Billy Knight And JJ: Promising Partnership Zettler Clay IV - 2nd March, 2006 12:36 PM Billy Knight has started a mission. Whether it is fulfilled is unknown, but the groundwork is in place. Knight, a Pittsburgh native, was brought aboard in 2002 by the former GM Pete Babcock as the Director of Operations of the Atlanta Hawks . Remember this team people? A roster which featured exorbitant salaries, as well as the underachieving unit of Glen Robinson, Theo Ratliff, Jason Terry, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Surely, this formidable squad would make the playoffs. You could even guarantee it. Well, to everyone’s surprise this team finished 35-47. That’s certainly not a playoff record and thus something had to be done. Upon Pete Babcock’s firing towards the end of the 2002-2003 season, Billy Knight was named General Manager. The operation was underway: Knight’s first major move was to trade Glen Robinson for essentially Terrell Brandon’s fat, although expiring contract, which came off of the books later in 2004 when he was released. Smart. Drafted Boris Diaw. Suspect. Traded Boris Diaw. I’ll get to this later. Traded for Rasheed Wallace, and then swiftly sent him to Detroit, but not without acquiring a first rounder, which provided us with J-Smoove. Clever. In two successive drafts the Hawks have drafted Josh Childress, Josh Smith (as mentioned above), Marvin Williams, and Salim Stoudamire. The core is set. When BK (the moniker commonly used for Billy Knight) arrived in Atlanta, we had already established a reputation as “the graveyard of basketball”. There was no chance of ever acquiring a big time, unselfish free agent to play in a town that notoriously rejects professional basketball as the sport of choice. Down here, football and baseball reign supreme. So with his in mind, BK decided to rebuild through the draft… This is where the Boris Diaw pick comes in. Boris Diaw was a relatively unknown product from France in whom BK saw something in. Whether it was the 7’0 wingspan or the 6’8 height with deft ball handling abilities, it is no secret now, why Billy drafted him. Only Boris is providing that revelation in Phoenix, not Atlanta. In the summer of 2005, the Hawks franchise would make a bold move. Joe Johnson, whom many people (myself included) thought the Hawks had no chance of signing, expressed interest in playing here. Joe no longer wanted to be the fourth cog in the most prolific offense in the NBA. Joe wanted to prove that his 17.1 points per game could be augmented with a primary role. Joe saw a chance to make his mark on a franchise that had been downtrodden with debt, apathy, and ignominy. Joe wanted to get paid. Either one of those choices would suffice. Billy Knight used a busted first round pick to bring in a potential superstar. Few people, like myself, wonder if Boris Diaw was really holding himself back in Atlanta (or was he being held back?). Of course, it does no good looking back. Boris was never going to do what he is doing for Phoenix in Atlanta; and whether Phoenix fans want to believe it or not, Diaw is not Joe Johnson. Phoenix was going to win regardless. Boris is along for the ride with the guy who deserves to be MVP once again (Steve Nash). JJ has proven this year that Steve Nash was not the reason for his emergence. Boris Diaw is simply proving otherwise. I know that is unfair to his talents, but until Boris does his thing elsewhere, then this will be an implicit note to his career. Which brings us to BK and the Hawks current situation. Ask any NBA insider not in Atlanta and they will tell you the same thing: we have talent at all the same positions. We should have drafted Chris Paul. We have no true point guard. JJ hears these comments. The role of a point guard is the responsibility of a primary ball handler, team leader, and getting others involved. Joe Johnson fits all of those. Those who watch the Hawks on a regular basis know the reason that we lose. It isn’t because we turnover the ball too much in crunch time, or we don’t have anybody to make plays. Our defeats occur in that paint, where we are last in the league in defensive rebounding (27 per game) and allow teams to shoot 48% percent from the field. When your small forward is probably your best rebounder and shot blocker, then a big man issue is present. Don’t get me wrong, a quality point guard will help this team, but interior defense is what we need the most and is what wins championships. Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Detroit are teams in recent years who have won with “non-traditional” point guards but they had outstanding interior defense. Blaming the Hawks issues on passing up on Chris Paul is erroneous and negligent. The deficiency lies on defense. Chris Paul would have been a fix, a band aid to the discrepancies of Mike Woodson’s team. He would have been a very good fix, no doubt about it, but the organization decided to go in a different direction. You could attribute the fact that small forward is the position that BK has excelled in for the reason that he has such an affinity for them. His partiality to 6’8 players could prove to be detrimental. Or maybe he knows what he is doing. Stocking a team with enough players who can run and jump can’t be too bad, considering that these are two of the most basic actions in basketball. All that’s required to make some noise in this league is cohesion and height mixed with bulk, which is what he seems intent to do. This summer, a lot of the answers will be provided about the path of this team. Year 3 of rebuilding plans are always the most pivotal. Time will prove his genius or culpability. But regardless of what will happen, his acquisition of Joe Johnson set this team in the right direction. That much is certain. 资料来源 http://0rz.net/401aD --

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