Are the Hawks owners committed to winning?

[atlsun]

Ok just be honest, what you really feel in your heart. Are the Hawks owners committed to winning?

My answer is no my fellow Hawks fans. If they were committed to winning they would have never accepted all this losing. 13 wins (2004-05 season) 26 wins (2005-06 season) and 30 wins (2006-07 season) thats a 28% winning percentage for the last three seasons and an average of 23 wins per year for the last three seasons. We have the second lowest salary in the nba the only team lower than us are the Bobcats. The Bobcats have spent large sums of money this offseason. They signed Gerald Wallace to 60 mill and extended Matt carroll. Accepted Richardson and Nazar contracts and even offered Okafor 60 mill. For the the Hawks off season they added 2 draft picks to a 30 win team. I know we have a better record than the Bobcats but at least their ownership has shown that they are committed to winning.

What, they couldn't package Shelden, Zaza (who had higher value then) Chill and expiring contracts for a better basketball player, we had cap space. We had everything that you could need to add a better basketball player so our team would have a better chance to make the playoffs, but ownership just didn't want to spend the extra money. Thats the only reasonable explanation I can come up with.

Our current situation clearly shows that they are not committed to winning. We have a coach that deserves to get fired but ownership doesn't want to pay for a better coach. We have high lottery picks sitting on the bench playing sparingly or not even playing at all, we could package these players and add a better basketball player but ownership wants to run this thing cheap.

So as fans what can we do? Well just don't go to their games don't buy their merchandise make your voice heard. This ownership isn't going to do anything about the hawks unless you make your voice heard. As much it may hurt, lets do this. Tell your friends not to go to the games. Tell anybody that goes to a hawks game not to go.

Make your voice heard. Lets change this.

[killbuckner]

Any team that still employs Billy Knight as GM is not committed to winning.

[evildallas]

I can't equate fiscal caution during rebuilding with not being dedicated to winning. Free agent spending last off season flies in the face of reality that they have large extensions looming. It's what they do as players come off the rookie deals that will determine for me if they are dedicated to winning. Of course, if they are cheap it'll be too late at that point.

As far as employing Billy Knight, I chalk that up to misplaced faith and naivety rather than intentionally not being committed to winning. They employed BK and his plan for rebuilding the team and they've stuck with it, in spite of so many missteps along the way. I don't disagree with the basic plan, I just wish they'd realize their talent evaluator sucks more often than not. As far as not making lesser assets into something that helps on the court, I see that as being afraid to make a mistake more than being cheap, per se. It's easier to make trades when your goal is dumping salary than it is when your trying to improve your team.

As for the other option on the poll, are they making money? Attendance isn't great. Merchandising doesn't impress me. I've no clue what the TV ratings are like, but can't imagine their too impressive. Marketing seems almost non-existent to me. All these factors combine to make feel the organization is just more inept than money-grubbing.

For whatever their reason, I could agree that ownership isn't doing enough to put a winning product on the court, but your options assume facts not in evidence. I can't say they are only interested in making money nor can I say they are committed to winning because the revealing choices are coming up. If the poll was simply do I think the ASG are doing a good job as owners, I would answer no. As worded, I can't participate at this time.

[fo_o_fo_404]

I can't equate fiscal caution during rebuilding with not being dedicated to winning. Free agent spending last off season flies in the face of reality that they have large extensions looming. It's what they do as players come off the rookie deals that will determine for me if they are dedicated to winning. Of course, if they are cheap it'll be too late at that point.

As far as employing Billy Knight, I chalk that up to misplaced faith and naivety rather than intentionally not being committed to winning. They employed BK and his plan for rebuilding the team and they've stuck with it, in spite of so many missteps along the way. I don't disagree with the basic plan, I just wish they'd realize their talent evaluator sucks more often than not. As far as not making lesser assets into something that helps on the court, I see that as being afraid to make a mistake more than being cheap, per se. It's easier to make trades when your goal is dumping salary than it is when your trying to improve your team.

As for the other option on the poll, are they making money? Attendance isn't great. Merchandising doesn't impress me. I've no clue what the TV ratings are like, but can't imagine their too impressive. Marketing seems almost non-existent to me. All these factors combine to make feel the organization is just more inept than money-grubbing.

For whatever their reason, I could agree that ownership isn't doing enough to put a winning product on the court, but your options assume facts not evidence. I can't say they are only interested in making money nor can I say they are committed to winning because the revealing choices are coming up. If the poll was simply do I think the ASG are doing a good job as owners, I would answer no. As worded, I can't participate at this time.

What??? LOL....the answer is, plain, and simple......NO, they are NOT committed to winning!

[raleigh]

Honestly, I don't think it's a fair question.

The owners sans Belkin can't afford to put a winning team on the floor.

[tontoz]

I'd rather have Harry the Hawk as GM instead of BK.

[Rod700]

I think the current owner situation (i.e. the legal battles and restrictions placed on spending) puts a limit on what this team can do. The inability to spend money is in place so that long terms committments are minimized to some degree until the owner situation can be sorted out. I think that's a sad situation that naturally creates an environment where money is a priority over winning. I wish they would all just sell their shares to an impartial third party so that the people of Atlanta and the fans don't have to suffer anymore.

