The Need For Jeff Teague To Rest Against Miami by Adam McGee

Remember not so long ago when Larry Drew was head coach and Rick Sund was general manager, and the Hawks weren’t generally perceived to be the smartest of decision-makers in the NBA? Well, if it’s tough to recall, that’s in no small part down to the work of Mike Budenholzer, Danny Ferry and Wes Wilcox.

It’s now almost three years since Ferry and Wilcox arrived in Atlanta tasked with re-shaping a Hawks squad that was unquestionably consistent, but had almost certainly reached their ceiling in the middle of the NBA pack.

The duo set to work on utilizing the best of what they had learned in their previous front office roles in both Cleveland and San Antonio, and as a result, the Hawks are now a very different proposition.

There were tough basketball decisions to be made along the way, and at no stage have Atlanta’s decision-makers stepped away from those responsibilities.

Joe Johnson was moved almost instantly. As was Marvin Williams. Then after one season with them at the helm, Ferry and Wilcox watched the hometown kid, Josh Smith walk away as a free agent, along with a head coach in Larry Drew who had done very little wrong.

And that’s when Mike Budenholzer was welcomed into the fray, and it’s all looked uphill since then.

The style of basketball, the number of wins, and the number of accolades have caught even the most ardent of Hawks fans off guard, and the most recent pleasant surprise has come from our good friends at ESPN.

(Yes, they know who the Hawks are now, they even made this really cool video!)

In their second annual ESPN Forecast poll of the NBA’s front offices, the Hawks fared exceptionally well.

Having ranked 17th overall last year with a cumulative score based on the strength of the team’s owners, executive and coaching staff, the Hawks matched their play on the court this season by rocketing up the rankings on this occasion.

With the overall scores announced on Tuesday, the Hawks were ranked to be the eighth best basketball decision-making franchise in the NBA.

How does that eighth spot break down across the rankings in the three previously mentioned divisions?

Well, Atlanta was scored as the sixth best in terms of executives, for the combination of Ferry, Wilcox, and in Ferry’s absence, Budenholzer. That left only the powerhouses of San Antonio, Golden-State, Houston, Miami and Portland currently above the Hawks in that department.

On the coaching side of things, the Hawks received some even better news though. Coach Bud slots in at the number two spot, with only his mentor and all-time great Gregg Popovich ranked ahead of him.

The people of Atlanta don’t need to be told just how great a job Bud has done as coach, but at the very least this can act as yet another feather in his cap as he pits it out with Steve Kerr in the race for Coach of the Year. For what it’s worth, ESPN places Kerr in third.

So, I know what you’re probably thinking now. Sixth best front office, and second best coach doesn’t exactly average out at eighth overall. Although the ownership rankings won’t be announced until tomorrow, it seems clear that the Atlanta Spirit Group isn’t rated quite as highly as the rest of the organization.

That would be a terrible problem, if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s unlikely to be a problem for much longer. The sale of the team is still said to be on track, and will hopefully be finalized in the coming months.

It mightn’t have seemed possible only a few years ago, but everything really is starting to look rosy for the Hawks.

Now all we need is a couple more banners to hang from those rafters…