Atlanta Hawks: Danny Ferry hired as GM
Update: The Hawks today hired Danny Ferry to be the team’s president of basketball operations and general manager.
The Hawks signed Ferry to a six-year contract.
“My family and I are thrilled to join the Hawks organization and Atlanta community,” Ferry said in a statement. “There were many components that made this the right fit for me but clearly my confidence in the ownership group and their dedication to building a championship-caliber franchise was most important. They are committed to building with the right people and investing in critical areas for development; both essential elements if we want to create sustained success. “
Ferry succeeds Rick Sund, Atlanta’s GM since 2008. Ferry said he would work alongside Sund over the next month, after which Sund could remain with the organization in a some role. Sund has expressed an interest in remaining with the Hawks as a consultant.
Ferry said he would collaborate with Sund and the rest of the basketball staff in preparation for Thursday’s draft. Ferry said he hoped to reach a consensus on which players the Hawks would select but that the decision ultimately would be his.
Ferry, who played in 917 NBA games from 1990-91 to 2003-03, was most recently vice president of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs. He was general manager for the Cavaliers from 2005 to 2010, where he was charged with building a roster around LeBron James.
Ferry had been in discussions with the 76ers about becoming their general manager with Rod Thorn stepping down soon.
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
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523 comments Add your comment
Rod "straight outta Augusta"
June 25th, 2012
10:04 am
So let me get this straight….the Hawks want to bring in new GM with the same roster??? Thats like spraying cologne on dirty clothes.
The only way this can be made right is by dumping the entire roster. Let’s chalk up this season to lessons lerned (Sund, Woodson, Joe Johnson contract, drafting Sheldon Williams/Acie Law/Marvin Williams, hiring Drew as a cost cutting measure, and letting Josh Childress bankhead bounce all the way to Europe).
I
Astro Joe
June 25th, 2012
10:05 am
Ray, playing a position has less to do about size and more to do about skills and attitude. Josh (IMO) is not a viable long-term option at SF. It would put him that much further from the basket on defense (making it harder for him to provide weakside defensive help) and his offensive skill set does not fit the SF position. I’m sure you have noticed how Josh struggles against even mediocre stretch PFs (like the way Matt Bonner always looks Dirk-like against Josh) because Josh’s natural tendency is to roam near the rim on defense.
The funny thing, the Heat won with a smallish line-up that more closely resembles the Hawks typical starting 5. In Game 5 9as an example), the Hawks would have had Horford on Bosh, Josh on Lebron, Marvin on Miller, Joe on Wade and Teague on Chalmers. In fact, the Heat turned Kendrick Perkins and his $12M/year salary into Jason Collins… a slow, plodding center incapable of helping his team despite great defensive fundamentals.
MsDee
June 25th, 2012
10:07 am
Dang, too bad Zydrunas Ilgauskas didnt hang around to get his 1st ring with the Heat after deciding to join LeBron and comp. He retired in Sept of 2011.
Hugo
June 25th, 2012
10:13 am
I got my bags packed and ready to move. But I just want somebody to explain, in plain english, why is it that almost every mock is talking about the HAWKS drafting a pt guard or a 6 ft 7 swingman. We need a CENTER, pure and simple. Move Horford to PF and Josh to Thailand. Oh, I am moving to OKC because they seem to know a little something about building a winner. Seriously.
ryan
June 25th, 2012
10:15 am
Last time we had the 2nd pick we took Marvin Williams over CP3 geeeeeeeez man i don’t want to go through that again .
No Mas $$$ for the ASG
June 25th, 2012
10:22 am
Danny, you had a great college career and a pretty solid pro career. Unless you need the money really badly, you had better run away from the ASG as fast as you can still run. Their incompetence and stooge-like decisions are well chronicled. They flat-out lied to the hockey fans of this city. Their real talent is the sport of legal gymnastics……suing each other and their lawyers. These amateurs couldn’t run a fantasy team well and their record speaks for itself.
DS
June 25th, 2012
10:24 am
Danny Ferry has just been confirmed as the new GM for the Hawks!
KevinM
June 25th, 2012
10:35 am
Vava, the reason I’m for blowing it up is I don’t see us getting a Nash in here or D12. Those are our 2 slots that we need a big time star here.
Nash with Teague may be able to compete with Miami, but since that isn’t going to happen, we’re going to have to go find some new stars during LeBron’s run. I can see us matching up with Wade and Bosh.
