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Something Needs to Change

Authored by Patrick J. Austin - November 22, 2005 - 8:49 pm

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The Hawks have the dubious honor of being the only winless team left in the NBA. That’s right, we have a worse record than the 2nd year-in-existence Charlotte Bobcats, the downtrodden New Orleans/Okalahoma City Hornets, and even the hapless Toronto Raptors. It’s become abundantly clear the current makeup of our team, even the entire organization, needs to be changed sooner rather than later. I know we’re in an all-out rebuilding mode. That’s an accepted fact, but we should have at least one win by now. It’s not like we’re some talentless expansion team featuring bottom-of-the-barrel scrubs. We have some very good players in Al Harrington, Joe Johnson, Zaza Pachulia, Marvin Williams, Salim Stoudamire, Josh Childress and Josh Smith. We should be better than 0-9. One of the glaring needs is a legitimate starting point guard. We cannot have Tyronn Lue as our floor general for the entire season. He’s best suited as a high-energy backup point. We need to acquire a legit point if we want to have any shot at even being respectable. A trade mentioned on numerous RealGM message boards is possibly sending Josh Childress to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Jameer Nelson and Stacey Augmon. If this trade has any semblance of legitimacy I hope the Hawks do it. Out of all our perimeter talent, Josh Childress seems to be the odd man out. It’s not that he’s a bad player by any means, we just have so much talent at the 2/3 positions that he doesn’t really have a place. Acquiring a true point guard like Jameer Nelson would do wonders for the Hawks. He would add quickness, tenacity, and great court vision to the backcourt. Another possible course of action would be a major “house cleaning” throughout the organization. That would mean removing Billy Knight from the G.M. position and firing Mike Woodson. To be honest, I’ve about had it with Woodson. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very solid coach with a great mind for defense, but it’s become clear he was not the right guy for this job. We need a teacher/mentor for our young talent. Woodson doesn’t appear to have that skill. Someone who does have that skill, along with a winning record and veteran experience, is Paul Silas. If Woodson does indeed get fired, Silas is my choice for the replacement. With regards to Billy Knight, he’s another guy I like personally; I just haven’t been impressed with his moves. He has a great eye for talent, but when you stockpile that talent at the same positions, you wind up with our current situation—major redundancy on the court. Billy needs to realize that a team does indeed need a legit point guard to be successful. It’s not about putting the five most talented players on the court. That philosophy will only lead to problems (Team USA is the perfect example). If Billy is removed, I hope we make a major run at Kiki Vandeweghe. He almost single-handedly turned around the Denver Nuggets. He knows the game of basketball and is well respected around the league. I hope someone in the organization realizes that change needs to take place a.s.a.p. If something doesn’t happen soon, it could be a struggle to match our thirteen game win total from last season.