<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Atlanta Hawks general manager Billy Knight is stepping down. The announcement comes after the Hawks forced the Boston Celtics to a Game 7 in a first round playoff series that ended Sunday. He said Wednesday he is resigning from the organization effective July 1. The 55-year-old Knight spent six years with the organization. His best season came this year, as the Hawks had a 37-45 regular season record and broke a nine-year playoff drought. Knight says in a statement he's "leaving the organization in much better shape than it was in when I took over."</div> This is sad **Hawksfan in tears**
Isn't ownership still in a shambles? He was once considered a poor GM, but after building this team against the ownership situation made odds, he should be sought after by any team that needs a new GM.
Every GM that passed over Deron Williams and Chris Paul are now out of a job. Milwaukee, Atlanta and Portland (had the #3 and traded down) Wow, the three worst GM's all gone in the same season. First Billy King, than Zeke and now Billy Knight.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ May 7 2008, 01:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>He's worse than McHale?</div> McHale wouldn't have passed on CP3 or Deron, nor would he have drafted Shelden There isn't a big gap, but McHale managed to stay out of the bottom 3 as of the start of last season.
Billy Knight is way better than McHale, your forgetting how much ownership kept getting involved in every single move he made. that's prolly why he left, they didn't let the man do his job. Not alot of Gm will wanna come here, with those type of circumstances.
Billy Kning a strong canidate <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>ATLANTA -- Billy Knight will resign as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks in July, despite leading the team to its first playoff appearance in nine years. Knight said Wednesday it was time to "take a break" following a season when his authority appeared to be weakened after unsuccessfully lobbying owners to fire coach Mike Woodson. Knight will step down July 1. NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein that former Philadelphia 76ers general manager Billy King will be a strong candidate to replace Knight with the Hawks. The Hawks, absent from the playoffs since 1999, lost in the first round to the heavily favored Boston Celtics in seven games. In six years, Knight played the lead role in rebuilding the Hawks and ending the NBA's longest playoff drought. One of the team's owners, Michael Gearon Jr., said Knight's resignation did not affect Woodson's status. "You cannot tie the two together," Gearon told The Associated Press. "Frankly, this was not a decision by us, it was a decision by Billy."</div> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3385104
Just when I thought the NBA couldn't get any more hilarious than a Zach & Eddy front court, now the Hawks plan to replace Billy Knight with Billy King
I'm just gonna go on record and say I don't hate Billy King at all. I suppose I'm just not remembering some really awful things he's done?
IIRC, he did some good work with the Grizzlies that Jerry West mostly got the credit for. But he has been pretty terrible with the Hawks. I mean, how many lottery picks do you need to become an 8th seed team in the Eastern Conference?
^^ most of that had to do with the coach. and yes he did try to fire him, many time, but like I said ownership was always getting involved.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MikeDC @ May 7 2008, 03:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I'm just gonna go on record and say I don't hate Billy King at all. I suppose I'm just not remembering some really awful things he's done?</div> King or Knight? King was horrible with the Sixers
The only bad things i can think of that Billy King did were: 1. Unsuccessfully build a team around AI 2. Trade for C-webb 3. Sign Kenny Thomas to a huge contract. 4. Slightly overpay Dalembert. (which isn't looking like hes overpaid anymore) However King did draft Williams, Igoudala, Young, Korver, Green, and Randolph. He also traded for the perfect point guard to lead the team. The sixers are on the up and up, and the team, and cap space that they have are all because of King.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ May 7 2008, 03:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>IIRC, he did some good work with the Grizzlies that Jerry West mostly got the credit for. But he has been pretty terrible with the Hawks. I mean, how many lottery picks do you need to become an 8th seed team in the Eastern Conference?</div> If you take Shelden in the lottery does it really count as a lottery pick? Sort of like Araujo
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Answer_AI03 @ May 7 2008, 03:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The only bad things i can think of that Billy King did were: 1. Unsuccessfully build a team around AI 2. Trade for C-webb 3. Sign Kenny Thomas to a huge contract. 4. Slightly overpay Dalembert. (which isn't looking like hes overpaid anymore) However King did draft Williams, Igoudala, Young, Korver, Green, and Randolph. He also traded for the perfect point guard to lead the team. The sixers are on the up and up, and the team, and cap space that they have are all because of King.</div> Overpaid Korver Overpaid Green when Green was injured and could have been had cheaper Overpaid Hunter ...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ May 7 2008, 03:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Answer_AI03 @ May 7 2008, 03:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The only bad things i can think of that Billy King did were: 1. Unsuccessfully build a team around AI 2. Trade for C-webb 3. Sign Kenny Thomas to a huge contract. 4. Slightly overpay Dalembert. (which isn't looking like hes overpaid anymore) However King did draft Williams, Igoudala, Young, Korver, Green, and Randolph. He also traded for the perfect point guard to lead the team. The sixers are on the up and up, and the team, and cap space that they have are all because of King.</div> Overpaid Korver Overpaid Green when Green was injured and could have been had cheaper Overpaid Hunter ... </div> I'd give you Hunter, obviously, but a pretty big part of making bad deals is how you take care of them. King got the Hornets to take Hunter off his hands, but Hunter failed the physical. Then he traded him for Reggie Evans, who I actually like. So I'd have to say he recovered from that mistake pretty well. Korver doesn't seem extremely overpaid or anything. They (Stefanski did it right?) were pretty quickly able to turn him into an expiring contract and a 1st round pick. Green, I'm guessing, was given a sweetheart deal because they felt a little bit bad for him tearing an ACL when they'd more or less agreed to terms. His last two contract years are non-guaranteed, so there are easy outs there. Again, not a killer deal at all. Kenny Thomas... yeah, he sucked. King was a month or two on the job when he resigned Thomas and Eric Snow to outlandish deals, so while I agree he ought to have that held very much against him, his work afterwards has been quite a bit more reasonable.
This is bad, but not horrible. Billy Knight didn't win us all those games, the players did. 1 good thing he brought in was Bibby, but made horrible draft choices. I just think we need a GM who can make the big trades and not be afraid to change things up.
