RealGM

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 1:43 pm**

My guess is if the ASG decides to keep Woody, they will promote within the organization.

My guess is the Scouting Director Harold Ellis will be the choice.

He has been a GM in-training for the past five years now and ownership thinks highly of him.

We shall see though.....what's the RealGM pulse out there??

Who do you think should be the next Hawks GM?

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 1:57 pm**

Scouring the Assistant GMs quickly I see Dennis Lindsey (Spurs Ast GM), Maurizio Gherardini (Raps Ast GM, former Benetton Traviso Mgr.) and Lance Blanks (Cavs Ast GM, former Spurs scouting director) are out there, with some having been shortlisted recently by other teams. If they could steal any current GM I'd like Jeff Bower (Hornets GM).

~lw3

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 2:13 pm**

Hire someone from the Spurs front office like Seattle did with Presti last year. I just hope they don't hire a former player with no experience.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 2:25 pm**

Harold Ellis doesn't need to be the GM of the Atlanta Hawks. I can't support that if it happens.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 3:02 pm**

HMFFL wrote:Harold Ellis doesn't need to be the GM of the Atlanta Hawks. I can't support that if it happens.

My thinking is IF....IF they keep Woody, then they will promote within the organization. If Woody is fired or his contract is not extended, then, yes, the conventional wisdom would be to go out and find a GM.

But if they were to go out and find a new GM....with Woody in place, that new GM would want to hire his own coach. Thus, keeping Woody would not be an ideal job for an GM prospect.

Plus, the ASG has not convinced me that they want to spend the money it would take to a) hire a new GM, b) have that new GM hire a new coach, c) and have that new GM deal with resigning the Joshes or start with a new vision. Plus, it doesn't help that they cut corners as much as possible. They want to spend the least amount of money....and under this scenario...this would be the approach I 'THINK' would happen.

Harold Ellis is solid....and young. He's 38....and the trend of Scouting Dir's/Asst GM's becoming GM are ever-present. And I trust his knowledge better than BK's.....and he's an Atlanta native.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 3:08 pm**

fo_o_fo_404 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

My thinking is IF....IF they keep Woody, then they will promote within the organization. If Woody is fired or his contract is not extended, then, yes, the conventional wisdom would be to go out and find a GM.

But if they were to go out and find a new GM....with Woody in place, that new GM would want to hire his own coach. Thus, keeping Woody would not be an ideal job for an GM prospect.

Plus, the ASG has not convinced me that they want to spend the money it would take to a) hire a new GM, b) have that new GM hire a new coach, c) and have that new GM deal with resigning the Joshes or start with a new vision. Plus, it doesn't help that they cut corners as much as possible. They want to spend the least amount of money....and under this scenario...this would be the approach I 'THINK' would happen.

Harold Ellis is solid....and young. He's 38....and the trend of Scouting Dir's/Asst GM's becoming GM are ever-present. And I trust his knowledge better than BK's.....and he's an Atlanta native.

Has anyone ever heard of something like that happening? Not hiring from within but the ownership group firing a GM, hiring a coach (essentially what would be happening because Woody's contract is up) and then hiring a new GM?

That makes absolutely no sense.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 4:03 pm**

Maybe Mark Cuban was right and GMs just pretend to have power. That would explain coach before GM.

As far as historically, I believe a couple times a coach was hired prior to GM when the Coach was big name/power and the GM was just a number cruncher. Titles don't necessarily indicate who the ownership favors in any dispute.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 4:10 pm**

My thinking is that Michael Gearon informed BK that they were leaning toward extending Woody.

Since he tried firing him three times behind his back, and was rebuffed by ownership each time, there was no way BK was going to go along with that setup....so he resigned. Plus the relationship between BK and Woody was hostile and they were not on speaking terms.....and that's not conducive to a positive working environment.

During the playoffs, and our Game 3, 4 and 6 wins, instead of coming down to the locker room to congratulate the guys, he sent his younger brother, Terry (a scout....now former scout I would presume), down in his place. It didn't look good at all.

I feel BK lost his pull after Chris Paul, who openly said at the time that he wanted to play here, obliterated the league. Had he chose Paul...or even Deron Williams, he looks like a genius now. Bibby slowed the bleeding some...but that "once in 20 years PG" slipped through the cracks.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 4:13 pm**

evildallas wrote:Maybe Mark Cuban was right and GMs just pretend to have power. That would explain coach before GM.

As far as historically, I believe a couple times a coach was hired prior to GM when the Coach was big name/power and the GM was just a number cruncher. Titles don't necessarily indicate who the ownership favors in any dispute.

Thats true but it would be a mighty wierd statement to make by the ASG if they did it this way.

When the criticism leveled against you is that you make it hard for a GM to do his job, would you really want to reinforce that belief by not allowing him to make the biggest decision facing the franchise?

Seems like bad business to me.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 6:03 pm**

I was thinking the same thing as 404, BK "resigning" rather than being fired speaks volumes. I figured they'd be fired as package deal, but we know that we can't keep both. Maybe BK found out we are looking to keep Woody and made the decision not to work with a guy he tried to fire three times over the last five or six months.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 6:09 pm**

on espn they are saying that billy king is a strong candidate to take over.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 6:21 pm**

That's awful. Another BK with no clue.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 6:51 pm**

Billy King?!

He has a better eye for talent than Knight but is a worse overall GM because of how much money he gives his own players. He would probably give Childress $60 million based on his track record. This is as dumb as Chris Wallace getting another job.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 7:19 pm**

I am not buying the King rumors to the Hawks. Just go ahead and ignore those. If Woodson is kept then I see in house promotion aka puppet GM put in place. If this new guy is actually good then I will take back that comment. Right now it look like Gearon has become the new Belkin.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 8:44 pm**

lunarblues wrote:on espn they are saying that billy king is a strong candidate to take over.

Is this a joke? You're kidding, right?

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 9:42 pm**

Hawks, I like your comment about Gearon being Belkin. But to be honest, the ASG strike me as being just as cheap as Belkin. They are just flaming him in order to look better in court. I wish Blank would buy the team.

Posted: **Wed May 7, 2008 10:06 pm**

He is not any better than BK. His team is in the playoffs after he has been let go. He did form the majority of the lineup, but Philly is stuck with Dalembert and his overpriced contract.

Billy King provides good analysis on NBA TV. This is where his talent is best served.

RealGM

Potential GM candidate....

Potential GM candidate....

No to Billy King