Hawks Offseason Reviews - 2017 edition

[Jamaaliver]

An annual collection I pull together of pundits, insiders and sportswriters as they assess how well we played the offseason...and what to expect from the new collection of players.

2016 Offseason Review


The team is already getting solid reviews for some tough but necessary decisions...despite the fact we still need to fill out the roster.

OFFSEASON WINNERS

Atlanta Hawks

Summer in a Nutshell: The front office has a plan for the future, and it involved letting Paul Millsap walk.
Summer League Player to Watch: DeAndre’ Bembry

New Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk isn’t here to mess around. “We have 11 picks coming up in the next few drafts, which is great and gives us a lot of flexibility,” Schlenk said on NBA TV in early June. “We want to continue to develop our assets, gain more assets, and when the opportunity comes where we can strike to go get that superstar, we’ll going to be positioned to do that.” Good plan, but actions speak, so I was excited to see what Atlanta would do this summer. So far, Schlenk, who previously spent 12 years with the Warriors, has impressed.

Atlanta’s Dwight Howard trade initially seemed like an odd one since, [b]ut the trade freed up $11.3 million in guaranteed salary. Under the new salary cap environment, having salary fillers for trades could once again be important.

Paul Millsap claims the Hawks didn’t even offer him a new contract. If he’s telling the truth, then it’s a signal that Atlanta isn’t interested in just sneaking into the playoffs. My guess is the Hawks will be embracing player development and tanking the 2017–18 season, which is the right choice.

“We want to be flexible,” Schlenk said. “We want to have guys, assets that we can move when the time comes that we can strike and maintain that flexibility.”

They’ve quietly adjusted their primary objective from playoff contention to asset acquisition. The Hawks aren’t viewed as a potential destination for the next available superstar today, but they want to be ready to be one tomorrow.

The Ringer

[Jamaaliver]

Atlanta Hawks

Grade: B

The Hawks will be an interesting test case for the rest of the league. Theoretically it hurts to lose a productive starter like Hardaway for nothing, let alone an All-Star like Millsap. But maybe this is the smarter way to play it. Most teams have been scared to lose core pieces and willing to overpay to keep winning teams intact. But I wonder whether teams will come to understand that it can be just as productive to develop internally and wait for the chance to spend money on guys that make more sense.

Atlanta didn't blow it up and trade stars for assets. This was almost more radical: The Hawks came to a crossroads and decided that it wasn't worth it to spend $100 million to lie to themselves about the possibilities with Paul Millsap and limit opportunities elsewhere. It means they'll move a step down in the short term, but it'll be really interesting to see how far they actually fall, and how long it takes to find alternate solutions. With good coaching and solid young pieces in place, I bet they don't suffer as much you'd think.

Sports Illustrated

[niffoc4]

I feel like it's still a bit early to review the Hawks' offseason. From what Schlenk has said they'll sign 2 or 3 more players (PG, PF, C), and I think it's possible that one of those will be a longer-term deal for a youngish post player. Although, both grades seem fair for what the Hawks have done.

[Jamaaliver]

Atlanta Hawks | Grade: D-plus

Offseason additions: John Collins (draft), Tyler Dorsey (draft), Dewayne Dedmon (free agency), Marco Belinelli (trade), Miles Plumlee (trade), Diamond Stone (trade)

Offseason losses: Paul Millsap (free agency), Dwight Howard (trade), Tim Hardaway Jr. (free agency), Thabo Sefolosha (free agency), Ryan Kelly (trade), Mike Dunleavy (waived)

Recap: New GM Travis Schenk cleaned house, taking a power washer to the books. Miles Plumlee is their third-highest-paid player. They lost a lot of talent. They still don't have a reliable young core and Dennis Schröder is their best player. The tank is on. -- Matt Moore

SportsLine 2017-18 forecast: 33.2 wins (No. 11 East seed; 10.3 pct. chance at playoffs)

CBS Sport

[Jamaaliver]

Atlanta Hawks

New Hawks head of basketball operations Travis Schlenk is true to his word. He told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he dislikes the word “rebuild” and plans to retool the Hawks while remaining competitive. By signing Dewayne Dedmon and inking stretch power forward Ersan Ilyasova to a new one-year deal, Schlenk has provided Hawks point guard Dennis Schroder with a front court that accentuates his ability to attack the basket.

Dedmon averaged over 16 points and 17 rebounds per 36 minutes in last year’s playoffs per Basketball Reference

Adding to Atlanta’s revamped front court is rookie power forward John Collins, the 19th pick in this summer’s draft who was just named First Team All-NBA Summer League. NBA front office types gushed...about Collins in Las Vegas and said he could be one of the special players to come out of the 2017 NBA Draft.

