Where did Jeff go?
He’s moved to a new location. Check him out on the new blogging platform and let him know what you think.
Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > May > 28 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USSund: Better than the alternatives
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you are not sure what to think of Rick Sund, look at it this way: He is better than any realistic alternative.
Jerry West: Wasn’t going to happen.
Chris Grant: Didn’t want it to happen.
An outside-the-box hire of a former player with no or little front office experience: Bold. Interesting. Infinitely more entertaining than Billy Knight, with the added advantage of not being Billy Knight.
But Rick Sund: not bad. He has had success in the NBA, even if most of that success has not been recent. He is solid, even if short of spectacular. Did you expect spectacular? Was spectacular even available?
Rick Sund: Been there, done that, several times over. He won’t fly blind. That’s a start, because this might be the most important off-season in Hawks’ history. The drafting of a gem in Al Horford and three playoff wins over Boston has put this franchise on the brink — of either becoming very good for a long time, or in danger of falling back into a pit.
A decision has to be made on Mike Woodson. Decisions have to be made on Josh Smith, and Josh Childress, and a lineup that remains slightly mismatched. Decisions have to be made because this market appears eager to embrace this team, or is quite willing to go back to ignoring it.
“From my perspective, I’m thrilled,” owner Michael Gearon Jr. said. “The guy we hired was the most qualified and the most experienced general manager we could have hired. He’s really good at the things for where we need to be with the franchise. He can take this team and help us move to next level.”
If there was any question that ownership will let Sund runs things, Gearon somewhat doused that when he asked if hi new general manager will go through an evaluation process with Woodson: “I look forward to all questions related to the franchise and personnel being directed to him.”
It’s all in Rick Sund’s lap now. Things could be worse. Chris Grant — he would’ve been worse.
A lot of names were thrown against the wall in the Hawks’ search. We may never know truth from fiction, although an ESPN report of Grant turning down the Hawks — gee, can’t imagine the unnamed source on that one — ranks somewhere between dubious and Sasquatch.
Grant is with Cleveland and worked for the Hawks. The problem with hiring assistant GMs is you can never be sure whether they had significant input in decision-making. In this case, another problem is Grant worked for Pete Babcock, Billy Knight and Danny Ferry — not quite the Mt. Rushmore of general managers. If you’re Grant, what makes you look better: Admit you had input in past Hawks and Cavaliers decisions, or claim to be a wallflower? (Wallflower, by the way, is far more likely).
Rick Sund: definitely not a wallflower.
In Dallas, he was the flavor of the month, almost every month. He was hired as the NBA’s youngest director of player personnel (28) and worked his way to the top. He helped form a base for one of the league’s best teams for several seasons. One fatal flaw: He hired Quinn Buckner as coach.
In Detroit, Sund took over a team that went 28-54 in 1994-95. In his first two seasons as general manager, the Pistons made the playoffs and won 100 games. One fatal flaw: He wasn’t Joe Dumars, whom ownership wanted to promote (for good reason).
In Seattle, he went only 240-252 over six seasons. But he made one of the best trades in franchise history, dealing an aging Gary Payton for a young Ray Allen. His drafts: not so great. But still the Sonics went 52-30 in his fourth season. But coach Nate McMillan wasn’t re-signed, and that mistake was compounded by the hiring of Bob Weiss. Then ownership put the clamps on payroll in preparation for a franchise sale. Sund was toast.
He turns 57 next week. He’s been around. Some look at such hires and think, “Retread.” But that would be shortchanging Sund. He should help stabilize an organization that badly needs it.
Maybe he doesn’t wow you yet. But he’ll have his chance.
Permalink | Comments (45) | Post your comment | Categories: Hawks/NBA
Comments
By william cranman
May 28, 2008 5:29 PM | Link to this
A good safe hire.
By honest_abe
May 28, 2008 5:38 PM | Link to this
who cares who the hawks hire as gm. it’s not like he has the power to make his own moves. the asg and it’s millions of owners run the show even though they don’t know a damn thing about basketball. putrid.
By e double
May 28, 2008 5:45 PM | Link to this
we must give benefit of the doubt. we need a new coach. hope we can hook avery johnson.
By Whopper Dawg
May 28, 2008 5:50 PM | Link to this
Mediocre hire. Jeff, you just named several critical mistakes he has made on coaches and he has steered Seattle to complete mediocrity. But given the history of the Hawks, he will fit right in. Never heard of the guy, but when I saw his latest stint was with Seattle, I knew we were in trouble. That being said, he can’t be worse than Knight, just can’t be, can he?