But with LeBron, we need to have a matchup for him as well as create a mismatch in the other areas.
The roster we have now is not close to competing. We just have to realign and if it takes new youth, then so be it. You have to be all in or you’re humoring yourself and your fan base.
We aren’t just 1 or 2 spots from being a contender. That’s all I’m trying to point out. We are wasting our chance to blend what talent we have to what talent is coming into the league.
It would have been nice to see a Cousins on this roster and not so many PFs that we seem endured to. Plus admit the Marvin experiment is done and use that 8M more wisely.
That’s 2 moves and its not the bench that is our issues. You can always find bench players.
doc
June 25th, 2012
10:35 am
it is sad to see always the race card drawm on almost any decision even if there is no indication. we had a black gm here that left of his on accord because he was offered back on a deservedly short leash even though the results of his drafts were desultory. he walked his own plank that he put out there and it had nothing to do with the basg being white.
as far as ferry he stood up to his white owner being against the move to fire the balck head coach to try and once again pander to his spoiled star threatening to walk because black star player given a lot of prima donna space in cleveland wanted his black coach fired. for that danny ferry got fired himself.
so i give ferry a lot of cred to at least have the integrity to stand against his owner if it is necessary. for that alone i feel the hawks are in better hands, that ferry wont cow to these manipulative owners to do what they want.
as far as ferry and his moves? if shaq had stayed healthy and not torn up his thumb requiring surgery then history might have ben rewritten. he was 18/10 and they were picking up steam. anyone here recently see a real center get 18/10?
it was that event that caused ferry to go out and get someone in jamison to try and shore up things until shaq got back. how did we handle it this year when our center went down? yeah dampier, after our second center went down and then didnt use him. jamison was or had been a pretty good player whose decline came the next year when cleveland without jamison decided to forgo wins and shoot for a lottery pick and got a good one.
in writing about this it points out how some here have there soap boxes made of soap that only takes a little bit of water to put them on a slippery slope.
the only racist was jbl getting his black coach fired i guess by this scenario they ascribed to, though basg and ferry are suggested as whitey’s. the basg has many faults but that does not appear to be one. ferry stood up for his black coach against a star and ended up flying back to san antonio, one of the better organizations who they welcomed back quickly saying something positive it its own right. if ferry raids it or gives us some help in the draft by that association it would be even greater.
for once i say good move by the basg to get some quality here, if they pull it off.
slimj not sure why you sometimes go off on folks with so little info. you werent close for a smart guy.
high sider, if the only way you have to get discourse is to pull the race card i am surprised because i think your high seeming intelligence deserves a better outlet than that.
glw
June 25th, 2012
10:36 am
Yep, looks like its official according to the Hawks site. For the Hawks, they moved fast on that one. I doubt he will impact the draft any…..but i would imagine, it will change who we target in the free agent market.
CONservative Johnson
June 25th, 2012
10:39 am
Good luck to him. I’ll have to wait and see what happens . . .
Michael Cunningham
June 25th, 2012
10:39 am
blog updates with official announcement.
Mike
June 25th, 2012
10:42 am
I will like to see, if he got full reign of this team and ASG can finally get out of the way.
Its a new beginning or beginning of the end
Runner-
June 25th, 2012
10:43 am
doc,
This isnt a political blog, just let those things slide and don’t give a whole speech on it.
Not much of an upgrade from Sund, Sund was great in his trades but was pretty poor in the draft, not bad with JT though. Overall, it was the contract offers that ultimately led to his demise, as he was then faced with a tight strap on building a team. Now, Ferry has inherited this issue, so the only difference he can really make is possibly in the draft. But at least now we have a VP who has some valuable experience, so we could use that in other aspects
PMC
June 25th, 2012
10:44 am
So, did Rick Sund quit, or what?
This ownership group NEVER NEVER NEVER says anything truthful. Ever. I can’t imagine working for these jerks.
PMC
June 25th, 2012
10:46 am
Well good luck to you Danny Ferry. Hopefully the Duke education comes in handy.
KevinM
June 25th, 2012
10:47 am
Hard to look at the FA market when you are up against the cap. That has to be dealt with first.
KevinM
June 25th, 2012
10:49 am
This should be an active summer as opposed to the Summer of Stand Pat Sund.
doc
June 25th, 2012
10:49 am
i see my dyslexia came out again, jbl is lbj.
glad to see it has been pulled off and ferry is here.
now what will he say and will he have some say in the draft?
