AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > July
July 2008
Looks like a Mexican standoff …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - I’m afraid that’s what we have here or certainly what we are in store for where the Hawks and Josh Smith are concerned.
Neither side appears to be interested in budging from the positions they’ve assumed on the matter, so I can’t imagine we’re headed for anything other than a Mexican standoff (a situation in which no one can emerge as a clear winner, for those of you not familiar).
We certainly won’t see a quick resolution.
If college football games are being played before this thing is resolved I won’t be surprised.
Understanding exactly what we could be in store for, say for the next month, I have to ask the question … are you ready for yet another month or more of this slow-paced drama?
The folks that get the cash for my cell phone bill every month have to be giddy at the thought of another month of this stuff.
Me, I’d love nothing more than to see this whole saga resolved in the next 24 hours. But it’s not going to happen.
And all the cute trade scenarios, misleading insider reports from places that have no clue about this situation and the players involved and chest-thumping by the opposing sides here won’t do anything to get the issue resolved.
Until the Hawks and Smith’s representatives sit down and start having substantive conversations about how to get either a new contract done or a deal that pleases all sides done, we’re all stuck.
THE NEW NO. 1: On to less depressing news … Mo Evans made quite the impression Thursday afternoon under rather strange conditions.
He held up a No. 1 jersey, the same one Josh Childress has worn the past four years. Evans eases into the jersey and perhaps the role as the Hawks’ sixth man with a smooth understanding of what it is he’ll be asked to do for this team.
His maturity and defensive ability would have been welcome on the Hawks’ 2007-08 squad. And we’ve already highlighted his abilities to shoot the ball from distance and his above average athleticism.
What has probably gone unnoticed by some is his extensive playoff experience (34 games during his NBA career, including postseason stints with every team he’s played on). And with pretty good teams. He’s seen a lot and been in the fire plenty of times, so he won’t back down from any challenges this season.
I called an executive from another Eastern Conference team about Evans Thursday night and he admitted that the Hawks adding a player like Evans was not only a good move but a necessary one at this juncture.
“The one thing I love about him is that he’s a defender,” the exec said. “He’s a guy that’s bought into the fact that he’ll live in this league as a defender and a solid rotation guy. He’s not shy at all about stepping up to that defensive challenge against the Kobe Bryants and Tracy McGradys and those types of guys. He knows who he is and he knows how to be effective doing exactly what he’s done the past couple of years. He is what he is. There’s no mystery there. And he’s a better shooter than people think. He’ll knock down shots if he’s the guy people think they can leave open.”
Hawks GM Rick Sund said Evans was on the Hawks’ short list of free agent targets long before they reached terms on a contract.
And the Hawks don’t have to worry about Evans bolting for (another stint) overseas. He was fishing for the right NBA opportunity this summer and found it once Childress moved on.
“I really worked hard to get here, man,” Evans said. “I was undrafted. It’s been a fight, scratching and clawing to make it in this league. They pick the players from all over the world. If you can play in Africa or somewhere else halfway around the world and you can run and jump over building the NBA is going to come and get you. So if you have a spot and have a chance to impact a situation like I have here, I took advantage of it and you can parlay that into whatever in a couple of years … I’m getting a chance to play the game I love, with good players - Mike [Bibby] and I played together in Sacramento - so when he came over in the trade last year, he wasn’t even really comfortable last year. He didn’t really get to put his imprint on this team last year. So I’m thinking that from the beginning and going through training camp and bonding and coming together as a team, we’ll be able to do some big things once we put it all together.”
PAGING MR. AKYOL: Watched the replay of the USA-Turkey exhibition game tonight, mostly so I could watch Cenk Akyol against NBA competition.
He led all scorers with 22 points, which I could barely make out by watching because the screen was just a constant blur of Duke has beens. Coach K has every single overrated guard who has ever played for him working on the Team USA staff.
They even showed a deal at halftime from the practices that the team had in Vegas and there were even more former, overrated Dukies running around the gym. It was an infuriating evening trying to sort through all the mess and just watch the cat the Hawks took with the 59th pick in the 2005 draft.
I was under the impression he was a point guard prospect. But he looked like more of a shooting guard to me. Turkey had another cat running the point. Akyol was spotting up for 3-pointers and shooting funky leaners and stuff.
What I liked about him was that he seemed eager to go at Team USA, which is always a good sign from an international prospect.
It’s funny, the Hawks own the rights to three players [Akyol, David Andersen and Childress] that will play overseas this season and I’m convinced that all three could certainly help them out this season.
WAS THAT?: Either my eyes are playing tricks on me or I saw James White (the former Florida and Cincinnati skywalker who played briefly with San Antonio two years ago and snagged a NBA championship ring) cutting down the hallway in the locker room at Philips Arena Thursday.
By the time I slid down the hallway the locker room was empty. I know he played in the Turkish league last year but I don’t know what his status is this season. I’ll have to do some more investigating this weekend and see if there’s anything more to his being in Philips.
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What’s considered market value?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - So let me get this straight, Emeka Okafor gets $72 million, Monta Ellis $66 million and Andris Biedrins $62 million and folks are still willing to stand on this argument about the market value of restricted free agents?
I think the market has spoken.
And the going rate for a real player (and in some cases what might be a real player) is in upwards of $60 million.
Funny, that’s the same price range as last October, when Al Jefferson signed for $65 million and Kevin Martin for $55 million. And it’s the same price we’ll see for the next crop of free agents; Andrew Bogut has already got his $72 million (with incentives).
That’s the case many of us were making from the start, that there is no swinging market value number that you can assign to these players. That $10 million a year baseline has been established for legitimate young stars.
It’s not like it just popped up out of nowhere and suddenly became the figure. It’s a staple.
For months now folks here have raged against the restricted free agent machine about this guy not being worth this or that guy not being worth that. And my personal favorite, “nobody has given a big money restricted free agent an offer sheet to sign so that means there is no market for their services.”
Well, you are welcome to keep sippin’ that syrup.
I think most of us know better.
Most of us realize that quality outfits are willing to lock up their prized assets when they are restricted free agents at fair prices.
Sometimes it takes a bit longer and there are frayed feelings on both sides, but usually both sides come to an agreement on what’s fair.
That’s certainly what appears to have happened in Charlotte, where the Bobcats had to crank up their initial offer to Okafor to reach the going rate for a player of his caliber.
Someone asked me yesterday if the Hawks have passed the point of no return with Josh Smith to get something done. I have a feeling they have. But I can’t say that for sure, and that’s why I’m working overtime to find out.
And yes Clint, I’m making every effort to get in touch with Smith (who is not in Atlanta this summer) and will most certainly report on his situation from his perspective when I can. But it’s not easy to get in touch with these players during times like these.
They have every reason to avoid the media during negotiations, for fear of the repercussions of anything they might say (notice the lack of comment from all these restricted agents until a deal is done).
THE ORIGINAL AL H: If you didn’t know the power of this blog, you will now.
