Atlanta Hawks Offseason Moves

No matter what happens during this playoff series between the Hawks and the Heat, the Atlanta organization has work to do this off season. The Hawks play eight players consistently: Mike Bibby, Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Flip Murray, Mo Evans, and Zaza Pachulia.

Half of these players are going to be free agents this off season, and for the Hawks to succeed they have to resign all of them, or fill their role with another similar player.    Bibby, Williams, Murray, and Pachulia have expiring contracts adding up to approximately $27 million.

The first player the Hawks need to look at resigning is Marvin Williams. Williams is 24-years-old and has significantly improved his game from last season. He has become a consistent three point threat and is Atlanta’s best on ball defender. He complements Horford and Smith well in the front court and the three have chemistry together. 

Since all three are under the age of 25, I think it would be best to keep these three players together and hope for the best. The only problem is Williams is going to be getting a decent sized raise from his rookie contract that just expired. 

He was making less then $6 million this past season and will request a deal similar to the one Josh Smith received last season. I say give him a 4-5 year deal worth $40-45 million. I think this would be a fair deal for both parties.

The next big thing to discuss is the point guard situation. For the 2009-2010 season the Hawks have Acie Law as their only point guard on the roster. This isn’t a good thing. I think the Hawks need to address this issue with one of their draft picks, but they will still need a temporary solution for at least the next couple of seasons.

Jason Kidd, Mike Bibby, and Andre Miller are all coming off of contracts that paid them eight figures last season and all three will have to take less money to find a team next season. The question is, should the Hawks attempt to sign one of these three players.  In my opinion they should not. 

This season, Bibby has been great at times on the offensive end of the court.  On the defensive end though he has been terrible. He is just to slow to keep up with most point guards nowadays. The same is a problem for Jason Kidd. Andre Miller isn’t much of a liability on the defensive end, but on the offensive end he is nowhere near as potent as Kidd or Bibby. 

All three have their faults. Instead of trying to sign one of these guys I think they should pursue a trade for Kirk Hinrich, Jordan Farmar, or Rafer Alston.  All three point guards should be on the trade market this off season. I will address this issue later on. 

The third and fourth free agents for the Hawks are Flip Murray and Zaza Pachulia.  Both players play crucial roles on the Hawks team, but neither are irreplaceable.  Flip only made $1.5 million this past season and will request a lot more money for  next season. 

I’m not sure he is worth it, so if I was the Hawks I would let him walk. Zaza is coming off a season where he made $4 million a season. Zaza gives full effort night in and night out and he also knows the system and his role in the system. I think if he would resign a similar contract then I would jump on resigning him. 

So, as of now the Hawks will have resigned Marvin Williams and Zaza Pachulia and let Bibby and Flip walk away.  Now comes the draft.  In the first round I think the Hawks should draft a point guard because this draft is full of young ones with loads of potential. 

At the Hawks pick in the middle to late 1st round the Hawks should be able to draft one of the following players: Ty Lawson, Johnny Flynn, Jeff Teague, Patrick Mills, or Stephan Curry. This pick would give the Hawks a player that they could develop and eventually become the point guard of the future alongside the young front court they have. 

In the second round the Hawks should draft Toney Douglas. Douglas is the reigning defensive player of the year in the ACC and led his team on the offensive end of the court as well. He is a combo guard much like Flip Murray is, except with better defensive abilities. He’d be a favorite of Woodson automatically just because of his defensive abilities. 

After the draft the Hawks should reassess their roster. They will have two rookies in the three deep depth chart at point guard and an unproven third year player at the top of that list That is why they would need to seek a trade. 

The Hawks have four assets to offer: Acie Law, Mo Evans, the rights to Speedy Claxton and the rights to Josh Childress. I think the Hawks should originally contact Chicago in efforts to acquire Kirk Hinrich.  The rights to Josh Childress might be enough to do it.  Rumor has it that Childress isn’t happy in Greece and is looking to get back into the United States at all costs. 

The Bulls could use a good defensive oriented wing off the bench to complement Luol Deng and John Salmons.  His versatility would also be extremely useful to the Bulls. 

But, if Hinrich is unattainable, then I would go after Jordan Farmar from the Los Angeles Lakers. The last half of the season Phil Jackson has been using Shannon Brown as his backup point guard almost exclusively, thus leaving Farmar as third string.  Farmar is a decent point guard, he just needs a change of scenery. 

The Hawks could trade Mo Evans for Farmar straight up, and I think the Lakers would bite on the deal. Evans has played on the Lakers previously and would give them better three point shooting as well as decent wing defense.  Atlanta could throw in Acie Law as well if they need to entice the Lakers with a little bit more. 

Also if the Hawks end up doing this deal they could bring back over Josh Childress and use him to their own advantage. Before the arrival of Bibby, there were several late game scenarios when Josh Childress was used at point guard to play alongside Johnson, Williams, Smith, and Horford. This lineup could be used again, especially for defensive purposes. 

With these moves the Hawks depth chart would be as followed:

Point Guard- Jordan Farmar-1st round pick-Toney Douglas
Shooting Guard-Joe Johnson-Toney Douglas-Mario West
Small Forward-Marvin Williams-Josh Childress
Power Forward-Josh Smith-Zaza Pachulia-Solomon Jones
Center-Al Horford-Zaza Pachulia-Randolph Morris

With this lineup the Hawks would get even younger, but have even more potential to make a run deeper in the playoffs.