RealGM

Thank you for getting out of cap hell and assembling a lot of young
pieces. this team is in a better poistion than it was when Pete left. Although a lot o guy don't or chose to forget the state we were in before
you took over, you made at least the next GM's job a lot easier. Again... that you!!

the man did what he said he'd do. Got us back in the playoffs. Good luck Billy I think you'll be in New York before August 1, 2008 helping to implode and rebuild another project.

The media would have a field day with him.

Yes, Billy does have us in a better position than when he got here. But has anyone realized how long it has taken? This is our version of imploding the Jordan-less Bulls and taking what, 8-9 years before you are a contender again?

Give me Coangelo, give me Adelman, give me Dumars, give me someone who doesn't wait until the last year of their contract to get us to the playoffs. We're talking the top 8 slots of each division out of what 15 teams? I'm not sure he deserves so much of a thank you for finally getting us to 35 wins.

It seems like the BK defenders point out that he could have been worse.

I think he should be judged by the fact that he should have been better.

Babcock was here waaaaaay too long but that doesn't mean that BK should be here waaaaaay too long as well, does it?

Thank you, Billy Knight, for eating my b*lls on your way out the door.

I think the only unforgivable sin of BK's ATL tenure was passing on CP3 and Deron W.

Everything else we can let slide.

I'm sure he'll get a job somewhere in the years to come. This playoff series probably assured that.

He may go to the knicks and clean house there.

I can't wait for BK to start talking. This guy is going to have a lot to talk about in the future in regards to behind the scenes stuff that went on. Thanks for getting us out of cap hell,assembling some very talented young players, and for passing on two future Hall of Fame PGs for a bust at SF.

I will not wish BK good luck after what he did to Woody this season. They were good friends and he tried to go and fire him behind his back to save himself.

JoshB914 wrote:I will not wish BK good luck after what he did to Woody this season. They were good friends and he tried to go and fire him behind his back to save himself.

Yeah and towards the end of the season Woody started blaming the players' youth (which he said he wouldn't do) for the team's problems. Its all cyclical.

What Woody did was coachspeak. BK actively went behind Woody's back three times and tried to get him fired. He even tried to fire him after the Bibby deal, and that is where I lost respect for him. He knew our offense was going to get better after he finally made a legit move to get a PG, which would have proved that his ridiculous idea that you don't need a conventional PG to be succesful (a principle our team was built on) was wrong from day one.

So what did he try to do? Make it look like it wasn't Bibby or the PG situation, but that it was Woody's coaching ability that was actually holding the PG situation back. That was disgusting, you don't want guys in your organization that do things like that.

I really do wish Billy the best of luck and hope he can make a name for himself. Chris Paul and Deron Williams will truly haunt him for the rest of his life.

JoshB914 wrote:What Woody did was coachspeak. BK actively went behind Woody's back three times and tried to get him fired. He even tried to fire him after the Bibby deal, and that is where I lost respect for him. He knew our offense was going to get better after he finally made a legit move to get a PG, which would have proved that his ridiculous idea that you don't need a conventional PG to be succesful (a principle our team was built on) was wrong from day one.

So what did he try to do? Make it look like it wasn't Bibby or the PG situation, but that it was Woody's coaching ability that was actually holding the PG situation back. That was disgusting, you don't want guys in your organization that do things like that.

Well how else was he suppose to fire Woody... give Woody a ring and say he's fired? He can't do that until he got the ok from the high ups.

It's not that he tried to fire Woody, it's how he did it. It was clear that he was trying to get rid of him after the Bibby deal only to save himself and make it look like Woody was the reason for our struggles.

To be honest, if they were indeed friends, I would have expected him to have handled the situation between he and Woody with a lot more dignity.

When the story about trying to fire Woodson showed up in the press, it was the final straw. Even if Woodson had coached the team into the ground and missed the playoffs, the odds of Knight returning with story of his disagreement with owners on such an important topic made it unlikely. I mean there would be an outside shot that ownership says "Damn, he was right about Woodson. Let's listen more to him in the future." However, that's behavior is a long shot.

My prediction for Knight's next gig . . . hired as a special consultant in Indiana to help Larry Bird with how to get their cap situation back into control. I mean he did well at blowing up the roster, he just made some mistakes on building it back up. That and his ties to the organization make it a reasonable fit.

JoshB914 wrote:It's not that he tried to fire Woody, it's how he did it. It was clear that he was trying to get rid of him after the Bibby deal only to save himself and make it look like Woody was the reason for our struggles.

To be honest, if they were indeed friends, I would have expected him to have handled the situation between he and Woody with a lot more dignity.

To be completely fair he had tried to fire him 3 times so there is justification in trying to get rid of him when the Bibby deal happened.

Besides which, for years everyone was complaining about Woodson not being fired because BK was protecting him. Barring ASG doing a full cleaning of house -- GM & Coach at same time -- the only way for Woodson to have been fired these past 4 years would have been for BK to do it. So why the h&!! is everyone acting as if BK trying to fire Woodson was a bad thing?

Hypocrites with their eyes on the rear view mirrors. Knight did what he was supposed to do: Rebuild the Hawks from a team of overpaid soft aged vets into a team with a future and capable of making the playoffs. Well, guess what: he did it. So what if he didn't do it the way that we know, after the fact, it could have been done better? He did it his way, there was legitimate reasoning for most of the decisions, and it wasn't entirely his fault.

Lets look at it this way: Woodson is now in the same position with ASG that BK was when the Belkin thing blew up. He (Woodson) made his power-play, and has thrown BK under the bus to kiss up to the ownership. Now, its likely that Woodson's going to get a new contract -- no 1-2 year extension, more like 4 years -- and get a GM who's got to kowtow to him. And the Hawks -- who should have won 40+ games even *without* the Bibby trade, if you count all the coaching errors from the first half of the season and extrapolate that record through the end of the season -- and should have been competing for 4th-5th seed instead of praying for 8th -- will get worse, as Mike Woodson *continues* to run this team as a iso-Joe offense, instead of run-and-gun that it's built for.

Meanwhile, Knight will become a hero in NYC for making the Knicks competitive (and will have Donnie Walsh there to buffer him from the media), and Salim Stoudamire will become MIP for a coach who knows how to use and develop a bench. And the Hawks will become the NBA's next Memphis Grizzlies.

Woody is sucking up to the ownership? You mean the Woody that BK tried to fire three times yet still handled the issue of his job security with class? The Woody that refused to discuss the BK situation because he didn't want it to distract his team? I was surprised Woody didn't just tear BK to shreds in the press, I know I would have.

Why do you think the Hawks didn't win 40+ games? It was because they were struggling before Bibby made us a .500 team! All we needed was a decent PG all these years, and BK couldn't cash in on it. Then he does five years later and it helps us to the 8 seed, and I'm supposed to anoint the guy as a genius?

JoshB914 wrote:Woody is sucking up to the ownership? You mean the Woody that BK tried to fire three times yet still handled the issue of his job security with class? The Woody that refused to discuss the BK situation because he didn't want it to distract his team? I was surprised Woody didn't just tear BK to shreds in the press, I know I would have.

Why do you think the Hawks didn't win 40+ games? It was because they were struggling before Bibby made us a .500 team! All we needed was a decent PG all these years, and BK couldn't cash in on it. Then he does five years later and it helps us to the 8 seed, and I'm supposed to anoint the guy as a genius?

will you stop it? We were 15-17 with Bibby. Woody is supposed to be a defensive coach. I defense got worse with Bibby. Yes, our offense got better, but that had nothing to do with Woody's coaching.