The Hawks could have played this offseason two ways: They could have traded Jeff Teague and let Al Horford leave as the first moves of a massive rebuilding, or they could have kept at least one of the above and sought to carry on as before. Being the Hawks, they tried to do both. Being the Hawks, they managed neither.
They did trade Teague, which was fine. But they tried hard, if not well, to keep Horford, who left anyway. They can’t say they’ve committed to younger and cheaper when they’ve signed Dwight Howard, who’s six months older than Horford, for $70.5 million over three seasons. Yes, they’ve gotten different, which some among us believed they needed to do. Had they gotten worse by design, we might have admired the thinking therein. But where’s the wisdom in getting worse by accident?
They overpaid to keep Kent Bazemore, which you feared they’d do, but compromised any attempt at continuity by signing Howard while negotiating with Horford, a great teammate who apparently didn’t fancy playing Jimmy Olsen to the erstwhile Superman. Then they tried to clear enough money to keep Horford, which would have meant trading Paul Millsap, which mercifully didn’t happen.
Say what you will about the Horford/Millsap tandem – that it’s an aging and finesse-y pairing; that it hasn’t been enough to lift the Hawks to a single playoff victory over LeBron and Co. – and you’d be right. You’d also be right in saying that, at least until the playoffs against LeBron, that combination worked. The two were made for Mike Budenholzer’s pace-and-space offense.
If there’s one man not made for P&S, it’s the guy Budenholzer unaccountably just signed. Howard can’t make a jump shot. (Or free throws.) He hasn’t averaged two assists in any of his 12 pro seasons. In two full seasons with Budenholzer, Horford averaged 3.2. Of Howard’s NBA shots, 57.6 percent have come within three feet of the basket. Of Horford’s, 32 percent have come within three feet. One spaces the floor. The other clogs the lane.
Orlando briefly maximized the threat of Howard down low by ringing him with 3-point shooters. That lifted the Magic to the 2009 NBA finals. Seven years later, Howard is no longer deemed an irresistible force. He’s on his fourth pro team, his third having decided he wasn’t worth keeping. And yet: To accommodate the Dwightmare, the Hawks essentially drove off their second-best player and tried to trade their best.
As it stands, the Hawks appear the sixth- or seventh-best team in the East – not bad enough to miss the playoffs but not good enough to win a round. That's exactly where a franchise doesn't want to be, and the road up from purgatory just got harder. We've long wondered if a free agent of consequence would take the Hawks' money – The Vertical ranked Howard the 16th-best FA on this year's market – and it was revealing that Kevin Durant didn't deign to meet with them. Now they've lost a respected player who wanted to stay.
To recap: The Hawks could have offered Horford a maximum contract but didn’t quite. Before they knew what Horford would do, they committed themselves to Howard. How many ways can you botch what should have been a done deal? Does Tony Ressler still believe the Budenholzer/Wes Wilcox front office is “what’s working”?
Wait. It gets worse. Millsap will surely opt out of his contract next summer. If he bolts, the Hawks would have a core of Dennis Schroder, Bazemore and Howard. Given their contracts, the latter two will be tough to trade, meaning that tearing-down-to-build-up – which would need to happen – will be difficult.
Even under new ownership, these remain the ham-handed Hawks. If keeping Horford mightn’t have taken them anywhere they hadn’t already been, losing him all but assures they’re going nowhere.
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