“One-hundred percent — I wanted to …

“One-hundred percent — I wanted to stay,” Len said in a phone interview this week. “I like the coaching staff. I liked my teammates. Everyone was cool. It really had a family feel to it. Last year, you could see the trajectory was going up. Everyone was getting better towards the end of the season. The way we started this season — I think the mistake we had was we had too many young guys. I didn’t think we had enough veterans and leadership on the team. This season didn’t work out as planned, so they had to make changes. It’s a business, so I understood they had to do it.” Schlenk didn’t give him an answer for why he traded Len for Dedmon. That caught Len by surprise because he could not foresee the Hawks bringing in another center when they had just acquired one. He didn’t understand the move for Atlanta because Schlenk didn’t want to commit long term to Dedmon last summer when his contract expired.