KevinM
June 25th, 2012
10:50 am
This is the year to step over Boston, Chicago and Indiana.
No more wait til next year.
Manny
June 25th, 2012
10:52 am
I didn’t read all of the comments, because who has the time to do that But I will say this: Danny Ferry was the GM of the Cavs. And I’m looking at the Cavs and I can say that he wasn’t successful. So why do we think that he’s going to be successful here?
welikebaseball2
June 25th, 2012
10:53 am
Please folks, don’t make this about race. And you wonder why no one believes it when we call out the loads of racism that does actually still exist in this country? Anyway, back to basketball. The good news about this move is that Sund is out as GM. The bad news is that, if Ferry couldn’t build a championship roster around LeBron with an owner committed to winning a title, how’s he going to build one around Joe Johnson & such dysfunctional ownership as ASG? Point blank, the slickest GM in the world couldn’t pull off dumping our bad contracts (Joe, Marvin, etc.) & overcoming this ownership group.
ctrim
June 25th, 2012
10:55 am
Michael, I’m glad Danny Ferry is in the house but why the sense on urgency to bring back Larry Drew before a final decision on the GM? Couldn’t we have waited?
MsDee
June 25th, 2012
10:57 am
OB,
Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. told The Associated Press last month he HOPED the 61-year-old Sund would continue as general manager..
He HOPED that Sund would stay (IMO, b/c the ASG wanted to stay cheap if they COULD have BUT IF they needed to spead the BIG bucks, better be for the right person) which means the ASG needed to have a backup plan in mind just in case he didnt want to return. To offer Ferry a 6-yr deal right off the bat still lets me know that they may have had this guy in their rear view mirror.
Also u say, “So Ferry was not in their rear view mirror. They wanted Rick to remain GM. If ASG was really interested in Ferry from the start, they would have let him decide LD’s fate (instead of picking up his option).
Again, I say not if the ASG wanted to stay cheap as long as they could. Ferry could STILL fire Drew if he likes, esp, if he could make ALL his decisions on his on w/o the help of the owners. Keeping Drew to let Ferry decide to keep him or let him go is the way a thrifty person would think. If Ferry keeps him based on how well he did last season with all our injuries, the ASG is thinking, “HEY we saved ourselves some money.” But if not, then atleast they gave it a try. (Again, how a thrifty person would think.)
Melvin
June 25th, 2012
10:58 am
Good riddance Sund ( I hope).
Mike
June 25th, 2012
10:59 am
They could had wait but I think that Drew days as coach is numbered. But the question is, does Ferry works this draft or Sund will?
MsDee
June 25th, 2012
11:03 am
@Mike,
Sund gave all rights to Penderdragh for this 2012 draft
TrueFan
June 25th, 2012
11:07 am
This is a great hire ! Now let’s see if the ASG will let him make the decisions or if they will continue to hold the Hawks back…
Moorman
June 25th, 2012
11:10 am
Eeeeeeh…….the only reason im feeling the move is: who else could they have targeted? The next thing is, what can ANY gm do to move joe johnson. We all know that its really joe, not marvin, not josh,etc. that is killing the hawks because his contract prevents the hawks from getting rid of him or bringing in other A list talent. This makes any move the hawks make as a ” going thru the motion” move until asg can find a sucker to buy the franchise….
Astro Joe
June 25th, 2012
11:19 am
I assume that he is in charge as of today… no mention that his contract is effective on a future date. Maybe Pendergraft/Sund will need to get his approval before making the draft selection 9or certainly, any draft-related trades).
http://www.nba.com/hawks/hiring-danny-ferry
cp
June 25th, 2012
11:20 am
Im not a big fan of Ferry but im willing to give him a chance and see what he wants to do with this roster. Like Sund, Ferry overpaid some guys in Cleveland. Hopefully he learned from that and will do fine here. I wouldnt stress too much over the draft because as someone as said, the Spurs always do their homework on potential draft guys so im sure he has knowledge of the guys available when we pick. I also think Pendergraft does a nice job with the draft so I think we get two solid players. I wonder if he will be able to get us another first rounder. If I could live through BK and Sund then im sure I can wait and see what Ferry does.
Rick
June 25th, 2012
11:23 am
Nice first move Hawks! The deal is how quick can he get in here and make some moves with this roster. Lets see what you got Danny!
hawks_4_life
June 25th, 2012
11:25 am
HAPPY
Ernest
June 25th, 2012
11:26 am
Would it make sense to put this into a new blog topic? The earlier pages were about the speculation. Since Ferry has been hired, that should stand on its own, rather than paging down to see relative comments.
