About a week after Danny Ferry departed, the Atlanta Hawks went through their first draft with a new group of leadership in place. The new structure produced mixed results, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The Hawks took Kelly Oubre Jr. in the first round, but traded him to the Knicks for Tim Hardaway Jr. before making a few second round picks.
New Hawks owner Tony Ressler is comfortable with coach Mike Budenholzer, assistant GM Wes Wilcox and CEO Steve Koonin making the decisions, but the absence of Ferry -- who had been with the team for three years -- is still notable.
From Jeff Schultz of AJC Sports:
- "'I came to the conclusion that this was a franchise that was starting a new chapter, and to start a new chapter with a new ownership, with a single voice, with clear direction and with stability and having what was working,' Ressler said in an interview with Atlanta Journal-Constitution editors and staff members. 'What we saw working was Bud-Wes-Steve. That’s what we bought into and that’s what we liked.' But Ressler left out of one thing: Ferry acquired most of the players and hired Budenholzer and Wilcox. The post-Ferry era officially started Thursday night in the draft and the results were … interesting. They drafted 15th overall, took Kansas small forward Kelly Oubre, then traded him to Washington for the 19th pick and two future second-rounders. They drafted Notre Dame point guard Jerian Grant at 19th, then traded him to the New York Knicks for shooting guard Tim Hardaway, Jr. So effectively, the Hawks made four moves that started with the 15th pick in the draft and ended with a shooting guard who likely will come off the bench and is entering the final year of his contract. Twitter was confused. Twitter was angry."