By mred
May 28, 2008 5:57 PM | Link to this
the hawks need a big defensive minded center and and offensive minded sg to help joe the hawks will be alright and mr sund can take aall the credit for the team that billy built
By LL Cool Scott
May 28, 2008 6:16 PM | Link to this
He’s got huge shoes to fill. Hope he doesn’t wilt under the pressure of trying to live up to the impressive legacies of brilliant Pete Babcock and the genius Billy Knight.
By Virgil Stay
May 28, 2008 7:05 PM | Link to this
Let’s hope he hits the ground running. A quick decision needs to be made on Woodson. Hopefully it is a decision to move on! Mr. Sund needs to bring in his coach and not waste time giving this guy another season. And please, look at the 328 games he coached, not the last 7… excuse, yes please look at the last 7. When you have a coach that can’t even get his team up for one of the greatest upsets in NBA history - against the Mighty Celtics - that should say enough.
Outside of this, good luck to Mr. Sund. Atlanta wants a winner and a good way to start this off is to get Avery Johnson and resign the Joshes.
By SirReal
May 28, 2008 7:10 PM | Link to this
Whoever said hook Avery Johnson is a doofus. Everyone knows he inherited a stellar team that he ended up leading into mediocre waters. Del Harris was the figure behind a lot on the floor in Dallas. Get real!! As far as the new GM, he cant do much worse than Silly Knight can he?
By JacketFan
May 28, 2008 7:10 PM | Link to this
Weak, weak hire.
Too safe. Current owners have no ability to evaluate young management talent.
Typically safe corporate middle management move. Let’s play it super safe and maybe no one will notice that I have no clue.
I mean, what DID he do in Seattle? A losing record over 6yrs. Actually, this is a bad hire.
What are we shooting for? A .500 record???
By ray
May 28, 2008 7:12 PM | Link to this
Jeff,
Without a doubt, the most sound and sensible thing I’ve seen you write. I’ve openly criticized you a lot, but this piece is not worthy of such treatment. Do I say this because I agree with everything you said? No. Because it’s sound, sensible, and rightfully absent of the usual cynicism. Of course, Sund will have the chance to earn such cynicism if he fails in his endeavors.
By Firebird
May 28, 2008 7:34 PM | Link to this
He’s certainly not as bad as Billy Knight. At least he has some credible stints in the league as a GM. I also agree with most people that the owners are still going to dictate how everything goes down, especially until the legal battle is settled. This IS probably the best the hawks could have done at this point in time.
By RA
May 28, 2008 8:40 PM | Link to this
Hey,
If Schultzie is willing to give the guy a chance, so am I… Bottomline.
By Peter
May 28, 2008 8:42 PM | Link to this
Aren’t the Sonics the worst team in the league? Bad hire. Should get someone like Greg Anthony and Avery Johnson who can motivate these young players. The comment was said that he doesn’t have great drafts. Isn;t that what we need? Someone who can evaluate talent?
By Matt
May 28, 2008 9:06 PM | Link to this
Hey Peter,
I’m not going to bother picking out the 20 billion things wrong with your post. I’m just glad I haven’t seen you post on Hawks pages much. Wow.
By RA
May 28, 2008 9:13 PM | Link to this
Matt, please allow me to address just a few of the billion things that are wrong with Peter’s post. First off, neither Gregg Anthony or Avery Johnson, to my knowledge has any General Management experience. It doesn’t matter how well they could/couldn’t motivate those young players, they wouldn’t be coaching them. Secondly, and thirdly, this guy doesn’t have to be brilliant at drafting talent, the talent’s there. What he has to do is find a way to keep it and, perhaps, supplement it by smart trading, which he’s shown that he can do. Lastly, this guy has been a GM for the better part of the last 20 years, you don’t hang around like that unless you have a clue about what you’re doing. Give him a chance.
By Matt
May 28, 2008 9:28 PM | Link to this
RA,
You forgot my favorite - the Sonics only became the league’s worst team after Sund was demoted and the Sonics’ two best players from the Sund era were traded away for Jeff Green and a string of beads…
By Matt
May 28, 2008 9:31 PM | Link to this
That being said, I’m definitely withholding judgment on this hire. Let’s see what Sund does in the next month. And Sund’s many missteps notwithstanding, we DEFINITELY could have picked worse.
By athdog
May 28, 2008 10:57 PM | Link to this
Could it be that Rutherford, Mike, and the rest of the trust fund babies at ASG got something right?… Probably not, but time will tell. At least he’s not Billy.
By Billy Knight
May 28, 2008 11:07 PM | Link to this
Good luck getting rid of Woody!
