The Hawks Scouting Department

I’ve been an Atlanta Hawks fans since the mid 1980s.  During that time, the Hawks have really only had four general managers.  Early on, Stan Kasten ran everything.  Pete Babcock ultimately succeeded Stan Kasten and was able to maintain a 45-50 win team for the most part through the Bob Wiess and Lenny Wilkens years.  Things fell apart at the end for him.  Billy Knight succeeded Pete Babcock and started the Hawks on a long road to recovery.  Now, Rick Sund has come in and has stabilized what Billy Knight put together while adding a few pieces to the mix.  Throughout all their tenures, the one key to their success or lack thereof has been the NBA Draft.

I am a firm believer in the philosphy that you build your team through the draft and only look to free agency as a means of augmenting your team.  I do not believe it is wise to spend big money in free agency.  I didn’t really get into the draft till sometime in the early 1990s.  Pete Babock’s tenure as the Hawks GM was marred by very poor draft selections.  Pete made strong free agent (Dikembe Mutombo) and veteran trade (Steve Smith) decisions, but overall, he was never able to build the team’s depth because of his inability to properly evaluate college players and project them to the pros.  By the end of his tenure, Pete Babcock had lost faith in the draft process and was more than willing to deal high valued draft picks for moderate value veteran players.  Trading Pau Gasol for Shareef Abdur-Rahim is an example of this.

When Billy Knight came in, he brought a renewed focus to the draft.  He also brought a set philosophy relative to what he wanted to build.  Overall, Billy did a solid job in the draft and made some solid decisions relative to veteran free agents.  For the most part, he avoided paying big money for mediocre players.  Speedy Claxton was the one blip on his otherwise solid record when it comes to making free agent moves.  In the draft, Billy was able to bring in solid players and helped build the core that the team has today.  With that said, Billy Knight was also a little too set in his philosophy.  His decision to pass on Chris Paul is ultimately the on that probably cost him his job.  He made strong choices with Josh Childress, Josh Smith, and Al Horford, but he missed big time on Shelden Williams when Brandon Roy was there for the taking.  You have to wonder if the Hawks would have been better off in the long run had they focused on building the team through the draft, not signing Joe Johnson, and going forward with a Chris Paul/Brandon Roy combo in the backcourt.

When Rick Sund took over, it came across as a very bland move.  I want to give the Hawks current scouting staff a lot of credit though.  Outside of the Joe Johnson contract, I think Rick has managed things well.  Some may argue that Rick overpaid to keep Mike Bibby and Marvin Williams, but Mike Bibby was a stabilizing force for the Hawks at point guard, and Marvin was coming off a breakout season when he got his deal.  Rick hasn’t had any lottery level picks with the Hawks, but he has done a strong job of selecting talent that can contribute on the team.  Jeff Teague will likely be this team’s starting point guard this year, and Jordan Crawford looks to be a potential contributor for this team as a rookie.  I also look at the other players the Hawks showed some interest in.  Dominique Jones looks like he will be a contributor off the bench for the Mavericks, and Gani Lawal will end up being a second round steal for the Phoenix Suns.  Both players were high on Rick Sunds list in this draft.  With that said, trading the 31st pick for nothing will be a bad mark on a strong record.  I feel like the Hawks could have gotten themselves a solid bench contributor with that pick, and my personal favorite for that pick would have been Gani Lawal.  Also, there was talk that the Hawks were interested in Daniel Orton and would have taken him with the 31st pick had he been available.  Orton has been horrible for Orlando to this point though, and to me, this is a case of Rick and assistant GM Dave Pendergraft valuing size a little too much when they should be valuing length.  Maybe Orton will develop into a solid bench player down the road, but he looks like a big, unathletic player at this point.

Overall though, I just wanted to give this scouting staff a shout out.  They have done a good job even if they haven’t maximized their ability to evaluate talent.  The only thing I would stress to them at this point is that when it comes to big men, length and athleticism is more important than size.