Hawks GM Rick Sund is Mr. Cautious

To which Rick Sund replies: “What is Wikipedia?”

Having no concept of the web-based encyclopedia perfectly fits Sund’s style. The 58-year-old Hawks general manager is immune to the lure of popular culture. He’s fixed and comfortable in the narrowly focused world of his own making.

He doesn’t Tweet, doesn’t do Facebook, doesn’t feel the need to play the role of hip, interactive front man.

When he watches the NBA on TV, he does it with the sound muted. “I want to draw my own conclusions,” he said.

The more Sund can stay out of the mainstream, meandering the tributaries of player acquisition and salary cap management, the better. In his world, general managers are supposed to be largely unseen, unheard. They are to blend into the scenery, like the ball rack and the Gatorade cooler.

Sund does not watch games from the vicinity of the Hawks bench, roosting instead in a distant box. He does not travel on the team plane during the regular season. As the media filters into the locker room after a game, the general manager exits from view.

When he addressed the team prior to a pivotal Game Six versus Milwaukee in the playoffs’ first round, it was the first time Sund had done anything of the kind in his two seasons on the job.

He doesn’t much play the rah-rah card. But in that case, at least, it worked. The Hawks won, and went on to win the series.

“The really good general managers, guys who have had influence with me — my mentor Wayne Embry, Jerry West — they stay in the background,” he said.

Big decisions loom

As much as the stealth GM wants to avoid a good headline, the Hawks have made such blessed isolation pretty much impossible.

They followed their winningest regular season in 13 years with the most lopsided playoff sweep in NBA history — losing in the second round to Orlando in four straight by an average of 25 points a game.

Sund was brought in on May 2008 under orders to buff former GM Billy Knight’s roster of long-limbed athletes to a high polish. “Trying to connect the dots,” is the way Sund put it.

This offseason is not about mere dot-connecting. ‘Tis not the time to tweak. The decisions Sund renders in the next months will shape the character of the Hawks for years, and when they are made, this team will be his at the DNA level.

The first call came down late last week when the team decided not to re-up head coach Mike Woodson, whose contract was running out just as his team was tuning him out against Orlando.

Still unsettled is the question: What about Joe? The team’s designated star, the soon-to-be free agent whose acquisition set off a hair-pulling fight among ownership, Joe Johnson chose the playoffs to push the mute button on his game.

A coaching hire to make. A big-money roster slot to fill. Doesn’t look like Sund will be getting back to Seattle — where he still keeps a home — anytime soon.

And with the draft (June 24) and free agency (July 1) approaching, there is no shortage of suggestions about what he and the Hawks should do next.

“We probably need another solid big [man], in order to have any kind of chance to do anything special,” said Hawks forward/center Al Horford.

“The main thing is to make sure No. 2 [Johnson] gets back here. That should be No. 1 on everybody’s priority list,” said forward Marvin Williams.

The fans have vented plenty since the Orlando smackdown, many of them suggesting a large amount of metaphorical C4 be set off beneath the Hawks roster.

No rush to judgment

The Tao of Sund — which is based on patience and practical analysis — will be sorely tested these next few months.

Just know that whatever happens in this retooling period, kneejerking will not be part of the process.

The same baseline steadiness that his Wikipedia biographer seized on was a major factor in the Atlanta Spirit ownership group settling on Sund to replace Knight. “When we looked at Rick, what we liked was he wasn’t reactionary,” said the Spirit’s basketball point guy, Michael Gearon Jr.

Sund devoted much of this past week to bleeding off the disappointment from the Orlando series. He went through the ritual of exit meetings with players and staff, and even plumbed the workers in the ticket office and marketing department for reactions to this dichotomous season.

He refused to be rushed into anything, withholding public judgment on Woodson until he was certain the coaching change was being made for the right reasons.

“You have to sit back, put closure to the season with your players. Talk to them. Take a few days or a week off where you don’t get emotionally involved with your decision making. I’ve always done that,” Sund said.

“Not a lot of time, a little bit. What that does is get you in a better mindset, and it eliminates emotions. You cannot make decisions based on emotions in this business.”

