Nick Ressler is likely to ruin the Hawks

[AHF]

6 hours ago, JeffS17 said:

Every new piece of media around this team reinforces my thought that Ressler is trying to position to sell.  Making the playoffs is critically important from a business perspective because you are able to bring in more revenue and show higher margins on operations.  And I'm sure teams pick up on this, so it's going to be very sad when this family mortgages the future of our team to cash out.

Why would you put Nick Ressler in charge if you were planning to sell?  That makes no sense.  You want an exec who goes with the business when you are marketing something for sale and obviously the owner’s son won’t do that.  Having someone inexperienced in charge makes it more likely you will lower the value of the franchise and damage the brand.  This to me screams passion project.  Someone who owns the team and figures he can do whatever he wants with it ala Jerry Jones.

[JTB]

I’m in between on a lot of things. I could see the Resslers selling the team due to the franchise value going up but then on the flip side since Nick is such a Trae superfan I can also see Resslers keeping the team.

 

I see benefits in them selling for our sake more so than them keeping the team of course.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

When the Hawks are 4+ games over .500 going into the February west coast road trip, what will the narrative be then?

 

[JTB]

7 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

When the Hawks are 4+ games over .500 going into the February west coast road trip, what will the narrative be then?

 

Same more than likely…

Collins will still be in trade rumors if not already traded.

Mcmillian will still be on his way out end of the season.

I don’t think the narrative changes wins or not unfortunately. Nick Ressler has given Trae , LeBron like power where he’s picking all his teammates start to finish in my opinion. Who knows what this team is going looking like with the kids running the show .

[Vol4ever]

Never really been a fan of schlenk he hasn't done anything significant.   

[JayBirdHawk]

Like I said in the other thread, this will go one of two ways:

 

On 1/13/2023 at 2:03 PM, JayBirdHawk said:

This will either fail spectacularly or it's going to surprise us.

The trade deadline and the coaching hire will be front and center.

....I'll reserve full judgement until then.

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Here's the issue with Nick being such a superfan.....will he do what is best for the team on the court? Will he be able to make the tough decisions when required? Separate good basketball business from his Fandom? We shall see.

[bleachkit]

10 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Like I said in the other thread, this will go one of two ways:

 

On 1/13/2023 at 2:03 PM, JayBirdHawk said:

This will either fail spectacularly or it's going to surprise us.

The trade deadline and the coaching hire will be front and center.

....I'll reserve full judgement until then.

 

 

There's always the possibility it could just end up mediocre too. 

[JayBirdHawk]

2 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

There's always the possibility it could just end up mediocre too. 

That's the worse place to be.

[AHF]

3 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

There's always the possibility it could just end up mediocre too. 

I think that is the most likely “fail” scenario.  Too much talent to stink but in that late lottery range where you don’t get anyone impactful.

[AHF]

12 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Here's the issue with Nick being such a superfan.....will he do what is best for the team on the court? Will he be able to make the tough decisions when required? Separate good basketball business from his Fandom? We shall see.

If he is only a true super fan of Trae, at least intellectually that could work given that the Hawks aren’t getting rid of Trae regardless.  To keep Trae for the long term you need to make the right decisions for team success - not necessarily the moves that Trae is advocating.  LeBron got to make his own moves in Cleveland and it was a failure.  The team had to load up on assets without him then he was willing to return.  Miami successfully balanced the moves LeBron wanted and what was best for the team (easier to do with how they started that team).

If Trae is going to leave, he will leave because we make bad moves that leave us without the ability to truly contend.  If he is asking for moves like that, a true super fan will say “no” and give him what he needs.

[JayBirdHawk]

1 minute ago, AHF said:

If he is only a true super fan of Trae, at least intellectually that could work given that the Hawks aren’t getting rid of Trae regardless.  To keep Trae for the long term you need to make the right decisions for team success - not necessarily the moves that Trae is advocating.  LeBron got to make his own moves in Cleveland and it was a failure.  The team had to load up on assets without him then he was willing to return.  Miami successfully balanced the moves LeBron wanted and what was best for the team (easier to do with how they started that team).

If Trae is going to leave, he will leave because we make bad moves that leave us without the ability to truly contend.  If he is asking for moves like that, a true super fan will say “no” and give him what he needs.

This is my point - will he be able to put his Fandom aside and say No when needed.

[bleachkit]

13 hours ago, AHF said:

Why would you put Nick Ressler in charge if you were planning to sell?  That makes no sense.  You want an exec who goes with the business when you are marketing something for sale and obviously the owner’s son won’t do that.  Having someone inexperienced in charge makes it more likely you will lower the value of the franchise and damage the brand.  This to me screams passion project.  Someone who owns the team and figures he can do whatever he wants with it ala Jerry Jones.

Also Ressler only recently bought the Hawks. I don't think Adam Silver wants teams being bought and sold with too much frequency. 

[Hawkmoor]

10 hours ago, JTB said:

I’m in between on a lot of things. I could see the Resslers selling the team due to the franchise value going up but then on the flip side since Nick is such a Trae superfan I can also see Resslers keeping the team.

 

I see benefits in them selling for our sake more so than them keeping the team of course.

Thats way off the issue.  Ressler has a contractual and fiduciary duty to sell the team to make money for his investers.  The investors control this.

[AHF]

14 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

Thats way off the issue.  Ressler has a contractual and fiduciary duty to sell the team to make money for his investers.  The investors control this.

