Tag: Travis Schlenk

Hawks GM hints at trades

Atlanta Hawks General Manager Travis Schlenk was not in a good mood this morning. During his interview on 92.9 FM The Game, Schlenk scorched the earth. Apparently, fans are not the only ones unhappy with the first half of the Hawks season. Schlenk said bluntly, “It’s a hard pill to swallow when you’re team isn’t playing as well as you think it should. Maybe I should lower my expectations for this team.” He’s not wrong. Last year, the team made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. This season, they are flirting with the Draft Lottery. The Hawks porous defense is near the bottom of the league, and that’s clearly wearing on their GM. “There’s no sense of urgency to make a stop. There’s no sense of accountability that ‘I’m going to stop my guy.’ It’s just not there… it doesn’t bother them. I hope it’s a switch we can flip, but I don’t know at this point.”

Schlenk wasn’t even close to being …

Schlenk wasn’t even close to being done venting. “It’s just frustrating because we’ve seen this group have success. And, to see the group not make the necessary effort plays to win an NBA game, it’s just become frustrating.” “We have a few weeks before the trade deadline here, and this is what I need to figure out. It’s my responsibility to put a product on the floor that can win, and right now, I’m not sure I have done that,” said Schlenk.

Another part of your job is the …

Another part of your job is the constant communication you have with your GM Travis Schlenk and your owner, Tony Ressler. How often are you in conversations with Travis and Tony? Lloyd Pierce: Travis and I have short conversations daily. He’ll send his joke my way. I’ll send my complaint or criticism his way one day and we’ll laugh everything off, or we’ll just strategize on what we should be doing right now. We talk about everything. I think the strength of our relationship has been that we keep each other up to date on both of our worlds because they’re all going to overlap. If I need to know something about Kevin Huerter, Travis got the information from his agent. It’s a good heads up. It’s a really positive relationship to have, so no one’s really ever caught off guard.

Bob Myers joined the “Bonta, Steiny & …

Bob Myers joined the “Bonta, Steiny & Guru” show and was asked when he knew Steph was destined for superstardom. The Warriors’ general manager revealed his “aha moment” came during Game 2 of the Warriors’ Western Conference semifinals matchup vs. the San Antonio Spurs in 2013. “He came off a screen at the top and he took a one-footed 3-point shot — in the halfcourt,” Myers explained. “I looked at Travis (Schlenk) — our assistant GM at the time — and said, ‘Did he just shoot that off one foot?’ It looked so natural. I said, ‘This guy is different man.’”

But one way the NBA could alleviate the …

But one way the NBA could alleviate the potential for an Olympic problem is to get away from the player-friendlier scheduling models used in recent seasons that greatly lowered back-to-backs and eliminated the dreaded stretches of four games in five nights. If the league did that, it could buy some time and possibly make the Olympics fit on some player and coach schedules. “They’ve talked to us on our team calls that it might be a condensed schedule next year, more so than in the past,” said Atlanta general manager Travis Schlenk, whose coach — Lloyd Pierce — is also scheduled to be a USA Basketball assistant next summer along with Kerr and Villanova’s Jay Wright.

Atlanta Hawks GM Travis Schlenk says team won’t draft on positional need

Despite having arguably the best young point guard in the league, the Atlanta Hawks aren’t shying away from potentially drafting LaMelo Ball.

For the second consecutive season, the Atlanta Hawks find themselves in the top five in the NBA Draft. Already armed with Trae Young and with a draft full of guards at the top, selecting a player like LaMelo Ball could be seen as creating an odd fit in the backcourt.

However, given the current state of their rebuild, an argument could also be made for simply drafting the best player available. Atlanta Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk held a conference call on Tuesday and addressed his team’s gameplan heading into the 2020 NBA Draft, noting that they won’t be making draft picks solely on positional need.

Via Brad Rowland/Peachtree Hoops:

“Certainly when we’re picking in the top eight, we’re not going to draft a guy based on positional need. We’re going to try to take the guy we think is the best player for us and that is going to fit in with our team. I do think, when you get back into the second round, or late in the draft like we’ll have a pick in the 50’s, then there might be a situation where if you have two guys of similar ability, you might take the guy who fills a need then. Because now you’re thinking about roster depth and things of that nature. But, at the top of the draft, we’ll certainly focus on who we think’s got the chance to be the most impactful player.”

A Ball/Young backcourt is certainly an intriguing idea. While both would be glaring negatives defensively, they would have the potential to not only be one of the best young pairings but one of the best offensive backcourt in the whole league.

Depending on where the Hawks land in the draft lottery, Ball may make the most sense. It’s likely that Ball wouldn’t be the top prospect on their big board with someone like James Wiseman making a bit more sense even if the team isn’t drafting on positional need. But if the team lands third, one spot above the current fourth they sit in the draft lottery, and Wiseman and Anthony Edwards are off the board, passing over Ball because the team already has a point guard would likely be a regrettable move.

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