Hawks must hire GM after shakeup
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Hawks’ next general manager will have total authority over personnel decisions.
On Friday, the NBA franchise’s two-tier management team of Mike Budenholzer and Wes Wilcox folded.
Budenholzer resigned as the Hawks’ president of basketball operations and will remain as coach, while Wilcox resigned as general manager and “will become an adviser to ownership.” Budenholzer will remain involved in personnel decisions, but principal owner Tony Ressler stressed the new GM will be in charge.
“I think we as a franchise need more firepower to get to the next level,” said Ressler, who hopes to have a new GM before the June 22 NBA draft and the start of free agency.
After saying two weeks ago he had confidence in the team’s leadership with Budenholzer and Wilcox, Ressler said “it became painfully obvious” changes were needed after meeting with each of the two.
“I thought then and now that Bud is a heck of a basketball coach and Wes has a great basketball mind,” Ressler said. “But I also felt after these in-depth discussions with both of them it became quite clear to me that we could be better.”
The changes come after the Hawks dipped to 43-39 this season and lost to the Washington Wizards in the opening round of the playoffs.
Budenholzer was promoted to president of basketball operations after a 60-win season in 2014-15, when the Hawks surprised by earning a No. 1 seed and reached the Eastern Conference finals before being swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Hawks’ results have declined since then, and in the last offseason, the management team of Budenholzer and Wilcox engineered moves that produced questionable results.
The team signed Kent Bazemore to a four-year, $70 million deal and signed center Dwight Howard to a three-year, $70.5 million deal. Point guard Jeff Teague was traded to clear the path for Dennis Schroder at point guard, and longtime center Al Horford signed with Boston as a free agent.
Howard averaged 8 points and 10.7 points in the first-round series, which went six games, while Bazemore averaged 9.8 and 3.8. In two of those games, Howard did not play in the fourth quarter.
Ressler said “I don’t think it’s fair” to say Budenholzer and Wilcox were forced to resign, saying the two also recognized the need for a change.
Ressler said when he asked Budenholzer and Wilcox how the team can improve, neither “felt we were operating to our best ability as a franchise. I would argue they were recognizing (the need for change) at least as clearly and early as I did, maybe earlier, and it became painfully obvious after discussions with each of them.”
Ressler said the team would conduct a “wideopen” search for a general manager. Rick Sund, a former Hawks GM who has remained a senior adviser with the team, will help coordinate the search but won’t be a candidate, Ressler said.
Former player Grant Hill, part of Ressler’s ownership team, also is not a candidate for a management role.
“He’s an owner, a friend and an adviser,” Ressler said.
“I think we as a franchise need more firepower to get to the next level.”
– HAWKS PRINCIPAL OWNER TONY RESSLER