Why Didn’t the Atlanta Hawks Try to Trade For DeMarcus Cousins?
The Ferry Factor
You may recall the man that was responsible for turning the Hawks roster around, and obtaining many of the players that raced out to a 60 win season, was the ousted Danny Ferry. Ferry was dismissed from his position with the organization after he made some unacceptable racially insensitive comments.
We live in a world that does often offer second chances, however, and Ferry landed a new position as the special adviser to general manager Dell Demps for the New Orleans Pelicans back in June of last year.
His career in managing roster moves has not always been stellar mind you, but since his days as vice president of the San Antonio Spurs, he has excelled with some of the most miraculous deals that you could ever see. There is something about the Spurs, they produce incredible individuals of their profession. They have the reputation as one of the best and well run operations in all of sports, right up there with the New England Patriots and St. Louis Cardinals.
Early in his tenure as general manager for the Hawks, Ferry somehow convinced the Brooklyn Nets to agree to trade for Joe Johnson and what was thought to be his unmovable, albatross of a contract on July 2 of 2012. At the time, Johnson was still owed $90 million over another four-years of his contract. Ferry paved the way to re-shape the team by taking on all expiring contracts from the Nets.
As good of a player as Joe was for the Hawks, the news of Atlanta getting another team to take on his remaining salary may have actually been the most joyous occasion for Hawk fans. He would soon find a trade partner for Marvin Williams days later and the rest is history. The grand amount of cap space that was freed up from those deals was used to sign guys like Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll.
One wonders how much influence Danny Ferry had in the New Orleans Pelicans acquiring DeMarcus Cousins during All-Star Weekend. The same way that he persuaded Billy King to agree to the Joe Johnson deal is, I would imagine, very similar to how he played a roll in taking advantage of Kings general manager Vlade Divac. Who, in the aftermath of the Cousins trade, had this to say:
"“When you make a deal you want to get the most. Right now was the best time, and it was the best offer we had, Divac said Monday in explaining the Kings side of the trade according to espn. Asked why he didn’t wait until closer to Thursday’s trade deadline to make a move, he said, “Most likely we would get less, because I had a better deal two days ago.” As to why those talks didn’t result in a trade, Divac said to “talk to those agents, what do they say? I don’t want to go into details. I don’t want to discuss the process.”"