Mike, “The Czar” Fratello, that is. The former head coach of the Hawks has turned his attention overseas and is serving as the Ukraine National Team’s head coach. It was former Hawks forward Alexander “Sasha” Volkov, head of the Ukraine Basketball Federation, who brought Fratello to assist the team. Ukraine is preparing for its appearance in the 2011 FIBA Eurobasket tournament in Lithuania. The tournament begins on August 31 and will also have an impact on participants for the 2012 Olympic games.

Fratello coached the Hawks for 7 seasons (1983 to 1990) and made it to the postseason 5 times with Atlanta. He also had coaching stints with the Cavaliers and Grizzlies. Fratello is currently a full-time broadcaster for the Nets. It was behind the booth where Mike earned his nickname “The Czar” from Marv Albert for his unique way of diagramming plays on the telestrator.

Apparently Mike’s quite the blogger as well (or someone he’s hired is). You can follow his work with the Ukraine team on his personal blog, “On the Road with Mike,” which features not only team updates, but also Q&A, trivia and notable quotes, among other sections:

So this isn’t necessarily about the Hawks, but it’s Atlanta + basketball, and thus A-T-Elle Hoops.

Mark Price, who played point guard for Georgia Tech was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame this past Saturday. Price played for the Yellow Jackets in the 1980s under Bobby Cremins and led the team to an ACC Championship his junior year. He was a two-time All American and four-time All-ACC during his collegiate career, and his jersey was retired by the school.

After playing for Tech, Price was drafted in the 2nd round as the 25th overall pick by the Mavs and immediately traded to the Cavs. Price spent the majority of his career with the Cavs and then one year each with the Bullets, Warriors and Magic at the end of his career.

Price embodies your good ol’ “set-out-to-prove-’em-wrong,”  feel-good sports story. At 6 feet, 170 lbs., Price defied critics who said he was too slow, too small and too deliberate for the NBA. Known as one of the league’s most consistent shooters, Price ranks among the league’s best in free throw shooting (90.4%) and three-point shooting (40%), and he still holds the Cavs’ all-time record for assists (4,206).

What’s more, Price is credited with revolutionizing the way teams respond to the pick-and-roll. Of Price’s contributions, former teammate Steve Kerr said:

“Mark really revolutionized the way that people attack the screen and roll. To me, he was the first guy in the NBA who really split the screen and roll. A lot of teams started blitzing the pick and roll and jumping two guys at it to take the ball out of the hands of the point guard. He’d duck right between them and shoot that little runner in the lane. Nobody was doing that at that time.”

Maybe there’s hope for the Jimmer yet in his quest to break NBA stereotypes…

Mark Price Highlight Reel:

Usually, in the days leading up to the draft, there’s a flurry of trade talk and action with teams trying to edge their way to a higher pick. But between a combination of one of the weakest drafts in history and an expiring CBA, teams have become risk averse and are perfectly happy to sit on their haunches.

There was some talk about the Timberwolves shopping around their Number 2 overall pick, and the Cavs had expressed interest, but this doesn’t seem to have much traction yet.

Atlanta isn’t exactly abuzz with excitement either. The Hawks’ first pick doesn’t come until the second round at Number 48, and they don’t have many options to trade up in the next few days before the draft. General Manager Rick Sund also commented:

“There’s probably less (talk among teams) with regards to the uncertainty of the CBA and people willing to pull the trigger. In prior years a few days before the draft, there’s some consummation of trades. There’s just as much dialogue, but not much action.”

However, the Hawks could use their pick to bolster their shooting game, given that 6th man Jamal Crawford will likely become an unrestricted free agent. I also wouldn’t mind seeing Atlanta try and get a legitimate big man that would allow Horford to play forward, but centers seem to be in short supply this year.

Stay tuned for more on the draft, including Part II of the Mock Draft Analysis.

