Weekend Reflections: Giants gave John Harbaugh something he couldn’t get from Falcons

What I think about some things I saw over the weekend.

It turns out Falcons owner Arthur Blank’s decision to restructure the front office took his team out of the running for the top head coach candidate on the market.

The Giants hired John Harbaugh on Saturday. According to multiple reports, the two sides spent days negotiating a new front office structure in which Harbaugh would report directly to owner John Mara. The Giants agreed to those terms while essentially demoting general manager Joe Schoen.

Blank had decided from the start of his search that he wouldn’t hire a head coach who has that much power.

After Blank fired coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot following the season, he created a president of football and hired Matt Ryan for the job. New coach Kevin Stefanski and a GM to be named later will report to Ryan, who reports to Blank.

Blank did his homework before changing the organizational chart. He hired the consulting firm Sportsology Group to a “deep dive on the health” of the team’s football operations. Blank wasn’t going to reverse course on the front office chances to hire Harbaugh or any other coach.

The Falcons interviewed Harbaugh by phone Jan. 12. It probably was a short conversation since reporting to the owner as a top football figure was a priority for him. Ryan has said he won’t tell the GM and coach how to do their jobs, but Blank gave the president of football the final decision-making authority.

Harbaugh didn’t have that kind of arrangement during 18 successful seasons in Baltimore that included a Super Bowl victory. He and the GM reported directly to the owner. Blank had used the same structure for his front office until hiring Ryan to oversee everything on the football side of the organization.

Blank’s old front office structure was like the one used by the 10 NFL teams with the most victories since the start of the 2015 season.

None of those teams employs a football executive who is above the head coach and GM. All 10 teams either have a general manager running football operations and reporting to the owner, or their GM partners with the coach and both answer to the owner.

The Giants previously had their head coach report to the GM, who reported to Mara and chairman Steve Tisch. Harbaugh used his leverage as the top coach candidate to change the team’s front office structure to his liking. The Falcons weren’t going to give him that.

Hawks still bad on defense without Trae Young

Everyone knows Trae Young is a poor defender. Trading him was supposed to make the Hawks a better defensive team.

It hasn’t worked that way because he was far from the only problem at that end of the floor. Roster construction and coach Quin Snyder’s preferences also play a role.

The Celtics on Saturday became the latest team to score easily against the Hawks (20-24) while creating plenty of the most efficient shots. The Lakers did the same thing three nights earlier. The Thunder and Raptors also lit up the Hawks since Young last played for them.

The Hawks lack size in the frontcourt and on the wings. They have length, but not strength. Big, physical opponents clean up against the Hawks with rebounding and scoring at the rim. The Hawks won’t win consistently so long as they must be great on offense to overcome those shortcomings.

One issue is that Kristaps Porzingis is in street clothes for most games. Porzingis has played in 17 of 44 games after general manager Onsi Saleh predicted that his health wouldn’t be an issue. The ACL tear suffered by center N’Faly Dante on Dec. 19 also hurt the team’s frontcourt depth.

Saleh finally got around to adding another big man Friday when he signed Christian Koloko to a two-way contract. He’s played in 108 NBA games.

We’ll see if Snyder gives Koloko meaningful minutes. The coach tends to stick with smaller lineups that can run and gun even as his team gets punished by bigger foes at the other end.

Snyder barely played Dante before he got hurt. On the nights Porzingis doesn’t play, Snyder’s biggest available front line is Jalen Johnson, Onyeka Okongwu and Mouhamed Gueye. Per Cleaning the Glass, those three have been on the court together for only 69 meaningful possessions with Porzingis off the court.

The Hawks were terrible on defense with Young this season, but he played only 280 minutes. They allowed 116.8 points per 100 possessions with Young on the court last season. That’s not good.

The Hawks are allowing 114.1 points per possession with Young off the court this season. That’s not much better.