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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > August > 08
Friday, August 8, 2008
Hawks lucky this time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The thoughtful Grizzlies did all the negotiating for them. Memphis established Josh Smith’s market value, and all the Hawks had to do was agree. And now, having matched the offer, he’s theirs for the next five seasons at a remarkably reasonable rate. What’s the downside?
Well, it’s this. Being the Hawks, they managed to turn a successful outcome — keeping their third-best player for both the short and long term — into something of a stumble. Again, they seemed plodding and slow-witted, not to mention cheap. They’ve retained Smith for $58 million, but we’re left to wonder what would have happened had he found an offer for, say, $70 million.
Regarding Smith, the Hawks got incredibly lucky. The anticipated windfall from Philadelphia never came, the Sixers preferring to spend $80 million on Elton Brand. The Clippers met with Smith but didn’t make an offer. That left Memphis as the last suitor standing, and the Grizzlies generated a fairly modest proposal.
Compare that $58 million over five seasons with what Luol Deng got to stay in Chicago ($71 million over six), or what Emeka Okafor received to re-up with Charlotte ($72 million over six), or what Andrew Bogut accepted from Milwaukee ($60 million over five). Smith is younger and better than all of the above, and the Hawks were gifted the chance to lock him up for only $13 million more than their lowball offer ($45 million over five) of last fall.
That, you should know, was the only formal bid the Hawks made before deciding late Friday night to match. As happened with Childress, they dared a free agent to go out and find a better deal. Josh C. found one, albeit in a country bordering the Mediterranean. Josh S. wasn’t so fortunate. The really big money dried up before it cascaded down on him.
Bad for Smith, but good for the Hawks. Indeed, it’s far better than they deserve. After saying their entire offseason emphasis was on keeping both Joshes, they did next to nothing toward that end. They didn’t raise their offer to Childress after Olympiakos emerged as a real player, and they let Smith shuttle between prospective employers for more than a month.
Given two chances to get it right, the Hawks were reactive both times. As Smith told the AJC’s Sekou Smith on Friday: “It wasn’t like they did a whole lot in terms of negotiations.”
To the Hawks’ credit, this laissez-faire approach did yield half a bottom-line success, but it didn’t enhance the image of a franchise that could stand any and all enhancement. You wonder what the other gifted young Hawks whose contracts will soon need renewing will make of this passivity. You wonder if the Hawks’ claim of an ongoing commitment to excellence doesn’t again seem as empty as Philips Arena too often has been.
The good feeling flowing from the Boston series has been allowed to dissipate, and in its place is the stark realization that this bright young team has already contrived to get worse. The Hawks lost Childress, who was the sixth player drafted in 2004 and who averaged at least 10 points in each of four NBA seasons, and they’ve replaced him with Maurice Evans and Randolph Morris, neither of whom was even drafted, neither of whom has averaged in double figures.
Yes, keeping Smith has lessened the damage, and thanks to the Grizzlies, keeping him was as easy as falling off a log. But simply sitting back and hoping to get lucky isn’t the hallmark of a big-time franchise. It is, sad to say, the way of a middling and muddled outfit. Like this one.
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