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Southeast Notes: Hawks, Gordon, Wizards

June 6th, 2018 at 8:51pm CST by clarkcrum

The Hawks will host another pre-draft workout tomorrow morning with six participants, per an official release from the team. The headliners include Bruce Brown from Miami and De’Anthony Melton from USC.

ESPN’s Jonathan Givony has Brown being selected by the Knicks in the second round at No. 36 overall in his current mock draft, while he has Melton going in the first round at No. 25 overall to the Lakers. The Hawks select at No. 3, 19, 30, and 34.

In addition to Brown and Melton, the Hawks will host Thon Maker‘s younger brother Matur Maker, Cameron Reynolds (Tulane), Yuta Watanabe (George Washington), and Johnathan Williams (Gonzaga).

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • As reported by John and Hugh of 92.9 The Game, Hawks’ GM Travis Schlenk is confident that he knows who Phoenix is planning to take at No. 1, meaning the team need only concern itself with Sacramento’s decision. Per Schlenk, the Hawks are down to “three or four guys” who they are contemplating taking with the No. 3 selection, but they are also open to trading back.
  • The Magic, armed with a new and experienced head coach in Steve Clifford, are turning their focus to the draft and free agency, analyzes Bobby Marks of ESPN. Most importantly, the team must decide what its plan is with the impending restricted free agency of forward Aaron Gordon. Marks opines that the Magic should sign Gordon as a future tradeable asset, if nothing else.
  • Candace Buckner of The Washington Post takes a look at the options the Wizards are thinking about with the No. 15 pick in this month’s NBA Draft. Three prospects that Buckner specifically mentions are point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV, and big man Robert Williams.
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Hawks Notes: Pierce, Defense, Schroder

May 15th, 2018 at 10:10am CST by Luke Adams

During his introductory press conference on Monday, new Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce talked about his passion for defense, and indicated that he’ll be looking for defensive-minded assistants as he starts putting together his staff in Atlanta, as Charles Odum of The Associated Press writes.

“If we weren’t doing this press conference right now, I’d probably have these guys doing some defensive drills,” Pierce said, referring to the Hawks players who attended the presser. “That’s who I am.”

In addition to the four Hawks who were in attendance on Monday, Sixers forward Robert Covington – who was in Atlanta visiting a family member – showed up to support the former Philadelphia assistant. Covington had nothing but praise for Pierce, calling him a “great coach” who is “absolutely” ready for his first head coaching job.

Here’s more out of Atlanta:

  • During Monday’s presser, Hawks GM Travis Schlenk said that he and Mike Budenholzer remain on good terms, despite the former head coach’s departure from Atlanta. “I talked with [Budenholzer] a couple days ago,” Schlenk said, per Odum. “No hard feelings at all.”
  • In a Q&A with Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Pierce spoke at length about the defensive strategies he employed in Philadelphia, which he’ll bring to the Hawks.
  • Dennis Schroder, who led the Hawks in points (19.4 PPG) and assists (6.2 APG) last season, made comments this week at a press conference in Germany that made it sound like he wouldn’t mind moving on from Atlanta. Schroder said he could imagine playing for teams like the Bucks and Pacers (Twitter link via David Hein), adding that he doesn’t want to keep finishing “second-to-last in the Eastern Conference” (link via Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net). Schroder is under contract for three more years at $15.5MM annually, but wasn’t drafted or extended by the current management group, so he could emerge as a trade candidate for the Hawks.
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Hawks Notes: Ilyasova, Dorsey, Bembry

February 9th, 2018 at 8:07pm CST by Austin Kent

There has been considerable speculation that the Hawks will look into possible buyout options with forward Ersan Ilyasova, and rightfully so. Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweeted as much shortly after the trade deadline.

At this point, however, the parties haven’t discussed such an arrangement. Hours after that initial tweet, Cunningham tweeted that Ilyasova himself isn’t looking for a buyout, so long as the team is playing to win games. On Friday, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution chipped in with a note that the 30-year-old hasn’t been approached about one either.

Ilyasova, who signed a one-year, $6MM deal with the club in the offseason, has averaged 10.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game for the Hawks. He’d be a valuable addition to any contender looking to add versatile frontcourt depth heading into the final stretch of the season.

A testament to Ilyasova’s value is the fact that, as Cunningham mentioned in one of his aforementioned tweets, the team did have trade offers for him — he simply invoked his right to reject them.