I have to confess that I didn’t follow the NCAA that closely this year, so I won’t try and pretend to know enough to come up with my own mock draft. Instead, I’m basing my commentary on Ian Thomsen’s version in this week’s Sports Illustrated and will go from there. Why Thomsen’s out of all the ones out there? Because of the very scientific rationale that a magazine foldout in color is a lot more user-friendly than Alt-Tab-ing between frames on a tiny computer screen. (And in fairness, I’ve always enjoyed Thomsen’s NBA analyses.)

Here’s who Thomsen has going where:

1. Cleveland Cavaliers – Kyrie Irving, Duke PG
2. Minnesota Timberwolves – Derrick Williams, Arizona PF
3. Utah Jazz – Enes Kanter, Turkey PF/C
4. Cleveland Cavalieres – Jonas Valanciunas, Lithuania PF/C
5. Toronto Raptors – Brandon Knight, Kentucky PG/SG
6. Washington Wizards – Jan Vesely, Czech Republic PF
7. Sacramento Kings – Kemba Walker, UConn PG
8. Detroit Pistons – Bismack Biyombo, Congo PF/C
9. Charlotte Bobcats – Kawhi Leonard, San Diego St. SF
10. Milwaukee Bucks – Klay Thompson, Washington St. SG
11. Golden State Warriors – Marcus Morris, Kansas PF
12. Utah Jazz – Jimmer Fredette, BYU PG
13. Phoenix Suns – Chris Singleton, FSU SF/PF
14. Houston Rockets – Alec Burks, Colorado SG
15. Indiana Pacers – Kenneth Faried, Morehead St. PF

First impressions? Kyrie Irving seems to be the overwhelming Number 1 pick in mock drafts all around for everyone except Cleveland who has yet to concede that they’re definitely going with the freshmen guard. If they do, however, he’ll make a good addition to their team that currently has a subpar shooter in Ramon Sessions and the aging Baron Davis at PG.

I was a little surprised to see Brandon Knight ahead of Kemba Walker in Thomsen’s draft, and most of the others out there for that matter. Knight set the Kentucky freshmen record for shooting and 3-point shooting last year. But Walker is the much more polished and mature PG that led the Huskies to a national championship. Besides, Walker averaged only 18 minutes to get a steal or block, while Knight was at over 40 minutes, an indication of each’s ball movement skills.

Bismack Biyombo. Love this story. A Congolese PF/C who left home at the age of 16 to play with the big boys and went through stints with Yemen and Spain and a lot of disinterested scouts before getting noticed.

“Biyombo began playing for Fuenlabrada’s junior team, but he wasn’t satisfied with the competition. He says he called the coach of the third-division team and asked him whether he could practice with that team as well.

The next year, Biyombo ended up playing for both the third- and fourth-division teams. On Saturday, he’d play third-division games and, then on Sunday, fourth-division games. To keep up with both teams, he’d sometimes have to practice four times a day.” ~ESPN’s Chad Ford

‘Nuff said. It would be great to see him go as a lottery pick, and he fits right into the Pistons’ strategy to rebuild its defense this year.

And finally, Kenneth Faried. Thomsen says Faried may not be a starter, but he was the best rebounder in the NCAA and had the highest Player Efficiency Rating. Besides, I read a really great piece on how Faried’s rebounds are a tribute to his mom. Waudda Faried suffered from lupus, a disease that causes the immune system to attack its own organs and tissues, and would tell him from her hospital bed, “You better have gotten your rebounds.” I’m a fan.

Check back later for Numbers 16-30 and more in-depth analysis in the days leading up to the Draft!

The NBA Draft is 22 days away. While it was fun for a little while to entertain the possibility that the Hawks would trade for a first round pick, it’s time to come back down to reality. Atlanta traded away its first round pick along with Jordan Crawford in exchange for Kirk Hinrich in February. The deal leaves the Hawks with the No. 48 overall pick in the second round as its highest selection.

