The Hawks have convinced numerous teams that Josh Smith will be moved between now and Thursday's 2PM CST deadline, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The question, of course, remains where exactly the forward will be sent.
The Celtics are exploring their options to land Smith and they may need a third team to get involved in order to swing a trade. Kevin Garnett won't waive his no-trade clause to go to Atlanta and Stein can't see the C's trading Paul Pierce there to get a deal done (Twitter links). That presumably means finding a third team to get involved and send something desirable to the Hawks to get them to send Smith to Boston.
Why would Atlanta want either Pierce or Garnett? Aren’t they trying to build for the future and with cap space?
I think if Boston wants Smith they can have him for Green, Bass and Melo. Maybe a draft pick in the future. Atlanta risks losing him at the end of the year for nothing. Not trading him now could be risky.