Hawks’ Ressler says he makes final decisions, confident in front office

[jayu70]

Tony Ressler doesn’t foresee changes to the Hawks’ front office despite a win total that has decreased in each of the two seasons that he has owned the team and set up the current hierarchy. He likes how the team is positioned and its future despite his frustration with the regression.

The Hawks have one starter, Paul Millsap, and four other players remaining from the 60-win season. Ressler said personnel decisions have been made with the goals of trying to get better and younger while continuing the run of 10 consecutive postseason appearances. There will be no complete tear down. The current roster has a mix of young and veteran players and there are a number of upcoming draft picks that can be used in several ways to improve going forward

http://www.myajc.com/sports/basketball/ressler-changes-hawks-front-office-structure/qnXKZd6Hv6bVYUbjXWmSvO/

This has not been an easy season. Ressler acknowledged the Hawks are in “transition” from the team that went to the Eastern Conference finals only two years ago but he expected them to win more games. There has been criticism from fans and media about how well the front office team of coach-president of basketball operations Mike Budenholzer and general manager Wes Wilcox is working, and significant personnel issues moving forward.
To Ressler’s credit, he answered every question. Some of his responses were surprising. He not only expressed confidence in Budenholzer and Wilcox, he said he doesn’t anticipate any significant changes in the front office structure. That won’t go over well.

But the owner also dismissed any suggestion that Budenholzer is the final decision-maker.

“I make the final decision,” he said.

“If you think Bud makes a final decision on everything that we do, you don’t understand the way the Atlanta Hawks are run. … The president of basketball operations is what I say it is, not what you say it is. (Budenholzer) has the loudest voice, not the final word. There’s a dramatic difference.”

So if you didn’t like the decision to sign Dwight Howard, blame Ressler. If you believed holding onto Paul Millsap at the trade deadline at the risk losing him for nothing in free agency, like Al Horford, blame Ressler. (He didn’t discount his front office might’ve been divided on the issue of trading Millsap but maintains when it reached his desk, he responded, to use his acronym, “NFW.”)

http://www.myajc.com/sports/basketball/hawks-ressler-says-makes-final-decisions-confident-front-office/QLVnp1b7x3dSzV9QKOSKiP/

[Yungsta404]

I can't wait til it all comes crashing down in a few years. We are setting ourselves up to be the early 00s hawks. If Millsap leaves we will suck and even if we keep him with a max we have have a few years of mediocre basketball before he declines and we will suck.

[tbhawksfan1]

now I know who is responsible. WTF does ressler know about GMing. He's an equity broker guy . I wikied him and surprise, no Bball reference.

Good to know that the Hawks decisions are in capable hands. Poor Bud, poor team, poor fans.

Man for him to come out and say that he holds final decision is just total crap. I"m the boss and I make the call... even if I don't know what I'm doing. recent decisions have been fing horrible

this idiot is feeding his ego instead of letting professionals run the show.

Only good side is after contining diminishing returns and failed strategy, even the biggest fanboys will stop giving their bucks and we will be delivered...after a lot more mediocrity and a rebuild

[Jamaaliver]

I respect this. I really do.

I have disagreed with most major personnel decisions of the past year. But it's refreshing and encouraging to hear the top decision maker take responsibility. The buck stops with him.

The question becomes, what happens should we suffer another 'disappointing' season?

Will he cede decision making to more experienced bball minds? Will he fire the current front office? Will he go full Jerry Jones and make himself the de facto GM?

Credit to Ressler for going on the record for an in depth interview with the ajc.


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[MaceCase]

The assumption is that Ressler has been somehow both oblivious and absent to the running of the Hawks. It would be a fairly easy logical summation that if there was a split amongst the PBO and GM over which direction the team should go....where exactly would the vote to tip scales go?

I'm sure the guy that's invested close to a billion overall in a purchase would support a simultaneous tear down of the foundation while building up the infrastructure. Perhaps raising of ticket prices also falls underneath Budenholzer's purview?

Ressler has certainly not been hands off and evaluating the franchise, looking for some arbitrary deadline to step in and assert his desires. He's been very publicly building up the viability and marketability of the team since the moment he bought it and a tear down of the main product would seem to contradict those moves. Him and Bud would appear to be simpatico in this cause even if there may be some disagreements on how to achieve it (quite a few have pondered if pursuing Dwight was a Ressler move)

Just sayin'

So I wonder if the pessimists' narrative now switches from "Bud has lost his grip on GMing" to "Ressler has lost his grip on owning"?

[xccelerate]

Just sayin'

So I wonder if the pessimists' narrative now switches from "Bud has lost his grip on GMing" to "Ressler has lost his grip on owning"?

