Vacation Planning - Atlanta Hawks

Last Vacation Planning post, I promise. I'm interested to the Atlanta Hawks' off-season for a couple of reasons. First, I have a friend/reader in Atlanta who has become pretty cynical about his home team. Being a positive guy by nature, I took interest in monitoring their situation and speculating about how they can extract themselves from the no man's land they dug themselves in. Because that's where they somewhat always had been: they never really sucked, but they had never really been a threat to great teams. Somehow, I think this is worse than sucking.

Last year, the Hawks continued to be irrelevant, despite playing hard. Injuries and holes in the lineups have been brutal to them. New arrival, badass scorer Lou Williams got sidelined pretty quick with a season-ending knee injury and the Josh Smith situation has been a huge distraction to them. They also had depth issues, which is an absolute killer if you want to go far in the playoffs. You don't win championships with Shelvin Mack and Johan Petro coming off the bench. They have an interesting off-season ahead, since they have only 18 million dollars committed for next season's payroll and two first round picks. They have a lot of options. Here's what I think they should do.

• Stick to the plan. The Hawks have no vision. They always aim for the best players available, yet they never really have a cohesive team. Having your line-up making sense is the most important valuable of them all. If your guys keep stepping on each other's toes instead of complementing each other, you won't accomplish anything when it counts. For example, having two primary ball-handlers in the back court (Teague and Williams). One of them is bound to be useless and/or get frustrated. Not having a real center is also unproductive. There is only so much Al Horford can do by himself. Establish a game plan. Get players that make sense together and STICK TO THE FREAKIN' PLAN, DANNY FERRY.

• Keep Kyle Korver. The awesome mop-haired white boy is going to be a popular commodity on the free-agent market this summer. He quietly had an awesome season as the Hawks' go-to spot up shooter. John Jenkins is NOT a reason to let him walk away. You always need spot up shooting from your bench. As much as you can. It's not because you have one that you can't have two. Miami has Shane Battier, Ray Allen and Mike Miller on their bench and they are part of the master plan. Plus, Korver is a big boy and can play swingman, so you can have them both on the floor at the same time. You have the funds, so sign the damn guy.

• Think outside the box for free agents. You're going to make a run for Dwight Howard and Chris Paul, fine. Who wouldn't? But it's unlikely they sign, so instead of putting all your efforts into singing them, prepare yourself an emergency plan for day one. Last thing you want is come up empty handed and panic-sign Shaun Livingston and Samuel Dalembert for three times the market price. Al Jefferson and Jose Calderon would be good, complementary pieces that fit the organization. Plus, it would leave the Hawks' enough money to sign a few decent bench guys to provide depth and maybe pull a spectacular move at the draft.

• Don't mess up this draft. Two mid-first round draft pick is a good thing, even in a weak draft. As a basketball nerd, I believe the draft is THE way to build a championship team, so it's important to give it all your attention. The occasion to draft a center for the future is beautiful since it's a deep draft at the position. Maybe even Steven Adams, who could be an understudy for 2-3 years if you plan to sign a guy like Al Jefferson. That would be an ideal situation for both Adams and the Hawks. As for the other choice, go for the most basic necessary skill. SHOOTING. It's never lost to draft a shooter. I heard Sergey Karasev is great coming off screens, so take him. He could get good minutes next season at Small Forward.

• Tune-in to The Budenholzer Show. If you made the effort to go out and reach to Gregg Popovich's understudy, make sure everybody is on the same page and let him run the show. There are infuriating stories of players shunning coaches because they didn't win as players. If I was Danny Ferry, I'd make sure everybody shuts up and runs Mike Budenholzer's game like there's no tomorrow. Good coaching can really make the difference, another thing that the Miami Heat and Erik Spoelestra demonstrated in the playoffs. So get on board with his program, whatever it is.