While baking last night at the Campbell Middle School football field (watching the Smyrna Spartans opening practice, long story, tell you later) my cell phone rings and former Hawks captain Al Harrington is on the line.
He’s calling from Vegas to find out if what he’s heard is true, that I wrote a story about him being traded back to the Hawks in a package for Josh Smith.
After we laughed and clowned for a couple of minutes I reassured Al that I wrote nothing of the sort. I explained to him that what he was talking about was a conversation that originated here, strictly a hypothetical conversation cooked up by the world’s greatest bloggers (I saw the 600 posts last week and then we bang out almost 400 more on Switching lanes - y’all are some monsters. And I love the diversity of opinion, that’s what makes this place fun to hang out in).
The writer in the Bay Area that relayed to him that a story about the trade was written by me has to answer to me later - dude already owes me $178 for getting my rental car impounded on a Western Conference road trip a couple years back, so he’s on thin ice with me as it is.
But for the record, and for the sake of Al’s mental health, I’ve neither written nor heard anything of the sort regarding him being traded to the Hawks. He won’t have to deal with us again. Ha.
Nothing has changed, however, on those potential sign-and-trades I mentioned Saturday. There are still a number of them in circulation, the specifics of which I can’t speak on because like all sign-and-trades, they’re in the conversation stage and nobody wants to admit what they’re doing behind closed doors.
And nothing has changed on an expected DOR (date of resolution) between the Hawks and Smith. We’re steaming toward the middle of August, the usual time for the Hawks to wrap up their summer business.
So don’t lose your edge now. We’ve got a few more weeks of this back and forth.
NO KWAME: The Hawks’ pursuit of Kwame Brown was undercut by what appears to be his agreement to a two-year, $8 million deal with Detroit (per his agent and as reported by ESPN.com).
He would have been an intriguing player in a Hawks uniform. Despite the knocks on him, he’d have seriously fortified the Hawks’ frontcourt rotation from just a purely physical standpoint.
He’s one of the most impressive physical specimens in the league (on the hoof at least). Whether or not his game ever matches his appearance no one knows. But I imagine there are plenty of teams willing to pay to watch that experiment up close.
And right now it appears to be the Pistons’ turn to pay.
YOUTUBE SPECIAL: Someone sent this link to me, a video parody of the Atlanta Spirit ownership group. Once again, it’s not me - I just stick to reporting (no smart comments from anyone). Click here for the video.
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Switching lanes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THE BASEMENT - This time a month ago I was busy calculating just how long it might take for the Hawks to wrap up negotiations with both Josh Smith and Josh Childress before putting the finishing touches on the roster in time for training camp.
Little did I know that I’d be sitting here this morning trying to wrap my dome around the fact that there’s a good chance neither Smith nor Childress would be in a Hawks uniform this season.
Childress, of course, is already gone.
Smith, on the other hand, is still in the crosshairs. But it’s not looking good for the Hawks on that front.
There are at least two, blockbuster sign-and-trade proposals the Hawks are chewing on regarding Smith (one from a Western Conference power and the other from an Eastern Conference big dog) that could dramatically change the landscape in Hawksville.
The “proverbial” ball appears to be clearly in the Hawks’ court regarding both opportunities, and we should presume many more. Because if they are resigned to the fact that they don’t intend to pay Smith a salary commensurate with what he feels he’s worth, then there only recourse is to sign-and-trade him.
The leverage we all assumed the Hawks had with their own restricted free agents went up in smoke last week when Childress bounced.
Anyone that doesn’t think Smith will wait this thing out as long as the Hawks is living in a dream world. If you don’t think he’ll sign a qualifying offer, play out his season and walk next summer as an unrestricted free agent you’re crazy.
If the Hawks want to get anything in return (and keep in mind they get absolutely nothing if he plays out the year and walks, NOTHING), they have to act now.
The tricky thing about sign-and-trades is that all sides not only have to agree on the deal but all three sides want to walk away from the deal the winner (whether it’s acknowledged by others or not).
With one loss already on the books this summer, the Hawks simply cannot afford another.
AFTER THE FACT: If you believe what you read, half the NBA considered going to Europe before Childress decided to take the groundbreaking leap.
I don’t believe. I think it’s extremely convenient (and totally disingenuous), mostly for these agents involved, that they can lay claim to being pursued by Olympiakos or any of these other European teams after the fact.
Whether you love or hate the decision, Childress and his camp have to be given credit for their vision. So for everyone else to claim to have spurned the same opportunities is just a bit sketchy to me.
ON THE VERGE: There hasn’t been a whole lot of chatter about Randolph Morris since he made an appearance at the Hawks’ mini-camp at Philips Arena.
But several of my spies contend that he’s set to join the Hawks’ roster for this upcoming season (on a two-year, minimum deal that would allow the Hawks to bolster their frontcourt rotation significantly).
This would also be a splendid opportunity for Morris to dig in and make his status in the NBA permanent (not necessarily with the Hawks but just in the general sense) by proving that he’s a legitimate big man.
And the opportunity to play behind Al Horford and perhaps Zaza Pachulia should provide ample opportunity for Morris to make his case.
MO, MO, MO: I do like the acquisition of Mo Evans, though not necessarily as a replacement for Childress.
How smooth would it have been to add him to the mix along with the Hawks’ top eight rotation (from the playoff series against Boston)?
The role Evans can play for this team has nothing to do with offense and so much more to do with what he can do defensively.
The Hawks have needed a defensive stopper (if you will) to help alleviate that pressure on Joe Johnson. Evans could be the off-the-bench stopper the Hawks haven’t had the past few years, a guy that comes in alongside Johnson on the defensive end and a guy who can also stroke the ball from deep to keep team’s off balance on the other end of the floor.
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Aftershocks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THE DECK - As stunning and surreal as Wednesday’s fallout was from the (ongoing) Josh Childress saga, the Hawks, believe it or not, actually have more pressing matters to attend to this morning.
And trying to save face on the Childress matter (they have to replace him immediately) is not what I’m talking about.
Losing your focus for once second during free agency is exactly what allowed Childress and his representatives to find the deal that will ultimately take him to Greece without the Hawks receiving any compensation.
So if there was ever a time for the Hawks to get on the phone and figure out what it’s going to take to either sign Josh Smith to an extension (still a possibility) or figure out the best they can do for a sign-and-trade (an equal possibility), that time is now.
Or better yet, last night.
Those of you who dismissed my concerns (dating back from last October) about a sense of urgency being needed to get these free agent situations resolved shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the idea now.
And we’re dealing with some very simple field markers here folks; if the Hawks don’t like the price that the players like, find a solution (sign-and-trades) before the solution finds you the way it did yesterday.
Losing Childress is a blow on many levels (as so many of us went over and over and over again yesterday), but mostly because there is no salvaging losing the sixth pick in the draft without so much as future draft pick as compensation.
It’s just a totally unacceptable proposition for a team rebuilt through the draft the past five years. Totally unacceptable.
