Nick Fazekas is available.
I advocated signing Fazekas immediately following the Mike Bibby trade. Dallas had released Fazekas as part of the machinations necessary to acquire Jason Kidd. The Hawks did not sign Fazekas and went with Solomon Jones as their fourth big man for the remainder of the season.
Fazekas signed with the Clippers and was effective in limited minutes. Effective in limited minutes is the most one should expect from Fazekas but effective in limited minutes would be a great improvement relative to recent end-of-the-rotation contributors. The prospect of a Fazekas/Pachulia frontcourt tandem is frightening to ponder, at least when the other team has the ball but I think Fazekas would complement both Al Horford and Josh Smith* on the court.
*Despite the majority of the content of this post, the Hawks really should be focused on re-signing their best player; the consequences of not doing so being something I'd rather not contemplate unless I must. Hence this post about Nick Fazekas.
Fazekas is limited athletically but I feel that is either overstated or his college career is under recognized. He was a far mroe effective player at Nevada than other athletically limited college stars who fell into guaranteed lottery money.
The Hawks do not appear to be in the market for anybody who would dramatically improve their frontline talent. There remains a significant opportunity to improve the bench. Replacing guys who cannot contribute to winning NBA games with even decent role players could be worth a win or two to the Hawks (or about half as many wins as I assume they could gain by replacing Mike Woodson with someone competent).
Nick Fazekas makes shots. Nick Fazekas rebounds. Nick Fazekas would probably work cheap.* Rick Sund, the ball is in your court.
*Know your audience.
2 comments:
Nick Fazekas might be a pretty good player, but don't you think we're pretty stacked right now at the PF/C positions? Al Horford, Randolph Morris, Zaza Pachulia, Solomon Jones, my only complaint is that we still don't have a true 7-footer, but we'll be alright.
I feel you wholeheartedly about the Josh Smith situation, unfortunately, i did divulge a lil bit into what could happen if we don't resign the Smith, i would like for you to comment on my HAWKSblog if u could, as a relatively new blogger, i admire and thoroughly enjoy your blog and i learn as much as i can from your experience and expertise in sports reporting.
thanks for your thoughts and keep up the good work
Time to face reality. Smith isn't coming back or at least not as part of a long term deal. He'll either re-sign for 1 year then become an unrestricted free agent next year, get traded, or go to Europe.
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