Hawks looking for a new GM

[sturt]

Hot has a point. Maybe this can be timed so that Bud makes the first round pick, and immediately after, Ferry returns as GM just in time to take care of the second round. Reasonable?

[Ruckus]

Hot has a point. Maybe this can be timed so that Bud makes the first round pick, and immediately after, Ferry returns as GM just in time to take care of the second round. Reasonable?

Ha! Now that sounds like a plan to me! Great thinking

Ha! Now that sounds like a plan to me! Great thinking

Edited June 2, 2015 by Ruckus

[cam1218]

Somebody said it earlier, but the real goal is to have a GM that Bud wants to work with. Our real priority is to make sure he remains head coach for the next 5 years. I fully support Ferry but who knows what he wants? He might want a fresh start too.

I assume and hope that our new owners are smart enough to make sure we hire a GM that has a similar vision as Bud. Keeping Bud around is all that matters to me.

[ATLHawks3]

Somebody said it earlier, but the real goal is to have a GM that Bud wants to work with. Our real priority is to make sure he remains head coach for the next 5 years. I fully support Ferry but who knows what he wants? He might want a fresh start too.

I assume and hope that our new owners are smart enough to make sure we hire a GM that has a similar vision as Bud. Keeping Bud around is all that matters to me.

 

At all costs. We can't afford to lose Bud.

[Diesel]

Maybe we're letting Ferry go because we're planning on bringing in....

 

 

 

 

LUOL DENG....

 

 

Don Don Donnnnnn.

[ATLien_]

I don't like the idea of Bud calling the shot on players; I think coaches are often to close to players to be objective. First thing he says is I want everyone back.

A GM would say we are going to evaluate the seasons film and figure out how we can get better. I like our team, but we've got to figure out how to get better through all avenues.

I'm not a fan of what it does to the player coach relationship. If Bud has the final say on playing time and who comes and goes he's always the bad guy when an unpopular decision has to be made.

[cam1218]

I don't like the idea of Bud calling the shot on players; I think coaches are often to close to players to be objective. First thing he says is I want everyone back.

A GM would say we are going to evaluate the seasons film and figure out how we can get better. I like our team, but we've got to figure out how to get better through all avenues.

I'm not a fan of what it does to the player coach relationship. If Bud has the final say on playing time and who comes and goes he's always the bad guy when an unpopular decision has to be made.

Yeah I agree, it's too much for a guy who is a players coach. A young coach on top of that.

Either way, he HAS to be our coach for a long long time.

[Guest]

I understand your POV but still think you are underestimating the possibility of a culture shift like many teams have when changing GMs. It happens a lot and I hope we don't take a step back.

 

Oh, I certainly understand your position and respect your right to have that opinion.  However, I think you're overreacting.  Could a culture downgrade take place?  Possibly.  Likely? Not unless Budz leaves.

 

@cam1218 has probably the best response.  The new owners haven't shown to be idiots so, even if Ferry's gone, it's not like they're going to bring in some clown college to replace him.  Surely they see what's going on with the team and the improvement that's been made.

 

A guy like Grant Hill commands a degree of professional respect.  The fact that he's involved should give some degree of credibility to the group.

 

All in all, I reject the notion that we have to hang on to Ferry or all is lost!!!!

[Dakin]

Ferry did such a good job drafting Payne last year.

Knock off the personal shots at other posters.

Edited June 2, 2015 by AHF

[Jody23]

I don't like the idea of Bud calling the shot on players; I think coaches are often to close to players to be objective. First thing he says is I want everyone back.

A GM would say we are going to evaluate the seasons film and figure out how we can get better. I like our team, but we've got to figure out how to get better through all avenues.

I'm not a fan of what it does to the player coach relationship. If Bud has the final say on playing time and who comes and goes he's always the bad guy when an unpopular decision has to be made.

This is a very valid point. It would be difficult for Bud to be objective as the guy making roster decisions. He's already said he'd like the same roster back next year. But after the Cleveland series, it's clear at least some improvements need to be made.

[Dimesadozen]

I think Ferry should be brought back. He and Bud are great together and getting rid of Ferry could ultimately lead to Bud moving somewhere else when his contract is up. But I am glad Grant Hill is part of this ownership group.

[RamblinCharger]

Why can't we just give coach Bud the GM responsibilities over players and everything that involves the roster and just hire someone to handle the other GM duties, whatever they may be, dealing with the financial issues, working out deals, etc.

[HawkItus]

The Hawks will soon be seeking a new GM

Posted: 3:04 p.m. Monday, June 1, 2015

Email 0Facebook 0Twitter 0ShareThis 12

By Mark Bradley - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution



The Hawks will soon be seeking a new GM CURTIS COMPTON

Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer holds his pregame press conference before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals in Cleveland. (Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com)

It usually works this way: Owner hires general manager; GM hires coach. These being the Hawks, they have it backward. They have a coach but not yet a new owner and a GM who hasn’t been GM since Sept. 12 and probably won’t be again. (At least not here.)