I think I'm one of those people. Poor Bud. I'm sorry.

Not sure where Ressler takes us. I think we finally have a passionate owner but he might turn into a Jerry Jones or a Vivek. Can anyone name a successful team where team where the owner is involved like this?

[MaceCase]

Just sayin'

So I wonder if the pessimists' narrative now switches from "Bud has lost his grip on GMing" to "Ressler has lost his grip on owning"?

I think I'm one of those people. Poor Bud. I'm sorry.

Not sure where Ressler takes us. I think we finally have a passionate owner but he might turn into a Jerry Jones or a Vivek. Can anyone name a successful team where team where the owner is involved like this?

Mark Cuban. Although there are plenty of owners that reserve final say on their franchise without being completely public about it, that ranges from your Glen Taylors to your Jerry Busses.

[tbhawksfan1]

Sorry about what? The Hawks job is to put together the best team. Something has been stinking and someone is responsible. It is normal to blame the FO. Now the new owner comes out and says it's on him because he's the last word.

I am happy to learn that the Hawks bball people tried to do it different and that a meddling, non bball owner screwed it up. Restores a little faith in the bball people. Does nothing to increase optimism going forward. Just the opposite.

The owner comes out and says that he's been calling the shots, the shots that have led to our cornerstone walking to a rival and a steady decline of the teams competitive assets. This basically either paints the Hawks as very incompetant or accepting mediocrity in the name of a revenue investment.

[tbhawksfan1]

At the trade deadline there were numerous articles and discussions started commenting on the Hawks moves. Unfortunately the comments were; "WTF are the Hawks doing". The moves clearly indicated discord. This is a huge problem. But, it seems like the issue has been resolved and the owner is the calling the bball shots. This is a huge problem.

But true Hawks fans can be happy about this playoff run and the fact that despite a terrible cap, the Hawks are going to bring this championship core back next year.

[tbhawksfan1]

"Bud has lost his grip on GMing" to "Ressler has lost his grip on owning"?

The owner is clearly saying that he has final word on FO decisions which implies: "Bud has lost his grip on GMing"

When the GM is over-ruled, he's not the GM. When the owner is GM, he better be good at it or you're screwed.

[Jamaaliver]

A couple more interesting nuggets from the exclusive interview with the ajc:

This has not been an easy season...he expected them to win more games.

“I’m frustrated as hell,” he said.

On the Horford negotiations, Ressler reminded us that he was in his first year as owner. “I might’ve done some things differently. But at the end of the day, did we make the effort and offer a ton of money? There are so many ways to second-guess, but we tried.”

“I’m learning as I go,” he said. “I’d like to tell you I hit the ground running and I understood completely the role of an owner and the decision-making process. I don’t think I did. I think there was a part of me that hoped it would be a little more of a portfolio company investment..."

Maybe more surprising is his belief that the 2017 Hawks are a better playoff team than the one that went to the conference finals in 2015. He said this team is deeper and “more playoff ready. We just haven’t shown it yet.” He also somewhat diminished the playoff run two years ago by pointing out the Hawks’ struggles against eight-seeded Brooklyn in the first round and a Washington team in the second round that lost John Wall in Game 3.

“I think we’re making progress despite winning less games,” he said.

Thoughts:

• I'm not crazy about a businessman making the basketball decisions for a team.
• I think he may be intentionally taking the pressure off of Bud and Wes publicly while putting all his faith in them privately. (A sign of good leadership.)
• It's refreshing to hear a team official acknowledge the playoff run of 2015 was not particularly impressive

[Jamaaliver]

Ressler's public comments on Budenholzer:

• He said he leans most on Budenholzer and the championship pedigree groomed after 19 years in the Spurs organization.
• "I love Bud and Wes. I love the intellect, the competence and the commitment to win of both Bud and Wes."
• "I think Bud and Wes can actually do what I’m looking to do, can achieve the greatness I’m looking to achieve."
• "...the loudest voice has been earned by his 20-plus years of experience in the NBA,” Ressler said of Budenholzer.
• "Bud is a fantastic coach, a fantastic basketball mind, has a perspective that we cherish and respect and consider critically important. There should be no confusion."
• "If you think Bud makes a final decision on everything that we do, you don’t understand the way the Atlanta Hawks are run. … The president of basketball operations is what I say it is, not what you say it is. (Budenholzer) has the loudest voice, not the final word."

One of things is not like the others. He gushes about Wes and Bud's bball acumen and ability to manage coaching and personnel issues. Then indicates Bud doesn't have final say on the direction of the franchise.

I've spent years studying these types of corporate/governmental communications and attempting to translate the intent behind the words.

