Atlanta Hawks: Still no decision on GM Rick Sund’s return

“And even though he’s in another dimension than the other guys, you could make the case that James Harden plays the role of “gunner” for OKC.” – SteveW

Steve, I don’t know if you’ve watched the Thunder when they have two point guards on the floor (Fisher and Westbrook) and they give the ball to Harden, not to jack up shots, but to be the actual point guard and facilitator while two other PG’s play off the ball. Harden is a complete player, not a gunner.

“He got wherever he wanted to get on the floor with no resistence from Teague, Hinrich or Joe.” – Rod from C.P.

Game 3, not one basket scored by Rondo against Hinrich. No resistance?

“Anyone want to join me in discussing the mistreatment of Tony Delk when the Hawks desparately needed scoring? Bueller?” – AJ

LOL.

“We are all on bended knee begging for Sund to make a decision.” – KevinM

QUIVERING with anticipation.

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@Buddy Grizzard

“High-Sider, there’s an entire movement you may be unaware of, championed by the ESPN TrueHoop Network, which I write for, called “Advanced Statistics.” Yes I know that players are primarily judged by individual stats… by CASUAL fans such as yourself. I’ve heard +/- mentioned by commentators all the time, but only by the good ones (you won’t hear Dominique mention it). But hey, since all you want to talk about is individual stats, let’s talk about Jamal Crawford in Games 5 & 6 last year against CHI, the games that would decide if the Hawks would go to the ECF for the first time since the franchise was in St. Louis.

Here’s Jamal Crawford’s stats for those two games: 3-19 FGs (16%), 0-7 3P (0%), 5 PPG. So you see, when it mattered most, when it meant a shot at going to the ECF, Jamal Crawford was terrible.” – Buddy Grizzard

The “movement” to which you are referring that is supposed to “champion” “advanced statistics” and/or sports [data] analytics sounds more like a “pause” because I haven’t heard anything about it [yet]. When NBA analysts and commentators discuss scoring leaders, you hear names like Durant, Bryant, James, Love, and Anthony. When there’s a discussion about NBA rebounding leaders, you hear names like Howard, Love, Bynum, Cousins and Griffin. When there’s a discussion about NBA assist leaders, you hear names like Rondo, Nash, Paul, [Deron] Williams and Calderon. When there’s a discussion about +/- statistics [statistical] leaders, what do you hear? That’s right; you hear nothing because there is no discussion about +/- statistics [statistical] leaders.

Another problem you have is that you continuously criticize Jamal Crawford for his performances in Games 5 and 6 of the 2011 EC Semis vs the Bulls. You want to use those two 2011 EC Semifinals playoff games vs the Bulls [Games 5 and 6] to completely nullify all the good performances Jamal Crawford had for the Hawks in the regular season and the postseason while Jamal Crawford was a team member of the Hawks from 2009-2011. I don’t need to waste my time summarizing and listing Jamal Crawford’s contributions and accomplishments as a team member of the Hawks. You and I both know that Jamal Crawford’s contributions, achievements and good performances as a member of the Hawks far outweigh his flaws, shortcomings and bad performances. On second thought, I will mention a few of his accomplishments to you give the readers a little perspective. Jamal Crawford is/was the only player in Hawks franchise history to receive the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award for his reserve performance during the 2009-2010 regular season. Jamal Crawford scored 20+ points off the bench in 49-50 regular season games for the Hawks and scored 30+ points off the bench in four regular season games from 2009-2011. Jamal Crawford scored 20+ points [actually 23+ points] in four consecutive playoff games which is an achievement that had not been accomplished since Kevin McHale performed this feat back in the 1991 playoffs for the Celtics. Jamal Crawford never started a regular season or postseason game for the Hawks. You, Buddy Grizzard, point out and criticize two subpar or poor playoff performances while I give you an extensive body of Jamal Crawford’s work or performance that covers one or more seasons or at least more than two games. The biggest point you seem to refuse to acknowledge is that this year without Jamal Crawford the Hawks failed to advance past the first round of the 2012 playoffs, a first round playoff series in which the Hawks averaged 82.2ppg. In the previous two postseasons, the Hawks with Jamal Crawford advanced past the first round of the playoffs. The Hawks regressed this past postseason without Jamal Crawford. Furthermore, your favorite statistic, +/- statistics, revealed that Jamal Crawford had an aggregate +/- statistic of +256 and +4, respectively, for the regular seasons of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. That should put an end to the [false] idea that Jamal Crawford gave up more points than scored while he was with the Hawks.

