Thanks to Billy Knight

[FCNATL85]

i don't care what people say, BK built that team (Evans and Murray were obvious choices considering the cap and Chill departure). Other than Paul, I would like to know what his detractor would have to say now?
Merry Xmas Hawks fans.

[fo_o_fo_404]

i don't care what people say, BK built that team (Evans and Murray were obvious choices considering the cap and Chill departure). Other than Paul, I would like to know what his detractor would have to say now?
Merry Xmas Hawks fans.

LOL!

Missing Paul tarnishes his entire tenure....also picking Shelden Williams over Brandon Roy. But missing on a top three player in the league is fire-able offense....period.

But I'm not gonna beat a dead horse. The JJ deal was gr8....and if Smoove can play smarter bball, that pick can be a gr8 one as well.

The Horford pick was a no brainer for Knight.....and Sund's acquistions have been mediocre at best. Evans and Murray certainly don't bring the intangibles Chill in any way.

So, the thanks really goes to, we, the fans....for not giving up on this team.

[High 5]

Billy Knight was hit or miss by a mile. Good riddance.

[HoopsGuru25]

My biggest problem was actually not the Paul pick although I did like Paul quite a bit as a prospect. BK was not alone with that. Milwaukee only considered taking two players at number one and Portland traded down once it was clear we were taking Marvin. BK's dumbest move by far was the Shelden situation. Not only did he make a huge reach(Ford had him ranked 20th on his board as opposed to Marvin who he ranked 1st)but he also let everyone know that we were taking him so teams didn't even bother to try to trade up.

1I also think the Hawks made alot of panic moves as well when they should have been negotiating from a position of strength. I still think the Hawks should have signed Joe to the offersheet especially if Phoenix was asking for our very lightly protected pick after a 13 win season. I still don't know why the Hawks blew their last chance at capspace by signing Lo and Speedy when there were much more high reward options like Chandler and Nene available.

[FCNATL85]

Well talking about Shelden, I think he is not on the team anymore and even better BK managed to trade him for one of the best guard available for trade at the time. Bibby and JJ are paying off now.

[HMFFL]

I never felt Billy and the ASG looked at who was the most marketable. If I'm the ASG I'm looking at who I can market to draw the fans to the arena and get some national attention. Below is the list of players I felt could own the city right now and Billy Knight/ASG didn't seem to think it was necessary. Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Brandon Roy being the three obvious. No ones perfect. Billy made mistakes, so do us, but I feel most of the fans had a better idea of how to turn the team around for the good.

2006:

Brandon Roy - Only marketable players out of the draft.

I wanted Brandon Roy at the time. However, I also like Patrick O'Bryant, Marcus Williams and Rajon Rondo. I wanted us to trade down to select those three if we passed on Brandon Roy. The draft has proven to be very thin. I remember the rumored trade that had us swapping picks with Houston and Houston sending us Luther Head. I liked that trade very much at the time. It was pretty obvious Billy didn't intend on selecting Brandon Roy.

Everyone seemed to know Shelden didn't have what it would take to be the big man we needed. The thing that got me was Billy didn't even work him out. I guess watching him at College was enough?

2005:

Only marketable players during the draft:
Chris Paul
Deron Williams (Who I preferred)
Danny Granger - Can be a marketable player if he can turn things around for the Pacers.

I wanted Deron Williams over Chris Paul at the time. Billy Knight and the ASG really missed out on two players that they could market. Most of all they passed on two players that could hold down the point for fifteen plus years.

2004:

Most marketable we had a shot at: Al Jefferson and Andre Iguodala. Josh Smith can beat out both if he improves his offense.

This was a interesting year for me because I didn't focus on College basketball much. It was clear Dwight and Emeka would go 1 - 2. So, I wanted the following Andris Biedrins, Devin Harris or Shaun Livingston. On draft night we only had a shot at Andris Biedrins. I also had a plan that I wanted us to trade down to go with the two high schoolers Al Jefferson and Josh Smith. Luckily Josh was still there with the 17th pick.

I remember so many Hawk fans wanting Luol Deng and I didn't want him at the time due to being stuck on the Euro/High School players. Also because he played for Duke. I remember being pretty upset about Josh Childress being our selection and passing on Andris Biedrins. Also passing on Andre Iguodala who was the less risk.

2003:

Not really any marketable players with the 17th pick or after.