No he doesn’t.  If he wants to keep the team until he dies, he can.  He is the majority owner and is not obligated to sell under any circumstances no matter how nice the return might be relative to the initial investment.  If the minority investors want to sell their shares, they can do so but that won’t change the fact that Ressler is the owner with the only real voice in decisions.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

2 hours ago, JTB said:

Same more than likely…

Collins will still be in trade rumors if not already traded.

Mcmillian will still be on his way out end of the season.

I don’t think the narrative changes wins or not unfortunately. Nick Ressler has given Trae , LeBron like power where he’s picking all his teammates start to finish in my opinion. Who knows what this team is going looking like with the kids running the show .

 

Was Trae wrong in requesting a back court running mate that could do some of the ball handling and playmaking? We may disagree with the price tag that it took to bring Dejounte here, but it was the correct move.  Trae and Dejounte are very good together.

I think the fans just hate the idea of players actually having some input in team construction.  When Lebron wanted Anthony Davis to run with, instead of Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, and Lonzo Ball, was that the wrong decision?  Sure, it got rid of the Lakers young talent, but the move brought them a championship, even if their other seasons have been lackluster due to AD being hurt all the time.

I'm just reserving judgement on Fields and Young Ressler, until they make a move that actually messes us up.  They should've found a way to keep Huerter on the roster. But if Daddy Ressler didn't want to go into the tax, they had to get rid of somebody.

And to be real about it, if we didn't get rid of Huerter, AJ is probably the 5th wing on the team and getting no PT, unless he's in College Park.

 

I've been saying for over a month now that everyone just needs to calm down, and let all of this play out.  Let the rumors fly and just watch and see if the team has finally turned the corner.  That way, once Clint comes back, maybe we really take off, with the experience that the bench has gotten in December, due to the player absences.

[JayBirdHawk]

22 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Was Trae wrong in requesting a back court running mate that could do some of the ball handling and playmaking? We may disagree with the price tag that it took to bring Dejounte here, but it was the correct move.  Trae and Dejounte are very good together.

No. I've been screaming for a secondary ball handler since we drafted Trae....so I'm good with the trade. I just want to see Murray play to his strengths - Drive the ball hard , play defense, rebound.  He played the perfect role vs Toronto. 

[Hawkmoor]

3 hours ago, AHF said:

No he doesn’t.  If he wants to keep the team until he dies, he can.  He is the majority owner and is not obligated to sell under any circumstances no matter how nice the return might be relative to the initial investment.  If the minority investors want to sell their shares, they can do so but that won’t change the fact that Ressler is the owner with the only real voice in decisions.

You STILL don't get it.  Ressler is a manager of a private equity firm. Private equity was used as the tool to purchase the Hawks.  Investors in the fund theoritically can buy to KEEP,  and benefit from cash flows through different investment vehicles, or they can buy to SELL.  Private equity makes more money buying to sell than buying to keep.  Its the main exit strategy.  In this case,  his firm got a deal on the Hawks because the franchise value was tarnished during the Atlanta Spirit fiasco.  He swooped in with his private equity, steered the Hawks to high valuation.  The exit is to sell.  Book mark it. Ressler is a boss business man. He is very good:

But the fundamental reason behind private equity’s growth and high rates of return is something that has received little attention, perhaps because it’s so obvious: the firms’ standard practice of buying businesses and then, after steering them through a transition of rapid performance improvement, selling them. That strategy, which embodies a combination of business and investment-portfolio management, is at the core of private equity’s success.

Such an opportunity most often arises when a business hasn’t been aggressively managed and so is underperforming. It can also be found with businesses that are undervalued because their potential isn’t readily apparent. In those cases, once the changes necessary to achieve the uplift in value have been made—usually over a period of two to six years—it makes sense for the owner to sell the business and move on to new opportunities. (In fact, private equity firms are obligated to eventually dispose of the businesses;

https://hbr.org/2007/09/the-strategic-secret-of-private-equity

Edited January 15, 2023 by Hawkmoor

[Hawkmoor]

One more thing.  The reason I'm explaining this is to give insight in to how the Hawks are approaching management and the players.  For instance, why waste time contemplating going into the luxury tax as a fan if you know how the Hawks are approaching this from a financial point of view that may counter going into the luxury tax. 

The Atlanta Braves paid Acuna and Albies under market value for instance. One of the reasons is the battery hadn't start performing yet.  Once the cash flow increased, the next rounds of contracts got bigger for their players. They have been transparent about it.  What the Hawks are doing is neither good or bad, its just that you have to have insight into what they are possibly doing so that you as a fan don't get worked up over stuff without the proper perspective.  As long as the Hawks are increasing in value, the investors will hang on to the franchise.  If its starts dipping or other factors come into play from the investors, then they will sell.

[Threezus]

So i don't know if this is a coincidence or not but before Bogi came back we were 12-10 and we all agreed the only real thing we were missing was a few good 3 point sharp shooters to help out.   Which i think Bogi is but since he came back we are 9-12 and i personally think he disrupts the flow a bit when he starts doing more of his iso than being a 3 point shooting addition.  Then you add in his below avg defense 95% of the time and i think he might be doing more harm than good at times.    If we could get more guys that are catch and shoot guys that play avg or so D instead of a guy like Bogi that prefers to make more plays himself i think we would be better off.   

I honestly feel Huerter would have been a much better keep than Bogi on this team in style of play and how well they would play off a Trae and Murray.