The only thing that will begin to make the sting go away is the name of a player that can fill that void on a signed contract.
The sooner the Hawks get that done, the easier this entire mess will be to swallow.
ECON 101: Nothing surprised me more than the venom directed at Childress for leaving the Hawks for what, by any standard, was a much better contract offer than the one his own team was willing to give him.
The only place people expect an employee to sacrifice for the greater good of the organization is in professional sports, which is a complete oxymoron.
That’s what makes it “professional sports.”
Anyone faced with the opportunity to earn twice as much money on the job, I don’t care if it’s busting rocks or shooting hoops, is obligated to consider the proposition. That’s human economics 101 right there.
This foolish notion that players are all about the money and don’t really care about winning is adolescent and shortsighted, at best. Anytime you’re dealing in free agency it’s all about money for all involved - how much the team is willing to spend and how much the player wants. There is no sugar coating it for either side.
So please don’t pretend that the C.R.E.A.M. doctrine applies only to the players in this regard.
BREAKDOWN: The bitter nature of this entire affair has led so many people to bash Childress in a way that I don’t think is close to fair.
“He’s going to struggle over there,” one guy told me. “He can’t shoot. And they’re going to expect him to play like he’s a NBA All-Star for the type of money they paid him.”
Folks are acting like Childress was some kind of bust in the NBA or something, like he wasn’t a productive player. One scout friend of mine who has worked the international scene for the last 12 years insists that Childress will have as much success overseas as he is willing to work for.
“They value different things over there for sure,” my scout friend told me. “There have been players with much less talent and ability than Childress that have torn it up in Europe. So I can’t imagine him struggling over there. How well he adjusts to the style of play and the nuances of the league will dictate what kind of player he can be in the Euroleague. But for anyone to assume that he’ll buckle over there because of the physicality or because his jump shot isn’t pretty is just plain ridiculous. People that haven’t seen or studied the game just don’t know what they are talking about. It’s a totally different game over there that doesn’t accentuate the same things that the NBA game does, so guys who are versatile and can play within the flow of a system thrive over there. It’s not the isolation game that the NBA has become over the years.”
He touched on another aspect of the difference between the NBA and international game that I think is tremendously interesting: “One of the major differences between the leagues is that the NBA is usually focused on the things a player doesn’t do well and highlighting those while the international game has always been about guys playing roles in the larger scope of the team. That’s why you’ve seen over the past few years guys who are fabulous players in the international game struggle while trying to make the transition to the NBA game. The coaching focus is so much different from one game to the other because NBA coaches don’t coach tend to strategize to the strength of their players the way coaches in the international game do.”
REASONABLE DOUBT: In defense of Hawks general manager Rick Sund, not that he asked for me or anyone else to defend his position in the Childress situation since he inherited it along with a host of other loose ends that should have been tied up months ago, he had no choice here but to let Childress walk away one the offer came from Olympiakos.
There is on way on earth he could play this game and win unless Childress accepted less than he felt he was worth (and who are any of us to tell a man he should take less than he thinks he is worth on his job?).
If the Hawks find that their research insists that the market for players is one thing and those numbers don’t jive with what the players and their agents come up with, who’s wrong?
I say no one and everyone moves on to an amicable divorce. It happens all the time in the NBA, even with the rules and restrictions of free agency.
What Sund can’t do going forward is become a slave to the market or the machinations of those that came before him. That’s the one thing about his transition from Seattle to the Hawks that many of us (myself included) have overlooked.
He might not have valued Childress (right or wrong) the way Billy Knight did. The same goes for his evaluation of and the value he places on Smith, Marvin Williams and the rest of the players acquired before he took over.
Time will tell if he has it right or not.
And we will all be here to make that play judge and jury, the same way we did with Knight.
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Childress leaves Hawks for Greece
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the closet as a true Atlanta sports fan, things go even crazier than they’ve gone in the past 15 months.
Former Hawks swingman Josh Childress has signed with Olympiakos of Greece, a three-year, fully guaranteed contract worth far more than the $20 million initially believed to be his prize.
Could there be a more stunning turns of events for fans who thought Childress was destined to remain in a Hawks’ uniform for at least the next four or five years?
It’s a groundbreaking move for all sorts of reasons, none of them terribly thrilling for the Hawks and their tattered reputation.
It’s also a groundbreaking move for Childress, who is blazing a trail that no one was bold enough to before him.
So, what type of impact will Childress’ departure have on the Hawks as a team and as a franchise?
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Brace yourself …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THE MATRIX - If you thought the tango Josh Childress danced with Olympiakos was simply a negotiating ploy, you were wrong.
And I mean 100 percent wrong.
This is no joke people.
Childress is still in Athens and won’t leave without making a decision on his immediate future.
At least three of the (ridiculous amount of) people I spoke with about his situation throughout the day and night Tuesday are convinced that he is “gone.”
There has been no official word, of course, but that could come as early as this morning (stay tuned to ajc.com for the updates).
What looked like a crazy stunt three days ago has turned into a bona fide nightmare for the Hawks, who simply couldn’t win in this situation (if they increased their offer to Childress they’d lose all credibility in future negotiations but if they lose him, they lose all credibility with the public).
No one is pretending that free agency is anything other than a bare-knuckle brawl for cash between the team and the players and their agents.
Losing Childress this way, if it does indeed happen, is a third round TKO for the Hawks, who had their chances to lock Childress up long-term with a legitimate contract extension and never did.
What constitutes legitimate, however, is where everyone seems to have shifting opinions. It might not matter by lunchtime, though, because Childress might be a member of a different team by then.
How this situation melted down to this point is stunning when you consider that Hawks general manager Rick Sund and his assistant GMs went to Washington to sit down with Childress’ agents two days after the start of the free agency period, in an effort to make a face-to-face pitch early on in the process.
TRUE OR FALSE?: Speaking of offers, our good friends at ESPN.com weighed in with another round of intel on the situation regarding both Josh Smith and Childress and where negotiations stands between the respective camps.
They reported that Josh Smith has been extended a six-year, $60 million offer from the Hawks. But spies in both camps confirm that this is absolutely, 100 percent NOT true.
In fact, Smith has never been formally offered a cent over $9 million from the Hawks. They’ve only had discussions about where things might go but there’s never been a formal offer at that rate.
As we reported earlier, the Hawks did extend an offer to Childress with a starting salary in excess of the NBA’s $5.5 million mid-level exception. But that was only after yanking a more lucrative offer off the table, according to one of my best spies, when Childress didn’t immediately accept the initial offer.
“Come on, man. Do you really think these guys would still be hanging out there if they were dealing like this all along?” one of my spies told me late Tuesday night. “The spinning that’s going on right now is nothing short of despicable. They haven’t done right by those kids [Childress and Smith] and they have every right to want more for themselves.”
WORD TO THE WISE: I’m stepping out of bounds here a bit, but this is something I have to share. I’ve been in my hometown (Grand Rapids, Mich.) since yesterday for the funeral of my aunt who died of cancer last week.
