Poll: Will The Hawks Trade Josh Smith?
Josh Smith has been the subject of off-and-on trade rumors for years, but even as the Hawks' roster changes around him, Smith has remained a fixture in Atlanta. His contract is finally set to expire this summer though, and with a month remaining until the trade deadline, it's not entirely clear what the veteran forward's future holds.
For most of this season, Smith expressed satisfaction with new general manager Danny Ferry and the Hawks' direction. However, a recent slide by the team has frustrated the 27-year-old, something agent Wallace Prather conveyed to Ferry last week. Neither Smith nor his agent requested a trade, and a weekend report suggested that the team was still committed to the longtime Hawk, but Smith's frustration and a one-game suspension doled out by the club seemed to bring some of those old issues back to the surface.
Zach Lowe tackles the possibility of the Hawks trading Smith in his latest piece for Grantland, noting that there are a number of factors in play. Potential suitors could be reluctant to give up much of value for a player on an expiring contract, and the Hawks may not want to part with Smith if they intend to pursue Dwight Howard this summer, since the two are good friends. Nonetheless, Lowe sees a few teams as real candidates to be trade partners if Atlanta explores deals over the next few weeks. The Rockets, Mavericks, Suns, and Nuggets top Lowe's list.
So what do you think? Is this the year we finally see Smith on the move, or will the Hawks hang on to him, hoping to re-sign him to a long-term contract this summer?
Will the Hawks trade Josh Smith before the deadline?
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Yes 51% (430)
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No 49% (420)
Total votes: 850
Aldridge On Hawks, Smith, Batum, LeBron
NBA.com's David Aldridge has his new weekly column up, and as usual, it's packed full of interesting notes, quotes, and stories. Let's take a look at some highlights….
- The Hawks' Larry Drew was the NBA's Coach of the Month in December, but as we saw with Avery Johnson, that doesn't always guarantee job security. The Hawks have dropped eight of their last ten and there has been speculation around the league that GM Danny Ferry is waiting for the end of the season to remove Drew and hire Mike Brown. For his part, Ferry says that he has enjoyed working with Drew and plans to discuss his future with him after the season.
- Ferry acknowledged that he made decisions this summer with the idea of freeing up cap space down the line. It was a plan that he knew wouldn't yield a world-beating Hawks team in 2012/13. "I had no preconceived notions," Ferry said. "We were in a situation where we had six guys back and we were going to have to fill the roster with six guys to stay under the tax. Ownership gave me permission to go over the tax, but I didn't think there was anything we were going to be able to do to be a contender even over the tax."
- Prior to his suspension, Josh Smith told Aldridge that he had a great deal of confidence in the Hawks' core and believed that they could be a couple pieces away from contending.
- Nicolas Batum's says that his lucrative new deal hasn't put pressure on him and has instead left him feeling liberated. The forward is averaging 16.8 PPG with 5.9 RPG per game this season which are both career highs.
- There has been some buzz about a possible return to the Cavaliers for LeBron James in 2014, but Aldridge believes that Cleveland will still be more than two years from contending with a core including Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters.
Hawks Sign Jannero Pargo
11:09am: The Hawks have officially signed Pargo to a 10-day deal, the team announced in a press release.
10:07am: The Hawks will sign Jannero Pargo to a 10-day contract, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype. Atlanta is currently carrying 14 players on its roster, so a corresponding move won't be required to clear space for Pargo.
Pargo earned a spot on the Wizards' roster this fall, but was cut early in the season when Washington signed Shaun Livingston. We heard multiple times after that point that the 33-year-old was drawing interest from teams like the Bulls, Lakers, and others. However, it sounds as if he didn't receive serious interest until the 10-day contract period got underway two weeks ago.
For Pargo, it's a return to the place where he spent the 2011/12 season. In 50 games last year for the Hawks, the veteran guard averaged 5.6 PPG and 1.9 APG while recording a decent 13.6 PER. He'll provide Atlanta some backcourt depth over the next ten days as the club deals with the loss of Louis Williams for the season.
Odds & Ends: Prigioni, Hawks, Kupchak, Bonner
Here's news from around the league on a busy Sunday, with one month and a day to go before the trade deadline:
- The Knicks would have offered Pablo Prigioni a contract long before last summer if former coach Mike D'Antoni hadn't been so doubtful of the Spanish leaguer's foot speed, as Marc Berman of the New York Post reveals.
- Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer sees plenty of complications to any return of LeBron James to the Cavs.
- If Hawks GM Danny Ferry decides to change coaches over the summer, Quin Snyder and Mike Brown would be early favorites, according to Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game (Sulia link).
