New GM Travis Schlenk is blowing up the Hawks. It's not his fault that the detonation leaves behind a flimsy foundation. Put that on the Tony Ressler/Mike Budenholzer/Wes Wilcox triumvirate that managed to get nothing at all in return for the two best players of the recent Hawks era: Paul Millsap and Al Horford.
The Hawks netted a 2016 first-round draft pick for Jeff Teague and used it to acquire Taurean Prince. The Hawks received a protected first-round pick in 2019 from Cleveland for Kyle Korver. Those are the kind of deals a team makes when players with value no longer fit into their plans, or when it knows players won’t stick around when it’s time to re-up.
Here's what the Hawks got in return for Millsap and Horford: nothing. Not one draft pick, not one lesser-but-cheaper veteran player, not one promising younger player. Horford signed with the Celtics last year after the Hawks made a major miscalculation with Dwight Howard. Now Millsap is headed to Denver for what's really a reasonable contract (three years, $90 million, team option for final year).
There’s nothing wrong with the Hawks moving on from Millsap. It’s what teams should do when their group has reached its peak, or when disgruntled stars signal they will bolt at the first chance. The problem for the Hawks is they were left empty-handed while saying goodbye to Millsap after they did the same with Horford. That should never happen.
The Hawks had to make a decision at the 2016 trade deadline: either send away Horford for something, or be prepared to sign him to a max deal that summer. Instead the Hawks didn’t trade Horford, inexplicably went after Dwight Howard, re-signed Kent Bazemore . . . and saw Horford jump to Boston.
The Hawks had a similar decision at this year’s trade deadline: either send away Millsap for something, or be prepared to sign him to a max deal this summer. Instead the Hawks didn’t trade him and watched him sign a less-than-max deal with the Nuggets.
That the Hawks lost players as good as Millsap and Horford with no assets in return speaks to the aimlessness of their basketball operations on Ressler's watch (not to mention that Howard fiasco). Millsap tells AJC beat writer Chris Vivlamore that the Hawks didn't even offer him a contract , which underlines how poorly the team managed the whole thing--and also what Schlenk thinks of decisions made before he took the job.
The Hawks could have started the rebuild last year ( my take was that they should have) or doubled down on the group they had. They could have even started it belatedly by dealing away Millsap last spring. Instead the Hawks took half-measures that called into question whether they had any kind of grand plan at all.
Think about it: The Pacers are (rightly) getting ripped for sending Paul George to the Thunder and only getting Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis in return. What kind of heat would the Pacers get if they kept George until next summer and he signed elsewhere as a free agent? That's what the Hawks did with two good players.
Listen, the Hawks were ever close to championship-caliber. That 60-win Hawks team of 2014-2015 wobbled to a 17-11 record after the All-Star break and then sweated to eliminate a 38-win Nets team in the first round of the playoffs. The Hawks squeaked by the Wizards in the second round, even with John Wall missing three games, and then were swept aside by LeBron James.
Maybe that Hawks team wasn't great but it did have four All-Star players. Now the Hawks have no All-Star players and, at the moment, have one of the worst rosters in the NBA . They also have no draft picks or developmental players to show for the departures of Millsap and Horford. Worse still, they also don't have great financial flexibility because of the Bazemore contract, and because the Howard miscalculation meant taking on Mason Plumlee.
It’s not Schlenk’s fault it came to this. He just has to clean up the mess.
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