Can Danny?

The New York Knicks have gotten blasted ad nauseum but at least they've made the playoffs three years this decade and they do have a load of talent on the roster (albeit completely mismatched talent). The perennially up & coming Golden St. Warriors still haven't seen the second season since 1994 but then again, I'm a sucker and think that they could be on their way. The Blazers have collapsed but they've still only had two losing records this decade. Looking it over, I'd have to say that no team can really touch the mismanagement of the Atlanta Hawks.  Their draft picks haven't been horrendous but they haven't fit the team needs. Most of their major free agent signings and trades have been borderline disastrous. The ones that did seem to work didn't matter much because they would go and lose those players via free agency anyway. Here's a look at how to build a perennial lottery team.

2000: At the close of the 2000 season, the Hawks were tired of the tirades of Isaiah Rider and the apathy of Jim Jackson.  So when the draft rolled around, they decided to draft someone from Cincinnati, not exactly a hotbed of headstrong athletes.  Nonetheless, they thought DerMarr Johnson was the ideal swingman with PG skills to team with Jason Terry. They also traded a future first round pick for Lorenzen Wright.  They go on to win 25 games the next season.

2001: Apparently that Lorenzen Wright thing didn't work out so well because the next season, Lo was in a package along with Brevin Knight and the #3 pick in the draft for Shareef Abdur-Rahim.  Memphis took Pau Gasol with the pick.  The Hawks also had a second pick which they also traded away.  Indiana selected Jamaal Tinsley with the pick and sent a future draft pick Atlanta's way. With 'Reef in tow, people in Hotlanta started to say that they, and not the Celtics, would be the Eastern team on the rise.  Alas, it wasn't meant to be as the Hawks won only 33 games in the following 2002 season while the Celtics went to the Eastern Conference Finals.

2002: The disapointment of the 2002 campaign stung even more when Hawks fans realized that they wouldn't have their first round pick because they dealt it away in the Lorenzen Wright deal two years earlier. At the #8 pick, the Clippers, no strangers to poor draft dealings, opted to pass over Amare Stoudemire for Chris Wilcox. The Hawks decided to bolster their roster by obtaining Big Dog Glenn Robinson.  The move helped Atlanta reach their best win total of the decade: 35. 

2003:   Learning nothing from the Lorenzen Wright deal, the Hawks once again found no silver lining to their dark cloud of losing as the 2003 lottery pick had been shipped to Milwaukee in the Big Dog deal.  The Bucks selected TJ Ford with the pick.  On the bright side, the pick from the Jamaal Tinsley trade was available and the Hawks opted for Boris Diaw. The Glenn Robinson experiment was obviously a failure so the Hawks gave him away for a semi-retired Terrell Brandon and a 2007 pick from the 76ers.  Still not happy with their depth at the SF position and also finding themselve running low on crazy, the Hawks sign Stephen Jackson, who was coming off of a great Finals with the Spurs.

2004: At this point in the decade, the Hawks have held onto two of their picks, both of whom were swingmen (DerMarr and Diaw). They traded one pick for a swingman (Big Dog), one for a PF who can play the 3 ('Reef), and their biggest offseason signing in those years was yet another swingman (S-Jax)  So what do you do when you have two picks in this year's first round?  You guessed it, take two more swingmen!  They take Josh Childress at #6 and then luck out when Josh Smith plummets to them at #17. They revamp their roster, shipping Jackson out for Harrington, Terry and the Sixers pick they got earlier for Antoine Walker.

2005: Midway through the season, they dealt Walker for Gary Payton and a first round pick and then dumped Payton who went back to the Celtics. Needless to say, the team was terrible again and had another high lottery pick which they couldn't, I mean COULDN'T spend on another swingman, could they? Despite taking five swingmen in the last six years (and three in the last two), despite just trading Jackson for Al Harrington, despite the fact that they were gearing up to offer max money to swingman Joe Johnson, the Hawks decide to pass on PG Chris Paul in favor of Marvin Williams.

This brings us to this year. They didn't trade Al Harrington at the midseason deadline so they'll likely lose him via free agency. The signing of Zaza Pachulia was solid but unspectacular while Josh Smith has emerged as a star. Things are looking bright but not bright enough for the Hawks to be considered a real contender for the playoffs. As for the draft, if the Atlanta Hawks select Brandon Roy or Rudy Gay, something must be done to stop them. 

On a side note, has any single trade brought down a team as much as Steve Smith for Isaiah Rider? During the five years of the Smith Era, the Hawks' record was 225 - 157 and they never failed to miss the playoffs.  Isaiah Rider came in, warded off fans and teammates and coaches alike and started the Hawks down a spiral.  In the eight years since the deal, they've amassed a 188 - 391 record.  This team is a perfect example of how just drafting talent is not always the best idea. Once in a while you have to make sure that talent fits your team need.