Kent Bazemore figures to see more time at shooting guard after Taurean Prince emerged as a rookie starter at small forward in last season’s playoffs. DeAndre Bembry — another Summer League standout — will finally have an opportunity to crack Atlanta’s wing rotation. While the Hawks will miss the playoffs, the team will still exceed many win projections and won’t participate in the NBA’s annual tanking “process.”

Projected Wins: 33-38

Basketball Insiders

[Jamaaliver]

Atlanta Hawks: C

Notable Signings/Additions: Dewayne Dedmon, Ersan Ilyasova, Mike Muscala

Notable Losses: Mike Dunleavy (waived), Tim Hardaway Jr., Paul Millsap (sign-and-trade), Thabo Sefolosha

Biggest Power Move: Pounding the reset button

The Atlanta Hawks are rebuilding for real this time, even though general manager Travis Schlenk wouldn't cop to it during a conversation with the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Chris Vivlamore:

"We don’t want to concede to losing. I think a lot of times that what the term rebuilding means, you are conceding to losing. We don’t want to do that. We want to be competitive every night. The term I like to use, we are investing in the future. We have young guys. We have probably five more first-round picks over the next two years to add to this group. We are investing in our future. The young guys we have, we want to keep developing them. We want to keep our flexibility, collect assets, build the guys we have."

Too long, didn't read, loosely translated version: "We're tanking, but I can't really say that, so let's roll with 'investing in our future.'"

...it's a good time to rebuild. Atlanta has been tiptoeing around an overhaul since its 60-win season in 2014-15.

But the Hawks [lost] Al Horford (2016) and Paul Millsap for nothing to reach this point. That's not on Schlenk. He didn't join the cause until this past May. But we can't forget Atlanta passed on dealing Millsap, specifically, for two trade deadlines.

Getting a first-round pick for his departure as part of a three-team blockbuster with the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers was a good move. The Hawks will be flexible moving forward. It's just that there was a more graceful and beneficial way to get here. And now that they are here, they should be doing everything possible to move the three years and $54.3 million left on Kent Bazemore's deal.

Bleacher Report

[Jamaaliver]

Former Hawks Beat Writer and future All Star columnist assesses the state of the roster.

Hawks not a good team but could be very good in one area

The roster is pretty much full, the early reviews are in and, predictably, they are not good.

The betting markets set the over/under win total for the Hawks at 34.5...CBSSports.com takes an even dimmer view of the Hawks than the betting markets: He has them dead last in the power rankings.

It’s hard to disagree that the Hawks won’t be a good team. But I think they will be a competitive team because, as currently constructed, they have a chance to be a good defensive team.

Certainly coach Mike Budenholzer is capable of molding this group into a good defensive team. He’s already established a defensive culture: the Hawks have ranked sixth or better in defensive efficiency over his past three seasons. Even below-average defenders tend to be part of good defensive units under Budenholzer .

Scoring, not defense, has been the Hawks’ problem under Budenholzer .

The Hawks won’t be every good but they should be able to depend on defense to keep them competitive until Schlenk can make moves to make them a better team overall.

myAJC

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

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[tbhawksfan1]

I'm wondering / worried about the strategy. The past few years we watched the disaster of investing in the now, without actually doing what the best do to win (bringing in top players and spending), while relegating the draft and young players to the back-ground.

The roster we now have is the result.

What have they done since? Biggest move was to unload DH losing draft spots and sign Dedmon to a 1 or 2 year deal with the second year PO. That is not a long-term value signing. If he's good he'll add a few futile wins and opt out. If he's bad, he'll add a few futile wins and opt in to do it again. All of this at the cost of draft slots.

Illya is another question signing. One year deal with no trade value. He'll add a couple of futile wins and leave costing draft slots. He is also going to take mins that Collins should get

This team is bottom five talent and they're adding short-term, low trade value signings that will add a few meaningless wins and cost very valuable draft slots. These are moves that compromise future potential in a trade off to suck a little less.

Is Bud still in charge?

[Geaux_Hawks]

I'm wondering / worried about the strategy. The past few years we watched the disaster of investing in the now, without actually doing what the best do to win (bringing in top players and spending), while relegating the draft and young players to the back-ground.

The roster we now have is the result.

