In his first two seasons as the Hawks’ head coach, Mike Budenholzer has implemented a new offensive system, changed the culture of a team formerly punctuated by prima donnas, nearly orchestrated an upset of a No. 1 seed in his first postseason despite missing the franchise cornerstone (Al Horford), kept players and staff members focused following a humiliating offseason of ownership and front-office buffoonery, guided his players to a franchise-record 60 wins in his second season, held them together late in the season after an ugly incident with New York police cost him a significant player (Thabo Sefolosha) and has led them to their first Eastern Conference finals appearance.
I probably could have thought of a few more things. But my fingers needed a timeout.
The Hawks are Atlanta’s “it” team. There was a time we would have settled for just watchable. The biggest reason for this franchise uprising is the guy standing by the bench who looks like he wants to sell you a whole-life policy.
“This is about believing in our coach, believing in our principles, believing in him and the system from the first day of preseason,” forward Paul Millsap said after the Hawks’ closed out the Washington Wizards in their second-round playoff series Friday night. “We can’t detour or change directions from what got us here.”
Or from who got them there.
Danny Ferry, the disenfranchised general manager who has watched this entire season from somewhere other than arenas, inherited Al Horford and Jeff Teague but did most of the building. But Budenholzer took the pieces and built something far beyond anyone’s expectations.
He is this franchise’s only leader now. He may be their clear leader next year.
The Hawks have new ownership coming in (mercifully), so it follows that nobody wants to make any assumptions about how the front office will take shape. But here’s the betting favorite: Ferry will be asked to move on, and Budenholzer will be given a new contract — he has a year remaining on his deal — with a fat raise, more power and a shiny new title. Think of him as a Gregg Popovich starter kit.
The Hawks are on stable ground now. Prospective majority owner Tony Ressler isn’t permitted to speak publicly about anything related to the Hawks until taking over, especially on a topic as combustible as the Ferry situation. But there’s a chance the principles of his management team already are in place: Budenholzer, assistant general manager Wes Wilcox and team CEO Steve Koonin (who oversees everything except basketball operations).
This isn’t about whether Ferry “deserves” to come back after spending an inordinate amount of time in purgatory since his ill-fated conference call about Luol Deng. It was a dreadful decision, potentially a fire-able offense. But with the Hawks quickly evolving into the NBA’s feel-good story this season, Ferry might have been brought back quickly if he didn’t get caught in the middle of the world’s longest spitball fight between Thing 1 (Bruce Levenson) and Thing 2 (Michael Gearon Jr.).
But think about this. If you’re Ressler, and you love what’s going on, and you believe your franchise is on solid footing and well-positioned for the future, why do something that might potentially disrupt that? For every 100 people, you might find only two who say Ferry should be fired. But is that worth it? And how to pitch such a decision to the guy with the statue outside Philips Arena, Dominique Wilkins, who’s not in Ferry’s corner?
There’s also this: As good of a job as Ferry did in his three offseasons, a case could be made that Budenholzer’s achievements are even more remarkable. Did anybody really believe this would be a 60-win team? A 50-win team? An Eastern Conference finalist?
Korver: “We aren’t made up of superstars. We all have to play well. We all have to be our piece of the puzzle and focus on being the best piece we can. When we do that, we get stuff like DeMarre (Carroll) slashing to the basket and getting layups at the end of the game.”
Teague twice found Carroll for key baskets down the stretch, snapshots from the the Hawks’ playbook. Budenholzer implored his players to stick with the system and it would pay off.
The fact the coach has faced some mild criticism for some decisions in this postseason shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s the social-media world we live in.
“It’s one of the great lessons I learned from Pop and my dad,” Budenholzer said, referencing his two mentors (his father, Vince, won a state high school basketball title in Arizona). “Sometimes they think you’re a genius, sometimes they think you’re an idiot and neither is true. Somewhere in the middle is true.”
So the criticism doesn’t bother him?
“No. It’s great,” he said. “It means we’re getting more attention.”
The Hawks have won eight playoff games, more than any year since 1958, more than the past three seasons combined (seven). Budenholzer has done a lot in two years, and it’s not over yet.
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