I can't get a read on what he's thinking or saying here.

[tbhawksfan1]

A couple more interesting nuggets from the exclusive interview with the ajc:

This has not been an easy season...he expected them to win more games.

“I’m frustrated as hell,” he said.

On the Horford negotiations, Ressler reminded us that he was in his first year as owner. “I might’ve done some things differently. But at the end of the day, did we make the effort and offer a ton of money? There are so many ways to second-guess, but we tried.”

“I’m learning as I go,” he said. “I’d like to tell you I hit the ground running and I understood completely the role of an owner and the decision-making process. I don’t think I did. I think there was a part of me that hoped it would be a little more of a portfolio company investment..."

Maybe more surprising is his belief that the 2017 Hawks are a better playoff team than the one that went to the conference finals in 2015. He said this team is deeper and “more playoff ready. We just haven’t shown it yet.” He also somewhat diminished the playoff run two years ago by pointing out the Hawks’ struggles against eight-seeded Brooklyn in the first round and a Washington team in the second round that lost John Wall in Game 3.

“I think we’re making progress despite winning less games,” he said.

Thoughts:

• I'm not crazy about a businessman making the basketball decisions for a team.
• I think he may be intentionally taking the pressure off of Bud and Wes publicly and putting all his faith in them. (A sign of good leadership.)
• It's refreshing to hear a team official acknowledge the playoff run of 2015 was not particularly impressive

C'mon Jamal, agree with #1, but 2 and 3 are way off.

I don't want him to make mistakes or cover for Budcox. They need to make good moves

Better than 60 wins and ECF. That is delusional and insulting and given the coming offseason catastrophy, just wrong

[tbhawksfan1]

And the Horf catastrophy response: I would have done that differently if I had known wtf I was doing is a classic

[D21]

What I don't like in point 3 is that it takes out all the injuries of 2015.
Tabo was out, Teague was playing injured, almost the same thing for others, and then we lost Korver and nearly Caroll.
I still think that this season injuries could have been avoid if they succeed at 2014 FA to add guys like Gasol and/or Deng because the rotation would have been even better and players would have play less. So yes, there was a possibility to be better but without all these injuries, the team would have show more than a sweep in ECF

On Horford point, it was simple : he wanted 6M more, and it was not the max. These 6M are not coming from nowhere, it was exactly to push the annual salary to the same value than the BOS offer.
And don't forget that the initial plan was supposed to play Howard/Horford/Millsap, but to do this, Bazemore needed to take less or leave, which I would have done in a second, because having the possibility to test this frontcourt was above keeping Bazemore, and with Horford still here, Millsap wouldn't look now as dominant, and should have ask for less this summer than now with a bigger role, especially if the team would have been better than now.

[Jamaaliver]

A couple of things I'd disagree with:

And don't forget that the initial plan was supposed to play Howard/Horford/Millsap...

1)Word is this was NOT the plan. We've heard this corroborated a few different places and Wes even admitted at the trade deadline that Millsap had been dangled in trade talks last summer in the past year.

They were working to re-sign Horford anyway, and arranging a trade that would jettison Paul Millsap -- their best player last season.

The Horford-Howard front line would keep Atlanta competitive, and dealing Millsap would net rebuilding assets...

Here

They almost traded [Millsap] to Denver at the trade deadline last year...Then over the summer, after they did trade Jeff Teague and signed Dwight Howard, they were all set to trade Millsap if Al Horford had re-signed. They were going to trade him to Toronto. And then that deal fell through when Horford went to Boston.

Here

They started going after Dwight Howard from the start...Then, when things got dicey with Al Horford, they were trying to make room to offer him the max and reportedly were looking at dealing Paul Millsap. There were actual deals with structure in place, according to multiple outlets, and Atlanta was ready to pull the trigger.

CBS Sports

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And on this issue:

On Horford point, it was simple : he wanted 6M more, and it was not the max. These 6M are not coming from nowhere, it was exactly to push the annual salary to the same value than the BOS offer.

I do agree that AL wanted more money. But it's important to remember that none of the principals for the Hawks had been around for long. AL was dealing with new owners and (fairly) new GM. After almost a decade here, this was essentially a new team from top to bottom. I think that also played a role.

What's the appeal of staying with one team if everyone else on that team has changed over the years?

[Jamaaliver]

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[tbhawksfan1]

Any way you look at it , it's very poor asset management. It takes years to rebuild. This isn't a blip while the new guys enter. It's a big step back that will take years to rebound from. Unfortunately, it appears the poor asset management is to continue; by plan

[Jamaaliver]

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More text from last week's interview with Ressler.


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[Jamaaliver]

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