Rick Sund: Woodson, Childress, Trades

[HMFFL]

Woodson:

Hawks general manager Rick Sund is taking time to evaluate the team and decide whether to offer Woodson a new contract.

“They will call me whenever they want to talk," Woodson said Wednesday. "Monday I will become a free agent, so I'll just see what goes from there.”

The Hawks' inaction on Woodson's contract, plus recent critical comments by co-owner Michael Gearon, add to the doubts about Woodson's future with the team after six seasons.

Sund said he hasn't made a decision on Woodson or even begun detailed evaluations of the team. His first order of business was to conduct exit interviews and then allow the sting to subside from Orlando's four-game sweep of the Hawks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Within the next couple of days, Sund plans to meet with the Atlanta Spirit ownership group and give his recommendation on Woodson, which Gearon has said they will accept.

“You do want to separate the emotional and the analytical," Sund said. "You have to be rational when you are looking at your club.”

Josh Childress:

Sund said the Hawks would extend a qualifying offer to Josh Childress, a restricted free agent who has played in Greece the past two seasons. If Childress wants to return to the NBA, he must opt out of his contract with Olympiakos by July 15 (he reportedly hasn't made up his mind).

Extending the one-year, $4.8 million qualifying offer would allow the Hawks to maintain Childress' NBA rights. If Childress doesn't accept the offer but wants to return to the NBA, the Hawks could use him in a sign-and-trade transaction.

Trades:

Sund said he told players during exit interviews that he would consider trades that improve the team.

“I'm not a believer in addition by subtraction," he said. "But we need to figure out how we can compete with the teams who are better than us.”

Link

[td00]

Response to Rick Sund and the ASG about how to compete with teams better than us......

1) Go get Amare Stoudamire
2) Send JJ to somewhere where he can sit back and be the #3 option with no pressure.
3) Find us a leader on the court who can get to the FT line often.
4) Get us a coach who has an offensive scheme!
5) And if you limit yourselves with the salary cap, you might as well say you aren't competing for a championship! Save us all the heartache that comes with being blown out in the 2nd round.

2 new pieces to offset one disgruntled #2 superstar.....

[parson]

1. Josh Smith can be - all around - better than Stoudemire, who won't play defense.
2. I'd rather Joe be the 2nd option ... HERE.
3. That's the holy grail of players; hard to get and we already have players who get there to some degree.
4. That's abundantly obvious; I agree, although a better-thought-out DEFENSIVE scheme wouldn't hurt, either.

[Skyhawk1]

1. Josh Smith can be - all around - better than Stoudemire, who won't play defense.
2. I'd rather Joe be the 2nd option ... HERE.
3. That's the holy grail of players; hard to get and we already have players who get there to some degree.
4. That's abundantly obvious; I agree, although a better-thought-out DEFENSIVE scheme wouldn't hurt, either.

1. J. Smith in his best year will never be close to Amare's worst. Put J. Smith on that team (Suns) and tell me how can he avg close to 30ppg since the ASG and take his team to the Conf. Finals playing the Spurs along the way? Playoffs are about fundamentals, which are not part of the home town hero's repertoire.
2. JJ must go after his play and comments.
3. We need a leader no doubt, maybe Horford is already one, we just got to surround him with better character people, that means kick Smith's lazy, unprofessional, and uncoachable ass out of here.

[evildallas]

Now I'll chime in.

While Josh Smith isn't offensively the equal of Amare, Amare has never shown commitment to D. I call it a wash and point out that we already have Josh Smith. We need to see if he reached by a new coach to be more consistently motivated and less pouty. If that fails, then we can discuss cutting ties, but doing so without trying a different coach could be a mistake.

Joe needs to go because of his play and price tag, not his comments. He's routinely come up small in the playoffs, but what I speak of is the ball stopping offense he showed all year. That signals to me that he doesn't want a new system. It does little good to pay him big bucks and then have him not working in a way that improves the entire offense. I don't see a guy willing to take #2 assignments or pay. He'll does a lot that will be hard to replace, but paying him max is a bad business and basketball decision.

Coach replacement comes without question. If Woodson gets a contract it will be the most deflating event since we traded for JR Rider.

[parson]

1. Amar'e Stoudemire will never be close to being nominated for the NBA's defensive player of the year. And I think Steve Nash could work wonders with Smoove, who'd probably average 8-10 dunks a game for him.

2. I'm not for cutting our nose off to spite our face.

3. You show me a trade for Smoove that brings in a great PG or a center who keys our defense as well as Smoove does and I'll be interested.

