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| Thursday, April 3 For Pete's sake! Will Hawks ever soar again? By Jeffrey Denberg Special to ESPN.com |
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ATLANTA -- Pete Babcock couldn't survive his failures in the draft and the question now is how long it'll take for the Atlanta Hawks to overcome four long seasons of bad judgment that sent this franchise crashing. A nice man and a pretty good judge of talent, Babcock short-circuited when it came to making decisions in the seasons after J.R. Rider blew up in his face. The franchise followed him down that trail and left club president Stan Kasten right where he had been 13 years ago when he found Babcock in Denver -- looking for a GM. Of course, if the decision turns out to be Billy Knight, Babcock's assistant and the former Memphis GM, the process gets much simpler.
The Hawks ran from both. They shipped the rights to Tinsley to Indiana for a non-lottery pick (it will be paid this June) and wound up a year later with undersized point guard Dan Dickau. Tinsley helped lead the Pacers to the playoffs and Parker has become one of the bright young playmakers in the game. Essentially, the Hawks' reach was about a foot short of their grasp wherever they turned. Now, they are changing the direction of their franchise for the first time in 14 years and they are potentially looking at a fifth head coach in the last four seasons. Interim coach Terry Stotts won 15 of 29 games until a recent stretch, but he may have lost any chance to keep the job when Kasten ripped the team for its utter inconsistency. A stunning 25 of their 45 losses have been by 10 or more points. Of the team's failures, that soured Kasten the most. And they had a lousy run of luck. What sort of fortune leads to trading a declining Dikembe Mutombo and ending up with a Theo Ratliff who turns out to have a fractured hip socket? This is the sort of thing that has happened to the Hawks. Babcock decided he would be the GM to prove that a college coach could get the job done in the NBA. Unable to hire Tom Izzo away from Michigan State, Babcock ended up hiring Lon Kruger and then firing him early in his third season. At least one friend of Kruger's says the experience left Kruger so soured on his old profession that he doesn't want to be a head coach again. Babcock acknowledges now the process of advancing from the college game to the NBA is more difficult than he believed. Babcock's critics say he has the same problem judging talent. Although that may not be fair, there are arguments to be made about that.
The trio earned a combined $31 million this season and will make $34 million next year and $37 million in 2004-05. Next to this, the few bucks the Hawks lost with their playoff guarantee is utterly irrelevant. "After that we'll be in great shape cap-wise," Kasten said, adding that the Hawks are still a very young team. But will this ever be a good team? Can a team squander such good backcourt prospects and wasted veterans like Steve Smith and Mookie Blaylock and recover in a reasonable time when success appears so far away at the close of another awful year? That's a fair question. Kasten said whether or not the Hawks are sold this year or next, or five years from now, has no bearing on his assignment, which is to get them back to a winning level. He said that with a payroll exceeding more than $50 million, they have shown they are being earnest about returning to respectability. "They've spent the money," Babcock said. "They've never backed away from that. And I still believe this team is one good solid point guard and maybe an extra big man away from being a good one. Right up to the trade deadline, I thought if we could get a real point guard and move Jason over we could be in the playoffs." If the Hawks can't get a real point guard, how will they fare with Terry? It's a good question. He wanted $50 million last summer. They offered $36 million and he decided to play out the string. All he got by waiting was a smaller paycheck and the chance (however slight) the Hawks won't come back at all. They do like his offensive game. They simply don't like his lack of stature. It will be up to Knight, at least in the short term, to figure this one out. He got kudos when he swung the deal that brought Pau Gasol to the Grizzlies, and he took some blame when they dealt Mike Bibby for Jason Williams, although that was the owner's decision. The Hawks will not hire a coach/GM Kasten said. And don't be surprised if they go after a coach like Jeff Van Gundy, who will want four to five million dollars but a much better team than the Hawks can put on the court. It's going to be a long haul in Atlanta. But that's nothing new around here. Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. |
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