“Go ahead, talk about how great he was against Orlando, a team that hasn’t made it out of the first round the last two seasons. Maybe he did win that series for us, I don’t know. But I prefer to talk about what the Hawks did the last two seasons against Eastern Conference Finalists Chicago and Boston.

I’m done talking to you about this. We can pick up the conversation if you ever get on my level. Hinrich didn’t score but didn’t allow Rondo, the Celtics’ most valuable player, to score a basket in Game 3. And yet you say because Hinrich didn’t contribute in the PPG dept., he didn’t contribute to the team’s chances of winning. This is the statement of a casual fan who is not capable of analyzing the game at anything above the most cursory level. It’s like debating a kindergartener, and I’m done with it bro.” – Buddy Grizzard

Jamal Crawford didn’t win the 2011 Hawks-Magic playoff series [by himself] because I know basketball is a team sport and no one player can really “win” a[n NBA] game [by himself] much less an NBA playoff series [by himself]. However, I do know that Jamal Crawford in that 2011 Hawks-Magic playoff series was the MVP and averaged a team high 20.5ppg as a reserve [off the bench] and the Hawks won that playoff series over the Magic 4-2 or four games to two games. I guess I can plan on not having conversations with you in the near or distant future because I don’t plan on “stooping,” “stepping,” or “coming down” to your level. I am all about progression not regression.

Please understand that Fortune 500 CEO’s, executives, business and large organizational leaders, presidents, heads of state, top administrators, etc. are all about the “bottom line.” The “bottom line” for Kirk Hinrich this past regular season and postseason is as follows:

1. In the 2011-2012 regular season, Kirk Hinrich averaged 6.8ppg, 2.1rpg, and 2.8apg.

2. In the 2012 postseason, Kirk Hinrich averaged 5.7ppg, 2.0rpg and 1.0apg.

3. In the 2012 postseason, Kirk Hinrich went scoreless for six plus [6+] playoff quarters [from the beginning of the 3rd quarter of Game 2 to the end of the 4th quarter and OT of Game 3].

4. In the 2012 postseason, Kirk Hinrich scored a total of two points over ten quarters [from the beginning of the 3rd quarter of Game 2 to the end of the 4th quarter of Game 4].

5. In the 2012 postseason, Kirk Hinrich lost his starting position, was demoted to coming off the bench and was replaced by Marvin Williams.

6. In the first four games of the 2012 postseason, the Hawks with Kirk Hinrich as a starter went 1-3 [0.250] against the Celtics.

As you can see, Buddy Grizzard, the “bottom line” for Kirk Hinrich this past season for the Hawks was not good or, in other words, a failure.

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I think the Hawks should build on the defensive prowess they showed this year. Offense will come, but locking folks down and playing ugly was one of our calling card this year. We can’t lose the grit we had to go high-scoring.

Draft SFs Jeff Taylor or Moe Harkless and/or trade Marvin for HOU PG Kyle Lowery and PF P. Patterson

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One of the two Marvin Williams trades that I keep coming back to is Marvin to Detroit for Tayshaun Prince.

A lot of mocks have Detroit taking Henson at #9. A young front line of Marvin, Henson, and Monroe would give Detroit a pretty good rebounding front line (they were 27th in the league last year).

With Big Ben retiring, Prince is the last holdover from the championship team.

