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Home , Deni Avdija, Devin Vassell, Isaac Okoro, Onyeka Okongwu, Travis Schlenk

THE ATHLETIC DATE: 11/16/2020

Schultz: putting on pressure for Hawks to take a leap

By: Jeff Schultz https://theathletic.com/2201724/2020/11/16/atlanta-hawks-tony-ressler-nba-draft-nba-free-agency/

Like most self-made billionaires, and others with the word “tycoon” in their wiki-bio, Hawks owner Tony Ressler is wired differently than most of us. Patience is not his best trait. Limbs flail in all directions during games. When he’s at home, he furiously scribbles reams of notes on yellow legal pads, often underlining sentences several times, to be read back later to his and coach. , his wife, believes he’s borderline OCD, and even though she’s an actress and doesn’t hold a medical degree, “I once played a doctor on television.”

She said it’s bad enough at times that when they’re watching a televised game at their home in , “I’m like, you know what? Give your shit to some other people, I’m done. I’m going to bed.”

This is an important week for the Hawks. The draft is Wednesday night and free agency opens two days later. They pick only sixth, and they’re not going to blow things out in free agency, even though they’re more than $43 million below the salary cap. But because of their pick and payroll flexibility, they’re somewhat the flavor of the week when it comes to being potential trade partners for other teams. has an enormous opportunity to build on a young core by adding one or two veteran players to the roster and become not just a playoff team but a pretty good one.

The Hawks need to. Now.

This isn’t to suggest the Hawks can’t be good for a while. , and De’Andre Hunter are 22, John Collins is 23, 21. But salaries go up, Collins needs a new deal, dynamics change and — given Ressler wants this to be playoff team yesterday — the pressure on coach Lloyd Pierce and general manager will only increase. Players like Young are too good to waste.

Ressler is similar to Falcons owner Arthur Blank in that he is invested, emotionally as well as financially. That also means his employees can seldom relax.

I asked Schlenk how often Ressler phones or texts him.

“You mean today?” he responded.

In general, during this period.

“Several times a day,” he said. “That’s really one of the fortunate things we have is an owner who’s really passionate about. This is a big week. He wants us to be one of the model organizations in the NBA. He stays on me. He doesn’t give me much rest.”

Schlenk hasn’t been shy about moves. He will forever be second-guessed about the Young-Luka Doncic draft-day trade. Both players were All-Stars last season, but Doncic also was the Rookie of the Year in 2019 (Young was second) and an All-NBA first-team pick in 2020. Reddish, the third piece in that deal for the Hawks, looked more than legit when the regular season was cut short. But the ultimate grading of the trade may be: Who wins a title first? That’s up to ops.

This isn’t a star-filled draft. Schlenk said it’s more likely than not that the Hawks draft at their assigned positions of sixth and 50th. I relay that with three caveats: 1) General managers lie before drafts; 2) Everything is subject to change; 3) Did I mention general managers lie before drafts?

If the Hawks stay at No. 6, they could take Iowa State guard , as projected by The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie in his mock draft. Schlenk said it’s unlikely they will move up for any of the consensus top-three selections: LaMelo Ball — and it’s seldom a bad idea to steer clear of anybody related to LaVar — or ’s Anthony Edwards. Also in play for the Hawks at No. 6, via The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner: Maccabi forward , USC , Auburn wing and Florida State wings Patrick Williams and .

But a Hawks leap more likely would stem from what they do in the trade and free agency market than the draft. They need veterans. They need certainty and stability. They ranked last in the NBA in 3-point shooting (33.3 percent) and defense (119.7 points per game allowed). No need to wade deep into analytics to wonder why they went 20-47.

This isn’t a star-laden free agency class. But having so much cap space makes the Hawks attractive for teams looking to shed good players because of their contracts.

“We’ve always looked to take advantage of our cap space,” Schlenk said. “The difference is in the past we’ve taken on dead money to gain assets. This year we’re going to go out there and look to sign guys who we think mesh with our guys. So it’s turning the corner a little bit from asset accumulation to hopefully talent accumulation.”

Gertz, who has represented the Hawks at the past three draft lotteries, said in March, “My prayer is this is the last season picking the lottery.” That means making the playoffs.

The Hawks were submarined last season by Collins’ 25-game suspension (violation of the NBA’s drug policy after testing positive for a growth hormone), as well as injuries and a couple of miscalculations by Schlenk. A pair of 10-game losing streaks dropped them to 6-27. They went 14-20 the rest of the season, including 5-6 in the final three weeks.

Schlenk didn’t issue any guarantees but said of a relative playoff mandate: “We won’t run from that.”

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