I’ve seen aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives, both distant and near, that I either haven’t seen in years or didn’t even realize were a part of the family.
Having dismissed family reunions and other events like that for years because they conflicted with whatever I thought was more important at the time, I’m suggesting you reconsider in the future if you’re guilty of the same. I know I will.
Don’t let the only quality time you spend with family and friends consist of funerals and weddings.
Sorry for the sermon, but I had to get that off my chest.
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Dollars and Sense?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - That’s the only thing standing between the Hawks right now and signed contracts for both Josh Smith and Josh Childress.
The Hawks have the dollars to spend (they can bust the bank to sign both of these young cats to extensions) but don’t appear to have the sense of urgency where these two guys are concerned.
If they do, they have a strange way of showing it (daily contact with your free agents apparently does not indicate that it’s anything more than high-stakes phone tag to keep up appearances).
So much has been made here about Josh Smith and how his summer is playing out (more about that in a minute), but what of Josh Childress?
He is absolutely considering an offer to play overseas, Olympiakos in Greece, this season (as first reported last night by Yahoo! Sports) with the Hawks having no right to match an offer from an overseas team. This is getting nuts.
How in the world has it come to this for the Hawks and their own free agents?
Here we are, working on three weeks now without so much as a hint that the Hawks and these free agents are speaking the same (salary range) language.
That wouldn’t normally be cause for concern. But since it’s the Hawks and this is July (soon to be August), my sonar is bleeping like crazy.
It’s going to be mid-August before you know it, and the Hawks are still going to be bogged down in negotiations that are far enough apart that neither the agents nor the team are willing to speak on it publicly (as has been the case so far for both sides, no one has spoken on the record about this stuff yet).
Something just doesn’t add up folks.
There was never a reported offer to Childress last October (and I’ve never been able to confirm if there was one or not), so it’s hard to know what the Hawks had in mind had they been having those sorts of concrete conversations then.
If Olympiakos is indeed talking about a robust $20 million over three seasons (with the Hawks retaining Childress’ NBA rights, with a qualifying offer, the next two summers), Childress or any other professional athlete has to seriously consider that offer.
If this is all a ploy to put the heat on the Hawks, as one Hawks’ staffer insists it is, then Childress’ agents (Lon Babby and Jim Tanner) did a great job. Because once again the Hawks look like the cats left holding the bag
SMITH, TOO: How the sides could be this far apart where Smith is concerned makes little to no sense at all. If the Hawks were offering a starting salary of $9 million last October (as reported here last summer when it was clear that a deal was going to be tough to come by before the Oct. 31 deadline), before Smith’s stellar season that culminated with a playoff berth and some rather huge moments from Smith, both sides should certainly be working in upwards of that range now. I don’t think anyone’s ever uttered anything about max money for Smith. But certainly something along the lines of what Kevin Martin ($55 million) and Al Jefferson ($65 million) re-upped for before the 2007-08 season.
A member of the previous Hawks’ front office administration famously argued me down (to the folks who saw us debating the topic at least) before a preseason game that there was no way Smith or Childress should get extensions last summer or fall because the Hawks hadn’t been to the playoffs, as if they alone were responsible for it not happening prior to our verbal showdown.
“If you feel that way,” I told him, and this is a direct quote “all of you clowns should resign on the spot or be fired for making colossal mistakes with choice draft picks most teams would die for.”
My argument then and now goes something like this, if the Hawks believe at all in their scouting, coaching and training staffs and how they pick talent, develop it and nurture it - if they feel confident at all that they did the right things in drafting these guys and feel they’ve progressed at a sufficient or better rate - paying the cash for extensions is merely a procedure. The figures need to be fair and probably a bit on the generous side, what with all the extra curricular activity these players have had to deal with in their four tumultuous years as staples of a beleaguered the franchise. If there was ever any doubt whatsoever, even the slightest bit … the Shelden Williams approach would have been the proper way to end the relationship.
Instead, we’re heading into the tall grass section of yet another endless summer.
NOT THE SAME GAME: All that said, the former Hawks’ staffer I debated this with nine months ago made some good points to the contrary. He pointed to Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor ($60 million turned down) and Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala ($57) and the Chicago duo of Ben Gordon ($57 million) and Luol Deng ($50 million) and argued that they were all in a class above both Smith and Childress.
I didn’t agree with him then and I certainly don’t agree with him now, not even close. But that wasn’t even the point I was trying to make. Those teams extended offers that were legit at the time and are probably overdoing it now (at least in a couple of cases). If the Hawks were playing in that same realm, then or now, I can’t imagine they would have to endure Tom Foolery that has stained the franchise this month (the negative vibes, real and imagined, are all over the place).
As one of the players said to me last week during mini-camp, “What the #!*% is going on around here? That playoff series against Boston is getting further and further away and it’s like we haven’t had any good news since then.”
OPTIONS: That brings us to the options portion of today’s program, for both the players and the Hawks.
Smith and Childress, by virtue of their status as restricted free agents, only have three options at this point. They can a) come to terms with the Hawks on extensions (best case) or b) find the right sign-and-trade deal that appeases all sides (good luck) or c) bolt for a team overseas or play out the year on qualifying offers far below their true value and at great risk (someone in this restricted free agent class is bound to do it, with Childress quickly assuming the mantle of trailblazer now that he’s seriously considering the offer to play in Greece).
Naturally, a) would the ideal. But b) offers some intrigue. And c) would place the player and the franchise smack in the middle of a potential firestorm if things go awry for this team early in the season, the finger pointing would be intense if this team went into training camp with not only Mike Bibby playing out the final year of his deal but also the Joshes.
It’s something that you don’t even want to think about going sideways, particularly after all the progress that’s been made.
THE REIGN IS OVER: Since we decided against making the trip with the Hawks’ summer league crew this year, ending Blog-Z’s seven-year reign of terror on the fine folks of Salt Lake City, like you I’m left to get eyewitness updates from people who are there watching that mesmerizing action in person for the goods on Acie Law IV and the boys.
The Mad VP is on the scene, blogging live from the site and posting his stuff on Hawks.com after games. I’ve already warned him to tone it down (he doesn’t need to be too good or too funny, otherwise he’ll put us out of business).
But he has provided some quality commentary and insight into the goings on out there that you might want to check out if the summer league team is your focus right now.
The Hawks carried a 2-0 mark into Sunday’s off day, posting impressive wins over Dallas and Utah in their debut set. Jeremy Richardson appears to have shaken off whatever the ill effects of that twisted ankle were and is shooting the ball particularly well.
Luke Jackson (keep an eye on dude, he’s a shooter with size and he’s got some NBA experience) also seems to have gotten off to a nice start out there.
Acie Law IV and Speedy Claxton are the guys most people were focused on heading out there and they’ve both had their moments, with Claxton showing well in the opener and then Law taking over things late in the second game.
