Category: Atlanta Hawks Blog

Atlanta Hawks blog

Hawks add coaches and management staff

The Hawks, who it’s fun to mention made the playoffs last year and took the eventual-champion Celtics to seven games, have added coaches and front office staff.

The team has signed assistant coaches Larry Drew and Bob Bender to new contracts to continue on Mike Woodson’s staff, and named league veterans David Pendergraft and Steve Rosenberry to the Hawks’ Basketball Operations staff.

Pendergraft becomes Atlanta’s new Assistant General Manager/Director of Player Personnel, while Rosenberry will serve as Director of Pro Personnel/College Scouting.

Drew and Bender, each of whom concluded their fourth seasons on the Hawks staff, will return as assistants to Woodson as the franchise seeks to improve upon a first-round playoff berth which culminated with a seventh game defeat at the hands of the eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics.

To learn more about all these guys, read this.

As for the Hawks in general, maybe they should look into taking the route the Celtics did and see about trading a bunch of young guys for a top star that isn’t going anywhere with their current team and can use a change. The bad news is, off the top of my head I can’t really think of anyone they could do this with. Can you? If so, post about it on our board.

Pistons may want Mike Woodson

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Sekou Smith) reports the following via blog: According to my spy the Detroit Pistons have asked for permission to speak with Hawks coach Mike Woodson (that’s his title for at least the next 26 days or so unless something breaks before the end of the month) about their vacant coaching position. Solid reports out of Detroit have Pistons assistant Michael Curry lined up for the job. But the Pistons have apparently covered their bases if that doesn’t work out by contacting the representative of Woodson, who was the lead assistant on Larry Brown’s staff when the Pistons won the NBA title in 2004.

Why the Celtics reached the Finals

NBA.com writes: “5) They finally figured out how to win on the road. After failing to do so against Cleveland and Atlanta, Boston managed to pull off two victories in Detroit against one of the best home teams in basketball. 4) Outside of a disappointing Game 2, the C’s stayed strong at home. Boston went undefeated on its homecourt in its first two series and didn’t blink after dropping one at the Garden. 3) After having a rough postseason, Ray Allen finally awoke for big performances in Games 5 and 6. The “Big Three” was starting to look more like a dynamic duo, but Allen pulled himself together in the final two games of the series, erupting for 29 points in Game 5 and posting 17 on Friday. 2) The Celtics figured out how to disrupt every aspect of Tayshaun Prince’s game. Boston held him to 6.3 points per game over the prior three contests and didn’t stop in Game 6. He struggled, going 3-of-10 from the field on Friday. Even after coming up with a crucial steal in the final minutes, he reverted back to his abnormal form as James Posey came from behind, swiping the ball straight out of his hands and dashing Detroit’s final hopes. The staple of Pistons’ basketball looked anything but against Boston. 1) Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. When you combine the “Truth” with the “Big Ticket” and put them against the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, you get 44 points per game and a 4-2 series victory.”

Hawks coaches still in limbo

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Sekou Smith) reports: Hawks coach Mike Woodson didn’t realize he’d still be auditioning for his job at this late date. Yet nearly a month after the Hawks’ stunning playoff run ended in a Game 7 defeat in Boston, Woodson and his staff are still in limbo regarding their futures. Contracts expire June 30 and now a new general manager, Rick Sund, who was hired Wednesday to replace Billy Knight, has to evaluate the Hawks’ entire basketball operations staff before rendering decisions on who stays and who goes. Sund repeated Thursday the same thing he said a day earlier, that he’ll “spend the next week and half or so being a good listener and getting a lay of the land” before doing anything.

Hawks new GM will be Rick Sund

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Sekou Smith) reports: The Hawks have reached an agreement with former Seattle general manager Rick Sund, who will be announced Wednesday afternoon as the team’s new general manager. The hiring of Sund, 56, wraps up a nearly four-week hiring process the Hawks kept under wraps. Sund, a consultant for the Sonics this past year after being reassigned by a new ownership group in April 2007, will take over for Billy Knight, who resigned after six years with the franchise, the last five as general manager.

All-Rookie teams announced

Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford, the runner-up for the 2007-08 T-Mobile Rookie of the Year award, was the only unanimous selection on the 2007-08 T-Mobile NBA All-Rookie Team, the league announced today. Horford received 58 votes, while Seattle’s Kevin Durant, winner of the 2007-08 T-Mobile Rookie of the Year award, received a total of 57 votes.

InsideHoops has to ask: How could a voter not have picked Durant as one of the top five rookies?

Rounding out the NBA All-Rookie First Team are Houston’s Luis Scola (53 points), the Los Angeles Clippers’ Al Thornton (48 points) and Seattle’s Jeff Green (43 points).

The T-Mobile NBA All-Rookie Second Team consists of former D-League player, Jamario Moon of the Toronto Raptors (38), Memphis’ Juan Carlos
Navarro (24), Philadelphia’s Thaddeus Young, (23), Detroit’s Rodney Stuckey (22) and Houston’s Carl Landry (18).

The voting panel consisted of the NBA’s 30 head coaches, who were asked to select five players for the first team and five players for the second team, regardless of position.  Coaches were not permitted to vote for players on their own team. Two points were awarded for first team votes and one for second team votes.

NBA suspends Marvin Williams

The NBA has suspended Hawks forward Marvelous Marvin Williams one game for his excessive foul on Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, which took place in the third quarter of their first round Game 7.

For more info, click here.

The Hawks were getting beaten down in a blowout, and Williams decided to introduce Rondo to a big can of Whoop-Ass.

Since Atlanta was eliminated in that game, Williams will miss the first game of next season.

Hawks GM Billy Knight submits resignation

As of July 1, Hawks general manager Billy Knight will be available for hire. He and the club will part ways just as free agent negotiations begin.

For more info, click here.

It’s interesting that, as of now at least, Knight will be gone, but coach Mike Woodson will be there. Still, there’s plenty of time fo the team to part ways with Woodson as well, and I’d guess there’s a 50 percent chance of that happening. Taking the Celtics to seven games in the first round of the playoffs may suggest to the owners that Woodson is worth keeping around. We’ll see.

Hawks could face summer changes

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Sekou Smith) reports: Two of their key players, Josh Smith and Josh Childress, are restricted free agents and must be re-signed; the price tag for both could be huge. Hawks coach Mike Woodson and his staff have contracts that end June 30, and Hawks general manager Billy Knight is in a similar situation, with the team holding an option on his contract for next season. “I don’t know what to do with myself, man,” Al Horford said Monday as he walked down a corridor to his car. “I know we lost, but I just don’t know what to do with myself. You’re just done. “Obviously, you know the season is going to end at some point. But in school, you kind of knew what you had going on next. Here you’re done and you’re just … done.” Keeping a nucleus together for next season, and possibly another run to the postseason, is the only thing on the minds of the players.