Rick Sund said what?

As our (three) loyal readers knew, last night we were treated to a Hawks game for the promotion of Hawks Blogger Night. While the social circle that was the Hawks bloggers were not afforded our due screen time on the jumbo-tron, we were able to enjoy the game from a suite, go down to the coach's post game press conference and talk to the Hawks General Manager, Rick Sund.

All of this was really great and we would like to extend a huge thanks to the organization (and Micah Hart) for allowing us this opportunity. A full review and more information regarding the event will likely follow from my colleague Speedy, but for now I'd like to give you some highlights from the Rick Sund conversation. A lot of this is not going to be direct quotes but I will try to give you the gist of what he said.

First he talked about him coming to the organization and what he wanted to do once he arrived with the Atlanta Hawks his main thing he emphasized was that he wanted to LISTEN to the organization and determine what would be in the best interests of the team. He talked to many people within the organization (including players) to try and hear what they felt like were good ideas and good recommendations for moving forward. He acknowledged that some change was needed but also some continuity. This was most evident in his approach to Woodson and his coaching staff. He believed that Woody had deserved to stay to see if he could take the team to another level but determined incremental improvements were needed especially to his staff. I believe this is where we see the addition of new coaches like Price being assembled and added to the staff.

Sund also determined that this team needed more veterans on the roster as was declared by Joe last year and sought to bring in some quality NBA journeymen. Without the draft picks this year he sought out older players through free agency that he felt like could help this team acheive what he described as "tangible objective goals." These goals were to make the playoffs with a winning record to show the league that the team is a legit contender. To acheive this goal the team would have establish a home court presence and win more than 25 games there. The team has 17 wins there already and has a very good chance of acheiving this goal. The other goal was to increase the road win total from last year's 12 wins to somewhere in the 15 - 20 win range. This would allow for let's say 18 wins away and around 30 wins at home giving the team 48 wins or very close to 50 wins which Sund equated to winning 90 games in baseball.

Of course someone asked about the contract situation regarding Mike Bibby and Sund answered the question in a typical general manager fashion - by declining to talk abou this during the season. He acknowledged that Bibby was a nice fit with the team and organization and that both sides were happy that he was here. Sund does not see any potential trades on the horizon (even going so far to tell us that one trade he worked on in Seattle took almost a year to finalize) and feels as if this team is pretty good and still has room to grow. He mentioned how hurt the team has been due to injuries this season (Smoove, Zaza, Horford, Marvin) and that the team has weathered these pretty well - a testament to both the team and the coaching staff. He next was asked a question regarding our lack of a quality big man to which Sund seemed agitated and proceeded to just rave about Al Horford (seriously like 5-7 mins about the guy). He felt that Horford was not playing out of position and that he is best suited for center in this league even going so far as to say a potential top 5 center in the league. And, get this, that Al would have probably made the All Star game at the center position if he had not gotten hurt. (This is very interesting considering opposing coaches vote for the other players to make the team so Al must have a great reputation in the league).

Sund then went to talk about the future of the team and that he likes what he sees in Acie Law, Solo Jones and (start laughing) Othello Hunter. In fact, to all the concerns about Acie not getting playing time, they knew when they signed Flip that it would cut into Acie's minutes but the team seems to be happy with his progress. He also mentioned that he loves the team chemistry and the fact that the players (specifically Joe) love the locker room and the guys in it. Sund would go on to say that he believes that three of our players have reached their full potential, Bibby, Joe, and Zaza, and that everyone else on the team has plenty of room to grow. In fact he believes that Smith, Horford and Marvin all SHOULD get better.

To the other minor issues which you fans would be concerned with, Sund said that he was not worried about the summer of 2010 with all the free agents that will be available (a big sigh of relief from me) and that the media was making this a bigger issue than it really was. When it comes to draft picks he does not really follow the workouts more on what they did in college and in fact likes to sit down with each pick and have film sessions to see what the players think. Lastly, there was no update on anything that could happen with Childress and trust me that question was asked.

So there you have it. A somewhat brief review of what went on behind closed doors with Rick Sund and all your favorite Hawks bloggers. As you can see he was very open with us regarding the team and his feelings about where the team can go from here. After our little meeting, he went down to the seats and not a single fan turned their head or acknowledged that the GM was walking past him. Such seems to be the life of the Atlanta Hawks GM, meeting with bloggers who criticize his every move then allowed to slip into anoynmity in his team's own arena.