I’ve learned my lesson with summer league, however. Whatever goes on there is merely a glimpse and not the full story about a guy.
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So much for those plans …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - My plan was to regale you with observations from the Hawks’ rookie/free agent mini camp workouts and scrimmages, to fill you full of details that you can only get here.
And then the Los Angles Clippers stole my thunder (while also whacking the last of the tall weeds the Hawks had to worry about where Josh Smith is concerned - an emailer said it best when he wrote “get him signed already so we can all have whatever is left of our summer back.”).
I’m still going to give you details about the goings on at Philips Arena. But I won’t do it at the expense of this latest twist in the plot of this week’s episode of As The Joshes Turn.
Whatever plans Josh Smith or any of the other restricted free agents had of making a splash this summer with one of the few teams with cap space have all but vanished (Memphis has cap space but they’re not spending, so that should be the end of that).
There’s a reason why Smith and the rest of the big dollar restricted free agents are still waiting for contracts to sign. Their teams, all of which have the right to match any offer sheets submitted, remained steadfast in their plan(s) to do just that. If a team with cap space knows they could end up having their cap space tied up for seven days and potentially lose out on another deal while playing a game of chicken they can’t win, they just decided to skip the game of chicken altogether and find alternative routes for doing their business.
It’s the risk of playing the restricted free agent game for the player. Now the teams have to sit down and talk contract numbers with the agents of their own players and decide if they want pay what they think is the market price (which is always a number skewed by whether or not a guy is restricted or unrestricted) or pay something closer to what the agent thinks the market price should be (and that’s always a number much higher than the one the team has on their sheet of paper).
There are always sign-and-trade options, but those are much more complicated to get done with Base Year Compensation concerns clouding matters (with teams at or over the salary cap).
An even riskier option for the player is to play out the season on that qualifying offer that had to be extended before the free agent period began (we’re talking $4.8 million for Josh Childress and $3.1 million for Josh Smith), which would allow the player to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2008-09 season. A maverick would get a $10 million insurance policy (just for safe measure) and play this thing out and then see what free agency looks like without restrictions. But there are too many things that could go haywire in that scenario, which is why you rarely see anyone opt for that strategy.
I wouldn’t rule anything out at this point, because too much time has passed for things to work out smoothly. I’d imagine the negotiations for both Smith and Childress won’t be as cordial as they might have been if completed on July 1 or even last October. I also don’t think the discrepancy between what the players and their agents feel they are worth and what the team thinks they are worth is that great. I’m just not sure if either side realizes as much.
Trying to put a timetable on things is an impossible task, since both sides could spend the next two months trying to get what they want and not bend to the will of the other side. That long, hot summer predicted here a couple weeks back looks like it could be on the way.
So in an effort to lighten the mood (and really just to change the dang subject), here a few notes, quotes and an observation or two from mini camp:
CLASH OF THE (FORMER GEORGIA HIGH SCHOOL TITANS): That workout with Kwame Brown and Randolph Morris that we told you would happen this summer took place today (no, the media was not allowed to watch). Both players reportedly gave a good showing, with Brown drawing the most raves from onlookers.
Both guys appeared to be in good to decent shape and after three years with limited big men available, Hawks coach Mike Woodson said it was just good to see guys as big as Brown and Randolph wearing Hawks colors, even if it was just practice gear.
“It’s nice to see two big bodies first and foremost,” Woodson said. “Zaza, Al Horford and Solomon Jones are the only real bigs we’ve got. Josh Smith isn’t the big 7-footer, even though he’s done a great job for us holding it down at that position. But it was nice to have two big guys like those guys competing against each other in our gym and giving us an opportunity to look at them in hopes that they might be a part of our basketball team. Kwame might come back [Wednesday], so that let’s me know that he’s sincere about our team.”
Randolph worked out with the rest of the Hawks’ mini-campers during the afternoon session and will finish out the Atlanta portion of the schedule but will not accompany them to Salt Lake City Thursday for the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league competition.
Randolph, the former Landmark Christian star, did say that the idea of playing for the Hawks and before his hometown fans, is a tantalizing proposition.
“Of course it would be nice to come back home and play,” said Randolph, who spent the first year and a half of his NBA career with the New York Knicks. “But you’d have to talk to my agent [Wallace Prather] about where we go from here. I’m here and doing everything I can. We’ll just have to see where it goes from here.”
There’s no question the Hawks have a need for another big body, or two, to fill out a frontcourt rotation that was sorely lacking in the size and depth departments last season.
CRAIG CLAXTON SIGHTING: The artist formerly known as Speedy Claxton was back in action Tuesday evening and he looked up to the task of working out against a hungry bunch of youngsters, mostly summer leaguers and Hawks backup point guard Acie Law IV.
Claxton cleared up any confusion about his role here when told me that he absolutely intends to play in Salt Lake City. How much he plays will depend on how his knee responds. He looked exactly the way he did during training camp last October before they shut him down for basically the entire season with that recurring knee problem.
He looked quick getting to the basket and was his usual scrappy and aggressive self in the open court and on defense. Claxton insists he’s played ball this summer without any discomfort.
But the real test comes with watching how Claxton (and more specifically his knee) responds day after day in this kind of environment, how he responds to both the physical and mental pounding that awaits. He acknowledged as much (and I’ll delve further into that and more in a story on him that will be on aj.com sometime later today).
SHOOTER: Never one to get too terribly excited or disappointed by a performance in summer league, I have to admit that there needs to be an investigation into the water in the greater Portland (Oregon) area.
Free agent camper Thomas Gardner carried on a Hawks’ practice court tradition, started by Salim Stoudamire, by putting on a mini-showcase from beyond the 3-point line during the scrimmage portion of Tuesday’s workout.
While the action was a bit choppy (the players were divided into three different teams and they played fast-paced, seven-minute sessions), it wasn’t hard to notice his confidence from deep. He knocked down two deep 3-pointers from the top of the key and then added two more from the right wing while his team was on the floor. He’s a fearless deep shooter and has more size (a legit 6-5 and 225) than I remember when I saw him play as a high school senior.
He could be one to watch the rest of this week and out in Salt Lake City.
THE REGULARS: Acie Law IV has some familiar faces around this week in Horford, Mario West and Jeremy Richardson.
Horford did all the drill work but did not participate in the scrimmage, drawing a little light-hearted ribbing from Woodson. Richardson looked comfortable, as you might expect from a guy who is on his third stint with the team, playing within himself and knocking down a couple of long-range shots to assert himself in a crowded field of wing players.
West, however, couldn’t wait to get dirty. He played at his usual breakneck pace, slashing his way to the basket on the offensive end and harassing anyone with the ball on the defensive end. I thought he was going to go through the wall once and then later through the floor after he fell hard on a drive to the bucket for a layup. I just don’t understand where he finds the kind of energy to play that way day after day. It’s hard to explain.
Horford’s the only one from that group that won’t be making the trip to Salt Lake City, so they’ll be expected to help Law lead the charge for the Hawks at the Revue.