There’s more out of Atlanta:

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Hawks Fully Embrace Total Rebuild

October 30th, 2017 at 8:11pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Hawks majority owner Tony Ressler is convinced the franchise had no choice but to go into full rebuild mode, as he told NBA.com’s David Aldridge in an extensive piece on the team’s direction. New GM Travis Schlenk helped convince Ressler that the franchise was spinning its wheels and needed to stockpile draft picks while developing a young core, Aldridge continues.

“Truly, there are three options in the NBA, I would argue: being a contender, being a competitive team, and being young and fun,” Ressler told Adridge. “At least that would be my opinion. And we didn’t have the option of being a contender. So we could be competitive, or more competitive, and maybe, shall we say, with a whole bunch of higher-priced vets that made us older and made our payroll less flexible, and made our future more cloudy.”

Instead, Ressler selected the “young and fun” option, despite knowing the losses would pile up this season. The team has five first-round picks during the next two drafts, including one from the Clippers that they acquired this offseason by getting involved in a three-way deal that included the Nuggets. The Hawks also traded away center Dwight Howard and opted not to pursue their top free agent, power forward Paul Millsap.

Aldridge also offered these nuggets in the story:

  • The team is building around point guard Dennis Schroder, second-year wings Taurean Prince and DeAndre’ Bembry, and rookie big man John Collins.
  • Schlenk feels pressure to produce on the draft picks: “It’s my job to, hopefully, get four of those right,” he said.
  • Ressler told coach Mike Budenholzer that he didn’t think anyone could be an effective head coach and run the organization at the same time. Budenholzer relinquished his duties as president of basketball operations. “I tried to convince him and I think he realized fully that being the GM is a full-time job,” Ressler said. “So why does anyone on earth think they can do two extraordinarily difficult jobs? And I believe Bud saw that very clearly.”
  • Budenholzer lobbied Schlenk to make an offer to Millsap even after the decision to rebuild was made.
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Southeast Notes: Hornets, Wizards, Jordan

September 29th, 2017 at 4:35pm CST by Austin Kent

The Hornets struggled to keep leads when their starters – particularly Kemba Walker and Cody Zeller – were on the bench last season. The question ahead of 2017/18 then, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer asks, is whether or not that will change this season.

Gone are all of Walker’s and Zeller’s backups, a veritable laundry list of players from Ramon Sessions, Brian Roberts and Briante Weber to Spencer Hawes, Roy Hibbert and Miles Plumlee. In their place are Michael Carter-Williams and Dwight Howard, both of whom were attained by the Hornets at relative bargains over the summer.

Of course the addition of Carter-Williams will provide size and defense to the Hornets’ second unit but the real draw is Howard, not because of what he’ll add off the bench but because of what his addition to the starting lineup entails.

As we’ve already written, head coach Steve Clifford has already committed to starting Howard when the season begins, that means Zeller himself will be able to work directly with the Hornets’ second unit to help do for them what he did for the starting five in 2016/17.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • The Wizards will have a number of players to replace Markieff Morris with when the season tips off. The forward is currently expected to miss six to eight weeks with a sports hernia. “We have versatility and we have depth. We can go in many different directions. We can go small. We can throw Kelly Oubre]in there. We can throw Jason Smith in there. Mike Scott we can put in there. There’s a lot of players that we can throw into the mix,” head coach Scott Brooks told Chase Hughes of CSN Mid-Atlantic.
  • Hornets majority owner Michael Jordan will soon have a stake in another professional sports franchise. Jordan is part of Derek Jeter‘s group that has been approved to buy the Miami Marlins, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer writes.
  • Only time will tell how Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer and new general manager Travis Schlenk mesh over the next few years but the dynamic between the two could be worth watching as the organization’s priorities shift from winning ball games to developing for the future. Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that Budenholzer will embrace the rebuild, whether that’s his preference or not.
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Hawks GM Talks Offseason, Howard, Goals

September 27th, 2017 at 9:56pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Hawks were the fifth-oldest team last season and getting younger was a clear goal of the front office entering the offseason. Another goal was managing the salary cap with an eye on maintaining future flexibility, as GM Travis Schlenk explains (h/t Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal Constitution).

“The reason why flexibility is so important to us [is] it allows us to go out and make deals like we did with the Jamal Crawford trade [which netted Hawks a top-three protected pick in the 2018 draft via Rockets] where we can get assets… as we invest in the future of this franchise,” Schlenk said.

