Hawks Front Office Shake-Up

[Jamaaliver]

Could this be fallout from the failed Horford negotiations?

Hawks assistant general manager Michael Blackstone is leaving his role with the organization, according to several people familiar with the situation.

Blackstone spent just one season with the Hawks.

Blackstone joined the Hawks from the Shapiro Negotiations Institute in Baltimore. He served as the executive vice president/sports practice director.

With the Hawks, Blackstone was responsible for managing player contract and trade negotiations, administration of the salary cap, directing the basketball operations staff and strategy.

The Hawks recently promoted Jeff Peterson to the role of assistant general manager from director of scouting.

The Hawks are parting ways with Jim Pfeifer, the vice president of revenue integration, and Naya-Joi Martin, the team’s manager of player programs

Here

[Jamaaliver]

With reports that the Hawks had a master strategy for the off-season, but after it fell apart early into free agency over minor cash differences in negotiations...you'd have to think someone would pay the price for that massive misstep.

This seems expected, but I hope it isn't a overreaction. This guy apparently has a reputation as a 'master negotiator'.


No idea what type of impact the other losses could have. But the Blackstone departure is surely related to the Horford calamity.

This begs the question: Who hired this guy? Ressler? Grant Hill? Wilcox?

His hiring and departure less than a year later makes me have even more doubts regarding the abilities of Front Office execs...

[HMFFL]

I have even more respect for our ownership now.
If a guy is classified as a master negotiator the Hawks would still have Horford right now.
If Michael Blackstone is indeed the main reason Horford left a job loss needed to occur. We cannot continue to ignore key mistakes if being successful is the true goal. According to past interviews Ressler only wants the best.

[Jamaaliver]

His hiring and departure less than a year later makes me have even more doubts regarding the abilities of Front Office execs...

Looks like Wilcox had a past working experience with him and likely vouched for him as Asst GM to new ownership. (Over new Asst GM Jeff Peterson). What a difference a year makes.




The Hawks have taken a major step in rebuilding their front office with the hirings of Michael Blackstone as assistant general manager...and the promotion of Jeff Peterson to director of scouting, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Blackstone previously served as the executive director of basketball operations for the Cavaliers. New Hawks general manager Wes Wilcox has worked with both Blackstone and Treloar in the past when he was with the Cavaliers organization. Aug 2015

[Jamaaliver]

I feel pretty certain that Wes Wilcox's job is now on the line. If we'd let Blackstone go after a bungled negotiation, I imagine his boss (and the person who vouched for Blackstone) would immediately feel some heat as well.

[Jamaaliver]

Hawks looking to make additions to their scouting department. Both domestically and overseas. This could help improve our weak drafting over the past few years:

The Hawks are expanding their regional scouting network. The Hawks have hired Richard Midgley as their west coast scout.

West coast scouting was previously part of the responsibility of John Treloar, the team’s director of player personnel. The hire of Midgley will allow Treloar to play a larger role with the Hawks.

Jeff Peterson, who was recently promoted to assistant general manager from director of scouting, also handles scouting duties in the southeast. The Hawks intend to find a scout in that region. The Hawks are also looking to add to their overseas scouting staff.

The moves will allow Treloar and Peterson to play bigger-picture roles with the Hawks in terms of scouting the top of the draft and handling other basketball operations duties.

Here


Moves like these won't get much press attention, but they will likely have huge impacts on how we assess talent in the first round the next few years.

[jayu70]

I'm so glad we are actually building a scouting department, which was one of the first things Ferry improved when he got here.

[Jamaaliver]

Long-time AJC Columnist Jeff Schultz speculates that jobs may now be officially on the line as the Hawks product on the floor struggles in the early going this season:

Hawks struggling but players aren’t ones who put team together

The Hawks aren’t a great offensive team. They rank 23rd in points per game and 26th in three-point shooting. They’ve also been prone to checking out mentally, which is how you lose games by one-sided margins. The direction of the franchise is in question. Criticism has been raining down.

If you’re looking to point blame, just make sure you do so in the right direction.

This team was put together by coach Mike Budenholzer, who’s also the president of basketball operations, and Wes Wilcox, the general manager (effectively Budenholzer’s assistant).

It was their decision to bring in Dwight Howard, turn over the starting point guard duties to Dennis Schroder, and cast Kent Bazemore as a relative franchise centerpiece with a $70 million contract.

The players are always easy to blame because they’re the ones we see. But if this doesn’t work, the problems go back to the roster decisions.

It has been a challenging season for Budenholzer, a former NBA coach of the year who is still trying to prove himself as an executive. When asked if the offseason changes creates more pressure in situations like this, Budenholzer responded, “Maybe tougher. I wouldn’t say more pressure."

