Futures of Harris, Tolliver, and Pachulia

Bo Churney —  May 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

The Hawks have a lot of decisions to make this offseason. From choosing a new coach to attempting to lure Chris Paul or Dwight Howard, GM Danny Ferry has a lot of stuff on his desk to tackle.

However, what’s to become of the lesser free agents that are currently still on Atlanta’s roster? While many are focusing on the big names, the Hawks will still need a group of solid bench players to fill out next season’s roster.

So who should they keep?

It’s already well known that the team wants Kyle Korver, so I will skip over him. It’s also likely that the Hawks will let go of DeShawn Stevenson, as he showed severe signs of decline this year and has a non-guaranteed contract. Ivan Johnson can still be tendered with a qualifying offer. Mike Scott and Shelvin Mack will be on Atlanta’s Summer League squad, and figure to be in the mix as cheap sign-ees over the summer.

The players I am most interested in are Devin Harris, Anthony Tolliver, and Zaza Pachulia. Not only are these guys still productive, but they are also likely to attract attention from other teams.

Starting with Harris, I think he’s still got a lot left in him if he can stay relatively healthy. (i.e. 60+ games a season) Despite battling injuries this year, he was still able to put up 10 points and three assists a game on good enough shooting percentages. He’s also a plus-defender and was one of the most important players on the Hawks in terms of on/off efficiency. With this class of free agents and the importance of having a serviceable back up point guard, Devin is likely in the market for a decent chuck of cash, around $5 million per season. Continue Reading…

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HawksHoop Hangout: The Offseason

Bo Churney —  May 19, 2013 — 2 Comments

We will be going live at 1PM to discuss the last series against the Pacers, the current search for a head coach, and of course, free agency!

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Keeping Drew?

Bo Churney —  May 16, 2013 — 4 Comments

It has been almost two weeks since the Hawks’ season ended… and Larry Drew is still under contract. To me, this is a huge surprise.

Now, I think Drew is a good coach, but with his contract coming to an end, I figured the Hawks would have gotten rid of him already. It seemed like GM Danny Ferry would want to hire his own guy and would have sent Drew on his way by now. However, Drew is still under contract, even though the Hawks are looking at other candidates. To be fair, the Hawks have allowed Drew to interview for any job he may want.

I still don’t think Larry will be back in Atlanta next year, but his odds have increased (to me, at least) purely from the fact that he’s still around. And to be honest, if Josh Smith is gone, I think Drew could work for this team. The two clearly can’t seem to agree on shot selection, meaning that they would probably be better off in different cities next season.

The Hawks have talked with Nate McMillan. Two words: bad idea? McMillan has the same M.O. as Mike Woodson: isolation offense and is supposedly a great defensive coach, despite team defensive efficiency not being reflective of that. Now, McMillan may have learned some things since he was fired from the Trail Blazers, but hiring an isolation-heavy playcaller when you don’t have a dominant wing player would leave me scratching my head. I’d rather have Drew, regardless of the Josh Smith situation.

Of course, I still believe Stan Van Gundy is the best option as coach. He’s a proven winner and has a system that is fun to watch. The Hawks should do everything they can to get him or Brian Shaw, who is probably the best assistant coach in the Association right now.

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Why Al Horford Should Start Shooting 3s

Bo Churney —  May 14, 2013 — 7 Comments

I understand your skepticism.

Josh Smith comes to mind immediately. The screams of “NOOOOO!” from a harassed Philips Arena crowd are probably still ringing through your ears. Why on earth would the Hawks want another “mid-range shawty” jacking up three-pointers?

Because Horford needs to start shooting threes.

Al’s a good shooter; there’s no denying that. This season, he shot 45% on long-twos longer than 15 feet. The two seasons before that (excluding the injury shortened 2011-12 season), Horford shot 48% (!) and 53% (!!!) from that distance.

Recently, it seems that Horford has been working to expand his shooting range. He took six threes this season, the most of his career, and a few of those weren’t just late-clock situations; they were plays specifically set up for Horford to shoot the three. In his pre-game warmups, part of his routine was hitting a three from five spots on the floor. He always ended his warmups by hitting a corner three.