By no id
May 28, 2008 11:17 PM | Link to this
if he gets rid of woodson im all for it..and if so, the faster the better so we can start looking at other coaches
By BLarge
May 28, 2008 11:45 PM | Link to this
Well here we go again this will be an interesting season…but thank goodness we don’t have Grant because he was too close to previous front office members. All we need now is a coach who can teach fundamentals…be your own sports writer at bleacherreport.com
By nahjay davnpooh
May 29, 2008 12:09 AM | Link to this
he should do a sign-and-trade involving one of the joshes and get a first round pick.
and he should fire woodson.
By hbajc
May 29, 2008 12:36 AM | Link to this
Good gosh, Schultz, did you have any instructions on what a paragraph is? I’ve seen run-on sentences before but this is a run-on paragraph par excellence!
By nahjay davnpooh
May 29, 2008 1:09 AM | Link to this
hbajc, how stupid are you? the webmaster screwed up, the column looked normal at first. anyway, shut up.
By Chris
May 29, 2008 6:26 AM | Link to this
I realize it is water under the bridge, but why weren’t the Hawks in the running for coach Mike D’Antoni. His upbeat, running style would have been perfect for this roster, and given the young talent and growth potential, the Hawks job would have been a lot more attractive than the Knicks. Hopefully we can find somebody like him.
By Myrtle Beach
May 29, 2008 7:50 AM | Link to this
Bynum is out in LA because He and Gasol can not play on the floor at the same time, sign and trade J Smith for the Big dude. Sign J Childress, Harford at PF, move Joe to SF, resign Stoudmire SG and you have Bibby as the PG. Simple as that, J Chill comes off the bench for SF & SG positions, A Law should get 25 to 20 minutes a game for Bibby for development and they’ll win 50 games next year. Keep Pachulia to back up PF and Center then next year Boston will be watching Atlanta play Detroit for the eastern championship. We don’t need a 1st round draft pick, Bynum will take them over the top as long as we don’t have Josh Smith taking 3 pointers at a 10% clip. Hey by the way even Woodson could not screw up that line up.
By Matt
May 29, 2008 8:41 AM | Link to this
Man oh man. No, there’s no way two big men can play together, right? Because David Robinson and Tim Duncan really sucked as a duo.
By bigeasy830
May 29, 2008 8:49 AM | Link to this
The fatal flaws you mentioned are to large to overcome. If the hawks win it is not because of this guy it is because of the foundation that has already been laid. This guy is a dud. The game has passed him by. It is a terrible hire. No one wants the Hawks Gm job because of the ownership squabble. He just needs to keep the 2 Joshes and keep the coaching staff. Then after the ownership situation is cleared up he needs to be gone. You stated he had trouble with the draft, well damn, it is his job to have a good draft. The trade for Jesus Shuttleworth and GP so what Bk traded for Bibby. This was a terroble hire. I hope he does not mess the team up. We need to see if we are gonna keep Marvin or does he has trade Value for a Good bigman or maybe move into the top 5 of the draft to get one of those superstar players. We hav a glut at the forward position, one must go. I think it should be Marvin. You can’t let J-Smoove go and J Chill is so versatile. If Marvin has trade value we must deal him but only after we lock down the 2 Joshes and Bibby makes alot of money whats up with his situation. Also, will this guy and Coach Woodson be on the same page or will he fire him and bring in Avery Johnson. Now, if Sund can work all that out, I will sign-off on his hire.
By ajc.com/sports
May 29, 2008 9:11 AM | Link to this
The column paragraphing is now fixed and we regret any posting errors. - ajc.com
By ATLplayer
May 29, 2008 9:43 AM | Link to this
I would rather our own Steve Smith got a shot. He can’t do worst than this guy. He didn’t resign Nate McMillan and look at Portland now. He hired Bob Weiss of all jokes of a coach….Plus no real DRAFT success! enough said. How can the same mistakes be made over and over is beyond me.
By Chikara
May 29, 2008 9:55 AM | Link to this
I have a feeling this will work out for the Hawks.
See, my biggest problem with BK was that he had this swingman fetish and didn’t really know how to draft a team and just stockpiled whatever talent was available.
That said, I believe Sund will go more by the book and bring in some help for Al Horford.
The ownership situation will be resolved in Feb and as for Woodson, I have a feeling he won’t be around much longer.
By Avery Johnson
May 29, 2008 10:29 AM | Link to this
To all calling for Avery Johnson hire:
Avery Johnson is not coming to Atlanta. Dallas fired Johnson with 3 years remaining on his deal, worth about 4 mil per.
They have to pay him the entire balance of that, 4 mil over the next 3 years.
ASG is not paying more than 1-2 mil for their head coach. Woodson makes just short of a mil.
So, pray tell, why would AJ come to another meddling owner (ship group) for less than the money he is already making to sit on his arse for 3 years?
Why would he not just do his little stints on ESPN/TNT and collect his free money from Mark Cuban?