- There's speculation Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak could lose his job if the team doesn't make the playoffs, writes Bob Finnan of The News Herald. Finnan rounds up the week's rumors from around the league, and chronicles the rise of agent Rich Paul.
- Players union vice president Matt Bonner shared his reaction to a law firm's report about its investigation into the organization's practices, and said he's not interested in succeeding Derek Fisher as union president, as Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News recounts.
Amico On Gay, Kings, Millsap, West, Oden
The latest piece from Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio is brimming with juicy material, so let's dive right in.
- Even though the Grizzlies are reportedly in a "holding pattern" regarding trades, Memphis is still talking to other teams about moving Rudy Gay. The clubs engaged most heavily in those discussions are the Bobcats, Timberwolves, Suns and, more recently, Hawks. Nonetheless, a source tells Amico not to expect a Gay trade until after the All-Star break.
- Speaking of holding patterns, that appears to be the current state of any potential Kings sale, Amico writes. Whatever happens, it's "pretty clear" this is the final season for Geoff Petrie as GM. He's in the final year of his deal, and the 64-year-old reportedly wants to retire.
- We heard Friday about the Nets' possible interest in Paul Millsap, and Amico confirms Brooklyn, along with the Bucks and Nuggets, are among teams that could make a push for Millsap at the deadline. Most of the teams in that mix would want to offer Millsap an extension immediately upon acquiring him, since he's in the final year of his contract.
- Like Millsap, David West is another power forward set to hit the unrestricted free agent market, but the Pacers are confident they can re-sign him, Amico reports. That's why the team is largely ignoring trade offers for him.
- Greg Oden hopes to sign with a team around the All-Star break or right after the trade deadline. Interested clubs include the Celtics, Heat, Mavericks and Cavaliers.
Odds & Ends: Grizzlies, Redick, Magic
Ric Bucher of CSN Bay Area (Sulia link) hears that the trade rumor involving Rudy Gay to the Suns in exchange for Jared Dudley and Michael Beasley was leaked in order to facilitate more offers from around the league. In terms of the Grizzlies dealing Gay for luxury-tax purposes, Bucher notes that the Wizards and Warriors only have trade pieces that would relieve Memphis of the super luxury tax in two years, but not after this season. You can find more of tonight's miscellaneous notes from the Association here:
- David Baumann of Bright House Sports Network tweets that the Celtics covet J.J. Redick as a possible trade target before February's trade deadline.
- Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel provides a primer of what the Magic front office has to think about heading into next month's deadline. He thinks that GM Rob Hennigan might want to deal for more young players and draft picks while shedding salary, adding that Redick, Glen Davis, Arron Afflalo, Jameer Nelson, and Josh McRoberts are among the team's most tradeable assets. Lastly, Robbins thinks that Orlando is unlikely to part with Nikola Vucevic and that the team has almost no interest in dealing for Rudy Gay.
- Noting that Chris Johnson had been a member of Timberwolves' training camp before the season, Ray Richardson of the Pioneer Press says that his familiarity with the team provided an advantage during the team's search for help at center.
- The recent struggles of Nuggets swingman Andre Iguodala prompted him to admit after today's practice that he's "probably behind the curve" and has had trouble finding his comfort level this season (Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post reports).
- HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy (Sulia link) anticipates a quiet trade deadline for the NBA considering a busy offseason that saw 31 deals involving 96 players.
- Alex Raskin of HoopsWorld looks at Jeff Teague, one of four players who are guaranteed to remain in Atlanta beyond this season, as a viable long-term investment for the Hawks.
Lou Williams Out For The Season
Lou Williams is out for the season after tearing a ligament in his right knee, reports Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The Hawks guard suffered the injury last night against the Nets, and an MRI today revealed the tear, which the team specifies is to his ACL. Williams is in the first season of a three-year, $15.675MM deal.
The timing of the news is especially rough for Atlanta, since the NBA's deadline to apply for a disabled player exception just passed this week. Williams had fit in well as a sixth man with the Hawks, averaging 14.1 points per game with a shooting line of .422/.367/.868. His numbers were similar to the ones he put up last year with the Sixers, when he averaged a career-high 14.1 PPG. Williams had avoided major injury to this point in his career, having played in at least 61 games in each of the last six seasons.
Hawks GM Danny Ferry issued his reaction to the news, saying, "We’ll examine every and all option that can be considered and make decisions from there," as Vivlamore tweets. Atlanta has lost seven of its last nine games and sits at 22-17, in sixth place in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks are over the cap, but can use a pro-rated portion of their $1.957MM bi-annual exception if they wish to sign someone for more than the minimum.