Now, all is not lost. I took a look at a few of the top No. 48 draft picks over history. And among the crowd, you’ve got a rap star, the record-holder for consecutive free throws and a political protester:

• Craig Ehlo: Nickname: “Mr. Everything.” Most active with: The Cavs. Points-per-game: 8.6. Fun fact: Ehlo also played for the Hawks from 1993-1996 as Steve Smith’s backup. Might keep this one off the resume: Ehlo was the one defending Michael Jordan when he made “The Shot” at the buzzer to win the final game of a 1989 playoff series against Cleveland.

• Cedric Ceballos: Nickname: “Ice.” Most active with: The Suns. Points-per-game: 14.3. Fun Fact: Ceballo won the Slam Dunk Contest with a blindfolded dunk in 1992. Might keep this one off the resume: “Ice” was featured on Warren G’s hip-hop song, Flow On in 1994.

• Micheal Williams: Most active with: The Timberwolves. Points-per-game: 11. Fun fact: Williams holds the NBA record for consecutive free throws at 97. Might keep this one off the resume: Williams played in only 35 games over his last four years, including only two in his final year.

• Craig Hodges: Most active with: The Bulls and Bucks. Points-per-game: 8.5. Fun fact: Hodges led the league in 3-point shooting percentage three times and won three consecutive Three Point Contests in the All-Star Game. Might keep this one off the resume: On a trip to the White House after winning the 1992 NBA Championship, Hodges dressed in a dashiki and delivered a hand-written letter to George H. W. Bush expressing his discontent with the administration’s treatment of the poor and minorities.

• Marc Gasol: Most active with: The Grizzlies. Points-per-game: 12.6. Fun fact: In high school, Gasol was named the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association’s “Mr. Basketball” in 2003.  Might keep this one off the resume: Gasol has a personal blog where he discusses topics like what he misses from home, trash-talking in the NBA, how he met Shaq and Christmas dinner in Memphis.

So maybe we won’t get Kemba Walker, Kyrie Irving or Derrick Williams. But those guys are overrated anyways.

It’s filled with more drama than a Spanish soap opera. Representatives for each team sit behind individual wooden podiums with their logos on shiny brass plaques. A collage of larger-than-life photographs of former number-one picks fill the backdrop. A official pulls team names out of envelopes with dramatic music in the background.

The NBA Draft Lottery is some combination of a game show, reality show and telethon. Each year, the fourteen teams that didn’t make the playoffs– or teams that traded for the draft rights of another team– participate in a lottery to determine the order for the top three picks of the NBA draft.

The process seems almost more complicated than it’s worth, but essentially, this is how it works: Ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 are placed into a machine. Each of the fourteen teams are given combinations of four number; think of each combination as a lottery ticket. The number of “lottery tickets” a team receives is based on its regular season record: the team with the worst record receives the most number of tickets (250), followed by the team with the second worst record (199 “tickets”) and so on.

Four balls are selected from the machine at random, and this constitutes the “winning” combination. The team that holds the “ticket” with the correct combination is awarded the number one draft pick. The balls are returned to the machine and the process is repeated for the 2nd and third rounds.

» Continue reading “Ping-Pong Ballers: Cavs Win NBA Draft Lottery”

The Hawks held off the NBA-worst Cavs 99-83 to win their second straight. The win completes a sweep of the season series, as Atlanta had already won its prior two games against Cleveland. Things came together in what I can wholeheartedly call a team effort this time. With Joe Johnson out with a thumb injury suffered in yesterday’s game against the Nets, other players stepped up. Marvin Williams had a season-high 31 points while Josh Smith was aggressive on the boards, pulling down 18 rebounds. Atlanta never trailed throughout the 48 minutes and led by 19 at one point in the game. Although Baron Davis had 19 points off the bench for the Cavs, it wasn’t enough to beat the Hawks who shot 50% from the field.

Next Up: Atlanta will take on the Magic who are 5 1/2 games up on them in the East on Wednesday at 7 PM EST.