Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Hawks Hire Mike Budenholzer As New Head Coach

       The Atlanta Hawks have decided to go in a new direction. They have hired San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mike Budenholzer to coach the Hawks. Budenholzer was an assistant with San Antonio since 1996 and has won four NBA Finals with the Spurs.

Budenholzer coaching Tony Parker in San Antonio
      Larry Drew had a 230-128 career record with the Hawks. He was hired to replace Mike Woodson in 2010. Drew led Atlanta to the second round once but also has two first round exits. This season he did a great job of coaching a team that traded allstar Joe Johnson last summer and played without sixth man Lou Williams due to injury. Atlanta also played without Zaza Pachulia in the playoffs.

      Mike Budenholzer was mentored by Spurs head coach Gregg Papovich. He won all four of his championships with San Antonio. Budenholzer has been privileged to be able to coach great players such as David Robinson, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobli. San Antonio won the Finals in 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007.

      Hawks' GM Danny Ferry was the Vice President of Basketball operations with the Spurs from 2010-2012 so he knows Budenholzer very well. They will look to take the Spurs' winning tradition and transition that into the Hawks' franchise.

      It will be a busy offseason for Budenholzer and Ferry. The Hawks have two first round picks in next month's draft. They hold picks 17 and 18. They also have $30 million in cap space. They will look to sign a superstar such as Chris Paul or Dwight Howard to take Atlanta in the right direction in order to build a championship caliber team.

   The Hawks hired a coach with experience from a winning team and will look to take what he learned from San Antonio and use that to bring success to the organization.-Yuriy A.

1 comment:

  1. An excellent insight into the the future of Ferry's plans for the Hawks. He certainly has the resources to make over the team, but it remains uncertain that he will be able to convince a super star to come to the ATL.

    Tom

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