Tomorrow Starts Today -- A new era starts in Hawks Basketball

[ATL Boy]

I guess they're trying to turn "tomorrow starts today" into the new "Trust the Process." It's not really something fans can chant at games though.

[jayu70]

I guess they're trying to turn "tomorrow starts today" into the new "Trust the Process." It's not really something fans can chant at games though.

I don't think it's meant to be chanted during games...Last year was 'Live from Downtown' the year before was 'Tru to Atlanta' none were used as in game chants.

Let's-Go-Hawks and A-T-L are the in game chants from what I can remember.

[macd-gm]

Live from downtown was not a good one imo. I like tomorrow starts today. or Tomorrow starts with Trae.

[Jamaaliver]

Hot off the presses from ESPN Insider:

The Hawks‘ decision to trade down and draft Trae Young was the result of a compromise between the team’s ownership group and the front office, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN. The owners wanted to keep the No. 3 pick and take Luka Doncic, while the front office preferred Jaren Jackson Jr., who wound up in Memphis with the fourth selection. The parties elected to swap picks with Dallas and take Young, whom everyone in the organization agreed on. Hoops Rumors

[Jamaaliver]

If the above is true, then:

A) ownership is meddling in decision making of front office.
B) Trae wasn't our first option or franchise savior.
C) We're really not trying to emulate the Warriors?
D) Front office was willing to build slowly through the front court.

That's...a lot to process.

[Robo_Claw]

Hot off the presses from ESPN Insider:

The Hawks‘ decision to trade down and draft Trae Young was the result of a compromise between the team’s ownership group and the front office, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN. The owners wanted to keep the No. 3 pick and take Luka Doncic, while the front office preferred Jaren Jackson Jr., who wound up in Memphis with the fourth selection. The parties elected to swap picks with Dallas and take Young, whom everyone in the organization agreed on. Hoops Rumors

Christ, we are gonna need a lot of luck to put this team together if all of that is true.

[Jamaaliver]

I do wonder...for a decision of this magnitude, I guess it's normal, nay understandable, for ownership to sign off on the kid they'd be gambling the future of franchise on.

I remember Cam Newton had a sit down with the previous Panthers owner and they had a very candid conversation about what they expected from one another.

But, man...sounds like the rumors of us selecting Trae in part because of his box office appeal is at least somewhat true.

Also...I rate Wendell Carter as a better player than JJJ. Trav!!! How do you not see it, too?

[macd-gm]

Holy crap! I hope this isn't true. I was happy to net Trae and a pick. Skipping Luka and just taking JJJ would have sucked. What the hell?

[Robo_Claw]

I do wonder...for a decision of this magnitude, I guess it's normal, nay understandable, for ownership to sign off on the kid they'd be gambling the future of franchise on.

I remember Cam Newton had a sit down with the previous Panthers owner and they had a very candid conversation about what they expected from one another.

But, man...sounds like the rumors of us selecting Trae in part because of his box office appeal is at least somewhat true.

Also...I rate Wendell Carter as a better player than JJJ. Trav!!! How do you not see it, too?

I'm MOST worried about the JJJ thing too. I'd much rather roll the dice with Trae than JJJ. Trae COULD be pretty damn good or not very good but JJJ just feels like he will be a decent average player.

I'm willing to give some time to see how things play out but truth be told i am not very impressed with trav so far. I like that he is trying to get to the same end result that i would like. but i dunno about the process at this moment.

[Jamaaliver]

Holy crap! I hope this isn't true. Skipping Luka and just taking JJJ would have sucked. What the hell?

I'm MOST worried about the JJJ thing too. I'd much rather roll the dice with Trae than JJJ. Trae COULD be pretty damn good or not very good but JJJ just feels like he will be a decent average player.

Be glad Dallas coughed up a future 1st rounder to jump into #3. Otherwise...things could look very different right now.

(Drafting JJJ likely means no Trae or Spellman.)

[Robo_Claw]

Holy crap! I hope this isn't true. Skipping Luka and just taking JJJ would have sucked. What the hell?

I'm MOST worried about the JJJ thing too. I'd much rather roll the dice with Trae than JJJ. Trae COULD be pretty damn good or not very good but JJJ just feels like he will be a decent average player.

Be glad Dallas coughed up a future 1st rounder to jump into #3. Otherwise...things would look very differently right now.

(JJJ means no Trae or Spellman.)

jeez louise, that trade might end up as one of our best moves just because it stopped us from ourselves. I'm really high on Spellman, once he drops some weight and gets in NBA shape I think he's gonna beast. He's surprisingly good already.

[jayu70]

Holy crap! I hope this isn't true. I was happy to net Trae and a pick. Skipping Luka and just taking JJJ would have sucked. What the hell?

Did you not see this from yesterday???

