The Atlanta Hawks sign 30-year old SG/SF Damien Wilkins.  Wilkins played in 80 games (31 starts) for the Timberwolves last season and he averaged 19.8 minutes, 5.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game.  He has now played in 390 games (126 starts) in his first six years in the NBA and he is averaging 20.9 minutes, 7.2 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.  Damien Wilkins’ uncle is the best player in Atlanta Hawks’ history, Dominique ” The Human Highlight Film” Wilkins.

The Hawks have signed 32-year old center Etan Thomas to a 1-year deal. Thomas played in 23 games (1 start) for the Thunder last season and he averaged 14.0 minutes, 3.3 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. He has now played in 396 games (74 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 17.7 minutes, 5.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 0.4 assists and 1.1 blocked shots per game. The Hawks are starting to collect a lot of big men who aren’t that good.

The Hawks have re-signed 31-year old center Jason Collins. Collins played in 24 games (0 starts) for the Hawks last season and he averaged 4.8 minutes, 0.7 points, 0.6 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game. He has now played in 596 games (429 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 22.7 minutes, 4.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game. Collins will be sitting near the end of the bench in 2010-11 for the Hawks.

The Hawks have signed 27-year old power forward Josh Powell to a 1-year deal. Powell played in 63 games (0 starts) for the Lakers last season and he averaged 9.2 minutes, 2.7 points, 1.8 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. He has now played in 261 games (28 starts) in his 5 years in the NBA and he has averaged 12.6 minutes, 3.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game. The Hawks have a lot of depth in the frontcourt so I don’t see Powell getting much P.T. unless there’s some injuries. Still, it doesn’t hurt to have a guy like Powell sitting at the end of the bench just in case.

The Atlanta Hawks have traded 27-year old SG/SF Josh Childress to the Phoenix Suns for a second round pick in 2012. Childress has played the last two seasons in Greece. Childress played in 285 games (67 starts) in his 4 years with the Hawks and he averaged 31.3 minutes, 11.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steal per game while shooting 52.2% from the floor. The Hawks probably should have shopped around a little big more before moving Childress.

The Hawks picked 22-year old small forward Damion James with the #24 overall pick and then they shipped him to the Nets for 22-year old shooting guard Jordan Crawford (#27 overall) and the #31 overall pick (center Tibor Pleiss). The Hawks then sold the rights to Tibor Pleiss to the Thunder pocketing some cash on the deal. SG/PG Jordan Crawford played in 35 games (34 starts) at Xavier last season and he averaged 20.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He played in 65 games (42 starts) in his two years in college and he averaged 15.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.2 steals per game. The Hawks really like Crawford and he will be a safety net for the Hawks if Joe Johnson leaves as a free agent.

The Hawks have hired 52-year old Larry Drew to be the new head coach of the Atlanta Hawks. He has been a assistant coach for the Hawks, Lakers, Pistons, Wizards and Nets. Drew also played 10 years in the NBA appearing in 714 games in which he averaged 25.7 minutes, 11.4 points, 1.8 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.1 steals per game. Drew got a two year guaranteed contract with a option for a 3rd year at a average of $1.2 million bucks per year making him one of the lowest paid head coaches in the NBA. Time will tell if this was a good hire for the Hawks or not as he doesn’t have head coaching experience but he has been in the game most of his adult life.

31-year old SG/SF Maurice Evans has picked up his option for the 2010-11 season valued at $2.5 million bucks. Evans played in 79 games (5 starts) for the Hawks last season and he averaged 16.7 minutes, 5.7 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. Evans has now played two years with the Hawks appearing in 159 games (30 starts) in which he has averaged 19.9 minutes, 6.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. The Hawks probably would have rather spent the $2.5 million bucks that Evans will make on another free agent but he has been a solid player off the bench for them.

After the Atlanta Hawks recent 4-0 series loss to the Orlando Magic, speculation has been growing that head coach Mike Woodson will likely not return next season.  The Hawks weren’t just swept by the Magic, they were embarrassed by losing the four games by a total of 101 points for an average loss of 25 points per game.  Woodson’s contract expires this Monday (5/17) and it doesn’t look very likely that the Hawks will re-sign him.  In six seasons with the Hawks, Woodson has a regular season record of 206-286 (.419) and a postseason record of 11-18 (.379).  He had a lot of success the past two regular seasons with a record of 100-64 (.609), but the Hawks haven’t come close to making it out of the second round of the playoffs and have been swept in the Conference Semifinals two years in a row.  Woodson has proven he can be a solid coach in the NBA, but he can’t get the Hawks to even compete with the elite teams deep in the playoffs.  Hawks’ co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. has expressed publicly some of the things he did not like about the way Woodson chose to run the team, particularly Woodsons’ reluctance to play the young and talented point guard Jeff Teague.  Gearon has a point there, since the 32-year-old Mike Bibby had the worse season of his career and Teague only played 6.6 minutes per game.  The decision on whether to keep Woodson will ultimately be up to GM Rick Sund though, who hasn’t commented either way yet.  It does sound like the Hawks are ready to go in a new direction, so Mike Woodson should be ready to pack his bags.

The Hawks have released 23-year old forward Othello Hunter. Hunter played in 7 games (0 starts) for the Hawks this season and he averaged 4.7 minutes, 1.6 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. He played in 23 games (0 starts) in parts of two seasons with the Hawks in which he averaged 5.4 minutes, 1.4 points and 1.6 rebounds per game. The Hawks won’t miss Hunter too much.