They have a team lovingly built by GM-in-exile Danny Ferry, and it has been expertly coached — until the playoffs, when expertise took a hike — by Mike Budenholzer, who has also been acting as interim GM throughout Ferry’s protracted leave of absence.

+Danny Ferry photo HYOSUB SHIN

Hawks GM Danny Ferry is on an extended leave of absence.

These being the Hawks, the organization has turned back-flips in the effort to distance itself from Ferry, even to the laughable extent of nominating Budenholzer for NBA executive of the year. (Not everyone got the joke: He finished third in the voting.) Yet the only major personnel move made under Budenholzer’s managerial stewardship was the trade of Adreian Payne to Minnesota, which was a weird one.

Yes, the Hawks got a No. 1 draft pick, which is never a bad thing even if it is lottery-protected, which this one is through 2020. But they traded a big guy who was drafted 15th overall last June and who’d played 19 NBA minutes. And what, after the mostly uninspiring playoff showing, was seen by many as the Hawks’ chief flaw? Lack of size.

(Payne is 6-foot-10, 245 pounds. The Cavaliers’ Tristan Thompson, who bullied the Hawks, is 6-9, 238. How much worse would Payne have fared than Pero Antić, who rarely played well, and Elton Brand, who scarcely budged?)

+Mark Bradley photo

AJC columnist Mark Bradley.

Roster-wise, Budenholzer hasn’t had much to do. That’s about to change. The draft is June 25 and the Hawks are again picking 15th. Free agency arrives in July. There’s a chance new ownership — the Hawks are being bought by a group headed by Antony Ressler — could say, “Hey, Budenholzer finished third in the exec-of-the-year voting; let’s make him permanent GM.” Such an urge should be resisted.

How do we know? Gregg Popovich — Budenholzer’s role model in all things — was the Spurs’ GM before he fired Bob Hill and made himself coach. He lasted six seasons as coach/GM before ceding the latter title to the estimable R.C. Buford. That tandem has proved one of the best ever, ranking alongside the Lakers’ pairing of Pat Riley and Jerry West. (We should throw the Bulls of Phil Jackson and Jerry Krause in there, too, although that was mostly Michael Jordan’s doing.)

Yes, Red Auerbach was his own GM, but that was at a time when the NBA’s draft intelligence amounted to thumbing through a copy of Street & Smith’s yearbook. The jobs today are so big and so different that no one man can handle both. An NBA coach has to work 82 games plus playoffs; how many collegians can he hope to scout?

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In sum, the Hawks will need a real GM. Grant Hill, part of the ownership group, is believed to be in line to be president but has never served in any basketball capacity beyond player and TV analyst. Wes Wilcox, the assistant general manager who has been working with Budenholzer, might get a look but probably not a promotion. This means the new owners will have to look outside, which mightn’t be easy.

As noted, GMs usually hire/fire coaches. The Hawks’ GM hiree will join a front office in Budenholzer’s thrall. How many established basketball men would want to inherit a coach, even a demonstrably excellent one, who cuts a wider swath than his titular boss? (We note last week’s ugly dismissal of Tom Thibodeau by the Bulls.)

Not all basketball men have the same notion of how basketball should be played. The Hawks were remade by Ferry, who took his lead from San Antonio and who hired Popovich’s top assistant to implement. That duo worked wonders, whereupon circumstances intervened.

Ferry built the best team in franchise history, although “builder” isn’t the B-word anyone uses to describe his situation. The word invariably used is “baggage.” It’s hard to imagine new owners choosing to keep someone whose image, if not his basketball acumen, has been besmirched. These being the Hawks, they might never find a GM better than the one they’re about to dump.

[Final_quest]

Still not a shred of evidence that Ferry is out.

[Spursfanpeacemaker]

I wish Danny Ferry stays!!!

 

Coach Bud and Danny Ferry are really close friends,and they know each other really well since they were part of spurs organization. That's a good GM/Coach combo, like RC and Pop.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Spursfanpeacemaker

[Guest]

Thanks @HawkItus holy crap his many subscriptions do you have?

[Guest]

Still not a shred of evidence that Ferry is out.

 

Not surprising considering what passes for "media" in Atlanta these days.

[Vol4ever]

Uhhh where is the link to an actual reference?

I can't stand when someone posts a rumor without actually citing the source. Why the hell should anyone believe an internet message boarder on this?

I tried to paste the source from the AJC and it didn't work on windows professional. Go read the AJC piece.

[AtLaS]

Horrible decision if true.  Losing Ferry could very well lead to Bud's departure. 

[thescout5]

Keep Ferry. The guy did his time now lets get him back to work.