Reasons why Hawks should rebuild and restucture

[Jamaaliver]

The recent trouble has not just been over the weekend. The Hawks (32-26) have lost three straight games by a total 53 points. They are 10-10 over the past 20 games and 23-24 since a 9-2 start to the season.

Discipline involving Dennis Schroder has been central to the two most recent losses.

The Hawks are still fifth in the Eastern Conference but are 2-1/2 games behind the fourth-place Raptors and 2-1/2 games ahead of the sixth-place Bulls and Pacers. The prospect of hosting a first-round playoff series is rapidly slipping away.

The Hawks won 60 games and made it to the conference finals two seasons ago. They were eliminated in the second round last season. They are in jeopardy of a first-round exit this season.

Tough times behind. Tough times ahead.

AJC

Hawks in danger of missing playoffs — and would that be a bad thing?

After coming out of the All-Star break with ugly losses to Miami and Orlando, the Hawks are in fifth place in the Eastern Conference. They’ve also played a schedule that ranks only 27th out of 30 NBA teams in overall strength. Would the Hawks be better off making or missing the playoffs.

Advantages to making the playoffs: Ownership gets revenue from at least two home playoffs dates and whatever cache goes with saying the Hawks made the playoffs for a 10th consecutive season. When they try to convince free agents to come to Atlanta, they don’t have to counter the, “But you didn’t even make the playoffs last year” argument. But I would debate how attractive a team making an early postseason exit is to free agents, and certainly the Hawks project as an early exit team.

Advantages to missing the playoffs: The most obvious is the Hawks become a lottery team and are assured of a higher draft pick. A case also could be made that missing the playoffs would send a stronger message to ownership that change must come in organizational structure and front office positions. But it’s difficult to guarantee that because nobody is certain how majority owner Tony Ressler’s feels about the team’s front office.

myAJC

[tbhawksfan1]

You know, maybe Bud isn't completely happy. There has been a lot of tourmoil during his tenure. He has deffinately dropped the ball on the GM thing. Could also say that he's very slow developping young guys.

[Skyhawk1]

You know, this loyalty stupidity that coach brought here first by signing Bazemore and now about to do the same thing with Millsap and Hardaway will kill this franchise for a long time. You do not sign a 32 yo to a max deal, you just don't. It has nothing to do with his talent, it's got everything to do with the future and flexibility of the franchise. We should have traded him and rebuilt. Our PG is taented but too young and imature to lead a team deep into the playoffs. We have big holes at the 2 and 3. Howard is a great rebounder at this point in his career. He's a disaster on the pick and roll defense. In other words, it'd be worth to keep this team if we were closer to contending. We are not. Future doesn't look all that bright for these Hawks.

[Jamaaliver]

From a story about the Hawks 13 months ago...just before the 2016 trade deadline:

Sources with knowledge of the team's thinking say that Hawks management and ownership have conceded internally that unless Atlanta can recapture the magic of last season's run, this season's team is a fringe contender.

Sources close to the organization emphasize that if the Hawks become active in the next week, it will not be to "blow it up," but rather an attempt to exchange their existing players for commensurate, if younger, talent.

ESPN

They've known for a while what we are. Yet are too afraid to take the necessary, bold action.

Wilcox, in 2017, publicly indicated Millsap is our highest priority and re-signing him is our number one goal moving forward.

Wes might be out of a job before he can enact that act of desperation...

[jayu70]

From a story about the Hawks 13 months ago...just before the 2016 trade deadline:

Sources with knowledge of the team's thinking say that Hawks management and ownership have conceded internally that unless Atlanta can recapture the magic of last season's run, this season's team is a fringe contender.

Sources close to the organization emphasize that if the Hawks become active in the next week, it will not be to "blow it up," but rather an attempt to exchange their existing players for commensurate, if younger, talent.

ESPN

They've known for a while what we are. Yet are too afraid to take the necessary, bold action.

Wilcox, in 2017, publicly indicated Millsap is our highest priority and re-signing him is our number one goal moving forward.

Wes might be out of a job before he can enact that act of desperation...

The key word in that article is 'commensurate' -corresponding in amount, magnitude, or degree.
If you aren't getting that in a trade......Kelly Olynyk and Amir Johnson is NOT commensurate to Al Horford... just one example.

[Jamaaliver]

The key word in that article is 'commensurate' -corresponding in amount, magnitude, or degree.
If you aren't getting that in a trade......Kelly Olynyk and Amir Johnson is NOT commensurate to Al Horford... just one example.

always in defense of this front office.

You'd be a great addition to the Hawks PR staff. You consistently seek out the positive no matter how poorly the moves appear in the short term or in hindsight.

[jayu70]

The key word in that article is 'commensurate' -corresponding in amount, magnitude, or degree.
If you aren't getting that in a trade......Kelly Olynyk and Amir Johnson is NOT commensurate to Al Horford... just one example.

always in defense of this front office.

