Now that the free-agency whirlwind has calmed, we can sit back and ask: So, um, what exactly did the Atlanta Hawks do?
They tried to straddle two paths at once, and ultimately fell into the netherworld between them.
The NBA is ripe for a tank job. Two to three years ago, almost a half-dozen teams raced to the bottom at once -- a backward sprint so crowded, one or two would become a sort of reverse Mary Decker Slaney and stumble into too many wins. Now, everyone is trying to win. The path from the playoffs to the No.