Who Is Rick Sund - Atlanta Hawks New GM

In case you didn't know the Atlanta Hawks have hired Rick Sund as their new GM. I guess the young upstart GMs didn't want to come to Hotlanta. Their loss.

I heard on the local radio station that the host did not know who Rick Sund is. The short answer is that he is one of the worst GMs in the NBA but a upgrade over Billy Knight and a huge upgrade over what was supposedly the front running candidate Billy King.

What can we expect from this new GM. Experience in handling unstable ownership (ala Seattle) and more amiable personality on the radio.

What else? As you will see below, his draft history is worse than Billy Knight's! His penchant for project players make him a liability. He does a great job of cleaning up messes with trades, but sometimes he doesn't make the right decision.

My biggest fear is that the utterly retarded Rashard Lewis move repeats itself with Josh Smith.

Here's a rundown of his moves.

• 2/03 -Sund took advantage of the Ray Allen/Michael Redd situation in Milwaukee by stealing Ray Ray away, only giving up a washed-up point guard (Gary Payton) and a guy who still can’t shoot (Desmond Mason). However, Allen is a guy who commands max money but doesn’t provide max results.
• 7/03 – He did a fair job landing two serviceable players in the unspectacular Nick Collison (#12) and the wispy Luke Ridnour (#14), but neither guy has developed into an established starter. In that draft, Sund passed on the likes of David West, Boris Diaw, Leandro Barbosa and Josh Howard. He’d trade both Collison and Ridnour for any of those guys in a heartbeat.
• In the next three drafts, Sund picked three project centers: Robert Swift (#12) in ’04, Johan Petro (#25) in ’05 and Saer Sene (#10) in ’06. In drafting these guys, he passed on Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, Delonte West, Tony Allen, Kevin Martin, David Lee and Marcus Williams. Swift is injured while Petro and Sene are combining for a dreadful 7.5 points and 5.4 rebounds this season. What a brutal draft run.
• 2/06 – Turning short timer Vladimir Radmanovic into Chris Wilcox was a nice move, though he hasn’t developed into a 15/10 guy like the Sonics hoped. The team may eventually regret re-signing him last summer.
• 2/06 – Sund acquired Earl Watson for Reggie Evans, trading toughness in the frontcourt for toughness in the backcourt. Watson is erratic but is a solid backup.
  
• 2/07 – Sund’s biggest mistake was not to trade Rashard Lewis before the deadline after deciding not to sign him to an extension before the season. Now it looks like Lewis will opt out this summer, which means the Sonics may get nothing in return for their stud swingman.

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