Peachtree Hoops: NBA Draft 2011: Atlanta Hawks 2nd Round picks--a recent history

[Hawksquawk]

In the spirit of remaining positive for the time being, let us not disclose any preconceived notions of how good or how bad these picks were, or play the "this is who we could have picked game", in which almost every franchise would lose.

Let us just sit back, put on our 3-D glasses, and enjoy the second round show, beginning with the year 2000 draft,

 

2000, Pick 40, Hanno Mottola, Utah

Hanno was a fairly well heralded player while in college, averaging 17 points per game his last season at Utah. With the Hawks, he played the three frontcourt positions as mostly a backup, and could be described by all Bird Watchers as interminably soft.

Hanno wore a perpetual scowl and while being soft was/is nothing new when describing some overseas bigs, Hanno didn't have the shooting game to offset his lack of strength inside. 

He played two seasons for Lon Kruger and then went back overseas, unintersted in continuing his NBA journey and/or playing for the lottery level Hawks. He averaged 4.5 points per game and about an 8 PER.

His greatest contribution to Hawks fans was probably being the focus of one of the best comedy bits in ATL sports talk radio, the "Cooking With Hanno" bit by Mike Bell. High comedy.

 

2000, Pick 57, Scoonie Penn, Ohio State

Lots of folks high high hopes that Scoonie would be a serviceable backup PG in the NBA, coming off a good career with the Buckeyes, but it was clear in the summer league games up at Life University that Penn was too slow and couldn't do enough offensively to make a team. Penn never played in the NBA.

 

2001, Pick 33, Terence Morris, Maryland

Picked for Houston, who sent a first round pick to the Hawks for the honor, Morris went on to be a less than marginal player for Houston, only lasting 139 games total in the NBA.

The Hawks used the draft picks gained from the Rockets to trade into the first round in 2002 and select Dan Dickau.

 

2002, Pick 36, David Andersen, Australia

Andersen was a big man who was supposed to be able to shoot, but the Hawks drafted him as a draft/stash guy and he stayed that way until Atlanta finally sold him to Houston in 2009, having never played a game for the good guys. 

 

2003, Pick 37, Travis Hansen, BYU

Hansen was a wild man, a player that was supposed to be a 6'6 hustle/athletic freak. He got hurt in his first season in Atlanta, and played 41 games, not able to show the high athleticism the Hawks drafted him for. 

Consensus was that Hansen had shown enough to come back for a cheap, team-option second year, but when the team drafted Josh Childress (irony alert!), Travis began to understand that his time was going to be cut real short, especially with new head coach Mike Woodson wanting a veteran two-guard to mentor the recent #6 pick. 

Travis told me that and more after he decided, since he had no other options since the Hawks were going to pick up his option anyway, to head overseas in order to get some playing time. Hansen never returned to the NBA.

 

2004, Pick 34, Donta Smith, Southeastern Illinois College

Smith was forecast as a first round pick all the way leading up to the draft, making Hawks fans feel like they got a steal with the athletic wingman at pick 34, but Smith was a classic tweener in the two season he spent in Atlanta, and while he wasn't bad when he played, a crowded wingman roster made even more crowded with the selection of Marvin Williams in 2005 made Smith superfluous.

2004, Pick 37, Royal Ivey, Texas

In my mind, Ivey is remembered for two things, neither particularly good:

1. Starting 66 games in 2005-2006, yet only averaging 13 minutes a game. Whenever a player gets a token start such as this I now forever think of Ivey.

2. Being selected a single pick ahead of Duke's Chris Duhon, he of the career 11.2 PER, and feeling like the Hawks really screwed up.

Ivey came in revered for his tenacious defense, but it never translated and his offense was so awful that he would have had to be the most special defensive specialist ever to balance it out. His playmaking ability from the point wasn't altogether strong either, never topping 20 percent assist rate in his career.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Ivey, by far, played the most games and minutes of any Hawks second round pick covered here.

More? You guys are sick, but okay. You have to go back to 1989's selection of Haywoode Workman to find a Hawks second rounder to  play more minutes than Ivey and 1985's selection of John Battle to find someone who played more games.

 

2005, Pick 31, Salim Stoudamire, Arizona

Here is another pick that Hawks fans were very excited about. Stoudamire, who completed four productive years at Arizona, was expected to be a long range shooting specialist for the Hawks, but never panned out after three years in Atlanta. 

Fans often used Stoudamire's inconsistent minutes and eventual uselessness as proof of Mike Woodson's inability to develop guards and explain away Salim's absence from the league as a wounded soul who lost his confidence under the thumb of a careless coach.

Stoudamire actually played the most during his first season but likely began to lose playing time due to multiple draft picks in his area (much like Donta Smith before him) and that his size as a shooting guard (6'1) lent itself to defensive disaster, no matter how special his specialty could have been.

 

2006, Pick 33, Solomon Jones, USF

Ah yes, Solomon Jones. Solo. As a noted shot blocker enthusiast, I still have a soft spot for Jones, who definitely could carry my favored category. Still, like Stoudamire before him, his specialty couldn't come close to overcoming his shortcomings in all other phases of the game. 

He had bad hands, brutal really, and was never in a good place to rebound on either end of the court and, when he was, his lithe frame could be easily replaced by a stronger opponent in that spot.

After three seasons of less than replacement level play from Solo, the Pacers signed him to a multiyear deal in free agency.

 

2009, Pick 49, Sergiy Gladyr, Ukraine

Another draft/stash, Gladyr has played two season with Bàsquet Manresa of the Spanish ACB League and has been average for his time there. There is no belief at this time that Sergiy will be with the Hawks at any point next season, especially with no summer league this offsseason.

 

2011, Pape Sy, France

Originally thought to be yet another "pass" pick by the Hawks, the team surprised everyone by buying out the 23 year old and bringing him over to be the Hawks' first real player to be sent to D-League for training.

While that would normally be exciting that the team was finally embracing both international player who are coming over the season they were drafted and the D-League, Pape Sy proved to be an accidentally eccentric selection.

First, Sy played in the summer league and, while it was explained that he was a 6'7 player who could be a point guard, Sy's playmaking ability mainly stemmed from putting his head down and dribbling hard to the hoop, making the free throw his best weapon....by far. 

Not much changed throughout his D-League and brief NBA experience. Sy remains.....unusual looking on the court, from the #19 on his jersey, through his perpetually quizzical look on his face, and his long body going 100 percent full bore to the basket, everything be darned.

Sy may yet become something productive for the Hawks, but for now he serves as the perfect culmination of an incredibly dubious recent history that is the Hawks second round draft selections. 

How can 2011 possible top it?

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