GM Sund travels with Hawks as trade deadline looms

Good luck catching Hawks general manager Rick Sund without a cell phone stuck to the side of his face this week.

It was that way in Phoenix during the NBA’s All-Star weekend when Sund tried to enjoy himself in between constant calls. It has been that way in Los Angeles the past three days, where he joined the team for a five-game Western Conference road trip.

Sund has been feverishly working the phones to make sure there isn’t a deal out there to improve the Hawks in advance of Thursday afternoon’s trade deadline.

Unlike many of his colleagues, Sund isn’t presiding over a franchise desperate to shed big contracts in anticipation of crossing over the league’s luxury tax threshold.

That makes Sund more of an interested listener than a trade instigator in an economy that’s having an impact team finances.

“I don’t think it forces your hand,” Sund said of the current climate around the league. “This is always a time on your calendar when you need to assess. The truth is, sometimes trades take 10 months to a year to come to fruition and other times they come together in a short period of time. So there is always a dialogue going on. Because either way, you always have to be prepared.”

Sund’s predecessor, Billy Knight, made a deadline deal last year that changed the fate of the franchise. Acquiring Mike Bibby in a five-player deal with Sacramento lifted the Hawks into the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade.

Sund has a history of being active at the deadline. The biggest deal he made during his tenure in Seattle, acquiring All-Star shooting guard Ray Allen from Milwaukee for aging superstar point guard Gary Payton, happened at the deadline in 2003.

And the Hawks have a first-round pick and several expiring contracts they could use as bait for a team that needs to dump salary, and potentially a quality player.

But with the Hawks at 31-22 and currently in fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings, the need for a future-altering makeover is not there.

“I think we can win with what we have,” Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson said. “I think we’ve proved that over the course of the last year that this is a winning team when we’re at our best.”

Hawks coach Mike Woodson agreed, insisting that a move for the sake of making a move is not in the best interest of the franchise.

“I don’t think you jump out there just to jump out there,” he said. “I would think something has to make sense for us to do anything.”

The Hawks haven’t been involved in the trade rumor mill as heavily as they have in the past because their salary structure is sound. Also, their core group, with the exception of Bibby who will be a free agent this summer, is intact.

This summer, the Hawks will have a wealth of options to explore, including the expiring contracts of Bibby, Zaza Pachulia and Flip Murray.

They’ll shed some $27 million in salaries while also retaining the rights to restricted free agents Marvin Williams and Josh Childress, who is currently under contract with a Greek team.

They’ll also have another valuable asset in the contract of veteran point guard Speedy Claxton, which expires after the 2009-10 season.

That’s flexibility teams like Phoenix, New Orleans, Toronto and Miami — teams that have either made moves or angling to make moves — would love.

“I said from the beginning, that once we got this team in place that this is really a good year to take a wait-and-see approach,” Sund said, “to evaluate where we’re at. So if we have to shuffle the deck or discard a card or whatever, then we’ll do that probably in the summer when we have ultimate flexibility.”