Mo Evans assumes Childress’ role with Hawks

Just because he’s done this a few times before, try five times in the past four seasons, doesn’t make it any easier for Mo Evans to move into a new locker room.

His latest move, however, comes with some added intrigue. Not only is he moving into the locker stall, roster spot and role vacated by former Hawks swingman Josh Childress, Evans has already moved into his No. 1 jersey as well.

Childress moved on to Olympiakos in Greece after negotiations on a contract extension with the Hawks failed. That opened the door for Evans, who was also courted by Olympiakos before signing his three-year deal with the Hawks.

And now he has to get up to speed quickly in order to assume the duties of Childress, who finished sixth in the voting for the NBA’s Sixth Man Award last season.

“It’s never an easy transition when you come into a situation where a team is already established,” Evans said Tuesday after the Hawks wrapped up their first practice of training camp at Philips Arena. “I don’t think people understand the tremendous advantage a player has by playing for a team for multiple years in a row and being in a system, playing for a coach multiple years in a row.

“Every year of my career I’ve had to adjust to a new system and coach, so the transition early will be a bit rocky because you’re trying to learn the terminology, the plays and everything. So that’s what I’m dealing with now, the feeling out process.”

The process has been a bit strange for everyone, namely teammates who were and remain close to Childress. However, they know how important it is that they welcome Evans into the fabric of a tight-knit group.

“We were watching film [Monday] and we saw [Childress] on the tape and it hits you that he’s over there in Greece doing his thing,” Marvin Williams said. “So for me, you know, it’s a trip because Chilly was my right hand man. But it helps when you replace a player who was a great fit on this team with another guy who is a great fit. It seems like Mo’s been with us for a while already, and we’ve only been together as a group for a couple of days. But he’s a vet and you know he’ll handle things like a pro.”

Hawks coach Mike Woodson is banking on it, especially with Evans slated for spot duty at both shooting guard and small forward in addition to his role as the team’s defensive stopper.

“The unique thing about Mo is that he’s played in a number of systems and he knows the league pretty well,” Woodson said. “The fact that he can make a shot and takes pride in trying to defend the basketball is huge for us. And that’s not to take anything away from Chilly. He was good for our team. But he’s in Greece now.

“And we welcome Mo with open arms. It’s my job now to push him in the right direction in terms of being able to help our team win basketball games.”

Doing whatever it takes to help his team win games is a specialty Evans has crafted throughout a journeyman career that has seen him play key roles as a starter and off the bench for Minnesota, Sacramento, Detroit, Los Angeles (Lakers) and most recently Orlando.

Evans was a 47-game starter for the Magic last season, averaging career highs in points (9.3), rebounds (3.1) and minutes (23.9) while helping them to the Southeast Division title and the second round of the playoffs.

A repeat performance, all the way around, would make his latest move even sweeter.

“This is a great group of guys and kind of reminds me of the team I had in Detroit when we all had a lot of fun together,” said Evans, who got married just days after signing his contract with the Hawks in August. “We worked hard today, but it was fun because you have guys like Mike Bibby and Josh Smith making jokes and making sure we enjoyed it, too. That’s the chemistry you want.

“And it was a really busy summer for me, not knowing if I was going to be back in Orlando, with all the success we had there, or if I was going to be in Olympiakos where Chilly is. There were so many possibilities. So there wasn’t a ton of time to really get ready mentally for this situation. But I really think that I’ll be able to bring some things to this team, and when all the clutter of training camp is over, I think people will really be able to see the improved product that we will be.”