What have they done since? Biggest move was to unload DH losing draft spots and sign Dedmon to a 1 or 2 year deal with the second year PO. That is not a long-term value signing. If he's good he'll add a few futile wins and opt out. If he's bad, he'll add a few futile wins and opt in to do it again. All of this at the cost of draft slots.

Illya is another question signing. One year deal with no trade value. He'll add a couple of futile wins and leave costing draft slots. He is also going to take mins that Collins should get

This team is bottom five talent and they're adding short-term, low trade value signings that will add a few meaningless wins and cost very valuable draft slots. These are moves that compromise future potential in a trade off to suck a little less.

Is Bud still in charge?

Well we have to meet the salary cap floor or face penalties by not doing so. With that said, do you really think Dedmon and Ersan will push us into 30 win territory? Even if so, we're playing the lottery game, and as long as we are within that top 4-6 range, we can still get lucky and have a better pick than what our record showed.

I mean looking at this off-season so far, 3 playoff teams from the East(Atlanta, Chicago, and Indiana) WILL miss the playoffs and will probably be replaced by Miami, Charlotte, and my sleeper pick the Sixers. As a whole, the West got better and their lottery teams are more like late lottery teams.

The Lakers and the Suns are the only teams threatening a top pick out west. In the East, it's more teams fighting(or should I say tanking) for top picks, but we are right there in terms of having a talent deficient roster even with the addition of Dedmon and Ersan.

[Geaux_Hawks]

Former Hawks Beat Writer and future All Star columnist assesses the state of the roster.

Hawks not a good team but could be very good in one area

The roster is pretty much full, the early reviews are in and, predictably, they are not good.

The betting markets set the over/under win total for the Hawks at 34.5...CBSSports.com takes an even dimmer view of the Hawks than the betting markets: He has them dead last in the power rankings.

It’s hard to disagree that the Hawks won’t be a good team. But I think they will be a competitive team because, as currently constructed, they have a chance to be a good defensive team.

Certainly coach Mike Budenholzer is capable of molding this group into a good defensive team. He’s already established a defensive culture: the Hawks have ranked sixth or better in defensive efficiency over his past three seasons. Even below-average defenders tend to be part of good defensive units under Budenholzer .

Scoring, not defense, has been the Hawks’ problem under Budenholzer .

The Hawks won’t be every good but they should be able to depend on defense to keep them competitive until Schlenk can make moves to make them a better team overall.

myAJC

This is exactly why I don't see us winning more than 30 games. We already had scoring issues to begin. Now we lose our most consistent scorer over the past 3 years, who was also a defensive bulwark, and replace him with bench players and a young guy with potential. Sure we can still be a solid defensive team, but that's only going to take us so far, and we could end up losing by big margins to a mediocre offensive team. We just don't have enough offense to win games with. Unless we are SA, Memphis, Utah good on defense, we will be dead in the water every night.

[macd-gm]

You have to consider development of the young guys too. I team with Dennis/Baze as the only vet leaders is probably not a good idea. No knock on them but they aren't seasoned enough to keep control of a team of newbies.

[Jamaaliver]

Additional analysis from CBS Sports:

Atlanta hit the reset button...and if the Hawks were to remain in the playoff picture, it would be shocking.

Atlanta is extremely low on play-makers. Dennis Schroder once again will have to assume an enormous role on offense, which ranked 27th last season, and the defense won't be great anymore. If this group doesn't stumble upon some magical chemistry, it could be the worst team in the league.

[tbhawksfan1]

just read an espn insider posted at PHoops giving the Hawks a very bad grade. Mentions the "useless" short signings of Illya / Dedmon and the difficult DH trade taking back Plumlee.

I have to agree. As I mentioned above, why sign stop gaps to short, basically untradeable deals? Couldn't TS have found a decent young guy with real potential to offer a three year deal?

Building throught the draft is key, but have to also be able to sign some guys that will also bring llong-term value. Develop and keep or trade. Have to sign them long enough to be able to do it.

Besides a few unwanted wins; what will our two FAs bring to the long-term? If you're looking for mentors; OK, but Dedmon doesn't fit that description.

I believe that DH was the only FA Hawks have signed to an over 2 year deal in a while.

[jayu70]

Hawks still need to fill out a roster and meet minimum salary requirements. I'd prefer players that fit what Bud wants to do - that's how you get your young guys to develop properly with good habits. You still need competent NBA level players and not DLeague scrubs playing with your young future players.

[jayu70]

Hawks still need to fill out a roster and meet minimum salary requirements. I'd prefer players that fit what Bud wants to do - that's how you get your young guys to develop properly with good habits. You still need competent NBA level players and not DLeague scrubs playing with your young future players.

