For all the changes the Hawks have undergone — since 2008, they’ve had four general managers, three head coaches and two sets of ownership — this has been a fairly stable team. That’s the reason they’ve made the playoffs each of those nine seasons; it’s also a reason they haven’t gone further.
The first Core Four — Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford and Marvin Williams — was assembled by GM Billy Knight and kept intact by Rick Sund. It lasted from 2007 through 2012 until being broken by Danny Ferry. The second Core Four — Horford, Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver and Paul Millsap — stood for three seasons but stands no more. Teague was traded Wednesday, and that could be just the start.
Horford, who’s 30, could leave as a free agent. Korver, 35, is nearing his end as a starter. Millsap, 31, can opt out of his contract after next season. The Hawks kept Core 1 together for so long by overspending on long-term contracts, which is why Ferry had to do what he did. The neo-NBA is a realm of shorter contracts with player-opt-outs. No franchise will be able to splurge and sit back; every club must be prepared to be lean and nimble.
That's what this Hawks' offseason is about. They're prepared to offer max money to keep Horford and perhaps big money to retain Kent Bazemore, but continuity for continuity's sake is no longer a viable plan, if indeed it ever was. In and of itself, making Dennis Schroder the No. 1 point guard won't propel this team beyond its established bounds. More changes are needed. Younger and cheaper players — Schroder is one, but he can't be the only one — must be found and developed and deployed.
Spending Round 1 draft picks on Taurean Prince and DeAndre' Bembry should prove sagacious. The two wings figure to give the Hawks more of what they have but — more important — some of what they've lacked. Apart from Schroder, the Hawks haven't been a particularly dynamic team. Prince and Bembry are quick enough to run with the newly promoted Schroder. If Bazemore stays, the Hawks will be able to play really small and really fast. If he leaves, they have Prince/Bembry as cover.
That no other Eastern Conference team has made the playoffs nine years running tells us the Hawks have been pretty good for a nice long while. That they’ve been beaten in Round 1 four times and Round 2 four more and that their one trip to the Eastern finals ended with them being swept underscores the limits of being pretty good. When you’ve become what the Hawks are — never bad but never great — there are really only three choices.
You can get lucky in free agency, but not many championship-caliber players are apt to cast their lot with a serial losing conference semifinalist. You can tear it down and start over, but the Philadelphia 76ers have gone 47-199 over the past three seasons while drafting a slew of young big men (and now Ben Simmons) in the lottery — and they’re still a ways away from making the playoffs.
The third choice is no choice: You keep your guys together and watch them get old and worse, which is essentially tanking by osmosis. That’s what the Hawks were in danger of doing until Ferry jettisoned Johnson and Williams. Until this week, we weren’t sure if the tandem of Mike Budenholzer and Wes Wilcox would be content to preside over a gradual decline. (Although the Hawks just dropped from 60 wins to 48, which isn’t gradual.) We now have our answer.
The Hawks traded Teague and found two wings who mightn’t have been popular picks, but should prove useful. Now we wait to see what happens with Horford and Bazemore, whether any big-ticket free agent will take this team’s money. We can’t yet know if next season’s Hawks will be any better, but this week had the markings of a needed new beginning.
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