I must agree with Terrance Moore today????!??!?!!?

[Diesel]

Hawks spinning at high rate

They're back.

Yawn.

Don't get me wrong. After inheriting a mess during the middle of last season from previous Hawks coach Lon Kruger, Terry Stotts was respectable as a replacement. Also, Billy Knight became the Hawks' general manager after Pete Babcock was fired about four or five silly moves too late.

Knight also is respectable. In fact, given his reputation for acquiring talent, ranging from the Indiana Pacers to the Grizzlies of Vancouver and Memphis, he actually is good.

It's just that the Hawks can't afford "respectable" or "good" at this stage of their sorry existence in town. They need "great." They also need "different" along the way to accomplishing such a thing, but so much for fantasy.

We're hours, days, minutes away from new ownership for the Hawks, but Monday's propaganda session at Philips Arena had the same feel as those from present and previous ownership.

As quickly as Hawks president Stan Kasten told a gathering that Knight and Stotts were signed for at least two more seasons, we had a blast from the past sent from Hawks management to the gullible among the public: The built-in excuse.

This is getting old. The Hawks' latest attempt to buy time revolves around the eternity it has taken for AOL Time Warner to sell the franchise to Texas auto king David McDavid. If you're among the Hawks' spin doctors, you can say that you were forced to remain with the status quo at general manager and coach. You can say that McDavid is still learning the difference between dogwoods and azaleas. You also can say that, since the process has taken so long, the stars among general managers and coaches were gone.

Plus, you can say that Knight and Stotts always were your guys. "Both decisions were ones that old ownership and new ownership, as well as myself, had in the top one or two possibilities right from the start," Kasten said.

Translated: The Hawks' new ownership has some of the same decision-making characteristics as the Hawks' old ownership.

Uh-oh. After four consecutive years as a lottery team, and after ranking as a consistent bust at their own box office even before that, the Hawks can't settle for the status quo. They need their Arthur Blank and their Mike Vick to energize a fan base that has been on snooze control since the days of 'Nique, Spud, Doc and Tree.

Instead, the Hawks' future looks as bleak as their past. If you didn't know better you'd think Babcock was still around to suggest that fire isn't hot, the Atlantic actually is the Pacific, and Hawks management really does have a clue.

There are so many examples, but we'll just stick with a few.

Remember how Kasten and Babcock imploded the team of Steve Smith and Mookie Blaylock to get younger, faster and better?

They are younger, faster and worse.

Once, Kasten and Babcock signed the unstable Isaiah Rider. If he didn't work out, they said that they still would have enough savings under the salary cap to pursue free agents such as Tim Duncan, Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady.

You may laugh now. You can keep chuckling, because we'll move to the Kruger disaster. To hear Kasten and Babcock tell it, he was better at relating to younger players than Lenny Wilkens, the NBA's all-time winningest coach.

There also was the Hawks' acquisition before last season of Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson, another flawed player on and off the court. According to Kasten and Babcock, he'd join Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Jason Terry as something like the Hawks' Magic, Worthy and Abdul-Jabbar.

Big Dog was a bust, and now Big Dog is gone, but Stotts and Knight remain.

If Stotts and Knight succeed, that's wonderful for everybody. If they don't, they'll give the Hawks a year's worth of alibis. Again.

[Vol4ever]

I agree too. Now that Big Dog is gone who will the blame be put on this year??????