[kg01]

just read an espn insider posted at PHoops giving the Hawks a very bad grade. Mentions the "useless" short signings of Illya / Dedmon and the difficult DH trade taking back Plumlee.

I have to agree. As I mentioned above, why sign stop gaps to short, basically untradeable deals? Couldn't TS have found a decent young guy with real potential to offer a three year deal?

Building throught the draft is key, but have to also be able to sign some guys that will also bring llong-term value. Develop and keep or trade. Have to sign them long enough to be able to do it.

Besides a few unwanted wins; what will our two FAs bring to the long-term? If you're looking for mentors; OK, but Dedmon doesn't fit that description.

I believe that DH was the only FA Hawks have signed to an over 2 year deal in a while.

Well, the first problem is it's from BSPN. Even if you ignore that, I'm confused. It seems quite clear that 'Sova and Bellineli are gonna be traded at the deadline. The article adds the caveat "... uh, unless ATL can trade them before the deadline, blah, bluh, bleh ...", then goes on to blast the moves. Well, if they're traded, they've served their only purpose so how are they bad moves? Even Dedmon's multi-year deal is imminently trade-able.

It's like the article looked at the moves as if we signed them dudes to try to go win a championship. If that's the case, clearly bad moves. However, anyone who pays attention knows that is not the case so wtf is he complaining about. Author needs to turn off his Cav/Warrior/Clipper/Westbrook/Selltic/Embiid highlights and do his freaking homework. Just because we're not one of the blue blood franchises doesn't mean we're not worth him actually putting together some insightful analysis.

Oh, and tell him we're sorry we weren't able to trade Dwight for KD. Again, he needs to do his homework on what the market was for the guy and why he had to be traded.

Sorry @tbhawksfan. I'm not yelling at you. I just hate when national media portends to break my team down when they clearly just give us a passing glance.

[Jamaaliver]

just read an espn insider posted at PHoops giving the Hawks a very bad grade...

Read on Twitter

New Hawks GM Travis Schlenk made the right call in terms of letting All-Star forward Paul Millsap walk. Still, Atlanta was unable to commit to a rebuilding process and took on too much bad salary in return for center Dwight Howard. (Replacement Miles Plumlee has an additional year on his contract, albeit at less money per season.)

Besides using cap space to take on Jamal Crawford's contract, netting a first-round pick in the process, the Hawks used most of their resources on short-term deals. Ersan Ilyasova got a one-year deal to return, and Dewayne Dedmon got a one-year deal with a player option. Unless Atlanta can trade them before the deadline, those players are unlikely to provide much value since the Hawks probably will still be one of the NBA's worst teams this season. ESPN Insider


We did what was necessary this offseason. Better it happens on our own terms than have it dictated to us by circumstances two seasons from now...

[kg01]

just read an espn insider posted at PHoops giving the Hawks a very bad grade...

Read on Twitter

New Hawks GM Travis Schlenk made the right call in terms of letting All-Star forward Paul Millsap walk. Still, Atlanta was unable to commit to a rebuilding process and took on too much bad salary in return for center Dwight Howard. (Replacement Miles Plumlee has an additional year on his contract, albeit at less money per season.)

Besides using cap space to take on Jamal Crawford's contract, netting a first-round pick in the process, the Hawks used most of their resources on short-term deals. Ersan Ilyasova got a one-year deal to return, and Dewayne Dedmon got a one-year deal with a player option. Unless Atlanta can trade them before the deadline, those players are unlikely to provide much value since the Hawks probably will still be one of the NBA's worst teams this season. ESPN


We did what was necessary this offseason. Better it happens on our own terms than have it dictated to us by circumstances two seasons from now...

... and furthermore!

When did he expect us to "commit" to the rebuild? Did he expect us to reach the salary floor by not signing guys? Or did he want us to sign a non-star player to a $30mil/multi-year deal instead? Did he want us to match THJ's deal just so he'd have a tangible reason to rip us more?

The more of that tripe I read, the dumber I get ... and I'm already kinda dumb so ... wait, what?

[macd-gm]

First of all Dedmon is 27 years old and a pretty good center. If we're trying to win by year 3 he'll still be in his prime with time spent in the organization.

Ersan? Well look at why he signed here. Hell he loved playing for the sixers. Why? Cause it's a showcase for what he can do. Expect that showcase and then a trade to Houston, Boston, Wiz, Spurs, Minny at the deadline. For.....another pick or possibly a decent young player.