A Defensive Initiative
The Hawks recently made several changes to their squad, no blockbuster trade or anything, but significant enough to turn some eyes and numerous in numbers. We’ll firstly look at the departures before anything. Larry Drew, head coach of the Atlanta Hawks was recently fired, shocking the bulk of the NBA and replaced with relatively new coach, Jackie Parks. The change can mainly be attributed to Josh Smith, much like the recent Dwightmare, it seemed he wasn’t getting along with Larry and in a desperate bid to hold on to their star power forward, they decided to cut ties with Larry Drew who opted not to comment on the matter. Other than that, Johan Petro, Jordan Williams, John Jenkins and Anthony Tolliver were all placed on waivers today, freeing up four spots on the squad.
The team did not waste time in replacing those players by signing 26 year old point guard, Sundiata Gaines to a 1 year, $1.41M contract. The young point guard doesn’t look like much of an acquisition at first glance but looking at his stats, you’ll notice the 1 steal per game. That’s 2.5 steals per game in per 36 minutes average, a top notch NBA stat. He won’t see much time, perhaps not even the 14 minutes he saw with the Nets last year, but he’ll still be a tough point guard to get past in a league full of skilled guards. He’ll be playing behind the duo of Devin Harries and Jeff Teague.
The rather empty small forward position is no longer blank. Mickael Pietrus was added to the squad and he’s looking to start for the team, not only is he a tremendous scorer but he can also defend the best. Look for him to knock the occasional three and get that occasional steal. He’s not going to be the focus of the squad, so his role is simply to find a way to stop the likes of LeBron James and Kevin Durant (if that’s possible) and find an open spot at the three point line.
His back-up will be Maurice Evans, another solid three-point/perimeter defender meaning when Mickael Pietrus is out, it’s like he really isn’t and vice-versa. It should be a seamless transition between the two who have a rather similar game. The only downside to the Hawks small forward position has to be their height of 6’6” and 6’5” but they’re obviously hoping that their toughness can make up for it.
Finally, Chris Andersen was signed to the team, and it’ll obviously be a battle between Zaza Pachulia and Chris Andersen on who gets to start. If this new defensive initiative is anything to go off of, then it doesn’t look like Zaza will be getting many minutes.
A more insignificant exchange can be seen in the trade that sends three-point shooter, Kyle Korver to the New Orleans Hornets along with a 2014 second round draft pick for a 2013 second round draft pick from the Hornets.
Those are all the mini-changes the Hawks have done, now it’s a matter of seeing if these guys can transition seamlessly, and if they can truly become the defensive stoppers they intend to be.