‘A great salesman’

The man steps carefully in his own life, so why wouldn’t he do the same professionally?

To wit: Captain of the basketball team at Northwestern, Sund was surprised when he went unplucked in the 20-round NBA draft of 1973. He had a choice. Either continue to chase the dream of playing as a long-shot free agent or accept a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree. He killed the childish notion and went with more schooling.

His 30-plus-year career has stressed the solid over the spectacular. To be sure, if he finds some dupe, he will gut him and hang his hide on the wall. An example: While building the expansion Dallas Mavericks in the early 1980s — as the youngest GM in the NBA at the time — Sund piled up extra first-round draft picks at the expense of then Cleveland owner Ted Stepien. So ruinous were the deals to the Cavs that the NBA passed a rule declaring that no team can trade No. 1 draft picks in consecutive years. It is known, variously, as the Stepien Rule or the Sund Rule.

But those type of opportunities have grown rarer and rarer. More likely are windfalls like the one Sund found prior to this season in trading a couple of non-functioning parts — Speedy Claxton and Acie Law IV — for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, Jamal Crawford.

That has been Sund’s most triumphant maneuver with the Hawks. Not only did he make the deal, Sund also was instrumental in convincing Crawford he could thrive coming off the bench.

“He’s a great salesman,” Crawford said. “He told me I could make a new identity for myself, not be just the guy who has never played on a wining team. He said it was a chance to show people what I’m really about.”

Much of Sund’s career has been devoted to a methodical building process. He has had his shrewd moments — snatching up Crawford, getting Dallas as far as a conference final, acquiring Ray Allen in Seattle. But still, the only championship parade he has ever been involved rolled down the streets of Elgin, Ill., after his 15-year-old baseball team won the Teener League World Series championship.

Changing the culture

As through much of his career, Sund currently is working for a franchise with shallow pockets. Seven of the final eight teams in these playoffs were in the top 10 of NBA payroll. The Hawks ranked 22nd. They were the only team of the final eight not paying a luxury tax for exceeding the league salary cap.

That makes the decision on Johnson all the more pressing, because he, or anyone the Hawks acquire to replace him, will consume such a large percentage of the payroll.

“We can’t afford mistakes and I don’t think we’ve made very many mistakes the last couple of years,” Sund said.

When he arrived in 2008, Sund was a little shocked at how giddy people around the franchise seemed at having won 37 games and barely made the playoffs.

The conversation surely has changed. “Now the questions are focused on championships, not just trying to get a team one or two games over .500. And I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

So, let the fans rage. Let them advocate all kinds of roster chaos in the name of building a long overdue titled team.

Sund knows you don’t get to be a journeyman GM by getting reckless in times like these.

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Meet Rick Sund

Born: June, 4, 1951, Elgin, Ill.

Family: Wife Lea, children Hali and Patrick (scout with Golden State Warriors).

College: Northwestern. Played football (tight end and wide receiver) and basketball (guard), 1970-1973. Averaged 9.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game in 70 games. Third team academic All America 1973.

NBA Career: Milwaukee Bucks 1974-79 (administrative assistant), Dallas Mavericks 1979-94 (general manager), Seattle Supersonics 1994 (consultant), Detroit Pistons 1995-2001 (general manager), Seattle 2001-2007 (general manager), Atlanta Hawks 2008-present (general manager). In 29 years as GM, his teams have reached playoffs 14 times. No NBA Final appearances; one conference final (1988 Dallas).

Biggest Hits: In Detroit, acquired Ben Wallace for oft-injured Grant Hill in 2000; in Seattle, acquired Ray Allen for an aging Gary Payton in 2003; in Atlanta, acquired Jamal Crawford for Speedy Claxton and Acie Law.

Biggest Misses: In Seattle, squandered three consecutive first round draft choices (2004, ‘05, ‘06) on unsuccessful project centers Robert Swift, Johan Petro and Saer Sene. In Seattle, promoted Bob Weiss to head coach in 2006, only to fire him 30 games into the season.