Biggest Disappointment in Hawks Franchise History?

[Diesel]

14 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

Man, that’s a tough one for me. I’d rather take Marvin. As bad and as weak as he was with his duck butt, at least he kept trying and going through the grind of nothing else which is probably why he carved out a nice little journeyman career but I can’t say the same for Dermarr. 
 

Both we disappointments but Johnson a bigger one that Marv for me. Then again, Marv was the 2nd overall pick in his draft and DJ was #6. I remember I wanted Mike Miller from Florida but he went one pick before to the Magic.

I just looked at some of the stuff he did after the accident.   He would have been better than Marvin.   It's a shame that his development was interrupted... but I get him huge respect for coming back. 

[Spud2nique]

32 minutes ago, Diesel said:

I just looked at some of the stuff he did after the accident.   He would have been better than Marvin.   It's a shame that his development was interrupted... but I get him huge respect for coming back. 

You think so? Wow you and Supes both think Dermarr would have been than Marv if not for injury? Ohhhh okaaayyy.

[Spud2nique]

46 minutes ago, Diesel said:

I just looked at some of the stuff he did after the accident.   He would have been better than Marvin.   It's a shame that his development was interrupted... but I get him huge respect for coming back. 

Between you and Supes no matter how opposite your takes, when you agree on something, it makes me take another look because you guys combined are right about 77% of the time.

[sillent]

On 9/3/2021 at 10:18 AM, Diesel said:

I think I know the answer to this but I will still put out some options:

1.  Rumeal Robinson.

2.  Demarr Johnson.

3.  Rasheed Wallace - with us for one day. 

4.  Roy Marble - The Next Jordan. 

5.  Danny Manning. 

6.  Dwight Howard.  

7.  Josh Childress. 

8.  Dion  "King of the Summer Leagues" Glover. 

9.  Big Dog.... 

10.  Big Dog, Ratliff, and Kukoc = The guarantee. 

11.  Coach Bud as GM.

12.   1 night with Tom Izzo as coach!

13.  Doc Rivers... Pass the damn ball to Dominique!!!

14.  Matthew Delvadova - "Sweep the Leg"

15. NY Police "Dirty Cops" that injured Thabo Sefalosha. 

16.  Danny Ferry's racist comments. 

17.  Antoine Walker. 

18.   Marvin Williams being drafted 2nd overall. 

19.   Shelden.  - The Landlord. 

20.  Keeping Al Henderson.

 

I think that's a good start.  What do you think m

Most of this list made me sad I actually forgot we went thru so many... If I had to choose I'll start with 3 of my favorite players/Hawks.

Nique for Manning (wow)

DeMarr's tragic accident (I thought for sure he would be our McGrady lite)

Josh Smith not living up to his potential he could of been the Nique of his time with us. Competing with LeBron instead of Jordan.

Definitely was disappointed in the playoff guarantee. Especially since we had a playoff worthy squad when we made the guarantee. It almost went without saying but once said it was definitely expected. 

 

I guess my biggest disappointment now is the doubters/non believers. Those that can't see how far we've come and where we're headed. Especially those trying to break up such a well built team that we've yet to even see at its peak verses doing something that's been done with many failed attempts. 

Edited September 5, 2021 by sillent

[niremetal]

DerMarr absolutely sucked in his first two seasons. Not a disappointment like Marvin. Like actually was consistently bad, like nearly every other Babcock draft pick. He showed no meaningful improvement during his two seasons, which is always a bad sign.

I think the tragic accident actually was the thing that made him focus and work on his game. Kind of like Stephen Hawking's ALS diagnosis and the recognition that the window to do something with his life was short spurred him to go from a face in the crowd to elite in his field, except Johnson simply didn't have the capacity to become elite after his accident. But my take is that absent the accident, he would have actually been out of the league within another season or two at the most because he was going nowhere fast.

Edited September 5, 2021 by niremetal

[dalamchops]

dermarr's draft class was pretty much the worst in league history, doesn't feel nearly as bad in hindsight. 

[EazyRoc]

I didn’t see Christian Laettner in OPs list but dude gotta be up there

[AHF]

1 hour ago, EazyRoc said:

I didn’t see Christian Laettner in OPs list but dude gotta be up there

He exceeded my expectations with his time in Atlanta.  

