Inside the end of the Travis Schlenk era in Atlanta, the Hawks’ new power structure and how it’s impacting the team
When the Atlanta Hawks made their way through a West Coast trip recently, less than two weeks after the unexpected reassignment of President of Basketball Operations Travis Schlenk into an advisory role, their new front office contingent was on full display.
From San Francisco to Sacramento to Los Angeles, the pregame scene — and the Hawks officials within it — was the same.
General manager Landry Fields, the 34-year-old former NBA player who was elevated from his assistant general manager role in June, who now heads the front office after the shakeup and who previously worked for the San Antonio Spurs as a scout and general manager of their G League team.
- Nick Ressler, the 27-year-old son of Hawks owner Tony Ressler who has had increased influence on roster and staffing decisions during his time as the team’s Director of Business and Basketball Operations (starting in December 2020), according to league sources who like all the other sources in this story were granted anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the situation.
- Ryan Silverstein, the team’s coordinator of cap strategy and administration and a close friend of Nick Ressler’s who, according to his LinkedIn page, became a front office assistant for the Hawks in September 2017.
- Grant Liffmann, the 34-year-old who spent his last six seasons covering Golden State as a media member for NBC Sports Bay Area and who was hired as a pro personnel scout in June and is close friends with Fields.
- It’s normal for team executives to travel to road games, especially with the Feb. 9 trade deadline nearing and the intel-sharing game ramping up as a result. But you don’t typically see a team’s brain trust show out in those kinds of numbers.
In terms of Hawks officials who matter most in the wake of all this change, the only one missing was former NBA player Kyle Korver, the team’s director of player affairs and development who league sources say may be headed for an assistant general manager role. Vice President of Basketball Strategy and Analytics Dwight Lutz and Senior Director of Player Personnel Dotun Akinwale Jr. were on the trip as well.
But there was a grander purpose behind the front office’s grandiose road trip: The basketball operations group was making its way to Los Angeles, where league sources say they had meetings lined up with Hawks owner Tony Ressler at one of his posh Southern California homes.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall for those sessions.
If ever there was a time to flip your front office upside down — let alone to hand it over to a group that’s this green — this isn’t it. And there’s this revelation, too: Despite the Hawks announcing that Schlenk would still play a complementary part in their decision-making process after spending the past five-plus seasons heading their front office, league sources say he is no longer part of Atlanta’s operation in any way and is free to leave for another organization. As our Shams Charania reported on Dec. 30, the Hawks also dismissed three long-tenured and widely-respected talent evaluators in senior adviser Rod Higgins, director of pro scouting Stephen Giles and Vice President of Player Personnel Derek Pierce.
Never mind that Ressler gave Schlenk and his staff extensions last year and is known to have said internally that he wanted them to lead the Hawks through this decade.
As Fox Sports’ Ric Bucher reported recently, league sources confirmed to The Athletic that Nick Ressler’s effect on the decision-making process played a pivotal part in the power dynamics that ultimately lead to Schlenk’s exile. This was a bit of an open secret around the league, and it is clear that Nick Ressler’s voice is being heavily considered on all things Hawks these days.
As I discussed on a December podcast visit with The Ringer, this reality that key Hawks figures were feeling undermined by Nick Ressler’s influence became a growing issue internally in recent months – specifically in relation to Trae Young — and had everything to do with Tony Ressler’s choice to overhaul the staff. The Dejounte Murray trade with San Antonio was the beginning of the end, as sources say it went down despite Schlenk expressing his concerns about the price being paid (three first-rounders, a first-round pick swap and Danilo Gallinari) and with Nick Ressler known to be a driving force behind the deal. As our John Hollinger detailed on Monday, the Murray deal essentially cost the Hawks Kevin Huerter as well when they had to trade him to Sacramento to get under the luxury tax.
In terms of the ownership-front office dynamics that they’d already been dealing with to that point, there was no coming back from there. The Nate McMillan messiness that we chronicled in early December, it seems clear, played a part in the final decision regarding Schlenk. Going forward, league sources say Tony Ressler may add a more experienced front office executive to their group to address the reality of the current regime’s inexperience.
The Hawks have been one of the NBA’s more active teams in recent weeks on the trade market, with a focus on landing players who can help now (as opposed to replenishing their diminished draft assets). This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Considering the lofty expectations both externally and internally, they clearly need and want to get better quickly.
After all these years of John Collins trade rumors, executives who have spoken to the Hawks about acquiring the veteran forward recently have indicated that the asking price has — understandably — declined significantly this time around. As I detailed in my recent conversation with Collins, the combination of his large contract and his declined production is hardly helpful in terms of his modern-day value. In some scenarios, the Hawks are merely asking for a quality player in return (and not a first-round pick), according to league sources.
Yet when the Hawks came through Sacramento on Jan. 4, I wanted to get a sense of how the most high-profile Hawks players saw this entire sordid situation. Beyond the front office turmoil, there was the Trae Young-McMillan weirdness and the subsequent questions about whether the Hawks coach might even resign as a result of all the dysfunction. It has been…a lot. To say the least.
Dejounte Murray
Put yourself in Murray’s shoes.
When the 26-year-old guard first came to town, his enthusiasm with the move was well-chronicled. He was excited about teaming up with Young, which mattered a great deal – especially since Murray will be a free agent in the summer of 2024. It had only been one season since the Hawks’ East Finals appearance in 2021, and there was an expectation within the locker room that this group would be capable of contending with the East’s elite again.
But now, amid all these on-court struggles, Murray now finds himself navigating an environment that is wholly different from the only other NBA spot he’s ever known. He spent the first six seasons with a San Antonio Spurs organization that is known for its lack of drama. As he admitted, the transition from there to here has been challenging.
