan Petro

7-0 Saer Sene (at 10th overall!)

Anyone noticing a trend? He was determined to find himself some frontcourt solutions. No matter the cost.

That is 10 times worse than BK's draft record.

Well, BK was also picking in the top 5 every season. His only top ten selection was in 2006. But you're right, that is pretty bad. Aside from Peter Fehse, who was a second rounder, those are all between 10-15.

[Blunt91]

If Sund gave a contract extension to Luke Ridnour I am pretty sure Smith & Childress will get resigned.

[bronnt]

Quote:

---

Well he's not here to hire a head coach (at least not this year) so that's not an immediate worry.

He has a pretty poor draft record, reaching to take project bigs, and I don't think he has drafted anyone that is worth a damn except maybe Collison.

I don't remember Seattle signing any solid FAs either during his time.

Notable trades he made:

[*]
Traded forward Vladimir Radmanovic to the Los Angeles Clippers for forward Chris Wilcox.
[*]
Traded guards Gary Payton and Desmond Mason to the Milwaukee Bucks for guards Ray Allen, Kevin Ollie and Ronald Murray and a conditional 2003 first-round draft pick; traded guard Kenny Anderson to the New Orleans Hornets for center Elden Campbell.
[*]
Traded forward Vin Baker and guard Shammond Williams to the Boston Celtics for center Vitaly Potapenko and guards Kenny Anderson and Joseph Forte.
[*]
Traded the draft rights to forward Bobby Simmons to the Washington Wizards for the draft rights to center Predrag Drobnjak.

I hope I am wrong but this is a very underwhelming selection of a GM.

I'll say this for him, he got the best of that trade for Ray Allen. Payton spent one season in Milwaukee and Mason never developed into anything.

[coachx]

We could have done much worse then Rick Sund.

I like the fact that he is a vet at working in NBA FO's. He should have plenty of contacts and has definately negotiated plents of FA deals. Those contacts are extremely important. Its not alwayse what you know but who you know.

The 3 year run on drafting centers really hurts since none panned out. Though Collison at 12 and Ridnour at 14 seem like solid picks for the draft postion.

They had a hole at C and he tried to plug it in the draft with middle to late first rounders. At least he is not afraid to roll the dice on projects centers in favor of 6'8'' wing players being drafted year after year.

Alowing Rashard Lewis to walk for nothing was tough but I'm sure ownership handcuffed him there. Lewis playing the same position as Durant made this inevitableHowever, the ownership situation in Seattle is the only place in the NBA worse off then Atlanta right now. Their owner wants to move from Seattle ASAP.

.