Crash Course

The 2004-05 Hawks learned some hard but valuable lessons.

By Jon Cooper

13-69.

Those numbers will be forever associated with the 2004-05 Atlanta Hawks.

While the Hawks’ 13 wins were the fewest in the NBA and a franchise-low, there was little head-hanging as the players and coaches parted ways for the Summer.

“We would have liked things to have been better, but they weren’t,” said Hawks Executive Vice President and General Manager Billy Knight. “You can’t sit around and make excuses or complain. You just move on. The Draft is the next thing on our books so that’s what we’re working on.”

“It was a long season in that I expected to win more games than we won,” agreed first-year head coach Mike Woodson. “But there were some positive signs behind this season because our young guys have gotten a lot better in the time since we ventured out last summer with them after we drafted them, taking them out to Utah. It was a slow process. We made some changes early. We started [rookie forward Josh] Childress early but he struggled so sat him down and tried to regroup him. We brought Josh Smith along slowly and they were starting for us the last 30 some-odd games.”

The Hawks opened 2004-05 with four rookies and 10 new faces on the roster, as well as a completely new coaching staff. Adjusting would take time, something the unforgiving NBA simply does not allow — the schedule makers threw the Hawks right into the fire, starting them on with a West Coast swing with games at Phoenix, Seattle and the Lakers.

Of the five players that took the floor for the season-opening tap back on Nov. 3, only center Jason Collier was in the starting lineup when the season closed in Philadelphia on April 20. Two of those starters, point guard Kenny Anderson and forward Antoine Walker veterans brought in to lead the club, weren’t with the club anymore.

But while lighter on experience, the Hawks team that took the floor for the season finale was a hungrier group, eager to learn and to find their way in the NBA.

The Hawks took their share of lumps, losing 23 games by at least 15 points. But they also showed a competitive desire, as 18 times they carried leads into the final 12 minutes. Unfortunately, learning to win is one of the NBA’s hardest lessons and Atlanta went 8-10 in those games.

“People say it’s hard to win and I thought it would be. But I never thought it would be this hard,” said Childress, who played in 80 games and led Hawks rookies with 10.1 points a game.

The team’s first pick in the 2004 Draft (sixth overall), Childress worked his way into the starting lineup and steadily increased his productivity over the season’s second half. In 42 starts he averaged 13.0 points per game, 7.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals.

“I definitely felt more confident and felt more comfortable,” said Childress, who had 11 double-doubles over his final 33 games and scored a career-high 26 points on April 1 against Boston. “That came with more playing time and more expectations of scoring and rebounding.”

Josh Smith, the team’s second 2004 first-round selection (17th overall) was equally spectacular. He led NBA rookies in blocked shots and his 1.95 blocks per game were 12th in the entire league. On Dec. 12, against the Dallas Mavericks, he put on a shot-blocking clinic, swatting away 10 shots without committing a personal foul. At 19 years 13 days, he became the youngest player ever to record 10 blocks in a game and he was only the third player in NBA history to block 10 shots in a game without committing a foul.

Then, at All-Star Weekend, he did something that only two other Hawks had ever done— win the Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk Competition. He sealed the deal by performing a vintage Dominique Wilkins windmill slam while wearing his boyhood hero’s replica jersey.

Personal accolades aside, Smith realizes his NBA education is far from complete.

“I learned a lot this season,” said Smith, who finished with a flurry, averaging 15.7 points and 8.3 rebounds over the final 12 games. “Just being able to defend. They go after you from the jump. When they see a high-school player or a first-round player they just set isolation plays, different plays for you to see if you can defend.

“When I started knocking down the jump shot they started playing me looser,” he added. “That kind of opened it up to me. It made it harder to guard me. I want to improve that and my dribbling. My whole game needs polishing.”

Second-round picks Donta Smith and Royal Ivey saw less action than the Joshes, primarily due to injuries, but each got enough exposure to the NBA to get a solid base for next season.

“Overall it was great,” said Smith. “Some guys in their rookie year don’t really get the chance to play but we all got a chance to play so we all got our feet wet for next season. Next year we’ll all know what to expect and we know what we have to do in the off-season to make it better.”

While the rookies learned what it takes to make it in the NBA, Al Harrington learned what being the team’s go-to guy entails. Expected to complement Walker, he was handed the team’s reins once Walker was traded to Boston on Feb. 24.

Harrington was limited to 66 games by right knee tendonitis, that forced him to miss 15 games, including the final nine, but he still put up career-best numbers in points (17.5, up seven a game from his career average), rebounds (7.0, up from 5.3 career), assists (3.2, up from 1.4) and minutes (38.6, up from 25.8 career).

Recognizing that the Hawks are now his team, Harrington plans to waste little time in asserting his authority.

“This off-season I’m going to actively push everybody that’s going to be in this uniform to come in here and work hard,” he said. “Next year we have to win more games. That’s our main goal. I don’t care about anybody’s individual stats. That’s the bottom line.

“Last year was a rough one but we learned a lot and I’m looking forward to next year,” he added. “There are a lot of good things to come for the Hawks. We didn’t find them this year but I feel like we gained experience and the young guys will be more prepared are ready to take their games to the next level.”

Veteran point guard Tyronn Lue, acquired in a Dec. 23 trade with Houston, showed he has what it takes to be a starting point guard. He set career highs in points (13.5, up five from his career average) and assists (5.3 apg., up from 3.2 career), while shooting a team-leading .362 percent from three-point range and showing dynamic leadership.

Besides Harrington, the rookies, Collier and possibly Lue, who is a free agent, the 2005-06 Hawks will have several new faces when they take the floor, but Knight is sure he’ll bring in the right ones.

“You definitely have to have the right guys,” he said. “They have to fit both in their abilities and their philosophies. The character issues are important. When you’re building your team the way we are it’s very important to have everything. Ability and all that is important but the other things surrounding that are all equally important to me.”

Woodson, who has Knight’s backing, knows he, too, must build on his first season as head coach.

“I’ll go back to the drawing board and start watching game tapes and assessing some of the things that I’ve done throughout the course of the season,” said Woodson. “We were in a lot of games where we just couldn’t sustain it over a 48-minute span. I take full responsibility for this season. I know that I have to work harder. The players that are going to be with us this summer have got to work harder.”

That message has already been received loud and clear.

13-69 may be the final word on the 2004-05 Atlanta Hawks, but it won’t be the last word from the young players that were part of the learning process the club went through.

“We have to have a big summer,” said Childress. “A really big summer and come back and make sure this doesn’t happen again to us.”

Jon Cooper is a freelance writer based in Atlanta