Did Ferry Cost us a shot at the title?

[Diesel]

Coach of the Year Bud... was Coach of the year before... with us.   Unfortunately, during our best season, the Ferry issue hit the fan.  My question is what would we have been if Ferry would have stayed?

The same?  or in the title contention?

 

[REHawksFan]

23 minutes ago, Diesel said:

Coach of the Year Bud... was Coach of the year before... with us.   Unfortunately, during our best season, the Ferry issue hit the fan.  My question is what would we have been if Ferry would have stayed?

The same?  or in the title contention?

 

This may be revisionist history on my part, but the way I remember it, the 60-win team was really really fun, but didn't have a lot of flexibility going forward so I remember thinking they were maxed out that season.  I also remember thinking there wasn't much of a chance of beating the Cavs with LBJ (although I never thought it would be a sweep).  Maybe there was someway of pivoting and going in a different direction without a complete tear-down but I don't recall thinking that was a viable option.  Could be wrong though.  

The thing that has me more excited than just about anything regarding the current situation for the Hawks is the numerous options and flexibility the team has.  I don't remember a time when the team ever had this combination of young, talented players AND plenty of cap flexibility for the foreseeable future.  That's an exciting place to be.  

[kerrypack]

that was a good team that played really well together, but no superstars and as rehf said the players had big increases in front of them.

[capstone21]

NY police cost us the title

[frosgrim]

ASG- and specifically, Mike Gearon Jr. cost us all sorts of opportunities for being better in that era.  Title, probably not, but at the very minimum a reasonably functional team that could make noise in the playoffs. 

[JayBirdHawk]

I actually think the Ferry stuff was partly the reason the team bonded together - they had an us against the workd attitude, until Thabo in NYK.

[Duff_Man]

Blame Gearon. Guy was a total snake. He hated Ferry so much that he had to record phone calls and leak them (and Levinson's emails) to get them ousted. And Ferry's wasn't even his own words.

But hey...at least his boy Nique cried enough that he got his statue.

[Peoriabird]

Championship? With those players? Get real!!

[AHF]

Who knows?  We saw what happened when a pair of drunk drivers take over GM duties after he left but it would have been a tough path forward with the limited cap space and FA status of our biggest players.  Tough for me to see a sequence that ends up with us wearing a ring.

[Gray Mule]

Hawks were good,  in fact, very, very good.  Problem was, they were not great.  They had no opportunity to be greater than "The King" and, as long as he was in the east and great, Hawks couldn't get past him - - and neither could anyone else.

Too many things went wrong with management.  Ownership was bad.  Ferry was made to look bad.  Bud was not a good GM.  No.  Too many things wrong to become great.  Everything has changes, thank goodness.

Ownership, front office and coaching staff appear to all be on the same page.  Hawks have a great core of young, potentially great players and a ton of high priced veterans with all of them having expiring contracts.  We don't need or have a lot of cap room now but, come next summer, watch out!

[High5]

It’s much more likely that Ferry getting fired is what ultimately leads us to a championship rather than him (or the owners) costing us one. I say that as a Ferry supporter. He was good at piecing together competitive teams, but I doubt we would have ever gotten over the hump without a full rebuild. And even if Ferry committed to one, no way he drafts as much talent as Schlenk has.

[supermariowest]

I think that 60-win team reached their ceiling. Ferry's biggest mistake here was the LD/Giannis one. Replace the 2013 Dennis/Lucas draft with a Giannis/Dennis draft and maybe we break through the ceiling (but in the hands of the underwhelming BudCox GM team, who knows).

[frosgrim]

12 minutes ago, supermariowest said:

I think that 60-win team reached their ceiling. Ferry's biggest mistake here was the LD/Giannis one. Replace the 2013 Dennis/Lucas draft with a Giannis/Dennis draft and maybe we break through the ceiling (but in the hands of the underwhelming BudCox GM team, who knows).

I agree with this. Ferry should have moved up to get his guy.  Koonan mentioned this issue in a radio interview  a while back. Essentially, we now have a GM who makes moves to get his guy. Sitting on assets doesn't get you where you need to be IF you know player X is your guy. GMs that hedge bets don't win much. 

[Dejay]

His biggest error was releasing Larry Drew too soon, especially when he knew of the Hawks' desire to go after Giannis in the draft. Having him down here would've changed the entire course of the franchise...

[Thomas]

1 hour ago, High5 said:

And even if Ferry committed to one, no way he drafts as much talent as Schlenk has.

Amen.

[Spud2nique]

Luol Deng did. For just taking up space... I kid of course.

 

DAMNIT DANNY WHATS THE MATTA WIT U!

 

[AHF]

24 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

Luol Deng did. For just taking up space... I kid of course.

 

DAMNIT DANNY WHATS THE MATTA WIT U!

 

I've said it before but it is pretty ironic that Ferry read that stupid quote as part of a pitch where he was asking ownership invest heavily in Deng and to approve the same contract terms that Deng ultimately signed.  He gave the ownership the pro's and con's of Deng and why he though they should give him a big contract and that is what did him in.  You could hear f'ing Gearon laughing because he found the trump card to use in his power play against Ferry and Levenson in that call - no objection or "what did you just say" sort of comments to challenge it...just hold it and leak it publicly to poison the well against Ferry and Levenson and damage the reputation of the team and franchise because Gearon was on the outside looking in within the ASG power structure.  Freaking Gearon and ASG.

[Wretch]

This is going to be my last Danny Ferry post.  It's such a sore subject for me because the ONE time in 30 years that I gave up on the team is the one time they decided to go to the ECF's.  I was honestly a borderline hater.  That being said, Ferry didn't cost us a championship.  That sits squarely on the shoulders of our previous ownership and management going back to 2003.  From failed tanks, to busted draft picks, to epic mismanagement, to petty squabbles...  The amount of dysfunction and ineptitude that we displayed was simply unprecedented.

For his part, Ferry came in on a mission to change the culture and he did exactly that.  It was his method for rebuilding that I disagreed with.  My concern was that we were only delaying the inevitable and I had no faith in the odds of building a contender that way.  Looking back, I was right and wrong about Ferry's plan.

I can say definitively though, that I would much prefer to be where we are right now with promise and flexibility than goofing around in the middle of the pack with an over-achieving B-list squad praying for a free agent savior.

Side note...

Has anyone noticed that the league is sort of evolving (or maybe even has evolved) into Billy Knight's vision of tall athletes playing position-less basketball? Just food for thought.

[frosgrim]

1 hour ago, Wretch said:

 

Side note...

Has anyone noticed that the league is sort of evolving (or maybe even has evolved) into Billy Knight's vision of tall athletes playing position-less basketball? Just food for thought.

Billy had a vision, unfortunately he was wearing beer goggles to drive it home. 

[Thomas]

Don't consistently believe in fate but will say that maybe all that bizarre drama created is what we had to have. An upheaval that forced owners to bring in a talent like Travis. Travis proceeded with his upheaval and we look really good moving forward. Pretty volatile stuff but do think I see a bright path.