Dumbest year for the Hawks

wallsfamily · Post #1 » by **wallsfamily** » Mon Aug 9, 2010 3:32 am

Most of the people on these sites are too young to remember but you can check it out later. In 1976 the Hawks due to financial restraints had a chance to become an elite team and messed it up. Here is the scenario. The Hawks had a bad record and had the number one pick in the 76 draft. In addition the ABA merged with the NBA and their was a dispersal draft with the Hawks having the number two pick. Here is what happened in the NBA draft with Robert Parish coming out of a small college and the Hawks desperately in need of a center the Hawks swapped the pick for a later pick 8 or 9 in the draft and drafted Armond Hill a long time starter at point guard but they already had Tom Henderson who would later be the starting point for the Bullets championship team. Just think hall of famer Robert Parish. Then in the dispersal draft. Available was Moses Malone, Marvin Barnes and Maurice Lucas the Hawks traded the pick to Portland who added Lucas and Malone to Bill Walton Bob Gross, Lionel Hollins and Dave Twardzic. Blazers traded Atlanta Steve Hawes 6'9" outside shooter and a recovering from injury Geoff Petrie. Blazers traded Moses for future picks and then won the NBA championship with Lucas the leading scorer. Now just picture this team in a very weak eastern conference. Boston was aging and bullets had flaws.

SF John Drew 20 pt. scorer
PF. Lucas leading scorer for blazers double double machine.
C Parish
SG Lou Hudson veteran scorer.
PG Henderson

Any old school fans remember this.

evildallas · Post #2 » by **evildallas** » Mon Aug 9, 2010 4:31 am

Thanks for the perspective. I doubt they would have drafted Parish #1 overall. He went 8th in that draft on his way to a great career, but John Lucas (PG out of Maryland) or Scott May (F out of Indiana, injuries cut his pro career-short) would have been the likely pick. You left out that in round 2 Atlanta chose Bob Carrington 6'6 G/F out of Boston College one pick before Seattle drafted Dennis Johnson. Carrington got waived in training camp and managed to hang around the league for about a year while Dennis Johnson went on to be ultimately get inducted into the Hall of Fame with 3 championship rings.

Only time will tell if Summer of 2006 can reach such infamy. The Hawks drafted Shelden Williams ahead of Brandon Roy, Solomon Jones in the 2nd with Paul Millsap still on the board, and signed Speedy Claxton in free agency.

Harry10 · Post #3 » by **Harry10** » Mon Aug 9, 2010 9:32 am

evildallas wrote:Thanks for the perspective. I doubt they would have drafted Parish #1 overall. He went 8th in that draft on his way to a great career, but John Lucas (PG out of Maryland) or Scott May (F out of Indiana, injuries cut his pro career-short) would have been the likely pick. You left out that in round 2 Atlanta chose Bob Carrington 6'6 G/F out of Boston College one pick before Seattle drafted Dennis Johnson. Carrington got waived in training camp and managed to hang around the league for about a year while Dennis Johnson went on to be ultimately get inducted into the Hall of Fame with 3 championship rings.

Only time will tell if Summer of 2006 can reach such infamy. The Hawks drafted Shelden Williams ahead of Brandon Roy, Solomon Jones in the 2nd with Paul Millsap still on the board, and signed Speedy Claxton in free agency.

he said that the Hawks needed a center desperately and Parish was the best center in the draft. the guys drafted above him were forwards and guards. what hurt Parish the most was that he came from a small school and was a legit 7 footer who put up big numbers like Michael Olowokandi

parson · Post #4 » by **parson** » Mon Aug 9, 2010 1:24 pm

I always hated the year we drafted BOTH David Thompson and Marvin Webster and let them go to Denver of the old ABA.

That was my nightmare year: 1975,

evildallas · Post #5 » by **evildallas** » Mon Aug 9, 2010 7:12 pm

Harry10 wrote:
evildallas wrote:Thanks for the perspective. I doubt they would have drafted Parish #1 overall. He went 8th in that draft on his way to a great career, but John Lucas (PG out of Maryland) or Scott May (F out of Indiana, injuries cut his pro career-short) would have been the likely pick. You left out that in round 2 Atlanta chose Bob Carrington 6'6 G/F out of Boston College one pick before Seattle drafted Dennis Johnson. Carrington got waived in training camp and managed to hang around the league for about a year while Dennis Johnson went on to be ultimately get inducted into the Hall of Fame with 3 championship rings.

Only time will tell if Summer of 2006 can reach such infamy. The Hawks drafted Shelden Williams ahead of Brandon Roy, Solomon Jones in the 2nd with Paul Millsap still on the board, and signed Speedy Claxton in free agency.

he said that the Hawks needed a center desperately and Parish was the best center in the draft. the guys drafted above him were forwards and guards. what hurt Parish the most was that he came from a small school and was a legit 7 footer who put up big numbers like Michael Olowokandi

I understand, but by trading the pick, Parish was no longer available and at #1 the Hawks wouldn't have reached on him. Maybe they hoped to get Parish at #9 but lost out by dropping too far. My point was if they didn't make a trade they wouldn't have had the confidence to draft Parish #1 overall, so you can't really lament them not getting Parish. We didn't choose Hill over Parish, we lost all opportunity to draft Parish.

Let me also state that I wasn't a Hawks fan in the mid 70s. I lived in the middle of nowhere (Southern Illinois) and adopted the Warriors in 75 as my team. After the title they broke that team up and it hurt my young feelings horribly. I didn't really have a favorite Pro team until the Hawks years later (80s) instead I focused all my love on Duke (yes I go back to the mid 70's as a Duke fan).

wallsfamily · Post #6 » by **wallsfamily** » Tue Aug 10, 2010 3:14 am

The hawks pick that year was going to be between Parish from Centenary and Leon Douglas from Alabama but they had been burned by Webster and Thompson and traded down in order to save money. Worse than that was the trade in the dispersal draft as can be seen the ABA merger changed the landscape of the NBA. The influx of talent and Portlands strategic manuvering won the championship that year and was a Walton foot injury from being a dynasty. I was and am a hawks fan who remembers it all.

CAM · Post #7 » by **CAM** » Tue Aug 10, 2010 4:54 am

From an off-court perspective, the dumbest year would have to be

1) The Playoff Promise (in exchange for a refund of season tickets)
2) The off court saga that was the ownership disagreeing on signing JJ and let it (and still letting it) draw out so long.

td00 · Post #8 » by **td00** » Wed Aug 11, 2010 2:17 am

The worse Hawks season has to be trading away Bill Russell.

Pick the era for this franchise: Where could they have been all these years later?

Consistent dumb decisions with no idea how to build a championship team.
Think that is different today? Me neither.

How they have managed to maintain a fanbase is the achievement I marvel at.