Here

[jayu70]

Long-time AJC Columnist Jeff Schultz speculates that jobs may now be officially on the line as the Hawks product on the floor struggles in the early going this season:

Hawks struggling but players aren’t ones who put team together

The Hawks aren’t a great offensive team. They rank 23rd in points per game and 26th in three-point shooting. They’ve also been prone to checking out mentally, which is how you lose games by one-sided margins. The direction of the franchise is in question. Criticism has been raining down.

If you’re looking to point blame, just make sure you do so in the right direction.

This team was put together by coach Mike Budenholzer, who’s also the president of basketball operations, and Wes Wilcox, the general manager (effectively Budenholzer’s assistant).

It was their decision to bring in Dwight Howard, turn over the starting point guard duties to Dennis Schroder, and to suddenly cast Kent Bazemore, a terrific bench player, as a relative franchise centerpiece with a $70 million contract.

The players are always easy to blame because they’re the ones we see. But if this doesn’t work, the problems go back to the roster decisions.

It has been a challenging season for Budenholzer, a former NBA coach of the year who is still trying to prove himself as an executive. When asked if the offseason changes creates more pressure in situations like this, Budenholzer responded, “Maybe tougher. I wouldn’t say more pressure."

Here

It really is speculation:
Criticism from fans - yes. From ownership - I would like a little proof sprinkled in, a "I've heard that the owner blah blah blah..."
Giving Baze $70 is not casting him as a franchise centerpiece - it's the NBA market. He would have gotten a similar deal in Houston or LAL. (Evan Turner got more, Tyler Johnson got $50 mil). Only an AJC writer would corolate $70 mil with 'franchise centerpiece'
I'm not saying the team isn't flawed but c'mon. View Baze's contract relative to the deals handed out this past free agency.

[MaceCase]

Schultz and Bradley have nothing to do with the Hawks despite working for the town's only major paper. C-Viv is the only one in tune with the franchise and he's barely competent. Schultz only inside connection was when the warring ownership group (read: the Gearons) were trying to peddle smear pieces against each other through him and I think some female reporter from the ABC. He at least was smart enough to recognize the con job and declined, other than that, his views of the team aren't much different than any fan's.

[PandaKidd]

I think all this is way too early to panic.

I agree theres not a lot of talent there to ,say, turn into the CLE cavaliers from 2 years ago , but, there was GOING to be growing pains with this lineup.

[Jamaaliver]

Hoping this blows over and won't require it's own thread...

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Just...why?

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[afectar]

[Jamaaliver]

“I know you guys may be angry with me, but I’m used to it because I have a black wife and three mixed kids, so I’m used to people being angry and argumentative.”

<----The internet mob not knowing how to respond to this.


I'm not angry, Wes. Just very disappointed.

From there, the Deadspin report indicates that Koonin and Crawford eventually set up a face-to-face meeting on Jan. 3 that also involved Nzinga Shaw. Shaw was hired as the NBA’s first diversity officer in the wake of the Danny Ferry scandal and, per the report, Shaw indicated that Wilcox was being counseled by her as a result of the incident.

Peachtree Hoops

[ATL Boy]

What was going through his head? When is telling a racist joke in a public setting like this ever a good thing?


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[Jamaaliver]

What was going through his head? When is telling a racist joke in a public setting like this ever a good thing?


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

And then to customers/fans at that...

18 months after the previous GM was ex communicated for insensitive comments.

Just poor judgment, all around.

Spoiler:

In his defense...I actually thought it was kind of funny. Just not at work, dude. Save that for Sunday Dinner with the In-Laws.

[PandaKidd]

Whats mind boggling to me (white guy) is that had he just said "I have a wife and 3 kids at home trust me I know what argumentative is" its a really funny easy to relate to statement.

Why say "I have a black wife and 3 mixed kids" ??? It shows horrid judgement for a person.

Im not saying hes a racist or anything just a dumb dumb statement that didnt need to have "black" or race thrown into to describe it

[MaceCase]

Depends. Was he making a stereotypical joke or was he referring to being used to dealing with racists with his family? The former gets iffy when considering that he included his kids. Are they all female too? Does the stereotype cover mixed women of color too?

Past their gripe be it legitimate or not, that fan is an asshat. Mark Jackson, really?!

[Jamaaliver]

I do want to point out that the headline Deadspin has chosen to roll out with this story is insanely overblown. It's almost as if they intentionally are attempting to blow the story out of proportion just to generate controversy.



I thought only I, Skip Bayless and Donald Trump used such tactics...

[Jamaaliver]

Hope this is the end of this.

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I went on record predicting Wes would likely be gone after the season. I can't imagine how this affects his job status moving forward.