Otherwise, you're talking about "addition by subtraction," something Sund says he doesn't believe in.

[evildallas]

What has Joe done to command a max salary other than be the best offensive player in a system that was tailored to highlight him? I want to move to a system that tries to create better opportunities for the whole team even if it means constantly running pick and roll like Utah. If Joe's just going to be an aging jump shooter in the new system is he worth 16M a year? I'm not saying get rid of Joe for the sake of change, I'm saying that his play indicates a reluctance to fit into a different role and that his open market price tag is a likely to be far greater than he's worth.

If no one offers Joe the max, then by all means try to resign him. Don't overpay out of fear of change. We did that once with Jon Konchak and how did that work out?

[parson]

Sad thing is, I believe Joe would be much better in Sloan's system.

I hope you're wrong and it is Woodson's fault for the iso plays. I hope it's not Joe being selfish.

[evildallas]

Sadly, I think a lot of it is Joe. Whether it is not trusting in his teammates or whether it was his concern about getting paid, I can't say but I lean toward lack of trust and trying to do too much himself. I've heard Woodson advocate ball movement in the huddle many times and then seen the ball stop with Joe on the floor right after.

I blame Woodson for most of the other iso-ball though like the idea of running a play for Josh or Al consisting of giving them the ball at 15 feet to see if they can drive by their guy. He doesn't seem to have any greater strategy for creating shots. Maybe Woodson gets a lot of blame for Joe as well as giving Joe the ball 24 feet from the goal and expecting him to get by the defense isn't a great strategy either yet that is where the majority of our plays started.

[ATL DirtyBird]

Now I'll chime in.

While Josh Smith isn't offensively the equal of Amare, Amare has never shown commitment to D. I call it a wash and point out that we already have Josh Smith. We need to see if he reached by a new coach to be more consistently motivated and less pouty. If that fails, then we can discuss cutting ties, but doing so without trying a different coach could be a mistake.

Joe needs to go because of his play and price tag, not his comments. He's routinely come up small in the playoffs, but what I speak of is the ball stopping offense he showed all year. That signals to me that he doesn't want a new system. It does little good to pay him big bucks and then have him not working in a way that improves the entire offense. I don't see a guy willing to take #2 assignments or pay. He'll does a lot that will be hard to replace, but paying him max is a bad business and basketball decision.

Coach replacement comes without question. If Woodson gets a contract it will be the most deflating event since we traded for JR Rider.

For all the praise Josh gets on defense, hes not a superb defender. Hes one of the best weakside shotblockers but he cannot guard one on one, and constantly misses rotations. His blocks ignite the team but his mistakes cost games. Then again, I would love to see Josh in a defense that didnt ask for him to switch every pick.

This offseason is such a mess. I have no idea what to expect next season.

[BucksRUS]

What would Sund do if Childress recieved a full 5 year MLE deal on the first day of free agency? Would he match assuming no resolution to the Joe Johnson free agency saga? I am assuming that Joe will take a while to decide where to go and will string the Hawks along as a fallback option at least.

[raleigh]

What would Sund do if Childress recieved a full 5 year MLE deal on the first day of free agency? Would he match assuming no resolution to the Joe Johnson free agency saga? I am assuming that Joe will take a while to decide where to go and will string the Hawks along as a fallback option at least.

Based on what we've heard via rumors, they would match it.

Whether that actually happens, who knows.

[D21]

What would Sund do if Childress recieved a full 5 year MLE deal on the first day of free agency? Would he match assuming no resolution to the Joe Johnson free agency saga? I am assuming that Joe will take a while to decide where to go and will string the Hawks along as a fallback option at least.

Based on what we've heard via rumors, they would match it.

Whether that actually happens, who knows.

And it's also why Childress had and will hesitate to sign an offer sheet if he really wants to play somewhere else.
He has better to work on sign-&-trade with ATL and a team he wants to play for.

[raleigh]

I suggested Delfino + lotto-protected first, but was told by Bucks' fans that was far too much to ask for. Then again, most of them don't want Childress. (Their GM clearly does).

[evildallas]

It's funny that when Milwaukee was interested in Childress last summer, I thought we'd be better off with Delfino. I had compared their stats from before they went to Europe and Delfino provided the same stats with great 3 point shooting. I realize that Childress has the allure of intangibles and doing things that don't necessarily show up in the stat sheet, but Delfino does a lot of that as well at a fraction of the price tag.