“I mean, there’s a lot going on (that’s) non-basketball,” Murray told The Athletic. “And then with basketball, you’ve got guys in trade rumors. It’s obviously more than…”
He paused to deliberate his message before continuing.
“I wouldn’t say more than what I expected, but more than where I came from in San Antonio where everything was just not as loud,” Murray continued. “There’s a lot going on, but for me I’m just trying to keep guys together with my leadership, showing up to work, working hard, being vocal and keeping us together, and trying to keep the outside noise the outside noise. “But at the end of the day, we all see it. You can’t hide. You can’t run from it. For me, like I say and I always preach, adversity shows what you’re built of and who you are. I love adversity. From where I come from to make it to the NBA, getting overlooked, getting hurt, being out a whole year- just fighting. No matter what. Adversity, it helps build you up. So like I said, there’s a lot of noise, but at the end of the day, winning takes care of it all. So we need to control what we can control, continue to come together as brothers, and try to go out and win basketball games.”
While the Hawks are adamant that Young remains the centerpiece of their franchise, it’s worth wondering where they might go from here if they don’t turn things around. More specifically, this question looms large: What will Murray’s mindset be this summer as he enters the final year of his deal? Considering the massive amount they paid to get him, the prospect of him leaving two summers from now would be less than ideal.
In the here and now, he continues to learn how to be at his best while playing alongside a fellow All-Star who is also one of the league’s most ball-dominant players. Young is currently ranked sixth in usage, while Murray – who was 42nd last season with the Spurs while earning his first All-Star berth – is now 72nd. Naturally, Murray’s production has dipped from that campaign.
Points: 21.1 per game last season to 20.4
Rebounds: 8.3 to 5.4
Assists: 9.2 to 6.1
Yet while Young’s production has been near his personal norms — 27.5 points and 9.8 assists per game — the Hawks’ offense which was the league’s second-best last season has plummeted to 22nd.
Murray’s elite defensive skills have helped matters on that end, as the Hawks are currently 15th in defensive rating after finishing 26th in 2021-22 (and that’s with center Clint Capela playing just one game since suffering a calf injury in mid-December).
“I’m trying to figure this out,” Murray said when asked about his big-picture view. “I’m trying to figure this out and kind of find my niche in Atlanta, get comfortable in Atlanta. Obviously, it is a business – like you said. At the end of the day, when that (free agency) time comes, that time comes. I’m focusing on basketball right now. They brought me here to win, so I’ve got to continue to grow, continue to get better, learn, figure out my teammates, and try to get us to win games.”
Trae Young
Young was on his way out of the visitor’s locker room when we spoke. And once the conversation shifted to some of the less-flattering subplots that have unfolded in recent months, it was clear he wasn’t interested in sharing his innermost thoughts.
“New season, new teammates. We’re just trying to get it right and get healthy. We’ll be alright. We’ve beat really good teams. We’ve lost to teams where we feel like we should have won. It’s really just about us and us taking care of what we can control and making sure we’re ready every night. We’ve done a bad job sometimes of just kind of not being ready sometimes. Maybe it’s because we’ve got new guys – you never know. But if we get into a rhythm, that’s all it takes. You get into a rhythm with one game, two games, and then it’ll take care of itself.
I know especially after a game like this you’re not in a big picture head space, but I do wonder how you see the state of the operation. You’re talking about the front office change, the stuff with your coach. How are you feeling about all of it?
I’m fine. I feel like there’s a lot of people outside that don’t really understand what’s going on inside. I just, I kind of laugh at it sometimes when people want to assume things and whatever.
As many likely remember, Young had a similar response last month when he addressed his choice not to attend Atlanta’s Dec. 2 game against Denver.
I’ll be the first to admit. We don’t always get the entire story.
And that’s fine. That’s what it’s supposed to be.
But we get some.
And you should. You should get some, but then you should stay private on some things too. I’m good, man.
To me, the important takeaway is that you’re the guy leading this thing. So where’s your confidence level?
My confidence level is high.
Is Landry a good guy to lead things?
Great guy. Landry’s a great guy.
So there’s confidence there?
The confidence is always there.
John Collins
The air-quotes said it all.
When Collins brought up the Schlenk situation — unsolicited, I might add — during the end of our aforementioned chat, his analysis included the universal sign for non-verbal skepticism as he spoke these words.
“Travis is not with us anymore, or…”
He then raised both hands in that familiar, age-old gesture.
“…he’s taken an advisory role, so I know that just changes things.”
Gosh, John, why would you put air quotes on it? (thick with sarcasm)
You know what I’m saying? It’s just stuff that you never really expect. Guys were hired from certain people, and this and that, and it just creates uncertainty sometimes. And I feel like that makes stuff harder.
But do the players on this team have an understanding of why the front office change was made?
No. You know what I mean? I mean I saw it, and we got briefed on it. And they told us what…
Who was doing the briefing?
You had Landry, the coaches — everybody. Everybody gave their piece on what to expect. And as I said, I didn’t try to think about it too much because I know that even if I do go ask, or go knocking for that answer, I might not get the real answer. I wasn’t in the room. I don’t know what was happening. But I definitely thought it was surprising, to say the least. But you know, okay, now what? We got told that right before practice (before the move was announced on Dec. 21), and now I’ve got to go practice, get ready, get my body recovered and get ready to go play that night. So am I going to think about that all day? No, I’ve got to lock in and focus on my job. And that’s sort of how I’m attacking it, you know what I mean? It’s just a lot of different things that can happen on any day. You’ve just got to be ready for anything.
