Budenholzer not looking to blow up Hawks' core
Though they made some waves at the trade deadline with their reported willingness to entertain offers for Al Horford, Jeff Teague, and Kyle Korver, it doesn't seem like the Atlanta Hawks were ever serious about busting up their core.
Unfortunately for the Hawks' president and head coach Mike Budenholzer, that decision isn't entirely in his hands. Two key members of this year's squad - Horford and Kent Bazemore - are impending free agents who will command big money on the open market. Teague, Korver, Paul Millsap, and Dennis Schroder will all be in the same position a year from now.
After getting swept out of the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second straight season, the Hawks find themselves at a bit of a crossroads, with a roster that has a high floor but a limited ceiling. Budenholzer would still rather leave the structure intact than raze it to the ground and start building from scratch.
"Losing to Cleveland twice is tough," Budenholzer said Monday, according to ESPN's Ohn Youngmisuk. "But to the fan base, to people who think (about making major changes), if we want to find a way to beat, whether it be Cleveland or whoever the great teams in the league or our conference are, blowing it up is probably not the way to beat a team like Cleveland."
The future of Horford, who appears likely to command a max contract this summer, is the Hawks' biggest immediate decision. The 29-year-old said immediately after the team's playoff ouster that he's not thinking about free agency yet, but insisted that he loves the city of Atlanta. He added Monday that he's waiting for the Hawks' front office to make the first move.
"I'm just going to wait and see what Coach and (general manager) Wes (Wilcox) feel like we need to do," Horford said. "I'm sure they will talk to me at some point. Paul (Millsap) and some of our leaders, they usually run things by us. That is important to do. But they have some big decisions to make."
Another big one involves Teague, who was the subject of a handful of trade rumors ahead of the deadline. Reports suggested the Hawks felt comfortable making Schroder their starting point guard moving forward, and that seemed evident in the Cleveland series, when Schroder averaged seven fourth-quarter minutes to Teague's five. In the final minutes of Game 4, as the Hawks fought to try keep their season alive, Schroder ran the offense while Teague stayed nailed to the bench.
However, Budenholzer is trying not to make any rash decisions based on one series and one opponent. As he correctly notes, every non-Cavs team in the Eastern Conference is dealing with the same conundrum. And the Hawks - who've won 108 combined games the last two regular seasons - may be as close as any of those other teams to solving it.
"We value continuity, we value what this group has done, the success that they have had," Budenholzer said. "And a lot of times continuity is your best hope in taking that next step. Can you have a balance of continuity and some additions and bolster it and walk that fine line of adding and embracing continuity?
"So if the question is about beating somebody, I guess for five or six years, whatever team LeBron James has been on, the East has been trying to figure out how to beat that team. We are just like the rest of the East right now, and that is the challenge."