You'd be a great addition to the Hawks PR staff. You consistently seek out the positive no matter how poorly the moves appear in the short term or in hindsight.

I call it like I see it.

[Jamaaliver]

Hawks remain a huge enigma

Since a promising 9-2 start, Atlanta (34-26) is essentially a .500 team in search of an identity.

Last season, the Hawks slipped to 48-34 and were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. Now, they seem to have taken another step backward after coach Mike Budenholzer gambled on a drastic makeover...

Just two years ago, the Hawks were seemingly poised for greatness. They set a franchise record with 60 wins, claimed the top seed in the East and reached the conference finals before getting swept by LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

It turned out to be an aberration.

...a group that has shown glimpses of being really, really good - when they're not looking really, really bad. They've got 22 games to figure it out.

Budenholzer remains hopeful that the Hawks can pull it all together. Time is running out.

AP Sports

[Jamaaliver]

Another assessment from league observers:

Atlanta Hawks

With Tim Hardaway Jr. (restricted), Kris Humphries, Ersan Ilyasova, Paul Millsap (player option) and Thabo Sefolosha all slated for free agency, the Atlanta Hawks may have no choice other than to blow things up. They can't justify spending stacks of cash to keep a mid-tier to low-end playoff team intact.

Everything comes back to Millsap. General Manager Wes Wilcox made it clear Atlanta intends to keep him while talking to The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski before the trade deadline. But the 32-year-old should command max or near-max money and will explore his options on the open market, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The Hawks have to rebuild if Millsap walks, in which case the roster will look noticeably different next season. But they lost Al Horford for nothing last summer. They can't afford to do the same with another cornerstone. It's more likely they pony up what it takes to keep Millsap in Atlanta and stave off a full-scale reinvention—at least until next February's trade deadline.

Bleacher Report

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

A rebuild makes sense for the Hawks. After a 9-2 start, the Hawks fell to 15-16, and the fact that they couldn’t compete for a title became evident. Moving aging, soon-to-be free agents Korver and Millsap could have netted some real assets for the Hawks’ future.

However, something unexpected happened after the Korver trade. The Hawks kept winning.

It seems impossible for a seven-game win streak to be a bad thing, but for the Hawks it was.

This win streak appears to have convinced the front office that the Hawks could compete in the playoffs. On January 9th, only four days after he was put on the market, Hawks GM Wes Wilcox stopped listening to offers for Millsap.

The Hawks are going to be at a crossroads this offseason. This coming offseason, the Atlanta Hawks are going to have to decide which route gives them the best chance at being a true contender.

Soaring Down South

[tbhawksfan1]

I've been watching this inevitable crash develop since the end of the 60 win season. That team should have been added to; instead the roster took a talent hit. Since then the Hawks have played band-aid with diminishing returns. Horf walking and not pulling the trigger this trade deadline has finished the deal.

This off-season the roster will be stripped, with less cap to work with. If they go band-aid again, the Hawks will sink to the bottom of the league as far as talent with a bad cap situation. If they rebuild, they do so with only DH and Schro as moveable assets to bring in picks for the rebuild.

This is what happens when you see the wall coming for miles, but never avoid the wall.

[Jamaaliver]

I've been watching this inevitable crash develop since the end of the 60 win season. That team should have been added to; instead the roster took a talent hit. Since then the Hawks have played band-aid with diminishing returns.

This is what happens when you see the wall coming for miles, but never avoid the wall.

Bingo.

No one wanted to hear after a 60-win season that we still weren't true contenders. But it's true. And we've gotten worse each year since.

[Jamaaliver]

Hawks trending downward in a number of important stats:

Read on Twitter

The most logical and important reason to adjust our approach in team building.

[Jamaaliver]

More reason to rebuild the roster after restructuring the front office.

The “Blow It Up” Index

Sometimes in the NBA, the way up starts by going down. Which NBA teams should consider lighting the fuse?

It’s Too Late: Atlanta Hawks

A lot of readers and podcast listeners have tweeted at me recently that the Clippers and Hawks should blow it up after their playoff defeats. The problem is it’s (probably) too late. For Atlanta, Paul Millsap hits free agency this summer, and he’s 32 years old. The Hawks’ blow-it-up window was prior to the 2016 deadline, when they still had Al Horford and Jeff Teague. They missed it. But they’ve done a nice job complementing their veterans with nice prospects. Dennis Schröder is young. Taurean Prince and DeAndre’ Bembry have bright futures.

...they’re essentially a stationary playoff team without a generational player, and they’re effectively locked into their not-good-enough rosters if they re-sign their free agents this summer. They’re stuck in a loop.

The Ringer


I'm now ready for a full on rebuild. We waited to long and don't have much choice otherwise.

[PandaKidd]

They need to somehow find a way to get rid of Howard/Baze and I would prob resign Millsap at that point to trade him next season when I could. At that point its aggressive pursuit of below the radar players like we did in the past.

