| Hawks Flying High After Draft Night Authored by Patrick J. Austin - June 29, 2009 - 1:39 am
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Heading into the draft, many were speculating the Hawks would follow the Milwaukee Bucks route and sell assets simply for the sake of saving money. Fortunately, ownership recognized the importance of continual improvement and allowed their general manager to basically steal Jamal Crawford from Golden State.
There are certainly question marks surrounding Crawford and how his game will translate in the Hawks system alongside Joe Johnson, but you can’t question the return on value.
Crawford is coming off a season where he averaged 19.7 points per game, three rebounds per game, and 4.4 assists per game. Law and Claxton averaged a combined 4.6 points per game, one rebound per game, and 2.5 assists per game.
Some say Crawford isn’t an upgrade from Bibby, I disagree. Bibby averaged 14.9 points per game, 3.5 rebounds per game, and 5.0 assists per game.
Though, Bibby’s playoff production dipped to 13.2 points per game, 3.4 rebounds per game, and 4.2 assists per game. This is why the Hawks made a wise decision to trade for a new guard to replace Bibby. He’s not the floor general to lead the Hawks to prominence. In fact, he takes a step back when it matters most.
I’m not saying Crawford is clutch in playoff action. In fact, Crawford has never played for a team that’s made the playoffs. Pessimists may use this fact as an indicator that Crawford doesn’t really help teams, but just puts up good numbers. I disagree, Crawford isn’t Zach Randolph. He isn’t a locker room distraction. He’s just had the misfortune of playing on some really bad teams (so did Shareef Abdur-Rahim for many years).
Crawford is coming to Atlanta hungry for playoff action and I believe his energy and scoring prowess will provide a big boost to a team in need of a consistent second-offensive weapon behind Johnson.
How about the other big coup of the night – drafting Jeff Teague? A great choice. Some draft experts had Teague going as high as No.8 to the New York Knicks. RealGM’s very own Christopher Reina described Teague as “an elite playmaker off the dribble with an excellent perimeter shot to boot and has virtually no bust potential at the point guard position. Leading up to the draft, he had unquestionably been the most overlooked player of this class.”
To get someone with Teague’s upside and scoring ability at No. 19 in a weak draft was truly incredible. He’s going to contribute immediately and may even enable the Hawks to wave goodbye to Flip Murray. Though, I’d like to re-sign Flip if his contract demands are within reason.
Speaking of contracts and re-signings, this is an important aspect of the Crawford trade and selection of Teague. They give the Hawks so much more flexibility when it comes to negotiations with the likes of Bibby, Murray, Williams, etc. With Crawford and Teague on board, the Hawks can let Bibby walk and if Murray demands mid-level exception money, the Hawks can let him go too. If Williams demands a five-year deal, the Hawks could use him in a sign-and-trade or let him walk and play JJ at the 3, Crawford at the 2, and Teague at the 1 (though this would be contingent on Teague being able to produce immediately).
Another option would be to fortify the frontline with our cap space by re-signing Zaza Pachulia and taking a chance on a young big like Chris Wilcox or Channing Frye for less money. Or, go after one of the “top-tier” free agent bigs like Mehmet Okur, Rasheed Wallace, or Anderson Varejao. Of course, we could always keep our cash and prepare for 2010, like basically every other team.
Whichever route Sund takes, we at least have options and are not hindered by the notion of re-signing all our free agents or being left with a depleted roster. We’ve certainly upgraded talent-wise and the team should continue to get better as the off-season continues.
To leave feedback for Patrick, send an e-mail to pja123@hotmail.com |
