AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 02
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
More questions than answers …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - Josh Smith’s arrival this morning in Philadelphia isn’t just some ceremonial publicity stunt folks.
He’s going to be courted like a team courts a free agent (restricted or otherwise) they’ve targeted as their top priority for the summer.
An offer sheet could hit the table at some point and Smith is free to agree to sign that offer sheet at any time after it’s presented. The seriousness of the 76ers, however, should no longer be in doubt.
But there are still so many questions lingering from yesterday’s open of the free agency period regarding Smith (and plenty of others) that don’t yet have answers.
The only thing concrete in this entire process (at least before July 9) is a verbal agreement between a player and team on a contract. That leaves everything else open to interpretation.
So, what actually happened during the Hawks’ lunch meeting with Smith agents Tuesday?
“We sat down [with Rick Sund and his assistant general managers] and had a conversation and now we’re moving on and having conversations with other people,” Brian Dyke, one of Smith’s agents, said late Tuesday night.
Not only did he choose not elaborate (on or off the record), he made it clear that he would not do so any time in the future.
The Hawks, knowing they have the right of first refusal (meaning they can match any offers made to Smith and Josh Childress) clearly do not plan on making the first bid and will see what Smith and Childress bring back from the rest of the market.
I have to believe that Tuesday’s meeting simply wasn’t the lovefest it could have been. Look around the league and take a good look at all the players reaching agreements on deals in the first 24 hours of free agency.
And we’re talking about the big money guys like Baron Davis and Antawn Jamison all the way down to like Jose Calderon and Beno Udrih - not to mention the extension Chris Paul is expected to agree to with New Orleans.
None of the guys who came to agreements yesterday are from that crop of restricted free agents (Smith, Childress, Emeka Okafor, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, etc.) that didn’t get extensions before last season.
So the Hawks aren’t the only team taking a wait-and-see approach to this thing. Wise? Perhaps in some cases, but it certainly can’t be fostering good vibes with some of these players. The negotiation game is usually played this way: teams start at one price, agents start at a higher price and at some point they decide to meet in the middle.
But with the craziness of the past 30-plus hours (guys opting out who weren’t supposed to, teams suddenly having cap space that weren’t supposed to, etc.) we can’t come to any conclusions about what might transpire next.
Now that Golden State has a load of space (with Davis opting out and agreeing to the deal with the Clippers) they become a real player. They could go after someone else that’s out there (reportedly Gilbert Arenas, who also has a max offer on the table from his current team, Washington) and turn this process upside down for the second straight day.
It’s like I told someone months ago about the prospect of only three or four teams having the “cap space” to play with this summer. That may be so on paper before July 1, but once free agency hits the teams interested in making moves in the NBA don’t hesitate to find creative ways to get involved in the free agent market.
Again, there are so many more questions than answers right now. But things will clear up dramatically for the Hawks as early as this evening. Smith’s visit wit the 76ers should provide us with some direction as to how this whole thing plays out for the Hawks.