CHASE ME IF YOU CAN: If you’re looking for an early camp favorite, just for you purists out there who love a feisty competitor, I’m going with this point guard named Brian Chase.
He’s a 5-10, 170-pound bottle rocket from Virginia Tech that I knew I’d seen before. I had to ask a couple other people where I’d seen him before and then they reminded me that he was the point guard on Miami’s roster during a preseason game that gave the Hawks the business.
He scored 11 points that night last October, making four of his six shots from the floor, all the while making an impression on us all.
The thing that sticks out about a guy like this is that gets wherever he wants to on the floor despite being the smallest man out there basically at all times. The Mavericks had a similar guy (JJ Barea) a couple years back at the Revue and have since signed him to a guaranteed two-year deal.
Cats like Chase and Barea, fearless cats who know they can play and don’t allow perceived limitations deter them from trying to dominate, are always on my favorites list. I love anybody that plays that way, big or small.
I’ll be interested to see if Chase makes the cut for the Revue. With the emphasis on Law and Claxton, in that order, you just don’t know how many point guards the Hawke will take with them.
Anyway, check back for more updates, because I’m sure we’ll have another twist in As The Joshes Turn when we least expect it.
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Crickets again …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - That’s the only noise you’ll hear around Hawksville these days.
Crickets.
All’s quiet on the Hawks front, save for the start of rookie/free agent mini-camp today (can’t wait to see some of these guys in action tonight at Philips. The Finals was the last real basketball I watched other than the lil’ fellas playing on my neighbor’s hoop).
Since the Hawks aren’t any closer to resolving their free agent issues than they were this time last week, we might as well turn our attention elsewhere. But not before I tell you about my weekend in Mississippi (yeah, I go way back with the M-I-Crooked letters, Pops was born there, did some college there, Wifey’s from there and I worked there, too).
I stumbled into the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica where the Mike Miller Foundation and Joe Johnson Charity Event was being held (easily one of the most well run charity events I’ve seen, complete with a golf and poker tournament, pretty ladies playing in a beach volleyball tournament, memorabilia auctions and a concert - a good sounding group from Gainesville called Sister Hazel).
While I didn’t get a chance to spend loads of time with JJ, I did corner him a couple of times while I was there and we talked a little shop - as much as could be had with so many people vying for his time and so much else going on.
He’s watching this free agent situation as hard as anyone and while he’s not panicked or anything, he is definitely keeping a cautious eye on the proceedings. Being a veteran of the restricted free agency roller coaster (who can forget his ordeal in the summer of ‘05? - the Hawks roared to that 0-9 regular season start after taking all of July and more than half of August to get Johnson signed) he knows better than to assume anything before offer sheets (or contracts) are signed and either matched or not.
“Whatever happens, and I don’t care to speculate on anyone else’s business, we have to be ready to go as a unit when training camp starts,” the Hawks’ captain and two-time All-Star said. “We worked too hard and accomplished too much late [this past] season to let anything stop us now. We have to be ready to go as a unit when training camp hits. The rest of the East is loading up and getting ready to chase Boston. And we hit pushed them as hard as anybody did throughout the playoffs, so we know that we what we’re capable of if we play at our peak. But we have to do it from the start. And that means coming to camp with everything in place, guys ready to go and knowing their roles and putting our foot on the gas from the start.”
He said he did speak with Josh Smith before the July 1 start of the free agent period, but hadn’t spoken to him since then in an effort to allow Smith the breathing room he needed to handle his business.
The funniest thing of the entire deal is that the first thing JJ said to me when I saw him was, “What’s going to happen with Josh and Josh?” That’s the exact same question I was going to ask him if he hadn’t beaten me to it.
It’s not often that a team’s entire offseason is tied up in one or two transactions like this. But the Hawks, without a draft pick or any significant cap room to woo other free agents, have only two things to deal with before they can move on to the task of finalizing the rest of the roster for training camp in October.
They have to get something done with the Joshes.
“That’s our summer right there,” JJ said. “That’s all there is to it.”
DOUBLETALK?: The standard line Hawks since last October has been that they’ll match any offers from other teams to both Smith and Childress. And up until now we haven’t had any reason to do anything but take them at their word.
But a few of the NBA veterans in Tunica over the weekend warned me not to believe that hype.
“That’s what everybody says until an offer sheet hits the table,” one guy said during an informal meeting of the minds on all things NBA. “And any good general manager keeps his options open no matter what. That’s the only way to keep from being blindsided.”
That conversation prompted me to dial up an executive from another team and ask if he believed the Hawks would stay true to their word and match offers no matter what and shun sign-and-trade offers for Smith and Childress.
And that’s when he hit me with a left hook I just didn’t see coming.
“Not only will they consider a sign-and-trade for Smith, I know that they’ve talked with one team in particular about the potential of a sign-and-trade if things get out of hand,” he said. “I also know that they’ve turned away a couple of other teams that called interested in sign-and-trades for Smith; turned them away without so much as discussing the idea conceptually. But the longer this thing drags out the more likely things could change. You remember how things played out with Joe Johnson. The Suns swore they would match and that they wanted to keep him and then when they saw the price tag Atlanta was willing to pay they negotiated a sign-and-trade. Just because you reserve the right to match doesn’t mean you will. That’s just the way the business works.”
That makes things even more interesting where Childress is concerned since there have been at least a half dozen teams peppering the Hawks with sign-and-trade offers for their sixth-man.
The Clippers are exploring their options right now (perhaps expanding their list of targets to Luol Deng and Andre Iguodala, or not, according to one of my spies), and could very well hit Smith an offer sheet this week and turn the heat up on the Hawks.
But all anyone can do until then is speculate.
STICK TO SNITCHIN: This is a little off the subject, but did you happen to catch the clip of Jose Canseco getting knocked out (twice) by Vai Sikahema in some celebrity boxing match over the weekend.
For all those major league players that wanted to do the same, just thank Sikahema for taking care of that business for you.
Sikahema didn’t just beat up on Canseco for sport. He worked Canseco over in the name of charity, too, donating $5,000 of his winning to the family of a slain Philadelphia police officer who was shot and killed in May.
ADDITIONS AND SUBTRACTIONS: When we leaked the Hawks’ summer league roster here last week it apparently wasn’t the final list. Justin Williams and Wayne Simien joined the group (as did Al Horford, who was on it all along but was left out because I knew he wasn’t going to be playing in Salt Lake City).
Williams and Simien are intriguing prospects, as both would help solidify a Hawks frontline that could use a dose of size, experience and athleticism.
After seeing Solomon Jones last week and talking to him about the summer I was under the impression that he would be on the summer league squad as well. But he has since opted not to play, a dangerous move for a third-year player who has seen limited action with a new general manager on duty.
It wouldn’t have hurt for Jones to make his way to summer league and showcase his skills, just so Rick Sund could get an extended look at him in an environment where he might have had a chance to show off a bit.
