Danny Ferry, who now observes from a distance, saw this coming. (Sort of.) On May 4, 2013 — the day after the Hawks were eliminated by Indiana in Round 1 to conclude his first season here as general manager — Ferry said of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement: “A (great) team’s run might not be as long … It could create more opportunities (for lesser teams).”
Then this: “We’re in position to capitalize, be it with free agents or trades.”
The thinking then was that the Hawks, with cap-space galore, might pick off a superstar or two in free agency. (Remember how we got excited, if only for 10 minutes, about the possibility of Chris Paul and Dwight Howard paring in the A-T-L?) Because we all knew that NBA teams cannot win big without a superstar or two or three, and we also knew that the Hawks had nary a one.
But now we see that Ferry, the GM-in-exile, had a Plan B that, through this season’s first 46 games, has served the his team better than any big-ticket free agent. Ferry built a roster of good-but-not-great players and hired a coach whose system has become the rising tide that lifts all boats, and suddenly this long-nondescript franchise is all the rage.
By way of contrast, we take inventory of those teams that were envied for their clustering of superstars. Miami, which won two NBA titles and made four trips to the finals with its Big Three, saw LeBron James exit, and the Heat find themselves below .500. (And Cleveland, which added Kevin Love to go with LeBron and Kyrie Irving, hasn’t yet coalesced.)
Boston, which won a title in 2008 with a Big Three of its own, is in rebuild mode. The Lakers, who landed Howard and Steve Nash to play alongside Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, face an even steeper climb. And the Nets, who served as the Hawks’ Wednesday opposition, are coming off a failed attempt to buy a championship.
Brooklyn traded for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, two of Boston’s erstwhile Big Three, and stacked them alongside Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson — and went 44-38 last season, losing to Miami in Round 2. Pierce is gone, and the remaining big names are ready to be dumped if anyone can be found to take those massive salaries. (About Johnson’s contract, we Atlantans can cite chapter and verse.)
Moral of our story: Clustering doesn’t always work, especially where aging superstars are involved, and in this era of the opt-out, even in-their-prime guys mightn’t stick around long.
Don’t misunderstand: If the Hawks could have snagged Howard and/or Paul, they’d have done it in a Brooklyn minute. This being basketball, it’s easier if you have a great player than if you don’t. But the Hawks didn’t throw up their hands when nobody of note would take their money. They set to work building a unit that would enable a guy making $9 million a year to play like someone earning twice that much.
Example: Paul Millsap. He signed with the Hawks for two seasons at $9.5 million per after Josh Smith was allowed to leave for Detroit. Considered a middle-tier free agent, Millsap has been one of the best buys in NBA history, having risen from being a very good player with Utah to being what this observer considers the MVP of the East’s best team.
“He can post up,” said Brooklyn coach Lionel Hollins, who in 1976-77 was a guard on Portland’s all-for-one NBA championship team. “He can shoot the 3. He’s very athletic.”
A bit later, Millsap underscored those laudatory words. He scored 28 points — on only nine shots! — and took 15 rebounds in the Hawks’ 113-102 victory, their 17th in succession.
Back to Millsap shooting the 3: That didn’t show itself until he moved here. He has made more treys in 1 1/2 seasons as a Hawk than he tried in seven seasons with the Jazz. Getting a player to function above his previous level — it has also happened with Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver and DeMarre Carroll — has become a Hawks’ staple.
And that’s how you go from being the team that no superstar would deign to grace to the locomotive that has won 31 of 33 since Thanksgiving. You take good players and make them stars.
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