One of the main reasons the Hawks have been doing so well is the addition of Lou Williams, who tried to bluff his way into a big contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and lost. Philly went in another direction, leaving Williams to fend for himself as a free agent. Williams had several offers, but ultimately chose to take the mid-level exception from Atlanta to avoid rebuilding elsewhere.

“I thought it was a group that was still capable of winning after Joe left, and the other offers that I had on the table were really teams that were rebuilding and I didn’t really want to go through that scenario,” Williams tells HOOPSWORLD. “I was in a situation in Philadelphia where I felt like that was a team that was turning the corner to be a pretty good team, so to have success in Philadelphia, and then leaving, I didn’t want to start over.”

via Bill Ingram of HOOPSWORLD.