Schlenk has done what he can to smooth Young’s path. He’s tried to reassure Young that he was the team’s top choice in the draft. Schlenk has asked fans to have patience with Young while emphasizing that he’s just one piece a long-term puzzle. 

Read on Twitter

This is why I was royally pissed when the trade news 1st broke - the pick wasn't initially involved. It was swapping Baze for Matthews expiring.

[Jamaaliver]

Gloves are off ion the wide ranging interview.

Ressler and Schultz giving us the goods on what went down with Bud.

Tony Ressler has learned from mistakes, says he was ‘schmuck in the room’ for two years



Owning a sports team doesn’t require any unique brilliance, but having expertise in real estate, retail or operating private equity firms means bupkis in the world of bats, balls and, “What? You signed Dwight Howard?”

Which brings me to Hawks owner Tony Ressler. If there is one reason to feel good about the franchise’s future, it’s him. That’s bound to get lost at some point because the Hawks finished 24-58 last season and are not expected to be any good this season (notwithstanding their win Sunday in Cleveland). Ressler has significantly moved the franchise forward in several ways the past year, and equally important, he acknowledges his early missteps put the franchise in a dreadful hole.

“Let’s cut the **** — I didn’t know what I was doing,” Ressler said. “I can blame someone else, I can blame you, I can blame my wife. But there was only one schmuck in the room, and that was me.”

Ressler purchased the Hawks in April of 2015, as a 60-win Atlanta team was beginning the playoffs. Former general manager Danny Ferry was in purgatory at the time, and the basketball operations were being run by Mike Budenholzer, the NBA’s coach of the year, and assistant general manager Wes Wilcox. Ressler did the easy and seemingly most logical thing after the playoffs: He cut ties with the polarizing Ferry, promoted Budenholzer to team president and elevated Wilcox.

Boom goes the dynamite.

“It was a recipe for disaster,” he said. “Total dysfunction.”

Budenholzer and Wilcox constantly disagreed on direction and personnel decisions. They signed Dwight Howard. They let Al Horford walk. Budenholzer was determined to try to win today but was totally lost as a big picture guy.

Ressler correctly decided to remove Budenholzer as team president in 2017 and hired general manager Travis Schlenk. Budenholzer convinced Ressler, and maybe himself, that he would be satisfied to be just a coach again.

I will go easier on Ressler than he will on himself. He was in charge, but he trusted the people he put in place. We’ve seen bad ownership in Atlanta. It’s not Tony Ressler.

• He pushed for a long-overdue practice facility and got it built.
• He purchased a developmental G-League franchise.
• Most recently, he spearheaded a $200 million makeover of the arena formerly known as Philips (now State Farm).

The Hawks now have arguably the NBA’s nicest venue, complete with expanded and open concourses that one can actually walk around now, multiple viewing areas, a massive new scoreboard and video boards, three private clubs, attractive redesigned suites, two corner suites with golf simulators (why not?) and a barber shop (OK, a bit much).

These are not small achievements. But Ressler has fixed what he can for now. There is peace in basketball ops, and he’s staying out of the way.

He also scoffs at rumors that he was the reason the Hawks traded Luka Doncic to Dallas Trae Young...Ressler said the trade only happened because “basketball operations feels like they have a kid who’s going to be really good with a really high ceiling, and we got a great first-round pick next year. If the rumor is that I picked Trae over Doncic because of marketing, it’s the dumbest f***ing thing I can imagine. It’s fundamentally untrue.”

The Athletic

[macd-gm]

At what point were they going to fire Bud?

[jayu70]

At what point were they going to fire Bud?

Good question. Was he going to be fired if he didn't want out?

[Jamaaliver]

I heard rumors for years (and then read in a deep dive expose on the franchise) that life in the hawks organization was stressful, high strung and unpleasant under Danny Ferry and, to a lesser degree, BudCox.

Giving credit where it's due, this seems to have completely changed under Ressler/Schlenk. The business side is running as smoothly as I've ever seen; the basketball side has a bright future, and there is a real air of excitement and optimism not seen in these parts in a loooong time.

Fun video of coaches and front office personnel getting in a game with players before opening night at SFA:

Read on Twitter

And Hawks stars of the past are finally returning to kick off the new era:

Read on Twitter

Things are looking up for this woebegone franchise. Kudos to new leadership.

[kg01]

I heard rumors for years (and then read in a deep dive expose on the franchise) that life in the hawks organization was stressful, high strung and unpleasant under Danny Ferry and, to a lesser degree, BudCox.

Giving credit where it's due, this seems to have completely changed under Ressler/Schlenk. The business side is running as smoothly as I've ever seen, the basketball side has a bright future and there is a real air of excitement and optimism not seen in these parts in a loooong time.