Hawks Remain Committed To Josh Smith
For most of the season, it seemed like the Hawks and Josh Smith were satisfied with their partnership, with the team not looking to trade the eighth-year veteran and Smith strongly considering re-signing next summer with the only NBA club he's ever played for. When the Hawks issued their athletic forward a one-game suspension this week for "conduct detrimental to the team," it seemed to signal a change, as Smith's agent expressed his client's frustrations in Atlanta and Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported the team had engaged in trade talks about Smith. Now, Steve Kyler hears that the Hawks are turning away those calls, and are instead looking to build around Smith (Twitter links).
Kyler also tweets that they've held that stance "this week," which could indicate their rumored participation in trade talks was limited to fielding offers and issuing rejections. Kyler notes that the Hawks may decide to entertain a trade for Smith closer to the deadline, but appear more focused on bringing in someone to help distinguish themselves in the tightly bunched upper half of the Eastern Conference (Twitter link). The HoopsWorld scribe isn't sure that the Hawks can accomplish that, and I think it might come down to whether GM Danny Ferry is willing to bite into the ample cap room the team is set to have in the summer. With only about $18.5MM in guaranteed salary on the books for next year, Atlanta could probably take on another moderately-priced multi-year contract without significantly compromising their flexibility.
The Rockets would have interest in Smith if he's available, Kyler tweets, and Berger identified them as one of the teams that would appeal to the 6'9" soon-to-be free agent. It might be difficult for them to get a deal done with Atlanta, though, since they don't have many of the expiring contracts the Hawks would probably want. The Rockets already owe a protected first-round pick to the Hawks that Atlanta acquired via the Nets in the Joe Johnson trade.
Stein On Heat, Bosh, Gay, Mavs, Smith
In his Weekend Dime, Marc Stein of ESPN.com runs down his picks for this year's All-Star reserves. On Stein's ballot, the Nets get a representative in Houston, but it's not star point guard Deron Williams, who is barely shooting 40% from the floor. Instead, it's center Brook Lopez who has given the Nets the kind of steady offense that Williams hasn't been able to. Here's more from Stein's column..
- No matter how much TNT's Charles Barkley clammors for a major trade in Miami, the Heat just aren't looking for that sort of shake-up. Sources familiar with the club say that they aren't prepared to part with Chris Bosh, not only out of fear of a major change, but because it would make things umcomfortable from a player-relations perspective to break up the star trio.
- Sources close to the situation tell Stein that the Mavericks are not among the teams that have expressed interest in Grizzlies' Rudy Gay. The Mavs were previously mentioned as being among the clubs interested in the forward. Meanwhile, we learned yesterday that the Bobcats are aggressively pursuing him.
- The "Bank of Cuban" may be reopening its doors in Dallas, but the Mavericks still want to preserve their wiggle room this offseason. That's why even though the Mavs can offer cap relief to teams at the trade deadline, Stein doesn't expect them to take on significant contracts. Instead, they're more likely to trade Vince Carter to a contender that could use an extra shooter, or move Brandan Wright to a team in need of another big man. That could yield them some picks or perhaps allow them to shed even more salary.
- While the Hawks could move Josh Smith for an impact player, Stein is skeptical that they would want to sacrifice their cap space this summer.
Odds & Ends: Raptors, Grizzlies, Mavs, Bynum
As we look forward to an evening slate that includes a pair of contests between Eastern Conference contenders (Hawks/Nets and Bulls/Celtics), let's check in on a few odds and ends from around the NBA….
- Appearing on Sportsnet 590 The Fan in Toronto yesterday, Raptors coach Dwane Casey said no trades are imminent for the team, but that he, president Bryan Colangelo, and executive VP Ed Stefanski talk about potential moves "every day." Kevin Nielsen has the quotes from Casey at Sportsnet.ca.
- Mike Conley tells Bill Ingram of HoopsWorld that he hopes the trade rumors surrounding the Grizzlies don't amount to anything, since it would "hit us all hard" if anyone was dealt.
- In a pair of Insider-only pieces for ESPN.com, Chad Ford examines 10 potential trade candidates, and breaks down some draft options for the Bobcats.
- Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News suggests that finding a legit point guard is one of the Mavericks' top priorities, and says Jose Calderon wouldn't be a bad trade target for the team.
- For the first time this season, there appears to be serious progress happening in Andrew Bynum's recovery, writes Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News.
- Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com (Insider link) tries to find the most logical fit for Josh Smith, should the Hawks decide to trade him.