Horford expressed to the media earlier this year that the three-ball is something that he wants to add to his repertoire. While it is still a work in progress, coach Larry Drew did have plays drawn up that had Al set up behind the arc. Continue Reading…

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Reading Between the Lines on Ferry’s Contact with SVG

Buddy Grizzard —  May 13, 2013 — 15 Comments

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Hawks beat writer Chris Vivlamore has a funny way of debunking the reports of other writers. After Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Hawks are “aggressively” pursuing former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, Vivlamore published a pair of reports questioning Wojnarowski’s accuracy. Wrote Vivlamore:

A report that the Hawks are “aggressively” pursing Stan Van Gundy for the yet-to-be vacant head coach position is inaccurate.

But in the same breath, Vivlamore confirms that Van Gundy is a candidate and that Hawks GM Danny Ferry has already contacted him. I would have to say that communicating with another candidate when Ferry has yet to terminate his current head coach is pretty aggressive. But however you characterize it, Ferry’s actions are sending a clear and calculated message to Dwight Howard. That message is, “if you want to influence who our next coach is going to be, we’re all ears.”

Over the summer, I speculated that Van Gundy lacked perspective regarding Orlando’s organizational dysfunction when he lashed out at Howard, but gained it once the damage was done. The fact that Van Gundy has since exonerated Howard and the two have remained in touch bears this out. If Ferry wanted to solicit an outside opinion on Howard’s thinking as he approaches free agency, Van Gundy seems like an obvious place to start. Continue Reading…

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Kyle Korver’s value to the Hawks

Chris Barnewall —  May 12, 2013 — Leave a comment

Kyle Korver will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason and is likely to be a player that many teams are going to go after. His play was invaluable to the Hawks this season thanks to his three-point shooting and his ability to move off the ball. It would be a very bad move by the Hawks to not at least try to bring him back, as shown by Bo Churney’s top ten free agents for the Hawks to pursue.

One of the best statistical indicators of Korver’s ability? He finished fourth in the NBA in true-shooting percentage, only behind Tyson Chandler, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James.

Korver Shot chart (HotShotCharts)

(Chart used from HotShotCharts.com)

Look at how dominant Korver is from the wings and corners. This season, Korver shot 50% from the left corner, 43% from the left wing, 48% from the right wing, and 45% from the right corner. Continue Reading…

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Hawks want Stan Van Gundy

Chris Barnewall —  May 11, 2013 — 2 Comments

According to a report from Yahoo Sports, the Atlanta Hawks have an interest in former Magic coach Stan Van Gundy replacing Larry Drew as head coach of the Hawks. The report states that Van Gundy is one of the Hawks top targets.

“General manager Danny Ferry has made Van Gundy his top target to replace Larry Drew, sources said. There has been contact between Ferry and Van Gundy, but the two sides have yet to meet in person.”

As many people know, current Lakers center Dwight Howard will be a free agent this offseason and Atlanta is the big man’s hometown. Howard’s coach back when he used to play for Orlando was Van Gundy. It is possible that bringing in SVG could help increase Howard’s interest in returning to play for his hometown. Despite Dwight’s scuffles with Van Gundy last season, sources around Howard say that this season helped Dwight realize the brilliance of the coach he had in Orlando.

I think that Van Gundy is a great option and definitely should be the top target for the Hawks this offseason. When Van Gundy was the coach in Orlando, he was one of the best coaches in the NBA and his time in Miami before that saw him reach the eastern conference finals. Van Gundy has shown he knows how to coach defense, turning the Magic into a top three defensive team in 2009, and an offense with the barrage of three-pointers the Magic would shoot when he was coach.

The great thing about Van Gundy is his great basketball mind. The three-point shooting offense he ran in Orlando was designed around the fact that they had the gigantic Dwight Howard in the middle. He knew that the best thing to surround him with would be a bunch of 3 point shooters so he designed the offense around it. I would love to see Van Gundy work with an offense being ran by the speedy Jeff Teague. Van Gundy has also shown the ability to develop players, turning JJ Redick from purely a three-point shooter into an all-around player.

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Inexperienced in Mediocrity: Brian Shaw as Next Hawks Coach?