[AHF]

On 9/4/2021 at 4:41 PM, RedDawg#8 said:

Idk man, you still get your Anthony Bennets/Andrew Wiggins in the last few years, and your Luka and Trae's being drafted behind a Bagley. Guys like Alex Len, Dante Exum, Mario Hezonjia, Dragan Bender, Kris Dunn, etc... were all top 5 picks.

These GM's still find ways to screw things up

Yeah, drafting has a lot of variables that GMs can’t control or properly assess.  As much art as science.  Takes some good luck to go with the skill but like the ability to improvise music or draw a realistic portrait with the right proportions, there is absolutely a big talent and skill component to it so that it is very easy to separate your Schlenks from your Babcock even with that random element.

[Plainview1981]

On 9/3/2021 at 11:29 AM, AUhawksfan said:

The playoff guarantee was a big one. I knew they set themselves up for failure and you think they would’ve learned from Ray Buchanan. 
 

Josh Smith was a disappointment for me as well, and seeing his decline and career end the way it did. I remember plenty of amazing plays but I remember the groans from myself and the Hawks crowd even more when he would pull up for an ill advised shot. So much talent untapped. 

The playoff guarentee was extremely embarrassing.

Ellis is one that can be forgot about, but he was mediocre.

Getting ran out of the playoffs so much in the late 90's.

The time we wasted trying to build around JT. Not that JT was a bad player, but we tried to force him into the role that Young has now... Then tried to do the Iverson thing with him.

 

[RedDawg#8]

1 hour ago, AHF said:

Yeah, drafting has a lot of variables that GMs can’t control or properly assess.  As much art as science.  Takes some good luck to go with the skill but like the ability to improvise music or draw a realistic portrait with the right proportions, there is absolutely a big talent and skill component to it so that it is very easy to separate your Schlenks from your Babcock even with that random element.

Schlenk is a Godsend. Some GM's are good at trading, some are good at drafting, some are good at managing cap, and others at building a roster.

Schlenk somehow has managed to be good at all of it. His drafting alone is by far the best I've ever seen as a Hawks fan. I cannot think of another GM that come close to hitting on so many draft picks that weren't surefire players before the draft. 

[Spud2nique]

4 hours ago, AHF said:

He exceeded my expectations with his time in Atlanta.  

Same. My thing with him was I was pro Michigan and anti Duke to begin with, he annoyed me in college a ton, (btw sorry about that shot vs Kentucky that was crap) but not as much in the pros. I remember watching the draft and when they drafted him, Bob Neil or somebody made a remark , “a devil in Wolves clothing as he went to Minny.

But when he got to us, he wasn’t annoying in the slightest. To me he was a perfect fit with the guys we had and specially next to Deke. All star ️ for us one year too. Nice finesse game. 

[AHF]

6 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

 (btw sorry about that shot vs Kentucky that was crap)

Definitely a case of Goliath narrowly beating David (a rare David team at UK) but the shot was a moment of greatness from him and Hill.  Can’t fault that at all. The only crap was that he should have been ejected when he intentionally stomped on Timberlake.  That was called Duke privilege with the refs and without it Duke doesn’t win that one.  But Laettner was at a different level in college compared to what he was as a pro.

[Diesel]

On 9/4/2021 at 10:06 PM, niremetal said:

DerMarr absolutely sucked in his first two seasons. Not a disappointment like Marvin. Like actually was consistently bad, like nearly every other Babcock draft pick. He showed no meaningful improvement during his two seasons, which is always a bad sign.

I think the tragic accident actually was the thing that made him focus and work on his game. Kind of like Stephen Hawking's ALS diagnosis and the recognition that the window to do something with his life was short spurred him to go from a face in the crowd to elite in his field, except Johnson simply didn't have the capacity to become elite after his accident. But my take is that absent the accident, he would have actually been out of the league within another season or two at the most because he was going nowhere fast.

It's hard to quantify.

DeMarr was very young when we had him.   I don't know ages and all but he felt like we got a HSer even though he went to Cincy.   The difference between him and Marvin is aggressiveness.   Marvin just didn't have it and couldn't really get it.   With us, DeMar showed that he had some but he needed to work on other parts of his games such as turnovers.  I was glad to see DeMarr in the Euroleagues just killing the threes... and then back in the NBA with that same aggression.   I don't know if the accident made him focus or not but he had it in him to surpass Marvin. 

[swanlee]

Got be be trading Nique, that was just stupid all around