Sugiura: After Hawks dump GM Landry Fields, we ask again: What are they doing?

Beyond that, he had done superior work restoring order and direction in an organization that needed both after a massive shake-up in 2022.

No better time to fire a guy than just when he looks like he’s figured out the job.

Spread your wings and fly, Landry.

Just don’t do it here.

Imagine these scenarios:

After Dyson Daniels is named NBA Defensive Player of the Year, he thanks Fields for recognizing his untapped value and making the trade last summer to bring him to the Hawks. (A deal made when any potential trade partner had leverage on Fields because it was obvious the team had to unload Dejounte Murray.)

When Zaccharie Risacher is named NBA Rookie of the Year, he expresses gratitude to Fields for having faith in him to make him the first overall pick last June. (Even though Risacher was not widely regarded as the top player in a draft class that was considered below-average.)

And add in that, had forward Jalen Johnson not suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in January, he could have made the All-Star Game and the Hawks might have won an additional 7-10 games and avoided the Play-In Tournament.

And if that were the case, would Fields still have been fired?

The head-scratching is coast to coast within NBA circles.

I spoke with an NBA scout Monday. He called it “interesting timing” given where the franchise had been with the behind-the-scenes drama to now looking like it was going in the right direction.

He summarized: “Get the No. 1 pick and Risacher looks good and make a tough but necessary trade (sending Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans) and seem to have come out well on the other side in getting Dyson Daniels, making some moves to free up some money in the future and then all of the sudden, the ax falls. You have to wonder, is some of the power struggle in the front office back?”

I suspect that team owner Tony Ressler liked Fields and liked the work that Fields was doing. But he just didn’t like the results enough.

Maybe Ressler felt that the Hawks could have gotten more in return from their trade-deadline trades involving Bogdan Bogdanović and De’Andre Hunter, particularly a much-needed first-round pick.

Fields’ first-round selections prior to Risacher – A.J. Griffin in 2022 and Kobe Bufkin in ’23 – either did not materialize (Griffin was traded last year for a second-round pick) or have yet to (Bufkin). Fields could not acquire an upgrade over Clint Capela at center.

And, with a potentially difference-making summer ahead – with a decision to be made on star guard Trae Young’s future, possibly two first-round picks and significant salary-cap room available to make a big free-agency pickup – the Hawks wanted a more veteran hand than Fields steering the ship.

Further, when the Hawks bring in candidates for the president role, they can ask them how they see the franchise’s direction and what they’d do with Young, who has two years left on his contract, the latter at his option.

That exercise alone could benefit Ressler.

Certainly, the Bufkin and Griffin selections have not worked out for the Hawks. And it’s possible that Fields could have brought back more when he dealt Bogdanović and Hunter. But to make that judgment delves into “the owner thinks he knows more than the GM” territory, which rarely works out well.

And was someone going to get more out of the trade for Murray or nail the first overall pick better than Fields did?

I don’t envy the Hawks. They were in the Play-In Tournament for the fourth year in a row, incapable of improving beyond seventh place in the Eastern Conference but remaining competitive enough with Young to not fall into the lottery. The perpetual question of whether to stick with Young – and, likewise, whether he wants to stick with them – remains without a clear answer.

But they do have a promising young core in Onyeka Okongwu, Daniels, Johnson and Risacher. And maybe they can do better than Fields, who also bears responsibility for not lifting the Hawks out of their Play-in Tournament home. Onsi Saleh, promoted to GM (for the time being, at least), is thought to be a star on the rise.

Maybe Ressler, who will now be on his fourth chief decision maker (after Mike Budenholzer, Travis Schlenk and Fields) after buying the team in 2015 but has delivered only one season of note (the increasingly distant Eastern Conference Finals run in 2021), has made a brilliant decision that will bring consistent, long-term success.

I’ll believe it when I see it.