AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 01
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
12:01 a.m.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - We might not have to wait as long as initially forecasted for something to break on the Josh Smith situation.
Late-breaking developments Monday night saw Elton Brand and Baron Davis opt out of their contracts and join the free agent market, each of them sacrificing millions in search of a longer contracts that will give them the security they desire.
But neither Brand nor Davis is the target of the Philadelphia 76ers. That distinction remains Smith’s. And while you were sleeping just after midnight, 76ers president Ed Stefanski, according to one of my well-placed spies, was on the phone with Smith’s representatives making sure that they were headed to the City of Brotherly Love as soon as possible.
My spy (who said no call from the Hawks came after midnight) insists that Philly wants Smith to visit as early as Wednesday morning. That would make clear their intentions where Smith is concerned.
The Hawks and Smith’s reps are still slated to meet this afternoon (my spy didn’t know where the meeting was slated to go down but I’m working on it). But I would imagine the tenor of that meeting could change dramatically, at least for Smith’s camp, knowing that it’s just the first stop on a mini-tour that includes a stop in Philly.
Good teams don’t wait around until May to decide who they like, they’ve usually done their homework on a player and his situation long before they make the move it appears the 76ers are about to make.
So I poked around a bit more and found that not only has Stefanski been intrigued by Smith’s talent since he was a high schooler coming out in the 2004 draft, he also has a longstanding relationship with one of Smith’s agents, Brian Dyke, who is also Kenyon Martin’s agent. Stefanski worked in a similar capacity in New Jersey when Martin was there and was in almost the exact same situation as Smith (if you remember, the Nets dared Martin to find a team willing to pay him more than they wanted to and he did just that and left in a sign-and-trade deal with Denver).
Those sorts of connections cannot be ignored during situations like the one the Hawks are facing now.
I’ve heard the gripes of a lot of people (here on the blog and elsewhere) and I’ll politely agree to disagree with those who think Josh Smith is expendable and that the Hawks are better off not re-investing in their own player. It’s really a case-by-case basis that you have to gauge how you deal with your own free agents.
Not all of them carry the same value, internally and on the open market. My rule is that you never outsmart yourself and assume that you can replace the quality and production that you know for quality and production that you’re gambling on being the right fit. But that’s just my rule.
For a team there are so many other factors involved, as we’ll see play out between now and when offer sheets and contracts are signed and either matched or not.
SENDING MESSAGES: Another thing that has been lost in our ongoing dissecting of this Josh Smith/Josh Childress situation is the message the organization sends to the rest of their players with their actions this summer.
A scout friend mentioned this to me in a conversation last night and it’s a valid point that I didn’t really consider until then, but the guys watching this stuff as closely as anyone are Marvin Williams, Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Mike Bibby and any other Hawks player that will be in this same situation in the near future.
“They’re watching this to see how the Hawks handle Josh and Josh because it will be a sign as to how they’ll deal with other guys,” my scout friend said. “Smith and Childress are the two guys the Hawks started this whole [rebuilding] process with, and if they don’t do right by them … man, why would they do right by anyone else? People have long memories. They remember what happened with Al [Harrington] and how he waited all summer for something to happen and then got played. Players don’t forget that stuff. Agents don’t forget that stuff. And I guarantee you other teams remember that stuff because there is a lot of talent on that [Hawks] team. If they can’t keep things together, people will come around trying to pick them apart.”
BIG MEN NAMES: Worked a few of my other spies last night for some info about what big men the Hawks are eyeballing this summer and two interesting names popped up.
Could you see Randolph Morris or Kwame Brown in a Hawks uniform?
Both are expected to get a good look from the Hawks’ new brass this summer.
Both also come with risks - the risk on taking on Brown being far greater than the risk of taking on a player like Morris. But they’re both the kind of big men the Hawks need to be able to add to their mix. That depth we’ve been talking about around here all year can be bolstered dramatically with the addition of a reasonably priced big man in the mold of either Morris or Brown.
There are other rookie and free agent big men that will no doubt be a part of the Hawks’ summer league situation (Brian Butch from Wisconsin being the most noteworthy thus far), but I’d argue that none of them would present the intrigue of either Morris or Brown.