Fun video of coaches and front office personnel getting in a game with players before opening night:

And Hawks stars of the past are finally returning to kick off the new era:

Things are looking up for this woebegone franchise. Kudos to new leadership.

It galls me that folks still opine for the days of Dan E. Ferry. I think we're, tenuously, in a much better place now. Tenuous because Ressler seems to be a meddler-type. Despite him now claiming he's more hands-off, I can easily see him stepping back in to throw his weight around and that's not a good thing.

Also, Deke is a Rocket now. Was probably just there gathering intel.

[Jamaaliver]

I heard rumors for years (and then read in a deep dive expose on the franchise) that life in the hawks organization was stressful, high strung and unpleasant under Danny Ferry and, to a lesser degree, BudCox.

Giving credit where it's due, this seems to have completely changed under Ressler/Schlenk.

In keeping with this theme. It appears the players enjoy the atmosphere a lot more this season. That speaks well of the team architect and the coaching staff.

Inside the Hawks’ locker room transformation: ‘Guys actually like each other on this team’



From what he has seen through 11 games, Lin believes this team is on the path to being considered one of the closest teams he has played for. That’s a major change from recent seasons for the Hawks.

“The past two seasons, there was a lot of stuff going on in the locker room, I would say,” DeAndre’ Bembry said.

None of the players The Athletic spoke to wanted to go on record about the specific problems inside the locker room, but multiple people close to the team pointed toward Dennis Schröder’s immaturity as being a glaring issue. And, as it turns out, having Dwight Howard and Schröder in the same locker room two seasons ago didn’t turn out well.

Collins and Kent Bazemore specifically credited Schlenk for the changes inside the Hawks’ locker room, including bringing in first-year head coach Lloyd Pierce, who has preached togetherness from the moment he arrived in Atlanta. Pierce has been a big proponent of making sure as many players as possible attend the non-mandatory team dinners on the road. He organized a paintball outing during the offseason. He attended several Atlanta Dream games with Young and Taurean Prince. There are “pow-wows,” as Bazemore describes them, where the team talks about everything but basketball.

Put simply, Pierce has done a good job of connecting with the players on a personal level.

The Hawks also have team dinners on the road that nearly everyone on the road trip with the team attends. It’s something that general manager Travis Schlenk brought over from his days with the Golden State Warriors.

John Collins said the camaraderie on last season’s team was “a roadblock.” He attributes it to players just being in different spots in their career. Schröder made it clear he wanted out of Atlanta, Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova were the elder statesmen on the team and hadn’t had overwhelming success in their careers for the young players to gravitate to. So there wasn’t one player in the locker room for the young players could turn to.

The Hawks have that this year with Lin and Vince Carter, who at this point in his career has turned into somewhat of a player-coach when he’s on the floor.


When the team has been on the road, Lin organizes bible study groups in the team’s hotel. Lin sees those moments outside of basketball being critical when it comes time to play the game because those conversations lead to better understanding of why his teammates play the game, what motivates them and how they can better communicate with one another.

“I would say that there are things that can trump (team chemistry), but if you ever want to get close to your ceiling as a team, you need it,” Lin said.

“I feel like I definitely have a nice beat of what’s been going on with the team, and I would say, at least compared to last year, we are a very, very tight-knit group,” Collins said. “Guys actually like each other on this team and want to be around one another, and I think that bleeds onto the court.”

Bazemore said Atlanta’s 3-8 record doesn’t show how good a team the Hawks actually are. He sees the strides the Hawks are making.

But the biggest stride hasn’t been about basketball just yet; it’s more so about teammates actually enjoying each other’s company.

The Athletic

[Jamaaliver]

Current Hawks ownership following through on their many promises

Hawks​ owner Tony​ Ressler​ made​ several promises​ when he​ formed a group​ to​ purchase​​ the team in 2015. Ressler, 59, vowed to build a championship contender, remodel Philips Arena, build a practice facility, move the G-League team to the city and help renovate downtown Atlanta.

It remains to be seen if Ressler can create a championship team. Considering the Hawks have a 3-9 record and are in the process of a roster overhaul, fans likely will have to be patient on that front. Meanwhile, Ressler has spearheaded a practice facility that is considered by many as the best in the NBA.

“We have everything we could want and stuff we couldn’t even imagine here,” Hawks forward Kent Bazemore said about the practice facility. “It’s beautiful. This team has done a great job of giving us the resources we need to be successful.”

The G League team is coming with a new arena in College Park. Ressler and leaders in Atlanta are working to revitalize the Gulch, an area of urban blight near the arena. Speaking of the arena, it’s now called State Farm Arena and has undergone a $200-million renovation.

“It’s amazing,” Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce said. “They did a great job on this place. I love it. The arena is magnificent.”

The Athletic

[Jamaaliver]

<duplicate>