[tontoz]

The ownership situation isn't the reason BK passed on Deng/Iggy, Paul/Deron and Roy.

[HoopsGuru25]

I could see waiting to fire Woody for a number of reasons. BK should have been fired long ago even if his replacement was a no-body.

[NWO4Life]

You can find my opinion here from my post lasr night...
Perhaps it may have been a catalyst for this thread.
http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic. ... 94&start=0

[atlsun]

evildallas,

fair enough.


I remember after asg won the legal battle against Belkin one of the owners said that the restrictions were "never an issue it never prevented them to do anything that they wanted to do

[conleyorbust]

I don't know if they are any less "committed to winning" than most other NBA ownership groups. Its easy to think of Mark Cuban and Paul Allen and say that the ASG is cheap and lazy. On the other hand Robert Sarver has built a consistently elite team in PHX and he makes sure the team doesn't have to pay the lux tax by bribing teams into taking his draft picks. Its not that he doesn't want to win, its just that even billionaires don't want to lose $11m if they don't have to.

The ASG would be at a huge advantage if BK could make some minor tweaks to the roster and get a better point guard and improve the depth of the team. Moves that could be made without making any appreciable expense increase. If the Hawks made some changes the team could go from a slightly below .500 team to a slightly above .500 team which would bring a thousand or so more fans to the games and ensure a spot in the playoffs which equals a pretty massive revenue boost. Believe me, they want that.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/32/biz ... _Rank.html

That is the franchise value list from last season. As far as basketball operations go, the chise' isn't losing money because expenses are low but they aren't raking in cash by any means, at least in NBA franchise terms. Hell, I worked for a wholesale meat distributor in highschool that had an operating incom at a 1/3 of that and only had 40 employees.

Anyway, my point is that they aren't happy making that much money and becoming a slightly better team could mean a significant increase in revenue, especially with the east as bad as it is now. So no, its not that they aren't committed to winning because winning more would mean more profit which is what every owner wants. Its more that they don't know what to do and have already put themselves in a crappy position by allowing BK to run the team for so long. I'm not sure what the deal is on the legal side but it didn't prevent them from offering Smith the $9m per year contract over the summer and I know things have gotten better for ASG on that front since then.

I just think they don't know what they are doing as basketball owners.

[High 5]

The only good move BK has made was drafting Josh Smith. That dude needs to go.

[JoshB914]

It's not really the owners' job to do this. They want to make money. I think that is the goal of most owners.

[atlsun]

^ hay josh I got your email thanks man.

[lunarblues]

the owners are committed to winning, it's just that we haven't been doing a good job of it. the task of winning boils down to the job of the GM, coaching staff, and players. blame for losing should be distributed to them. owners are just the money supply to the team. a good owner doesn't have a say in the team's performance on the court. mark cuban didn't sign dirk nowitzki and paul allen didn't draft brandon roy. similarily, the ASG didn't sign marvin williams. it was only when belkin tried to become GM that the whole thing started to fall apart.

that's like FDR telling general eisenhower where to advance during WWII.

once you have two people trying to be GM, you're going to have problems.

[atlsun]

Extending your draft picks does not prevent you from spending extra money. They could have extended j-smoove and still bring a quality ball player.

I do question their commitment and I thought more people would be with me on this. We are in the fourth year of a rebuilding plan and we still have the second lowest salary in the nba.


Come on now, that just doesn't cut it.

[Hawks]

The legal issues are no longer the problem. That matter will be taken care in due time. Belkin had his chances to appeal the last court ruling and didn't do it. Pretty much the next court ruling which will be on how much the buyout costs will put an end to it.

It is tough to say if they are committed or not. They did sign Ilya to a long term contract. Of course it took him threatening to stay in Russia to do so. They still haven't locked up Marian Hossa long term.

Right now what is troubling this franchise. There is incompetence from ownership down to the coaches. Nobody has any idea what to do.

[conleyorbust]

Extending your draft picks does not prevent you from spending extra money. They could have extended j-smoove and still bring a quality ball player.

I do question their commitment and I thought more people would be with me on this. We are in the fourth year of a rebuilding plan and we still have the second lowest salary in the nba.


Come on now, that just doesn't cut it.

atlsun, what do you think the owners want? Look at the chart I posted, its not like they have a cash cow here. If that is the most they can get from this operation and they are in it for the money, they'd be better off selling.

Now if you are saying that they aren't the type of owner who is willing to do whatever it takes to win, I agree with you but most owners really ARE in it mainly for the money (to a lesser extent the ego trip, but there are very few owners who would happily lose money if their team was winning).

They have every incentive to improve the team. Their biggest problem is that they have a terrible staff.

[atlsun]

"Now if you are saying that they aren't the type of owner who is willing to do whatever it takes to win, I agree with you but most owners really ARE in it mainly for the money"

Bingo.

Well we will find out soon if they care.