Wake up. It’s going to take AT LEAST 5 mill per over 3-5 years to get him back in coaching any time soon. AJ is not coming to ATL.
By Casey
May 29, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this
You don’t hire some young inexperienced kid to be GM. Look at the disasters in all pro sports that have happened because of that. Look at Billy Knight! The Hawks hired the right guy.
But, the most important move they have to make is to FIRE MIKE WOODSON RIGHT NOW!!!
PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT’S HOLY!!!
By JB
May 29, 2008 11:13 AM | Link to this
I hope Rick will hire Avery as head coach.
By The Bear
May 29, 2008 11:22 AM | Link to this
reading this column really changed my opinion about one thing: I used to think the AJC was a second rate newspaper, now I am convinced that the free weekly circular that shows up unwanted in my driveway three time a month is a far better specimen of journalism than anything the AJC sports section publishes. Wow! I can not believe these guys get paid to write nonsense and pass the buck on yet another bad hawks decision. I wish Jeff and Terrance would find a job working for another paper. Maybe the Buford Highway Gazette is looking for an advertisement section editor.
By The Bear
May 29, 2008 11:23 AM | Link to this
reading this column really changed my opinion about one thing: I used to think the AJC was a second rate newspaper, now I am convinced that the free weekly circular that shows up unwanted in my driveway three time a month is a far better specimen of journalism than anything the AJC sports section publishes. Wow! I can not believe these guys get paid to write nonsense and pass the buck on yet another bad hawks decision. I wish Jeff and Terrance would find a job working for another paper. Maybe the Buford Highway Gazette is looking for an advertisement section editor.
By JL
May 29, 2008 1:03 PM | Link to this
Being GM in Atlanta is like being Big Bird - you are the man in the costume with someone else scripting your words and moves. Sund will be just as hand tied as Knight was and the ownership will continue to manipulate in order to spend as little as possible.
By ronald
May 29, 2008 1:15 PM | Link to this
you know some people don’t care who the Hawks hire because ownership will still make decision I just hope that he don’t make the same mistake that Billy Knight and Pete Babcock in drafting if so then their really a problem just hope he can keep it simple and make it batter
By nahjay davnpooh
May 29, 2008 4:57 PM | Link to this
myrtle beach,
that has to be one of the most ignorant posts i’ve ever read. for the lakers to trade bynum to the hawks makes no sense on sooooo many levels that i refuse to work myself up over explaining.
just know that you are the dumbest person on earth. i think you’re next step in life should be to attempt to fly from a 100 story building, because you and everyone else in the world believes you can fly.
By nahjay davnpooh
May 29, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this
and to the guy impersonating avery johnson:
anyone who hires avery johnson wouldn’t have to pick up the contract that dallas signed him to. you have no clue what you are saying.
By earl
May 29, 2008 5:11 PM | Link to this
WOW!!!! A Caucasian on the Hawks. Talk about diversity. Gooooo Hawks.
By nahjay davnpooh
May 29, 2008 5:14 PM | Link to this
and myrtle beach, again,
i just read the sentences following the bynum trade proposal and realize you were just breaking the surface of your stupidity. you are so stupid that you’re inflammatory without meaning to be. i can’t get over that post, everything that was said was stupid.
for you to know enough about basketball to learn the names of players and yet, apply your knowledge so stupidly, puzzles me.
seriously, you must be a janitor at a rest stop.
By Jon
May 29, 2008 6:32 PM | Link to this
Ok. Does everybodty realise that it will be tough to make the playoffs next year? Even in our own division Miami and Charlotte will be better teams next year. We can do very little to get better because of the cap and no draft picks. We should trade Bibby because they will not resign him. Portland would gladly take him. The 13th pick in this draft isn’t bad. And trade Marvin to the Bucks along with David Anderson for Ramon Sessions and the number 8 pick. Sessions avg. 13pts and 13ast in his starts and would be an upgrade over Bibby. And use the two picks on big men. Or trade them for a veteren big. Its not hard if youu have imagination and balls.
By nahjay davnpooh
May 29, 2008 9:35 PM | Link to this
what the hell? why is everyone on this board so damn stupid!? jon??? why the hell would you just assume that blazers would give up their first round pick for bibby? they wouldnt. and why would the bucks acquire m. williams for the 8th pick in the draft????????????? you are so stupid.
By Jon
May 30, 2008 1:58 PM | Link to this
Nahjay don’t you read. The Blazers want a veteren point and the bucks need a small forward and Marvin’s game fits thier team since everyone else wants to shoot threes. David Anderson is an Aussie big man to go along with Bogut. They have a lot of money invested in pgs that they cant move. Its not just about talent its about money too.