GONE BABY GONE: As you’ve probably seen, many of the names on my free agent shopping list have been removed. James Jones (Miami), Jarvis Hayes and Eddie Najera (New Jersey) and DeSagana Diop (Dallas) have already snapped up.
While there are still some viable options out there, I don’t feel good about the Hawks’ chances of picking and choosing the ones they want to try and go after to fill out the roster because by the time they finish with their top priorities there won’t be much left to pick and choose from.
Jones or Hayes would have been the ideal big shooter off the bench the Hawks need. And Diop could have solved their issues at center spot and allowed all sorts of lineup machinations by Hawks coach Mike Woodson.
Instead, the Hawks will have to scour the ranks for guys to fill out those roles. One guy I wouldn’t be surprised to see them bring back is Lorenzen Wright. He’s a veteran big and a guy who’s probably going to play at the minimum salary this season. He’s also one of the players JJ mentioned during one of our conversations over the weekend.
He talked about how much the Hawks missed Wright’s toughness after that trade deadline deal that brought Mike Bibby to town. It’s toughness that they’ve yet to replace.
I’ll share some observations from mini-camp this evening, hoping that someone will stir up the free agent mix between now and then so we can have something other than crickets providing us with background music for the day.
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Saved by the (Elton Brand) Bell?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - This couldn’t have turned out better for the Hawks if they had written the script themselves.
Elton Brand opts out just hours before the deadline.
The Clippers and Warriors tussle over him while it appears the Sixers have eyes for Josh Smith alone, only to find out that Brand, the 29-year-old two-time All-Star power forward and potential anchor, is willing to come to the Eastern Conference for more cash.
Brand’s status as an unrestricted free agent (Smith is restricted, which has always been and will continue to be the Hawks’ ace in the hole) no doubt made him the more viable option for the Sixers.
They didn’t have to worry about anyone matching their offer (the Hawks, to their credit, have maintained that stance for both Josh Smith and Josh Childress and haven’t spent any time talking publicly about anything to the contrary. That had to weigh on Philly as they decided which was their best plan of attack - “wait seven days to see if the Hawks will match with our cash tied up for Smith or roll with Brand, who is older and coming off an Achilles injury that cost him all but eight games last season, but is a two-time All-Star and already has the low-post game that could put us over the hump.” It’s easy to see the logic there. Brand was a sure thing, provided he was receptive to the idea of becoming a Sixer … uh, he had $82 million reasons over five years to warm to the idea).
It was pure serendipity at work for the Hawks (with a little Reality-TV by Elton Brand - the mantra for all during free agency tends to be “Show Me the Money” and despite reports elsewhere I’m told the Sixers offer was by far the most lucrative for Brand, who opted for money and the best chance to win quickly. Remember the Sixers made the playoffs last year and the Warriors and Clippers did not).
That leaves Smith and Childress still on the market, technically, but more likely than ever to return to the Hawks at a price the club likes as opposed to a price dictated by a team flush with cash to spend on free agents.
No one is going to be scared of the Clippers (notorious for their penny pinching ways in the past) coming after their players. They’ll simply match offers and keep it moving.
Now that the NBA’s salary cap number ($58.6 million) is out, teams should start moving quickly to wrap up free agency so we can get to the second stage of the summer fun, the trade season.
That may be where the Hawks have to do their best work this summer. Because the post-free-agent-frenzy trade season is where veterans can be had, veterans that can fill out a roster and veterans that can help the Hawks take that next step.
Taking care of the Joshes, however, remains the Hawks’ top priority. And it should be simple a formality now. And it’s not like either of those guys has ever acted like they didn’t want to be here. In fact, they both made it clear after Game 7 in Boston that they were desperate for things to stay together. Remember, they’ve been here the longest. They’ve endured the toughest of tough times more than anyone else on the roster.
But like Brand, and every other free agent out there, restricted or otherwise, they want someone to show them the money, too. The C.R.E.A.M. (for those of you hip-hop challenged members of our crew that’s Cash Rules Everything Around Me) doctrine rules the day in the NBA as usual.
Just ask the Clippers and Warriors now that they are on the wrong side of the Brand sweepstakes.
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In the meantime …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - While we’ve all been locked in on the free agent situation regarding both Josh Smith and Josh Childress the Hawks other players have been busy with the business that is every offseason.
That’s not to say the other players aren’t interested in the futures of their teammates, because they are. In fact, the one question I get most from Hawks players is “what’s up with Josh and Josh?” - as if I know any better than they do.
(There is nothing new to mention regarding the Joshes. The salary cap number will be released to teams Tuesday afternoon/evening, convenient huh, just in time for Wednesday’s official start of the free agent signing period. Once everyone around the league has that official cap number in hand they can go about consummating deals that have been on the table since last week.)
The better question is what’s up with you?
So I poked my head in at Philips Arena this morning in an effort to find an answer to that question. The first two faces I see, shortly before 10 a.m. the morning after the extended 4th of July weekend, belong to Acie Law IV and Hawks coach Mike Woodson.
They were on the practice floor bright and early (Law was working out with Hawks assistant video coordinator John “Beans” Beckett and Woodson stumbled upon them on his way to his office and an impromptu brainstorming session began about the nuances of playing point guard for the Hawks) playing out a scene we all might see on the regular over the next few years.
Save for a two week break, Law’s been working out relentlessly since the Hawks’ playoff run ended. He said he’s hungry as ever and will not let up come mini-camp and summer league (next week in Atlanta for mini-camp and the following week and a half in Salt Lake City for mini-camp).
Woodson was all smiles seeing Law on the floor so early and already having worked up a ferocious sweat while working on his shot and an assortment of other things during his early morning workout.
Law retired to the weight room (allowing me a few minutes to trade questions and answers with Woodson for an upcoming piece on Law) and when he finished with that part of his routine he headed out the door for a therapy session for his injured wrist that caused him problems during his rookie season (he said the wrist feels fine and that the therapy three days a week has done wonders).
He admitted to being wired up for the upcoming season and even more fired about his chance to compete in mini-camp and summer league.
“I can’t wait,” he said, uttering a phrase rarely heard from the lips of a scone-year guy in the middle of his first NBA summer.
While I was in the midst of wrapping up with Law and Woodson Zaza Pachulia breezes into the room with his bag over his shoulder, having already completed his weight room work while I was snooping around downstairs.
ZP seems just as eager as Acie to get back out there and get after someone - he’ll have to do his work with the rest of the Georgian national team when they convene for training camp in a few weeks for some competitions on the other side of the globe.
With all the attention on the NBA Finals and then free agency, it’s easy to overlook just how much work goes on outside of the limelight in this league (the Hawks, like every other team in the league, have guys stretched all over the place doing individual work of their own).