“Now that we have a young core, we have nine draft picks in the next two years so there’s a high probability that we are going to be even a little bit younger next year. So we need to keep developing the young players that we have.”

The GM went on to discuss the Dwight Howard deal and the reason why Atlanta slid down 10 spots on draft night as part of the trade.

“When it got down (to it) with Charlotte, there [were] other players that were going to be in the deal that both teams decided wouldn’t be in there,” Schlenk said. “Obviously the 31st pick was important to them. Us, when we look at our roster moving forward, when you look at the nine draft picks we have in the next few years, it wasn’t as important to us to add that young player this year because we have so many opportunities in next year with the three first-round draft picks. … We would love to have the 31st pick, but to be able to get that financial flexibility for the future to make it worth it to slide down

“We did that trade for the financial flexibility, and we were able to use that flexibility this summer to acquire a draft pick in next year’s draft with the Clippers in the Jamal Crawford trade. It played out well for us.”

While the Hawks are expected to take a step back in the win column this season, don’t expect the team to tank like the Sixers did over the past several seasons. Schlenk reiterated that the front office’s expectation is for the team to be competitive.

“When you look at the guys we signed this year in free agency, those are guys that show up and play hard every night,” the GM added. “We are laying the foundation for the future of the Atlanta Hawks, and that is to play the right way, to play hard and to give it everything you’ve got every single night.”

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Free Agent Rumors: Lowry, Paul, Teodosic, Pachulia, Heat

June 27th, 2017 at 5:00pm CST by Joshua Fischman

Michael Grange of Sportsnet spoke to NBA team sources, as well as longtime player agents, to delve into Kyle Lowry‘s free agency. Grange writes that “it is becoming increasingly evident that Lowry will take the opportunity to test the market.” He also adds that the Raptors are the only team that can guarantee a fifth year in a contract offer to Lowry and can pay more over four years than any other suitor. Grange finds a consensus among his sources that Lowry will not be receiving a max deal out in the market and that “his ceiling will top out at $30 million annually, although that would most likely be on a shorter deal.”

Here are some other relevant free agent rumors:

  • According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (link via Twitter),  Chris Paul and his agents met with the Clippers on Tuesday and discussed the player’s future. Paul’s camp and Clippers officials will speak again soon.
  • Milos Teodosic announced that he will likely leave his Russian team and wishes to play in the NBA, via Novosti by way of Sportando: “I will not stay with CSKA Moscow almost for sure. But I don’t know yet where I will continue my career,” Teodosic said. “Going to the NBA is my wish but when I will know where, I will say that.”
  • Zaza Pachulia back with the Hawks? The reunion is an interesting idea that Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution floats, as the team has just one center at present (Miles Plumlee) and Pachulia is an unrestricted free agent and likely to move on from the Warriors. Furthermore, Vivlamore points out that Atlanta’s new GM Travis Schlenk knows Pachulia from his time with the Dubs.
  • Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald asks and answers key questions about the Heat‘s free agency. If Miami were to land Gordon Hayward or Blake Griffin, could they still keep James Johnson or Dion Waiters? Jackson says it would be difficult but not impossible. Click through for his detailed answer.
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Southeast Notes: Howard, Billups, Frazier, Wade

June 24th, 2017 at 3:31pm CST by Joshua Fischman

Dwight Howard, recently traded to the Hornets from the Hawks, discussed his excitement to be in Charlotte, relays Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Howard spoke glowingly about his new owner, Michael Jordan:

“I’d just done a 2 ½-hour workout. After I was done talking to him, I wanted to jump back into the gym. That’s how he motivated me. You’re talking about the greatest basketball player to ever play. For him to call you on the phone and say, ‘I believe in you!’ ”

Howard also discussed his reunion with head coach Steve Clifford, his disappointment of lasting just one season with him hometown team, and how he will make a difference in the Charlotte community.

