[外電] Q and A: Hawks GM Billy Knight
Q and A: Hawks GM Billy Knight
Despite struggles, he insists team is 'going in the right
direction'
Published on: 06/28/06
Preparing for his fourth draft as the Hawks' general manager,
Billy Knight's tone suggests nothing about the tribulation his
franchise his encountered (three seasons: a 67-179 record).
"One thing about Billy; he remains rather upbeat all the time,"
said Indiana Pacers president Donnie Walsh, who gave Knight his
start in administration. "He must have been a tough guy to guard
because you can't get under his skin, or at least you can't tell
if you are."
Knight sat down recently with staff writer Thomas Stinson to
assess the franchise's course.
Q: What do you tell a season-ticket holder about what he or she
should be expecting next season?
A: When I have a meeting with season-ticket holders, I tell them
the same thing I always tell them: With the fifth pick in the
draft, we're going to get a good player who can help us. We're
going to be better next year than we were this past year. We're
going to keep doing everything we can.
We have a lot of money in the salary cap. I can't sit here today
and tell you whether we're going to sign a free agent or not sign
a free agent. We'll talk to some and see if it makes sense to us.
But we're going to keep improving and we're going to be better
than we are right now. . . . I never get into predicting win
totals or numbers. I'll let everybody else do that. Not me.
Q: What's become the most difficult component of this job?
A: When we changed this team around, we did it the way I don't
think a lot of teams would. We tore things down to the bottom
and rebuilt it from the bottom up. That's probably somewhat
unusual, but that's the way we decided to do it, and that's
always hard.
Obviously, you'd like not to have to ever tear it down. But
because of salary structure and caps and numbers, the culture,
we thought it was important to do that with this team. This is
a job that is difficult to begin but if I had to pick out one
thing, changing the culture here.
Q: As you go through this, even if things are going the way you'd
hope, doesn't the losing still really stink?
A: We knew that before we started, that the losing was going to
stink. That's never fun to go through, but, I mean, you can lose
and have a high payroll or you can lose and not have a high
payroll. There's different ways to lose. You can lose with a
future and have a purpose in mind going forward. Lose with
building the right attitude, building with the right kind of
players that you want and seeing the future for us.
We'd like to think we're going in the right direction. Sure,
we've got a long way to go. But we're going in the right
direction, we feel.
Q: Every draft is critical. Do you sense that this is more
critical, that you should make this big turn upward this
coming year?
A: It'd be great if you could predict when that's going to
happen, but I don't get into the predicting of when it's going
to happen. I just feel we'll be improved, we're going to keep
improving. . . . Yeah, it'd be great if we got one superstar
player and built the whole team around that one player. But if
you're not fortunate to have that, then I think what you try
to have is a whole team of good players — 10 to 12 guys that
mesh well together, form a cohesive unit, have the right
character. That can be a successful team too, if you're not
fortunate enough to bring in a superstar somewhere, who can
carry everybody else.
Q: You've stayed away from saying you want to address the
backcourt or you want to address the frontcourt. Is there a
target this draft may help solve?
A: To me, and to most of the people who are involved, this is a
big man's draft this year. There are more good big men in this
draft than there are other players at other positions. Of course,
you can't tell until a couple years down the road.
Q: So for all those people out there screaming, 'Where's our
point guard?' you're saying this probably isn't the year to
find one?
A: I haven't heard all the people screaming for that, first of
all. But this isn't a strong draft for guards. Yeah, it's great.
People can scream for guards all they want. But if the guards
aren't good, it doesn't matter. I think there are a lot of good
players this year. You hear every year how the draft is getting
weaker and more diluted, but I think there are some good players.
We're going to get a good player with our pick.
Q: Is this the year the Hawks get back into the playoffs?
A: I don't get into all that. We're sitting here in the middle
of June, and I can't say what's going to happen with the draft
or injuries or free agency, what's going to happen with the
melding of the team, the chemistry. It's just sheer guesswork
today. I think we'll be a better team than we were the last year,
but even if we were coming off a playoff year, I wouldn't come
back and tell you we were going to do this or that next year.
I hope we can stay healthy. I hope our young guys will develop
to the point we want them to develop, the progression of all the
young guys. We had the youngest team in the league last year,
so you'd certainly expect there to be a progression of development.
And we've seen that.
Q: Are you concerned with the public's patience?
A: Our season-ticket holders, when they come to our meetings to
speak with the GM . . . they're understanding of what we're
doing because they can see the fruition of it, to the level it
has gone. They also know — obviously, there's no secret about
it — we know we have a ways to go yet. They know that. We know
that. We talk about that. The season-ticket holders have been
great.
Q: What about Joe Six-Pack, the guy you see in the grocery
store?
A: The people have been great, everywhere I go. Everywhere I
go. . . . I think once you explain things to people, explain
the rules and what you're trying to do, they understand.
Unfortunately, you can't do that with every person.
Q: Is Mike Woodson's job in jeopardy?
A: I don't feel like Woody's job in jeopardy at all. Woody's
done a good job. I like him as a coach.
Q: When does this process become urgent?
A: Well, this is going into my third year of a rebuilding
process. It's probably not for anyone to say it's urgent,
probably until my owners say it's urgent. That's how I look at
it. That's who I answer to. If they say they want something
now, as an employee, I would try to give it to them now. If
they say they want to go with the process, then that's what
they're telling me. Everything they're telling me is, they
see where we're going, they see what we're doing.
Q: No matter how many owners there are?
A: However it works out. I don't have any control over that and
I don't worry about it. I don't pay any attention to it. I just
go about my business and let them handle their business.
資料來源
http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/0628knight.html
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