And speaking of work, I put my snooping skills to good use this morning. I pilfered the Hawks’ mini-camp roster/summer league roster (not everyone on the mini-camp roster is going to make the cut for Salt Lake City and some guys will join the Hawks’ summer league crew in Salt Lake City without going through mini-camp) and was surprised by a few of the names on the list. You might be surprised as well (I can’t imagine it’ll take long for the surprise to kick in):
G - Acie Law IV
G - Speedy Claxton
G - Dominique Kirk
G - Brian Chase
G - Jeremy Richardson
G - Demetric Bennett
G - Thomas Gardner
G/F - Mario West
G/F - Luke Jackson
F - Brian Randle
F - Kevin Pinckney
F - Marcus Hubbard
F - Othella Hunter
F - Brian Butch
C - Solomon Jones
C - Jamal Sampson
C - Olumide Oyedeji
I’m still doing homework on some of these cats (since I’d never heard of them), so I’ll reserve comment on most. But I have to say I was stunned to see Speedy Claxton’s name on the list.
Someone mentioned to me a while back that they thought he was going to be on the summer league roster. I thought it was a joke. But with all the injury problems he’s had the past two years it makes sense to see how he’s holding up in July before getting to training camp in a couple months and finding out.
Naturally, you want to see how he fares in what should be some heated competition (if Law has his way). But you also want to see how Solomon Jones, Jeremy Richardson and Mario West look against a group of hungry free agents.
Some of the other names are intriguing - Luke Jackson was a lottery pick, Gardner was a standout college player at Missouri, Randle was the same at Illinois and Butch the same at Wisconsin. Sampson and Oyedeji have the kind of size and experience (both have been on NBA rosters at one time or another).
And as receptive as the Hawks have been to free agent invitees in the past (West, Richardson, Ced Bozeman, Dijon Thompson, Obinna Ekezie and a host of others) these guys need to be watched.
These guys won’t get going until this time next week, just a couple days before departing for Salt Lake City. The free agent drama should play out before then. But in the meantime, we can chew on this list and see if there isn’t a player or two in this group (not already under contract) that could impact the Hawks in the near future …
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Match point!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PARTS UNKNOWN - The private plane.
The limo.
The old jersey-with-his-name-on-it-in-the-locker trick.
The Mayor.
The wine and dine.
The man on the street coming up and telling you how much they need you routine.
The Philadelphia 76ers spared no expense and pulled out every stunt possible to woo Josh Smith Wednesday (and probably a bit more today).
The only thing left is the offer sheet, which can’t be far behind.
Smith has time to make a decision on what he wants to do. But I can’t imagine it will take him long to sign, not because his heart is in Philadelphia but mostly because NBA players are like the rest of us.
They love to be loved.
They love for someone to show them love.
And you have to give the 76ers credit, from what the descriptions I’ve heard from at least three different people in Philly about Smith’s visit, it was one home run swing after another - from the moment Smith and his agents stepped off the plane to their evening visit with the Sixers’ brass and coaching staff.
So I called an executive from another team I know and asked him what he thought of this deal and if everyone was putting way too much stock in Philly’s recruiting pitch and not enough in the nuts and bolts of this process and he put on his professor’s hat.
“The bottom line in all of this is the Hawks can match that offer,” he said. “I don’t know if they will. Everything I’ve seen and heard says they will. But you never know until the situation comes up. But they do have that right to match on their side and that’s a powerful weapon when you’re talking about restricted free agents. That’s why you only see a few teams that dive publicly into situations with these restricted free agents. What you don’t see is all the teams working behind the scenes to try and worm their way in there and see if they can’t get in on the action. If the Hawks don’t match and want to try and massage a sign-and-trade deal to keep from losing him outright, there will be a line of teams ready to do business. Since no one will know the exact numbers for the salary cap [and thus the actual figures that can be offered to free agents] until next July 8th, I don’t expect this thing to come a head until then. But that’s when it should be clear to everybody how this thing plays out.”
The line has already formed for Josh Childress, the Hawks other man in the crosshairs these days.
As many as eight different teams have contacted the Hawks about sign-and-trade deals for Childress, per one of my best spies who insists that there are several Western Conference playoff teams desperate to add Childress to their mix (his exact words were that they “need an athletic younger guy who can play without the ball and come off of their bench and give them a boost.”).
That’s nearly a third of the league that’s interested in acquiring one of your players, which should be a clear indicator of that player’s value around the league.
So I asked my scout friend why these guys are so attractive and he made a good point that I think we might have overlooked about both of these guys.
“Somebody else has already done the heavy lifting in terms of developing these kids, and I call them kids only because at 22 [Smith] and 24 or 25 [Childress], they’re still in the early stages of their careers,” he said. “They’ve both played major minutes and had major roles on a team that’s had to operate under some pretty extreme conditions down there with that ownership situation and that shaky coaching situation. They’ve managed to improve year after year through all of that and they played huge roles in helping that team make the playoffs. Not all of these restricted free agents on the market right now have played those kinds of minutes and had those kinds of roles on their teams. You have a huge sample of work to evaluate on those two kids and then you realize that they both have plenty of room to get better and that’s what intrigues people.”
That also has to be what intrigues the Hawks, who have never strayed from their public stance that they’ll match any offers made to these guys.
TWO NAMES ON MY BRAIN: I know we’ve debated endlessly around here about the Hawks adding another shooter with size their mix but few names have surfaced that anyone confirms the Hawks have actual interest in.
Two names that have come up in conversations I’ve had the past two days that would seem like ideal fits for the Hawks are James Jones and Jarvis Hayes.
Jones is the sharpshooter from Portland (he shot 44 percent from deep last season and save for the 24 games he missed with a left knee injury, was one of the better bench players in the league last season, averaging eight points per game in a tough minutes situation on a talented Portland team).
There’s a good chance Jones signs back with Portland. But if he becomes available, I’d be chasing him down if I were the Hawks, a team that needs outside shooters in the worst way. He ranked third in the league in 3-point shooting this season and has played on winning teams in Indiana and Phoenix during his career.
Most of us are already familiar with Hayes, whose name appeared here frequently two years ago when I was in my “The Hawks should trade for Brendan Haywood and Jarvis Hayes” phase, which was before Al Horford was drafted and the Hawks traded for Mike Bibby (adding the second outside threat needed to take some pressure off of Joe Johnson on the perimeter).
The former Georgia star has the experience, skill-set and price tag that would fit well with what the Hawks are working with. He’s also proved to be a quality player in a reserve role, most recently in Detroit, capable of making a splash when called upon (I watched him stroke seven 3-pointers against the Hornets late in the season on his way to a 29-point outing).
Again, these are guys that make sense to me. I don’t know if the Hawks are interested in them or not and I wouldn’t expect anyone to share that information right now anyway, since those guys won’t be in play until later on during this free agent frenzy.
But if we’re talking about the Hawks needing shooters with some size to come off that bench as game changers, these are two vets that would clearly seem to fit the bill.
Both of them have playoff experience and the requisite size (6-8 for both and 220 pounds for Jones and around 230 for Hayes) and skill to help this team out in a major way next season.
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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.
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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.
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