Here’s more from the Southeast division:

  • Hawks GM Travis Schlenk says that three or four teams were interested in trading for Dwight Howard, but the Hornets made the best offer, tweets Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal- Constitution.
  • While the Cavaliers await a decision from Chauncey Billups, another team covets the former NBA Finals MVP’s wisdom in the front office: the Hawks, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Billups recently interviewed for a front-office position with Atlanta.
  • Hornets GM Rich Cho says the team will be looking for a backup point guard and more overall depth in free agency, tweets Jordan Greer of The Sporting News.
  • The Magic‘s new president of basketball operations, Jeff Weltman, explains why the team traded two picks in a deep draft, reports Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. Weltman explained:  “We felt that at a certain point that the draft flattened out, and once we got past that point, we had three more picks, and we didn’t want to bring four rookies in. So what we did is we tried to identify kids that we thought could possibly be there later that we liked as much [as a] higher [pick]. And could we defer those assets [and] move them along to maybe turn them into future pieces and still come up with something that we liked?”
  • The Wizards believe that Tim Frazier can contribute right away, reports Chase Hughnes of CSN Mid-Atlantic, in an interesting piece full of great quotes from Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld and head coach Scott Brooks.
  • Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes that Dwyane Wade, who has come up often as a Heat target this offseason, is not necessarily leaving Chicago so soon despite the Bulls’ obvious entrance into rebuilding mode after dealing Jimmy Butler on draft day.
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Hawks GM Talks New Role, Howard, Championships

June 3rd, 2017 at 5:26pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Travis Schlenk, who joined Atlanta’s front office as the team’s GM last week, faces several challenges as he looks to turn the Hawks into a championship contender, as ESPN.com details. One of Schlenk’s top priorities will be re-signing Paul Millsap. Another one of his objectives is to make it work with current coach Mike Budenholzer, who previously served as the Hawks team president.

“I have no reason to believe that there’ll be any issues with coach and I,” Schlenk said. “I’m here to help him. It’s a partnership. We’re in this together. I can’t be successful in my job if he’s not successful in his job. I think we’re going to have a very strong working relationship.”

Schlenk added that Dwight Howard remains in the team’s future and he plans to sit down with him. “I don’t judge people on what I hear. I judge people when I have a chance to sit down and talk to them. But he’s one of the most productive big guys in the league, so he’s important to us,” the GM added.

Before joining the Hawks, Schlenk helped build the current Warriors team in Golden State’s front office. He hopes to put Atlanta in that kind of position.

“We want to build a championship-quality team that’s sustainable,” he said. “We want to be in the conversation every year as a franchise than can compete for a championship.”

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Hawks Notes: Schlenk, Millsap, Draft, Hardaway

June 2nd, 2017 at 2:03pm CST by Luke Adams

While Hawks controlling owner Tony Ressler will have to sign off on major decisions, new general manager Travis Schlenk will have the final say on basketball matters, as Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution details. Ressler was clear in today’s introduction of Schlenk to the media that he has complete confidence in his new GM to make those calls.

“He runs basketball operations,” Ressler said of Schlenk to Vivlamore. “I did not bring him in here for me to make basketball decisions. I hope that is as clear as I can be. Yes, every ownership has to sign off on numbers, on (salary) caps, on (luxury) tax. Yes, I will sign off on the business. I promise you I did not bring Travis in here so I can make basketball decisions.”

Ressler’s comment came in response to a question regarding free-agent-to-be Paul Millsap, after a report last month suggested that Millsap would negotiate directly with team ownership. I’d expect Ressler to be involved in those contract talks, but it sounds as if he’s ready to let Schlenk take the reins.

Here’s more from Vivlamore on the Hawks:

  • Schlenk on Millsap, per Vivlamore: “Paul, obviously, is a four-time All-Star. Arguably, the best player on this team. Probably is the best player on this team. That’s going to be a priority. But, for me, right now I’ve got to get with Coach [Mike Budenholzer] and his staff and my front-office staff and over the next three weeks, we’ve got to hammer out a plan for the future. Certainly, Paul is going to be a priority in that.”
  • The Hawks currently have a list of nine prospects that they’re eyeing with the No. 19 overall pick in this year’s draft, according to Schlenk (Twitter link via Vivlamore).
  • In a separate piece for the AJC, Vivlamore identifies five key items on Atlanta’s offseason to-do list that Schlenk will need to address in the coming weeks, including Millsap’s future, Tim Hardaway Jr.‘s restricted free agency, and more. Vivlamore speculates that Hardway will command at least $10MM annually on a new deal.
  • There’s still a place for Dwight Howard on Atlanta’s roster, per Schlenk (link via Vivlamore). The veteran center sounded discouraged at season’s end with his role, but the new Hawks GM sounds interested in moving forward with Howard in the mix.
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