Once More, With Feeling...Don't Fire Mike Woodson!

Things seem to finally be coming together for Billy Knight’s Atlanta Hawks. Josh Smith and Marvin Williams have finally progressed to the point where they would have been coming out of college as seniors. Joe Johnson is the rock that the franchise rests upon. Al Horford and Acie Law are draft picks that weren’t complete wastes of time. And now, Billy Knight might have finally managed to get this team going in the really right direction by trading for Mike Bibby.

But that doesn’t mean that Billy Knight is a genius or even that deserving of credit. I’m pretty sure that somewhere, the law of averages says that even a monkey can screw up enough times and still manage to get it right. Just look at George Bush’s foreign policy.

See, even throughout the deadly exploding slapstick known as “Operation: Comedy of Errors,” we’re beginning to see positive results. The surge is working, even though it’s actually about six years later than his generals initially requested. Things are seemingly calming down over in Iraq and just through sheer persistence (and the fact that the enemy is willing to lessen their own numbers by blowing themselves up), the U.S. Military is probably going to prove the old axiom that you can’t kill them all utterly wrong.

At this point, you might be wondering to yourself, “Is he really comparing the Skirmish in Iraq to basketball?” If you’re looking at the fact that there were eventually lucky idiots at the helm in both situations, then I sure am.

Billy Knight came to Atlanta and immediately began dismantling the losing squad that was here, something he’s immensely good at. “Bargain Closeout” Billy Knight got rid of everyone that was here, and got to work drafting high school players and early draft entries based on “potential.” Then, he started just defying the smarts that God gave retards and passed up Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Brandon Roy to draft Marvin and Shelden Williams (no relation).

He brought in Antoine Walker, Stephen Jackson, and Al Harrington. He traded away Boris Diaw, who blossomed somewhere else. He’s managed to cement his place as one of the worst GMs in the NBA today, and yet no one’s demanding he be fired or keying his car or anything like that. Why?

Because he’s letting Mike Woodson take the fall for all of this.

Mike Woodson has coached the team that Billy Knight has put together and done it without complaint. His coaching has actually made the ragtag group of journeymen and small forwards better than they were before he got here. Under his watch, Josh Smith “Is In Foul Trouble” and Marvin Williams are exactly where they would have been had they gone to college for four years. He’s gotten this team to play defense. Their wins have increased every year since he’s been here. And yet, the Atlanta sportswriters’ community (whom no one has ever accused of being knowledgeable) thinks that Woodson is the problem.

Let’s be real here, when your team is undersized in the frontcourt and has no real floor general, and the guy making the trades is forever distracted by buzzwords like “potential” or “freakish wingspan,” your coach could be Phil K. Riley-Wooden and still lose 60% of their games. A lesser coach would have set a record for being the first coach to have a negative win total when you consider everything Mike Woodson’s been saddled with.

And now that Mike Bibby is here, everyone believes that this team no longer has any excuses. That Mike Woodson is on the hot seat. That all is right with this roster filled with redundant players who just got out of puberty five minutes ago. The truth is, even that will take a period of adjustment. After all, Mike Bibby is something that the Hawks haven’t had since Mookie Blaylock: A real point guard. Thing is, if Knight had drafted Chris Paul to begin with, he wouldn’t have had to trade for Bibby.

Even though Knight has shot Mike Woodson in both feet every time Draft Day comes around, if Woodson can’t get this team to the playoffs this season, he’ll likely be fired. Knight will have bought himself another few years to screw up, and Mark Bradley of the AJC still will have no idea what he’s talking about.

But this team has managed to get positive results despite the string of blown moves by its commander-in-chief, who will come out of this smelling like a rose. Unfortunately, for Mike Woodson, he’s about to be judged based on whether or not he could succeed despite his incompetent leadership.

Sounds just like Dubya to me.