Hawks Make Another Serious Mistake

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Hawks just traded two players and received nothing but a draft pick. This sounds like a joke. A team that loses 125 games over two seasons can't find something of value on a playoff team's roster?

Sad to say, that's the Hawks for you.

An unfunny joke.

Sometimes their many owners are trying to buy out Steve Belkin. Other times Belkin is trying to buy out those many owners. Sometimes these owners act as if they're strapped for cash. (Why else ask Indiana for $3 million in this sign-and-trade?) Other times they're throwing money at guys who might not be worth all that much. (Joe Johnson got $70 million, Speedy Claxton $25 million.)

Sometimes they're hell-bent on drafting the best player available. (Especially if he's a wing!) Other times they're drafting for need. (Shelden Williams was chosen largely because he blocks shots and the Hawks lacked a shot-blocker.) Sometimes they talk as if they're serious about winning. Then the playing starts and it becomes obvious this franchise isn't serious about anything.

To recap the offseason: The Hawks took Williams with the No. 5 pick when almost nobody else in the world regarded him so highly. They drafted Solomon Jones, another shot-blocker, in Round 2. (What, one wasn't enough?) They spent big on Claxton, who backed up Chris Paul, whom the Hawks should have taken instead of Marvin Williams in 2005. Then, after weeks of confusion, they finally jettisoned Al Harrington, whom they should have traded at the February deadline.

An object lesson in the sign-and-trade: When the Hawks worked one with Phoenix for Johnson, the Suns held out for Boris Diaw, who would become the NBA's most improved player overnight. When the Pacers worked one with the Hawks for Harrington and John Edwards, Indiana didn't have to part with a warm body. Amazing.

Why would a team that isn't exactly overrun with first-rank players not take a flier on some Pacers lesser light who might prove useful? (The backup center David Harrison, say, or the shooter Sarunas Jasikevicius?) The only answer that computes is that the Hawks' many owners --- who also own the Thrashers, at least until Belkin seizes both --- don't care to absorb any more contracts. And if that's the case, why should they continue to own these teams? Why not take a buyout and let the financial burden fall to the man they've come to despise?

I had hope for these owners, who are --- or, more precisely, were --- full of optimism and good cheer. I had hope for Billy Knight, the GM who moved boldly to disassemble the horrid roster he inherited from Pete Babcock. I had hope until the cheerful guys began to get out-litigated by Belkin at every turn, hope until Knight started to assemble a roster with little thought to actual positions. (Not for nothing has Knight become known around the NBA as the King of Wings.) I had hope until the Hawks got nothing from Diaw, of whom they didn't know what to make. I had hope until every single decision made by this franchise left me wondering, "What are these guys doing?"

Moving Harrington in February made sense. No, demand wasn't as great as the Hawks had hoped, but surely some contender would have come across with someone of value. Instead the Hawks chose to keep --- and keep playing --- Harrington, thereby depriving Marvin Williams of an increased workload. The belief was that they could get far more over the summer in a sign-and-trade. The reality is that almost no sign-and-trade could have yielded much less. </div>

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