Sund devoted much of this past week to bleeding off the disappointment from the Orlando series. “When we looked at Rick, what we liked was he wasn’t reactionary,” said the Spirit’s basketball point guy, Michael Gearon Jr. The same baseline steadiness that his Wikipedia biographer seized on was a major factor in the Atlanta Spirit ownership group settling on Sund to replace Knight. Just know that whatever happens in this retooling period, kneejerking will not be part of the process. The Tao of Sund - which is based on patience and practical analysis - will be sorely tested these next few months. The fans have vented plenty since the Orlando smackdown, many of them suggesting a large amount of metaphorical C4 be set off beneath the Hawks roster. 1 on everybody’s priority list,” said forward Marvin Williams. “We probably need another solid big, in order to have any kind of chance to do anything special,” said Hawks forward/center Al Horford.
#2006 ATLANTA HAWKS ROSTER FREE#
Doesn’t look like Sund will be getting back to Seattle - where he still keeps a home - anytime soon.Īnd with the draft (June 24) and free agency (July 1) approaching, there is no shortage of suggestions about what he and the Hawks should do next. Still unsettled is the question: What about Joe? The team’s designated star, the soon-to-be free agent whose acquisition set off a hair-pulling fight among ownership, Joe Johnson chose the playoffs to push the mute button on his game.Ī coaching hire to make. The first call came down late last week when the team decided not to re-up head coach Mike Woodson, whose contract was running out just as his team was tuning him out against Orlando. The decisions Sund renders in the next months will shape the character of the Hawks for years, and when they are made, this team will be his at the DNA level. This offseason is not about mere dot-connecting. “Trying to connect the dots,” is the way Sund put it. Sund was brought in on May 2008 under orders to buff former GM Billy Knight’s roster of long-limbed athletes to a high polish.
They followed their winningest regular season in 13 years with the most lopsided playoff sweep in NBA history - losing in the second round to Orlando in four straight by an average of 25 points a game. “The really good general managers, guys who have had influence with me - my mentor Wayne Embry, Jerry West - they stay in the background,” he said.Īs much as the stealth GM wants to avoid a good headline, the Hawks have made such blessed isolation pretty much impossible.
The Hawks won, and went on to win the series.
When he addressed the team prior to a pivotal Game Six versus Milwaukee in the playoffs’ first round, it was the first time Sund had done anything of the kind in his two seasons on the job. As the media filters into the locker room after a game, the general manager exits from view. He does not travel on the team plane during the regular season. Sund does not watch games from the vicinity of the Hawks bench, roosting instead in a distant box. They are to blend into the scenery, like the ball rack and the Gatorade cooler. In his world, general managers are supposed to be largely unseen, unheard.
The more Sund can stay out of the mainstream, meandering the tributaries of player acquisition and salary cap management, the better. “I want to draw my own conclusions,” he said. When he watches the NBA on TV, he does it with the sound muted. He doesn’t Tweet, doesn’t do Facebook, doesn’t feel the need to play the role of hip, interactive front man.
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