Prince has a 3 yr deal ($6.7, $7.2, $7.7) compared to Marvin’s 2 yr deal ($8.1, $7.5).

I think Prince will help the offensive flow for the Hawks as he’s a much better ball handler and passer than Marvin. You also can’t overlook the $1.4M in cap savings for this year.

It doesn’t hurt that Marvin absolutely put on a show against Detroit this year. 15 pts and 6 rebs in 28 minutes a game. Shot 64% from 3.

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Interesting comments we have all brought up here about the stern effect. This is how deep it can go:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba–nba-s-problematic-ownership-of-hornets-opens-door-to-rigged-talk-over-draft-lottery-20120531.html;_ylt=AvMj4_lpG8ptwzejoEliQ405nYcB

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The ASG will hire the cheapest GM and it already has the cheapest coach. That is the only discussion. Why is a lame duck GM still “wrapping up” last season? Why not help this team?

Let’s talk about Jamal Crawford.

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Enough with the Jamal – “I didn’t get us there then, I won’t get us there now” Crawford. I respect what he did here, but it’s like Joe Johnson, that window of opportunity has closed. It’s time to develop something new. Joe is obviously not able to carry us like he did when he arrived. Given the fact that no moves will be made in the Summer of Sameness we need:

Teague to continue to develop his shot and to work on learning to run the offense more efficiently.
Horford needs to work on the pick and roll & jumpshot he likes so much.
Josh needs to continue his development of his post game and maybe Al’s 12-15 footer, not the 22′ shots.
ZaZa – get healthy, hopefully you’ll see the minutes you did last year where you can respond again.
Marvin – most likely getting another degree instead of his shot, handling and post moves. Why can’t dude add some strength and play some SF/PF with his size?
Joe – needs to work on becoming a catch and shoot option as he can’t beat anyone off the dribble.
Stack/TMac – retirement

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@Just Joe….Forget it man the Front office thinks Marvin is a keeper for sum reason, he will be back count on it. Prince for Marvin yesterday..

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JeJe, Buddy, this will tell you where the ASG stands….from the CBS article:
” Hawks ownersship recently rejected Portland’s request for permission to interview Sund for their GM position.”

So any thought of Sund leaving is a laugh. He’s just trying to negotiate a sweeter deal from the 7 dwarfs!.

Sund will be back….because the ASG has no backup plan. They are all in with Sund. The ASG will meet his demands and allow him to not let us ‘take a step back’.

And the remaining exit interviews………only one remains….Sund is telling T-Mac that he won’t be coming back. Surprise, surprise……

The ASG/Sund/LD regime of the Hawks continues for another punishing year.

One rumor to throw at you: Jerry West is after Josh Smith in Golden State.

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The only way a GM would trade for Marvin (imo) is next season when Marvin’s contract only has one year left, assuming that GM is trying to clear salary cap space.

Speaking of Detroit, they have had 4 straight losing seasons, and they blew their cap space on Ben Gordon and Charlie V. How does Joe Dumars still have a job?

Melvin,

I think Orlando could do a lot better than Demarcus Cousins and Marvin Williams for Dwight.

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For all you guys wondering why Sund and the ASG dumped JC1 after this contract ended, what about the off court issues? Do you think it was more a contract thing than his controversy off the court?

When I heard he had issues, I knew he was gone at that point. Like Josh, Sund made JC1 go get himself a deal, and that deal wasn’t so great. But JC1 is still in the league, and there will always be a need for him. It just won’t be here with PC Atlanta…..PC=politically correct

Now you know why Marvin got such a sweet deal, why Bibby wasn’t forced to go find a deal……no controversy off the court.

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Sund letting Jamal go is not even in the top 3 worst Rick Sund moves since he became GM. In no particular order, I think they are:

1) JJ’s contract 2) Marvin’s contract 3) Trading Bibby and 2 first round picks for Hinrich

It will be interesting to see if Jamal becomes a FA. I know the Pacers were interested, and I think they could have used his offense off the bench.

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