[tbhawksfan1]

At this point about the only thing they can do is to re-sign the bird rights guys, bring in a MLE and hope that they can unload all these bad contracts in the future...good luck! How does a team get out of Baze.... Howard might get something back with an expiring but better hurry....if we sign Sap, which seems unavoidable, we will need to hope he can hold up long enough to retain trade value.

The Hawks situation is much worse than many seem to realize. The only guy that seemed to get it (Wilcox) tried to pull the trigger and got shot down. Now they're looking for the medicine man that can come in and keep this team competitive.......

The Hawks have never been competitive....might need to try something different

[Jamaaliver]

The Hawks can learn from what the 76ers and Celtics have done

The goal is to be the Eastern power post-LeBron.

The NBA East, lately terrible, just saw two of its members fortify themselves towards that goal. The Sixers are now positioned to take the point guard they didn’t have...the Celtics figure to add to a team that just finished first in the East and should be better next [season].

There’s no assurance the Sixers will become a great team or even a good one, but this is among the most impressive arrays of young talent the NBA has seen since … well, ever.

The Hawks have the No. 19 pick in Thursday’s draft, five spots out of the lottery. The only lottery pick they’ve made in a decade is Taurean Prince.

In a league driven by superstars and constrained by a salary cap, teams that don’t have the former must be aggressive and creative. Sometimes the most aggressive step is a backward one.

Here endeth the lesson.

myAJC

What the Howard trade means for the Hawks

1. The Hawks are rebuilding

For a team that has made the playoffs 10 straight seasons, that successful run is in jeopardy. Ressler and Schlenk have both said they would like to continue to build the Hawks into a championship contender but remain relevant. That may not be the case in the short term. Without Millsap and Howard, the Hawks are not a top eight team in the East. It’s also possible the Hawks could lose Tim Hardaway Jr. as a restricted free agent. That’s three-fifths of the starting playoff lineup that may not be back.

2. Roster flexibility

Schlenk has preached roster flexibility from the moment he arrived. He abhors what he considers bad contracts and wants deals that are tradable...

Howard was considered a bad contract...

3. The future of Bazemore

If Schlenk wanted to move on from the Howard contract, it is also possible he considers the Bazemore deal a bad contract.

Bazemore still has upside and has shown growth in his game when not slowed by injury.

4. No starting center

5. Unclear roles

6. Salary cap savings

7. Paul Millsap

The two sides have talked and will talk some more before July 1. They could compromise. Millsap may not want to be part of a rebuilding team. He may get a better offer from a serious contender. Millsap could walk and the Hawks receive nothing. Remember Al Horford? Millsap has stated his desire to remain in Atlanta but that possibility is getting less certain.

myAJC

[LANCEPIER]

Since the Hawks are rebuilding, here's some ideas:

Trade 1: Dennis Schroder + Millsap ( sign and trade) for 5th and 10th pick and Rudy Gay
Dennis Smith Jr with the 5th pick and Luke kennard with the 10th.

Trade 2: Futur 1st 2020 ( protected 10) and Tim Hardaway jr for Jahlil Okafor.

With the 19th pick : Justin Jackson

Pg: Smith Jr
Sg: Kennard
Sf: Prince/Jackson
Pf:
C: Okafor

Not too bad to start a rebuild imo, what do you guys think?

[MaceCase]

Since the Hawks are rebuilding, here's some ideas:

Trade 1: Dennis Schroder + Millsap ( sign and trade) for 5th and 10th pick and Rudy Gay
Dennis Smith Jr with the 5th pick and Luke kennard with the 10th.

Trade 2: Futur 1st 2020 ( protected 10) and Tim Hardaway jr for Jahlil Okafor.

With the 19th pick : Justin Jackson

Pg: Smith Jr
Sg: Kennard
Sf: Prince/Jackson
Pf:
C: Okafor

Not too bad to start a rebuild imo, what do you guys think?

Nearly completely illegal. Draft precedes free agency yet you have multiple free agents being traded for each other beforehand in conjunction with other assets and players.

[tbhawksfan1]

Since the Hawks are rebuilding, here's some ideas:

Trade 1: Dennis Schroder + Millsap ( sign and trade) for 5th and 10th pick and Rudy Gay
Dennis Smith Jr with the 5th pick and Luke kennard with the 10th.

Trade 2: Futur 1st 2020 ( protected 10) and Tim Hardaway jr for Jahlil Okafor.

With the 19th pick : Justin Jackson

Pg: Smith Jr
Sg: Kennard
Sf: Prince/Jackson
Pf:
C: Okafor

Not too bad to start a rebuild imo, what do you guys think?

Nearly completely illegal. Draft precedes free agency yet you have multiple free agents being traded for each other beforehand in conjunction with other assets and players.

Thanks, I was going to but didn't find the right words