Alternate Headline: Gee, the Atlanta Hawks could use a guy like that.
The anti-palate cleanser, especially in light of the recent referendums on the Hawks past offseason, this piece from Truth About It regarding former (can you remember) Hawk #1 pick Jordan Crawford's play.
Crawford isn't a very good player yet. He's a streak shooter (the positive parlance for inconsistent) who turns the ball over too much and takes other foolish risks.
But oh, does he want it. He plays with a fire that also smolders in his rookie backcourt mate, John Wall. With an energy that borders on fury, the same emotion Wall has expressed inbarely veiled statements about his teammates' lack of effort.
Gee, a young, low paid, under financial control scorer who plays with a lot of effort, if uneven in productivity thus far. I wonder what team will be looking for just that type of player next year. Oh yeah, the team that drafted him.
The Hawks will spend a lot of money next year---it's unavoidable given the contractual obligations afforded Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Josh Smith, Kirk Hinrich, Marvin Williams, and Zaza Pachulia. This season, the Hawks have been hampered by a short bench in terms of productive talent. The elixir for such an economic burden is young draft talent to round out your bench.
The Hawks, however, have sold all such talent, dealing away last year's #1 (Crawford), next years #1, and the #31 pick from last year's draft while watching the rights to Josh Childress go away for almost nothing. In a pique of self-conflicting decision making, they did draft the rawest of talent, Pape Sy, and bought his contract out---only to watch him present nothing to the mandate that drove all of the other short term decisions, this season production.
So to see Crawford get accolades for his play and passion when the Hawks are going to need just that as early as, oh I don't know, tonight maybe, next season certainly, is excruciating.
Exit Question: At what point do the Hawks divest themselves of their last young, productive, under financial control asset, Jeff Teague?