Atlanta Hawks should steer clear of Joe Dumars
Over the past several days, the Atlanta Hawks have made moves to restructure their front office.
It was announced last Thursday that Mike Budenholzer relinquished his duties of President of Basketball Operations of the Atlanta Hawks. Also reported, Wes Wilcox stepped down as General Manager and has moved into an executive role as the special advisor to team ownership. Let the search for a General Manager begin!
With the recent abrupt ending to what was left of the Atlanta Hawks’ season, it’s reassuring to see the team taking action to make some changes that, frankly, needed to be made. The details or complexities of the relationship between Budenholzer and Wilcox aren’t immediately known, but in terms of personnel decisions, the partnership wasn’t working.
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As a result, the current roster is a mess, a disaster even. Much of my assessment in that regard is relative to the amount of money tied up in long-term contracts for Dwight Howard and Kent Bazemore.
Howard actually, would be worth the three-year, $70 million deal they awarded him if he wasn’t so detrimental to the team’s offense. When you can count on a center to provide a double-double essentially every game, it’s invaluable. Offensively, however, he is such an outcast for Coach Budenholzer, until proven otherwise, the decision to sign him is questionable at best.
Bazemore, on the other hand, has absolutely no business taking up anywhere near the amount of cap space he does. If Budenholzer would have liked to stay as President of Basketball Operations, he didn’t do himself any favors when he inked Kent Bazemore to his four-year, $70 million contract.
If you attended a Hawks game this year, likely you were given a program with Bazemore gracing the cover. At least that was the case each time I attended. Like, really? This is what the Hawks are selling?
By the time the playoffs arrived he lost his starting job, to a rookie nonetheless. As a four-year veteran, you know you haven’t been doing well when a rookie has won the trust of the staff for the playoffs. Then along the bench, during practices, on the plane, to hold in his mind this Taurean Prince, who is playing his minutes, is earning pennies on the dollar for the job that used to be his.
It’s safe to say this was the free agency move that sealed Budenholzer’s fate.
It’s going to be someone else’s problem to come in and clean up what’s left of the roster he compiled. It still should be noted, Coach Bud will indeed still have some say about potential roster moves. Of course, any new General Manager will have his own ideas, vision, and objectives on the direction of the team.