Landry Fields, GM and Kyle Korver, AGM Interview - HawkVision

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

Their record is 9-13. They’re currently sitting in 10th in the Eastern Conference, a relative play-in position. It’s Hawks’ Groundhog Day.

“Growth isn’t linear,” Snyder told The Athletic later when asked if he expected such struggles early in his first full season. “We want to just keep improving. There are times when you don’t feel that and you have to dig even more. We’re going through some things right now, and some of them we can’t control. We’re playing a different style. We’re finding out who we are defensively, and it’s a series of adaptations. I anticipated (this), particularly with a group that is doing things differently than it has before.”

This isn’t about Snyder. He has proven himself as a coach. If he fails, it’s because the pieces are wrong, the front office fails, franchise dysfunction under current ownership continues or Snyder suddenly can’t remember why he left his vacation in Costa Rica for this. The Hawks haven’t been a stable and well-functioning organization for too long. No coach is immune to criticism but they’re easy targets when players don’t cooperate, don’t fit the blueprint or just aren’t good enough.

 

The new front office, led by Landry Fields and Kyle Korver, remains largely untested. Snyder denied in a lengthy interview with The Athletic having ultimate power over personnel but he clearly has owner Tony Ressler’s ear and he’s the only one with a resume of success.

The team is weak defensively. It lacks size, physicality and a presence in clutch moments. Change won’t be easy. Atlanta doesn’t own its first-round picks in 2025 or 2027 (the Dejounte Murray trade). It can’t potentially trade its 2024 pick until after the season, and even then only if it secures Sacramento’s protected first-rounder from the Kevin Huerter trade. (It’s the NBA — it’s always complicated.) That means the only real tradeable draft asset before the league’s Feb. 8 trade deadline is the protected pick from the Kings.

The Hawks had offseason trade talks with the Toronto Raptors about all-NBA forward Pascal Siakam, and those have resumed, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Siakam would help immensely. He’s an impending free agent, which may limit Toronto’s return in trade. But it remains to be seen if the Hawks can match other teams’ offers, given their shortage of trade assets. They would have to move young talent.

[Final_quest]

Revisiting this transition to Landry and Kyle prompts this thought, the move violates a life/business principle.  You want someone who has been there and done that in charge.  Also, one way a person maintains control is they put someone in charge they know is a beta to their alpha. 

I think Landy and Kyle are probably really capable and well intentioned guys.  It just doesn't replace years(decades?) of talent evaluation and executive experience.

We will never know the answer to this, but there is a lot to wonder about if TS were allowed to continue and have full control over basketball decisions.  We at least know that we would have got a better return on Collins.  Maybe the Murray trade never happens.  We could be in a much better position today on those two moves alone.  

Where I disagree with many that Tony will never spend over the tax, I do think he has some lessons to learn.  Some of his mistakes are potentially like sinking a ship and now you have to rebuild one.  

My advice is to hold on to Trae and regroup with a better cast or upgraded cast.