Buddy Grizzard —  May 8, 2013 — 6 Comments

I’m not a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers organization, which squandered its chance to win a championship during the LeBron James era through a series of incompetent personnel decisions. I also don’t like the fact that owner Dan Gilbert first attempted to placate James by firing coach Mike Brown, then threw a gigantic tantrum once “The Decision” was made.

However, I did find a great quote from Gilbert from 2005 when he hired Danny Ferry to pick up the pieces in the wake of the scorched earth campaign that was Jim Paxson’s tenure as GM. Gilbert said that, although he was taking a risk turning his franchise over to a young executive with no experience at the GM level, Ferry’s championship experience was more important.

I actually think it is even more risky to turn over a team to a person who has a lot of experience but has never won anything. Give me a passionate, smart, hungry, young guy who is out to prove something over experienced mediocrity any day of the week.

Continue Reading…

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Not the Playoff Teague We Expected

David Vertsberger —  May 6, 2013 — 1 Comment

In their first round loss to the Indiana Pacers, the Atlanta Hawks disappointed across the board. A stagnated offense and a Swiss cheese defense doomed Atlanta in the first two contests, but after a change in head coach Larry Drew’s strategy, hopes for a Hawks upset rose in two straight home victories. Eventually, they collapsed and the team inevitably fumbled early into their postseason. Plenty of the team’s failures can be placed on individual players, and one of the most appalling of disappearances in this first round defeat was of Jeff Teague, the starting point guard of the Hawks.

Although he’s yet to make himself a big name in the league, (an infuriating trend for talented Hawks players) Teague’s performance in these playoffs was far less than desired or expected. Teague’s season has shown improvement in his facilitating game when compared to previous exhibitions, yet when the playoffs started, Jeff floundered. This comes as a shock to any of Teague’s followers, as he’s been known to enter “Playoff Teague” mode once the regular season ends. This essentially means he takes on an increasingly aggressive role, upping his game to new heights.

This wasn’t the case here in 2013, partly due to Indiana’s strong defense, but also to Teague’s reluctance to attack the paint. Indiana ranks 11th in the league in fewest points allowed by opposing point guards, and fifth in lowest opposing point guard FG%. This strong point guard Continue Reading…

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Who Should the Hawks Target in Free Agency?

Bo Churney —  May 6, 2013 — 11 Comments

The Hawks could have anywhere from $30-40 million in cap space this summer. While this class doesn’t exactly have the strength of the 2014 class (ahem, the LeBron class), there are some good pickups the Hawks could make to become a contender.

Here’s the top ten potential free agents in order of priority I would have if I was general manager Danny Ferry.

1. Chris Paul
In my opinion, the best free agent of the class by far. Paul finished third this season in win shares (per Basketball-Reference) and Player Efficiency Rating (PER), behind only LeBron and Kevin Durant in both. CP3′s season is already over after the Clippers lost to Memphis in the first round, which slightly piqued my interest in how available he may be to leave Los Angeles. However, I still believe that the Clippers are going to give him too much power in pure roster decisions and too much money for the Hawks to be able to match. Atlanta will be able to offer around four years, $80 million, which is almost $30 million less than what the Clippers can give. In the end, it will likely come down to which team Paul feels has a better chance at winning a title.

2. Dwight Howard
I don’t think there is a chance that Dwight comes to Atlanta, but Ferry might as well try, right? Despite playing all season with a myriad of injuries, Dwight still managed to average 17.1 points and a league-leading 12.4 rebounds per game. For the entire season, he wasn’t the defender that we all remember him being, but he did start to look like his former self towards the end of the year. The number one issue most Hawks fans would have with this would be Dwight’s enigmatic personality, but for me, it is more of an issue of cap space; the Hawks would likely have to re-sign Josh Smith to have Howard sign here, which would likely use all of the team’s cap. As strong as a Smith-Horford-Howard frontcourt would be, they would still need some money to fill out the roster with capable players in order to challenge Miami.

3. Andre Iguodala, ETO
Iggy has an opt-out with the Nuggets, which is something that most believe he will exercise; Continue Reading…

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