Dr Positivity wrote:1994 - Blaylock, Willis, Manning - I never understood why they traded Wilkens [sic] halfway on a great team
Combination of what I've heard and interpreted
1) Wilkins' contract was expiring and they didn't want to pay what they thought he wanted.
2) He was showing some signs of decline (ts% [and rts%] down).
3) Somewhat related to 2 and 4 - a feeling he was forcing his offense in Atlanta rather than giving Lenny Wilkens's offense a chance but was less able to finish (I know this seems like two points, I'm paraphrasing a source, presumably if he were finishing better he could justify the iso stuff is the link)
4) Feeling that Manning was more of a complimentary piece, one who "made others better" and thus a better fit.
5) He wasn't driving the team's goodness. Mookie Blaylock who, on limited data may have been an impact monster and a career year from Augmon have the strongest evidence of impact.
6) Manning was 6 and 1/3 years younger - a more viable long-term investment.
Don't know if all of it is fair (and don't know 1 is what Atlanta thought, but seems likely).
I understand if it ain't broke but don't mind teams taking a swing and think enough of the above is true for it to make sense ... the issue, at least in the RS, is that Manning played very poorly in Atlanta (nor great in LA that year but he got worse in Atlanta, though playing well in the playoffs, but Willis injury - torn ligament in left thumb and all other players' bad shooting versus Indiana did them in). Then Manning doesn't stay either (Atlanta/Wilkens might not have liked him saying Atlanta weren't a championship team in some court testimony about the salary cap - the presumed knowledge that he'd be "looked after" in Phoenix after taking a low dollar one year contract with the Suns - in addition to his play and likely salary requests being possible factors).
Re this year it depends on how much you weight the McMillan spell and believe the improvement is real.
By my reckoning even if you think the caliber of play improvement is real and sustainable, by my reckoning McMillan went 8-1 in games divided by 5 points or fewer, which is typically more a luck thing than a being good thing. So W-L overstates the improvement.
Facing the Knicks and now maybe a limited Embiid they're looking at a good opportunity to go deep but insofar as it's true that this is a notably good Atlanta that would be more a comment on the franchise's lack of top end teams.