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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > June > 23
Monday, June 23, 2008
Hawks GM will play waiting game on draft night
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Say this for Billy Knight: He spared us the usual summer angst. The Hawks don’t have a pick in Thursday’s NBA draft, and given that Knight took the wrong guy with his first choice four Junes running — he got it right last year with Al Horford — this can be seen as a parting act of mercy.
Rick Sund doesn’t use those words. But Knight’s successor is more cheerful than most incoming general managers would be over a total absence of picks. “If there was ever a year for the Hawks to pay their debt to Phoenix [the No. 1 pick packaged for Joe Johnson], it’s this year,” Sund says. “It’s post-lottery for the first time [since 1999], and we’re in a situation where you probably don’t need another 18, 19 or 20-year-old kid on a team where we’ve got eight or nine under 25.”
Sund will be in his office Thursday night, standing by in case Mitch Kupchak calls and offers Kobe Bryant for Speedy Claxton. (“You’ve got to be prepared in case something falls in your lap,” Sund says.) He does not, however, expect the Hawks to trade for a pick in this draft. Five players — Josh Smith, Josh Childress, Salim Stoudamire, Mario West and Jeremy Richardson — are free agents and cannot be dealt.
“You’ve got five players out of the equation, and of the other five or six, two of them are Al Horford and Joe Johnson — you’re not going to trade those,” Sund says. “You don’t say you can never make a deal — nobody’s untouchable — [but] it’s very unlikely.”
And that’s OK. For the first time this millennium, the Hawks are good enough to win. (That’s provided Smith and Childress are re-signed, which seems probable no matter how much they’re offered elsewhere.) There are no longer any glaring holes on the roster, a truth Sund underscores by saying, “There’s a pretty good chance we’re going to have three spots — nine, 10 and 11 — open, and we’ve got to be able to say, ‘Who out there as No. 61, 62, 63 [the best undrafted players] would look at the Hawks as a good place to come?’ “
Most new GMs arrive with a mandate to change. Not Sund. Ridiculed though he was, Knight nonetheless built a core capable of pushing the Boston Celtics to a Game 7, which was more than Joe Dumars and Kupchak could do. Knight’s failing was that he didn’t usually take the right guy; his strength was that, with the exception of Shelden Williams, he didn’t pick any duds.
And here’s one last little Knight note: Had the Hawks held this No. 1 pick, they’d have the 15th choice overall. NBAdraft.net projects that Phoenix will use the No. 15 pick on D.J. Augustin, the 5-foot-11 point guard from Texas. Knight, as we know, hated little guards. (All together now: He could have had Chris Paul!)
For the Hawks, this draft night should pass uneventfully. Sund and Co. will be waiting for Round 2 to end to find out who’s still available. Given that the Hawks most need help underneath — David Andersen, the Australian center who plays for Moscow CSKA and whose rights are held by the Hawks, probably isn’t a real possibility this summer — they figure to be assessing the likes of David Padgett of Louisville and maybe James Mays of Clemson.
No, those names don’t carry the sizzle of Horford or Smith or Marvin Williams, but that’s no longer the issue. The Hawks don’t need sizzle anymore. They need only the proper seasoning.
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