Sund: Stay or Go?

[lethalweapon3]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-hawks/hawks-gm-rick-sund-910186.html

I believe Rick Sund's contract expires this June. Should Sund be evaluated solely based upon the moves and decisions he made, or should the alchemy of inheriting Billy Knight's roster and maintaining a playoff competitor come into play?

If you don't believe Sund should return, who would you propose as GM candidates?

~lw3

[HawksFan87]

we should re-hire Billy Knight lol..

[DarnShadyRefs]

I dont know...............I seem to be on the fence with this issue. Despite him mortgaging our future for joe and trading our valuable draft picks for a serviceable Hinrich, the one thing Sund has done well, compared to Billy Knight and babcock along with our history of atrocious GMs, is he has done surprisingly well at drafting! Since he has been here, all of his draft selections seem to be very solid. If it wasn't for our dunce welfare budget coaches, would Teague have already been a top 10 pg in year 2 by now? The flashes Pae Sy seem to be promising and at worst could develop in to a solid hustle slashing-type bench contributor.

Last but not least...How about "he who's name shall not be mentioned"? I think he will be a scary one. Ive read where some have posted about how easy it is for anyone to score that many points on a bad team and point to stats as if that is the only way to measure his impact. JC2 has that fire that I haven't seen in any of our players especially our superstar. Considering he is only a rookie, for him to show that much in such a short spurt of the season has to make us start asking how competent our coaches are with player evaluation.

I would like Sund to stay another year solely on his drafting skills and only if ASG finally allows him to hire his own coach for once.

Edited May 13, 2011 by DarnShadyRefs

[frosgrim]

The question is in the wrong place. Sund is just a yes man. Mike Gearon Jr is the true GM of the Hawks. I would be shocked if Sund isn't retained. In fact, the only reason I see Sund leaving is if Gearon wants to step out from behind the curtain and just admit he's the real GM.

[Sothron]

The question is in the wrong place. Sund is just a yes man. Mike Gearon Jr is the true GM of the Hawks. I would be shocked if Sund isn't retained. In fact, the only reason I see Sund leaving is if Gearon wants to step out from behind the curtain and just admit he's the real GM.

/end thread.

There is no poll here. Gearon Jr is the real Gm for the Hawks, Sund simply does what he asks him to do and monitors the team for Gearon. Not one thing Sund wanted to do was followed through with. The only real question is if Sunds pulls a Knight and gets tired of being ignored by Gearon and realizes he has no power at all as a real GM.

[ATLSmith]

Yes. They will keep Sund. There's no reason to fire him.

It is difficult to answer the 2nd question until after this summer (or probably until the trade deadline next year.) But, I'm going to say that the Hawks should keep him:

1) I think he's done a good job getting the pieces the Hawks need without giving up the core. I do wish that he could have kept either our first round pick or "he who's name shall not be mentioned" in the Kirk trade, but I doubt any other GM could have done any better.

2) He was GM when both Teague wand JC were picked. Both were the right choice for the spot in the draft.

3) To me, this was somewhat of a no-brainer, but he made the right choice by not extending Crawford's contract. The Hawks have to see what the new CBA says and waiting allows the market to determine Crawford's worth.

[Diesel]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-hawks/hawks-gm-rick-sund-910186.html

I believe Rick Sund's contract expires this June. Should Sund be evaluated solely based upon the moves and decisions he made, or should the alchemy of inheriting Billy Knight's roster and maintaining a playoff competitor come into play?

If you don't believe Sund should return, who would you propose as GM candidates?

~lw3

Honestly, I don't know. I guess Kevin Pritchard is the guy I would take and Make Nique his assistant (to learn).

Why Pritchard? The guy has done a lot of good. He's really good at evaluating talent. He makes shrewd moves. I believe Pritchard has a blueprint of what he would want for a championship team and he always builds inside out.

Sund is too much of a caretaker and not enough of a move maker.

[ATLSmith]

1) I think he's done a good job getting the pieces the Hawks need without giving up the core. I do wish that he could have kept either our first round pick or "he who's name shall not be mentioned" in the Kirk trade, but I doubt any other GM could have done any better.

Lol... What the heck is this! I didn't type that. hmm......

J o r d a n C r a w f o r d

"he who's name shall not be mentioned"

Aaahahaaa :drinks:

[Malig]

"he who's name shall not be mentioned"

jordan crawfor d

jordan crawf0rd

[lethalweapon3]

LOL @ AutoCorrect!

And all this time I've been typing H.W.N.S.N.B.M. when i could've simply typed you-know-who!

~lw3

[AHF]

Honestly, I don't know. I guess Kevin Pritchard is the guy I would take

Good call! That would add value to this team.

[NineOhTheRino]

Change this to 1 big poll with Sund, Teague, Drew, and Smoove questions.

[lethalweapon3]

Change this to 1 big poll with Sund, Teague, Drew, and Smoove questions.

I thought about that, but figured we'd be better off with separate threads so our thoughts wouldn't run all over each other. Definitely plenty of related Smoove stay-or-go threads so far. An LD one ("Will/Should they continue his dirt-cheap contract?") is probably in order.

~lw3

[niremetal]

Honestly, I don't know. I guess Kevin Pritchard is the guy I would take and Make Nique his assistant (to learn).

Why Pritchard? The guy has done a lot of good. He's really good at evaluating talent. He makes shrewd moves. I believe Pritchard has a blueprint of what he would want for a championship team and he always builds inside out.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Please, please, please take my word as someone who is engaged to a die-hard Blazers fan and has a couple friends who have worked with the Blazers' front office. (The Blazers are my second-favorite team behind the Hawks, btw...I ironically have more informational "connections" there than with the Hawks.) Pritchard is a cancer. He was forced out of Portland for a reason. He burns bridges wherever he goes, badmouths his own players (some of whom then demand trades), and generally is just a douchebag. He's also an attention ho. When he got dumped as GM by the Blazers, a couple stories to that effect appeared in the papers and on the sports websites, but they just scratched the surface. If you want to make him a scout, sure. But don't ever let that guy get close to a position of power here.

