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Thursday, June 28, 2007
Hawks take right players, next step
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Sitting in the first row of Philips Arena, Michael Gearon Sr. cocked an ear. “No boos,” he said, sampling the initial reaction to the announcement that the Hawks, the team in which Gearon Sr. holds ownership, had taken Al Horford.
And then there came a round of booing. Not a full-blown roar — Adam Keefe’s name was greeted by a full-blown roar in 1992 — but boos all the same. It will be the first and last time Al Horford is booed in Philips Arena.
The Hawks did well Thursday night. The Hawks got the players they needed — a big man and a guard — in the best possible combination. With picks No. 3 and 11, Billy Knight had to weigh a package of Horford and Acie Law IV against one including Mike Conley Jr. and, say, Al Thornton. “We felt this is better,” Knight said, and there’s no disagreement here.
Horford was clearly the draft’s third-biggest talent. “A unique combination,” Knight kept saying. Also this: “You don’t usually see power players like him,” meaning power players who can pass and shoot and defend and, above all, play multiple positions. It’s entirely possible, Knight conceded, that Horford, who’s listed as a forward, could become the Hawks’ starting center.
It’s likewise possible that Law will start at point guard before the 2008-2009 season is through. (If he doesn’t, the Hawks will have miscalculated.) He’s not exactly what you’d want in a distributor — “Unorthodox,” was how Knight described Law’s game — but he’s the guy you want working in tandem Joe Johnson. Law is used to having the ball in his hands at the end of games, and he’s accustomed to making game-winning shots.
“We have to have a shooter alongside Joe,” Knight said, the reason being that Johnson, alone among incumbent Hawks, draws double-teams. Double-teams mean open shots for somebody else. Law is a master of the contested shot; imagine what he’ll do if nobody deigns to guard him.
(And why, you’re doubtless wondering, not pick Conley at No. 3? Said Mike Woodson, the Hawks’ coach: “He couldn’t shoot the ball.” End of discussion.)
The Hawks transformed themselves with this draft. Just like that, the team with too many wingmen and no real direction has a shape and a balance it has lacked since the late ’90s. This should be a playoff team next spring. Even Knight, who has consistently backed away from such proclamations, is backing away no longer. “We’re ready to move past [just having a gaggle of young players],” he said. “Their games have to translate to us winning.”
Said Woodson: “This is the season we’ve got to make a move. It’s very pivotal we get to the playoffs.”
After reading Internet reports that the All-Star Amare Stoudemire was bound for Atlanta in a tripartite trade, there might be some civic disappointment today over having to make do with two collegians. There shouldn’t be. That deal was never close to being consummated, and rumors that the Hawks’ front office was divided over the No. 3 pick — some owners were said to have preferred Yi Jianlian — were put to rest with the selection of Horford. For once, this organization functioned as an organization should: It did its homework and made sound decisions.
As Bob Williams, the arena’s president, told Gearon Sr. in the hallway: “This is a defining moment for the team.” Indeed, after this draft we all need to redefine our longstanding image of the Hawks. They no longer seem luckless or clueless. They got a break in the lottery and maximized it. They drafted the right guys at the right time.
And in the end, even the Philips audience seemed satisfied. When Law’s name was announced, there were only cheers. Not one boo. Miracle of miracles.
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Don’t believe the draft hype
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
For about eight hours, all the speculation about draft picks — Horford or Conley or Yi? — was tabled. Maybe not in the real world, but definitely in the wide world of Internet sports. The Hawks were about to land Amare Stoudemire, a first-team All-Star.
And then, after we’d all worked ourselves into a lather, they weren’t.
And that’s the trouble with the wide world of Internet sports. Rumors spread so quickly they’re taken as fact. No matter what happens tonight, some Hawks fans will remember the 2007 draft as the time at least one Hawks owner passed on acquiring Stoudemire. That’s the latest report from by ESPN.com. Here’s the key sentence: “On Wednesday, sources say one of the Hawks owners vetoed a hypothetical deal for Stoudemire for financial reasons.”
Note, please: “A hypothetical deal.” But wouldn’t a real deal — sorry, Mr. Holyfield — require some input from Stoudemire’s current team? Here, from the Arizona Republic, is this telling paragraph:
” ‘We’ve never spoken with Atlanta about Amare,’ Suns general manager Steve Kerr said Wednesday night, when he also called Stoudemire to assure him all rumors were bogus. ‘We have no idea why anybody would speculate on that.’ “
The Hawks might still wind up with Stoudemire, though it’s tough to imagine any team giving away a 24-year-old All-Star (even if it gets Kevin Garnett in return). But suddenly the story, at least the cyber-driven version, has gone from the Hawks being in prime position to improve themselves via the draft to the Hawks’ owners squabbling again. ( ESPN.com, again citing “sources,” contended the dissenting owner in the “hypothetical deal” was — you guessed it — Steve Belkin.) And word is also flying — from ESPN.com and its “sources” yet again — that Billy Knight wants to draft Al Horford at No. 3 but is being pressured to take Yi Jianlian by Michael Gearon Jr.
I don’t know what will happen tonight, but I do know Knight and I do know Gearon Jr. And I can’t imagine the owner who has steadfastly supported his GM in every conversation I’ve ever had with him — and I’ve had several lengthy ones — would order the man he considers one of the best talent evaluators in the business to go against his instincts. Nor can I imagine Knight, who famously refused to shake Belkin’s hand in a Boston courtroom, going along with such a decree.
I’m not going to pretend that Atlanta Spirit LLC is the new paradigm of a successful ownership group. But everything I know about the non-Belkin faction leads me to believe it will back Billy Knight to the bitter end. Until proven otherwise, I’m still viewing this draft as the GM’s moment to define his franchise, not to defer to someone else.
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