Billy's was smoking some good stuff when he picked Boris Diaw over Josh Howard. I remember yelling at the tv that night at the fact that he just wasted a pick on a player that might not even come over at the time. Billy needed someone the team that could be a future foundation piece and Josh Howard was it.

[HoopsGuru25]

Well talking about Shelden, I think he is not on the team anymore and even better BK managed to trade him for one of the best guard available for trade at the time. Bibby and JJ are paying off now.

That's like saying the Lakers did well in the Kwame/Butler trade because they eventually traded Kwames expiring for Gasol. I would say the majority of that credit goes to the ASG for adding a $14 million dollar player to the payroll when many here questioned if they would. Sac didn't trade for Shelden....they traded for the expiring contracts. Shelden has played less minutes than Solo this year and they didn't even pick up his option.

[JoshB914]

The Shelden Williams pick is truly one of the dumbest draft selections in ANY sport ever. Not only was taking him at no. 5 a massive reach, everyone already knew we were picking that loser two weeks before the draft because BK "promised" him the pick and we stopped working out other players.

He was a complete waste of space. The guy whined when he was benched for sucking his rookie season and spent the rest of his ATL career sulking on the end of the pine. Don't go thinking he held any value in the Bibby trade. The Kings were just looking to clear cap. Shelden was never a part of their plans and it has showed by the amount of PT he has gotten.

I said it his rookie year and I will say it now, Shelden Williams will NEVER contribute ANYWHERE in this league. What is even more unbelievable is that the vast majority of us saw this coming a mile away (although I don't know if many joined me in believing he would be a scrub to this extent), but somehow BK didn't.

[LL Cool Scott]

This is such a hilarious and stupid post that I don't even know where to begin (or what the point is in even responding). Besides Isiah Thomas and Kevin McHale, Billy Knight was the worst GM in the league. (Coincidentally, all three are now unemployed). He botched like 4 consecutive drafts, blew almost every single free agent signing, and gave away Boris Diaw and 2 first round draft choices for absolutely no reason when he could have signed JJ outright. Even JJ has admitted as much. If a trained dolphin was our GM the past 5 years, we'd be one of the top 3 teams in the NBA right now, on par with the C's, Lakers, and the Cavs. We'd be competing for a championship this season.

I wonder why no one hired BK to be their GM this offseason??? hmm.....

[wallsfamily]

Guys the problem with Billy Knight is no vision. When you are drafting and building a team you need to have a blueprint so that each move leads to another move and each player compliments the other. The only vision he had is the 6'7"-6'10" guys who can play multiple positions and ironically after adding Bibby and maturity it is working. We now have a problem with who are we going to pay. So Sund needs to make decisions on these young guys now.

[Lue_4_MVP]

The Horford pick was a no brainer for Knight.....and Sund's acquistions have been mediocre at best. Evans and Murray certainly don't bring the intangibles Chill in any way.

Wasn't the Horford pick not even BK's pick anyhow? I heard BK really wanted Brandon Wright but half the ownership wanted Horford and the other half wanted Yi (for marketing purposes). I think he ended up going Horf only because he was more NBA ready and they were salvaging everything just to make the playoffs that year and save their jobs.

BK really got a ton of breaks here. If the Hawks didn't move up they could have ended up not getting a pick at all. Josh Smith basically fell into his lap at 17 and Childress, a top pick that got replaced by two journeymen, isn't even on the team anymore.

If BK didn't catch all those breaks, this might have been the team today:

Jameer Nelson
Joe Johnson
Marvin Williams
Sheldon Williams
Zaza

[fo_o_fo_404]

The Horford pick was a no brainer for Knight.....and Sund's acquistions have been mediocre at best. Evans and Murray certainly don't bring the intangibles Chill in any way.

Wasn't the Horford pick not even BK's pick anyhow? I heard BK really wanted Brandon Wright but half the ownership wanted Horford and the other half wanted Yi (for marketing purposes). I think he ended up going Horf only because he was more NBA ready and they were salvaging everything just to make the playoffs that year and save their jobs.

BK really got a ton of breaks here. If the Hawks didn't move up they could have ended up not getting a pick at all. Josh Smith basically fell into his lap at 17 and Childress, a top pick that got replaced by two journeymen, isn't even on the team anymore.