That being said, I've heard enough from people who know (again, no one on here) to be pretty confident that this is a somewhat moot point. As a couple people have said, Sund isn't the real GM. Gearon is. That being said, I also get the sense that the right GM might gain enough autonomy to make Gearon step back a bit. I don't get the sense that he's so much of a micromanager that he'd be breathing down the neck of a Donnie Walsh or RC Buford. Then again, I don't see the Hawks getting a guy like that to be GM, so again...probably a moot point.

As always, I don't think cheap will be the front office's problem so much as stupid. There probably are good GMs out there, both cheap and expensive. I just don't think that the team has what it takes to recognize them.

Edited May 13, 2011 by niremetal

[Joker]

He hasn't really did anything amazing but I loved the Hinrich deal a lot. It did what expected for the season, now that main part is getting CP3/Okafor to go with Horford and Joe. He does that, he's what I thought he could be. He doesn't, the worst GM since Babcock.

[lethalweapon3]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Please, please, please take my word as someone who is engaged to a die-hard Blazers fan and has a couple friends who have worked with the Blazers' front office. (The Blazers are my second-favorite team behind the Hawks, btw...I ironically have more informational "connections" there than with the Hawks.) Pritchard is a cancer. He was forced out of Portland for a reason. He burns bridges wherever he goes, badmouths his own players (some of whom then demand trades), and generally is just a douchebag. He's also an attention ho. When he got dumped as GM by the Blazers, a couple stories to that effect appeared in the papers and on the sports websites, but they just scratched the surface. If you want to make him a scout, sure. But don't ever let that guy get close to a position of power here.

That being said, I've heard enough from people who know (again, no one on here) to be pretty confident that this is a somewhat moot point. As a couple people have said, Sund isn't the real GM. Gearon is. That being said, I also get the sense that the right GM might gain enough autonomy to make Gearon step back a bit. I don't get the sense that he's so much of a micromanager that he'd be breathing down the neck of a Donnie Walsh or RC Buford. Then again, I don't see the Hawks getting a guy like that to be GM, so again...probably a moot point.

As always, I don't think cheap will be the front office's problem so much as stupid. There probably are good GMs out there, both cheap and expensive. I just don't think that the team has what it takes to recognize them.

How about Tom Penn?

~lw3

[niremetal]

How about Tom Penn?

~lw3

I guess he wasn't as dynamic/visible a character while working in Portland, so I haven't heard much about him. He seems like a smart guy when I see him on ESPN, but that and a dollar won't buy you a subway token.

[KB21]

Will they keep him? I think so. He's Michael Gearon Jr.'s

'yes" man at this point. He does what Michael wants him to do, even if he is inclined to do something else.

Should they keep him? This is hard to say. Like I said, Rick has done what Michael wants him to do, so we don't know how this team would look if Rick were actually allowed to do w hat he wants to do.

If they got rid of him, who would I want? I would want a stats oriented GM similar to Richard Cho at Portland and Sam Presti in Oklahoma City.

[TRUEINTELLECTPLAYA]

He will be retained but he should not. There is exactly no accountability within this organization. That goes from the front office to every player not named Jeff Teague.

Sund moves:

Bad moves: Resigning Marvin to a long term contract.

Bad accomplishment: Never getting the team a legit C

Questionable moves: Re-signing Bibby to 3 year deal at price, Trading for Hinrich because the cost was too great, Re-signing Joe because the cost was too great, not getting anything for Jamal's huge expiring, Re-signing Zaza because Zaza has basically shown up 30% of the time since signing that contract, the contract was not bad though but lack of production makes it look questionable at times

Good moves: Trading for Jamal, Signing Al and Josh to reasonable contracts for there ages and potential, drafting Teague and Jordan

In my opinion the guy is more bad and questionable than good and he has been at this for 30 years. So, how can someone feel like he is going to all of a sudden get better at what he is doing? I do agree that he is just a yes man though, and I feel sorry for someone to be that old and not be able to call there own shots.

[Seano]

Of course Gearon is running the show. If Sund had any choice in the matter, we wouldn't have sold off the 31st pick for financial considerations last summer. No GM in their right mind would sell off a pick like that, because they know it's very possible to find a useful player there, and at the very least you should be able to get a developmental project there if not a player ready to man an NBA bench immediately. That's the intelligent way to acquire cheap bench players, as opposed to piddling away money on mediocre free agents just to sit and play very little (if at all) off our bench. Selling that was a $$$ move all the way, not a winning basketball move. And Sund didn't draft "he who's name shall not be mentioned", he traded Damion James for Craw and the 31st pick, and then that momentary high at making a good trade was spoiled a little while later when we traded off that 31st pick (Tibor Pleiss) to OKC for nothing more than cash, and man did that suck. It's so damn cheap, and I think any team that behaves that cheaply deserves what it gets. It's like when the Suns drafted Rajon Rondo at #21 and then immediately traded the rights to him to the Celtics for a first round pick and the dreaded 'cash considerations', which was the REAL reason behind the deal. So in my opinion the Suns deserved to get burned for doing that, and they have been burned quite badly. :biggrin: Anyway, Sund didn't draft the guy, but he definitely deserves credit for trading for him.

I hate it when the bean-counters start dictating the direction of a team and undermine their GM in the process. That's no way to run an organization.