We knew when the Atlanta Hawks hired Danny Ferry as their general manager that it would mark a wholesale change in the way this franchise did business, but nobody expected the change to be this drastic, this fast.
With two landmark moves in a period of hours Monday that wiped nearly $90 million off the payroll, the Hawks went from a franchise that considered losing in the second round of the playoffs to be the pinnacle of human achievement to being one that could matter -- I mean really, truly matter -- for the first time since Dominique Wilkins was making nightly highlight films.
For those who just crawled out from under a rock, the Hawks first sent Joe Johnson to Brooklyn for the expiring contracts of Jordan Farmar, Johan Petro, Jordan Williams, Anthony Morrow and DeShawn Stevenson (who will have a non-guaranteed multiyear deal, per sign-and-trade rule requirements, but is effectively an expiring contract). The Hawks then traded Marvin Williams to Utah for the expiring contract of Devin Harris. Farmar will be bought out for $1.5 million, Harris might be rerouted someplace else and Petro will be given Pape Sy's former jersey just to see whether anyone can tell the difference.