Slimjr
June 25th, 2012
11:28 am
right doc, I should kick my own azz for that one..Thanks for the feedback Sir!
Gave him 6 years? Should have offered 3-4.. Can only hope Danny is the one Grasshopper? LOL
I’m looking forward to dishing out many compliments in the near future..This maybe the best hire in the past 15 years for this franchise..
Larry Drew better step up his game. Cause “this is it, make no mistake anymore, this it”….
Astro Joe
June 25th, 2012
11:28 am
What’s this? A rumor that Josh wants to be traded? Say it ain’t so.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-trade-rumors-whos-on-the-block
KevinM
June 25th, 2012
11:29 am
I will give BK credit for one area….the guy could gut a roster and make you start from scratch.
He dumped Big Dog, Mohammed, Abdul-Rahim, JT, which was a worse intro into the job than Ferry has going for him.
At least Ferry has 2 ‘all-stars’ to start with.
Astro Joe
June 25th, 2012
11:33 am
Sekou applauds the hire.
http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/06/25/hawks-could-hit-home-run-with-ferry/#more-32045
XHawkfan
June 25th, 2012
11:33 am
Love it..new blood.. new life..
Now let him run it without owners crap. Also get his own Coach!
KevinM
June 25th, 2012
11:33 am
Well, he better move Josh unlike what he did by holding onto Sczerbiak and getting nothing in return.
I’ll take this hire and now anticipate more moves to be made. No way Ferry takes a team who can’t beat +.500 teams into next season with the same starting 5.
He could move Marvin, fire LD, and show he means business like ORL showed their entire staff.
JIMBOB
June 25th, 2012
11:33 am
Still hate this privileged white-guy flopper from his dook days.
XHawkfan
June 25th, 2012
11:34 am
I will remove the X=….Hawkfan again.
Slimjr
June 25th, 2012
11:34 am
Venus Williams lost at Wimbledon in the 1st rd. for the 1st time in 15 years in 1:15mins?
Maybe time doc to hang up the racket? Gonna miss her when its over….
Slimjr
June 25th, 2012
11:37 am
Josh for lottery picks or he walks and we get nothing…
Najeh Davenpoop
June 25th, 2012
11:42 am
“And although I am a fan of the Danny Ferry hire, I think 6 years is too long a commitment to give him. I would give him 4 or 5 years the most.”
I agree. 6 years is an eternity in the NBA. I probably wouldn’t mind if the DASG was willing to eat salaries to make improvements, but they have not shown that they are. If, three years into his tenure, Ferry turns out to be a dud, what are the odds that the DASG is willing to eat the last three years of his contract to make an upgrade? That is the real problem.
Rod from College Park
June 25th, 2012
11:43 am
Can’t possibly be worse than Sund. Now the next move needs to be getting rid of Drew. Can’t have a coach who won’t stand up for his players.
Najeh Davenpoop
June 25th, 2012
11:44 am
“The funny thing, the Heat won with a smallish line-up that more closely resembles the Hawks typical starting 5. In Game 5 9as an example), the Hawks would have had Horford on Bosh, Josh on Lebron, Marvin on Miller, Joe on Wade and Teague on Chalmers. In fact, the Heat turned Kendrick Perkins and his $12M/year salary into Jason Collins… a slow, plodding center incapable of helping his team despite great defensive fundamentals.”
The whole NBA is trending in this direction. This is partly why I think Josh and Al can coexist on this team. The problem with this team isn’t that they are built in Billy Knight’s “interchangeable 6′9″ pieces” image. The problem is that none of those pieces is good enough to carry this team to a championship.
BIG DOG
June 25th, 2012
11:44 am
Why would the Hawks trade Horford, who have said this his team and the love for this city, when Josh always pouting and making secret statement about being traded, I BE DAM
Me im the biggest Josh supporter, every since that statement he made about ATL, that tell me he want out, why continue to support Josh if that’s his feeling for Hawks and the fans.
IF YOUR HEART IS NOT THERE THEN YOUR PASSION FOR THE TEAM DEFINITELY NOT.
BIG DOG IN THE HOUSE
doc
June 25th, 2012
11:48 am
slimj, venus was a paragon of the champion in every way.
Pistol Pete
June 25th, 2012
11:48 am
Move #1: trade Marvin please! & get a REAL center!