AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2006 > April > 03
Monday, April 3, 2006
An offseason of possibilities
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Nique Appreciation Day was Friday, but let me start today’s entry by giving one more shout to the man who is now a Hall of Famer. Congrats are in order.
I’m also taking a week-long hiatus from the Hawks’ ownership drama, so this will be the last mention of it here (barring a surprise resolution to the whole mess by Friday) until next week.
Now, on to the business at hand. Ten games remain in the season for the Hawks and it’s time for us all to play armchair GM. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks now, what players need to be added and subtracted from this roster to make a 20-win team (20 plus) a 40-win team and get the Hawks into playoff contention?
It’s going to take more than just one or two new players, I think. In my estimation there needs to be a shift of about 3-5 fresh bodies — a point guard, two to three bigs and another shooting guard who can spell Joe Johnson.
Draft, free agency, trades, it all has to come into play. The draft comes first. And there’s a chance to snag some real gems this year, if the draft pool fills itself out the way most experts think. I’m thinking of guys like Ryan Hollins (athletic 7-footer from UCLA) where you snagged Salim Stoudamire last year.
I’ve had too much time to dream up scenarios for the draft and everything else, so I apologize for the explicit details. But I’ve been trying to analyze this team after seeing them up close all season. I’m just a believer now, more than ever, that teams have to be built with chemistry in mind as much as talent.
There was a time when I felt like an NBA team needed to start and end with talented players and you let the chemistry issues work themselves out or make sure you have a coach who has a master’s in chemistry. But in this day and age, you can’t leave any of that to chance. The players are too young and have too many deficiencies when they enter the league to allow that.
The other thing I realize now more than ever is that there is no blueprint for success. There’s so much luck and serendipity involved in the process — ask the Spurs, who have had the good fortune of owning the No. 1 pick in the draft the years David Robinson and Tim Duncan were in the draft. But just drafting well doesn’t ensure success. There’s so much more work, stuff that flies largely under the radar, that must be done in order for a franchise to thrive.
So much of it is work that has to be done by individuals, namely the players, to improve their games year after year. The key is identifying the players willing to put in that work and making sure they are in the kind of environment that fosters that type of work ethic.
It’s easy for players to become disillusioned during a losing situation. Fortunately for the Hawks, I haven’t sensed any of that from their pups. If anything, they’ve bowed up as the season has gone on, showing some teeth that people might not have realized they had (check some of the comments lately from opposing coaches and players). Their incessant praise of a team that’s lost 50 games startled me at first. But it makes more sense to me now. They’ve come in expecting the Hawks to lay down for them and take their beating without putting up any fight.
And for many of the reasons I stated above, the Hawks haven’t done that. It all makes for a wildly interesting offseason, which will be here before you know it (10 games people).