If BK didn't catch all those breaks, this might have been the team today:

Jameer Nelson
Joe Johnson
Marvin Williams
Sheldon Williams
Zaza

I remember that. Yi only worked out in LA and only worked out alone. I think initially BK thought that Wright "could have" been an option at pick 3, but his workout were good at all. When Horford came in to workout, and BK saw his "physique," and work ethic, it was a no brainer. Plus, it doesn't hurt to be a back to back NCAA champion.

If BK had any clue, this might be our team today....and he'd still be GM

Chris Paul (my prerefences at the time)/ Deron Williams
Joe Johnson
Josh Chidress (yes...a starter)
Josh Smith
Tyson Chandler (if BK had played his cards right....we could have gotten him for the right $)

Now, that's a scary team!

[JoshB914]

The Horford pick was a no brainer for Knight.....and Sund's acquistions have been mediocre at best. Evans and Murray certainly don't bring the intangibles Chill in any way.

Wasn't the Horford pick not even BK's pick anyhow? I heard BK really wanted Brandon Wright but half the ownership wanted Horford and the other half wanted Yi (for marketing purposes). I think he ended up going Horf only because he was more NBA ready and they were salvaging everything just to make the playoffs that year and save their jobs.

BK really got a ton of breaks here. If the Hawks didn't move up they could have ended up not getting a pick at all. Josh Smith basically fell into his lap at 17 and Childress, a top pick that got replaced by two journeymen, isn't even on the team anymore.

If BK didn't catch all those breaks, this might have been the team today:

Jameer Nelson
Joe Johnson
Marvin Williams
Sheldon Williams
Zaza

Good point. Imagine where this team would be if we hadn't lucked into the no. 3 pick in '06? We'd be rolling around with the same disastrous PG rotation and have Zaza still starting at center.

[lunarblues]

BK did have a vision but what really killed him was that he surcame to the media. i could see the marvin pick (that would be like miami picking westbrook over beasley) but he listened to the media who blasted him for picking potential over need. so come next draft he went for a need in sheldon over the potential of a foye or roy. i always thought that the media really crapped on BK even when it was chad ford himself that said it was gonna take three years for marvin to show his true self.

that being said, it was time for BK to go, he didn't have the confidence of the owners and he really didn't deserve it. a GM is suppose to do his job reguardless of the critics. if he would have just stuck to his own plan than i think he would have selected roy.

[HoopsGuru25]

BK did have a vision but what really killed him was that he surcame to the media. i could see the marvin pick (that would be like miami picking westbrook over beasley) but he listened to the media who blasted him for picking potential over need.

I don't thing anything did was influenced by the media. I'm not sure about the Westbrook/Beasley comparison...but I think the perception was that Bogut and Marvin were the top 2 prospects in that draft at the time.

so come next draft he went for a need in sheldon over the potential of a foye or roy

He just made a dumb pick regardless of what he was aiming for. Roy and Foye were both 4 year seniors as well. The difference is that they were both consensus top 6 prospects while Shelden was not. The biggest "need" on the Hawks was either pg or center and they still were our two biggest needs after the draft. The only time Knight has ever drafted based on need is Law and now that looks like a panic move because of the Speedy debacle.

If Knight saw something in Shelden that others didn't(which we know clearly isn't the case thanks to hindsight)-then atleast have the common sense to attempt to trade down and get two players(preferably one of the young point guards) instead of promising him at 5 when you know there's a 100% chance he's not going to go before that.

i always thought that the media really crapped on BK even when it was chad ford himself that said it was gonna take three years for marvin to show his true self.

Ford definitely disliked BK more than the rest of the bad GM's in the league. Ford name drops GM's that he talks to all the time and he never mentioned Knight which isn't surprising. I also have to question how you can kill someone for taking a player at 2 that you said should have gone 1st. Ford constantly brings up the Hawks and Chris Paul as examples that you shouldn't pass up on a point guard but ignores the fact that Paul is one of the best players in the NBA(regardless of what position he plays)and that most young point guards take time to develop unlike Paul.

[lunarblues]

i say he went for need because that year we had zaza as a big and nobody else, meanwhile we still had lue as a point guard and joe and chill could man the two.

[HoopsGuru25]

I don't think you got my point. Roy and Foye weren't pure point guards and Shelden wasn't a pure center. Drafting a player to play out of position is the exact opposite of drafting for need. Taking need would have been what Sund did when he took 3 legit 7 footers in a row to try to find a center.