A perennial lottery team with a roster full of young players and a GM under constant scrutiny by both the media and a frustrated fan base.  No; I am not talking about Chris Mullin and the Golden State Warriors, although the similarities are staggering, I am talking about The Atlanta Hawks and their embattled General Manager Billy Knight.  Although his approach was a bit different than Mullin's has been in Oakland, Knight has been constantly second guessed about his decision making process and his plan for success during his tenure as the Hawks GM.  Knight has been on the job a year longer than Mullin, and he has far more prior experience as an NBA executive, but the two men seem to share a common philosophy about how to build a championship team. 

Both Knight and Mullin were greatly influenced by their association with the Indiana Pacers organization in the late 90's.  With a roster featuring Mullin, Reggie Miller, Derrick McKey, Jalen Rose, Rick Smits, Dale Davis, Austin Croshere, Al Harrington, Sam Perkins, Travis Best and Mark Jackson The Pacers won three straight division championships and eventually reached The NBA finals in 2000 under head coach Larry Bird with Knight serving as an executive in the Basketball Operations department under GM Donnie Walsh.  Both men share a desire to put together a deep roster of versatile players capable of playing multiple positions with interchangeable roles.  Both teams have head coaches with unwavering support from management despite no prior experience running a team and no tangible on-court results.  Both men have not yet been able to show any progress in terms of wins and losses and both have failed to communicate a clear vision to the media or the fans of what their plans to turn things around might be.   Instead, they employ a tight lipped “wait and see” approach to dealing with public relations.  The moves they make sometimes contradict what appears to be obvious in terms of team needs or best available talent, yet both men are steadfast in their resolve and almost stubborn in sticking with a plan even when greater opportunities appear to present themselves.  Unfortunately, they are the only ones who know what that plan is.     

Knight is entering his fourth season as Master and Commander of the Hawks after a brief one year stint as an assistant to Pete Babcock.   Unlike Mullin, Knight burst on the scene with guns blazing and went into a complete rebuilding mode in Atlanta.  His plan of gaining financial flexibility while building a core of young talented players through the draft seemed to be working up until recently when he made some critical errors in judgment.   Even though everybody inside and outside of the organization knew how badly the team needed a Point Guard to compliment the core of versatile and skilled young wing players already on the roster, Knight elected to pass on Chris Paul and Derron Williams in the 2005 draft in favor of yet another versatile forward, North Carolina's Marvin Williams.  In the short term, this was a PR disaster as Paul went on to win rookie of the year honors and guide the young Hornets out of obscurity and nearly into the playoffs in his first season.  Knight saw the writing on the wall and quickly went into self preservation mode.  He knew that if Marvin Williams did not become an elite forward in the league within the next two years that his decision to pass on Paul would cost him his job and his reputation.   

As the 2006 draft approached it became apparent that Knight had ditched his philosophy of taking the best available talent and instead decided that now was the time to address the need for interior defense and a true power forward/center to patrol the paint in Atlanta.  News leaked out that Knight had an agreement already in place to select Duke Power Forward Shelden Williams with the fifth pick.  This move made no sense on several levels. If you Consider the fact that Williams was not even expected to be drafted until several spots later and the possibility of more talented players like Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay and Randy Foye all being available, why on earth would you lock yourself into selecting Williams several weeks before the draft?   Nobody can answer this question other than Knight, and he will not admit to anything.  He denies that any deal was made, but the fact remains he passed on all those other players to select Williams with the fifth pick.  Perhaps if he didn't promise Shelden, he could have kept his intentions a secret and worked out a deal with one of the many teams trying to move up and acquire Roy or Gay on draft day?  At the end of the day it’s tough to look the fans in the eye and say…”yeah, we could have had a backcourt of Chris Paul, Brandon Roy and Joe Johnson with Josh Childress, Josh Smith and Al Harrington, but I felt we would be better in the long run with Marvin and Shelden Williams”.  Not even Knight can make that statement with a straight face. 

As the 2006 season approached for the Warriors, Mullin didn’t have the luxury of passing on any of the top talent in the draft and in the end, he determined that Ronnie Brewer or Rodney Carney were not talented enough to pass on the possible upside of young Center Patrick O’bryant from Bradley University.  The biggest need for the roster was a long athletic frontcourt player capable of running with Baron Davis and Jason Richardson. Mullin set his sights on former teammate and Atlanta Hawk free agent Al Harrington.  Ironically the paths of all these former Pacers would converge in a bizarre but predictable love triangle between the two executives and their former boss and mentor Donnie Walsh.   

 Harrington, a member of that Eastern Conference Championship Pacers team, is beloved by all of the parties involved.  Mullin feels that the young Warriors could be one or two key pieces away from gelling together for an extended playoff run and Harrington would fit perfectly with the pieces that he already has in place.  Walsh wanted Harrington so badly that he negotiated with the Hornets to receive a sizeable trade exception in the Peja Stojakovic deal in order to have an asset in which the Hawks would be interested in so they could acquire Harrington in a sign and trade.  Knight really doesn't care where Al ends up since he has already decided that he isn't a luxury item the Hawks can afford at this time, Not to mention that his departure will ensure more playing time for Marvin Williams and hopefully allow him to develop to the point where it can take some of the heat off of Knight for passing on Paul.  

Knight has rebuffed the Warriors offers due to a court order stating the Hawks can't take back any players with longer than four years remaining on their contracts and the Warriors have been unable to find a third team to involve in the process.  Walsh, who thought he had a deal in place a week ago to acquire Harrington before the Hawks upped the ante at the last moment, has now resigned himself to looking at other options after Harrington fired his agent and the parties appear to be back at square one after negotiations completely broke down.  The unstable ownership situation in Atlanta and the constant shifting of priorities by team executives appears to be preventing the Hawks from making any progress…Sound Familiar?