13. Atlanta Hawks Six reasons we need a lockout ...

[Ruhiel]

$16,324,500

$18,038,573

$19,752,645

$21,466,718

$23,180,790

$24,894,863

That's what Atlanta owes Joe Johnson, by year, through 2016. You know, because any time you can totally overpay someone hitting his 30s who isn't one of the best 15 players in the league, you have to do it. To be fair, at least Johnson played the best basketball of his career once he locked that money do- ... oh, wait, that's not what happened at all. He had his worst season in six years. These things can't happen anymore. Once the owners blow up the system and pass the "no contracts can last longer than four years" rule, we will never see another contract like that one. Joe Johnson, you made history. Anyway, here's how the next three months will play out for Hawks fans ...

APRIL: The Hawks get crushed by Orlando in Round 1, a sweep highlighted by Zaza Pachulia starting three "someone hold me back, could someone hold me back so I look tough, HOLD ME BACK!" altercations with Dwight Howard, as well as 7,300 Hawks fans showing up for Game 4 and Charles Barkley saying, "The Hawks were turrrrrr-able ... . They were turr-able. Number one, Joe Johnson, if you wanna be paid like a franchise player, you gotta play like one. Second of all, Atlanta needs to blow things up, Ernie. And number three, that's why we havin' a lockout, because Atlanta had to overpay their best player to keep him, and Ernie, he ain't that great."

MAY: With Atlanta desperately needing to cut payroll ($65.7 million guaranteed to eight players next year), the Josh Smith trade rumors kick into 19th gear. NBA reporters are faced with a dilemma: should they tweet every single rumor they hear, or should they just pass along stuff that they know is true? Naturally, they choose to tweet every single rumor they hear. Josh Smith trends for the next six weeks straight, to the point that non-NBA fans wonder, "Who is Josh Smith? Is he trapped in a well or something?"

EARLY-JUNE: Fresh off the success of "The Heat Index," ESPN.com launches "Just Joshing," an entire site devoted to totally unsubstantiated Josh Smith trade rumors that will never happen. Yahoo responds by announcing that, every day until Smith gets traded, Adrian Wojnarowski will write a scathing column blaming Atlanta's increasingly dire situation on Worldwide Wes and LeBron James.

LATE-JUNE: The Hawks finally make their move: a three-teamer that sends Smith and Pachulia to the Clippers, Chris Kaman to Cleveland (absorbed by their trade exception for LeBron James), and Al-Farouq Aminu to Atlanta. The deal saves the Hawks a whopping $30 million over the next two seasons but locks them into 42-45 wins for the rest of eternity. And you wonder why we need a lockout.
http://m.espn.go.com/general/page2/stor ... op&y=1ait8

[evildallas]

I normally like what Bill Simmons writes, but I disagreed with this one. Overpaying Joe Johnson wasn't a fault of the system. It was horrible decision making from an organization (ownership and front office). They could have let him walk. Let someone else make the mistake. Blaming the system ignores and excuses their stupidity.

Is this 20/20 hindsight from me? No, go look at my posts last summer. The thing is the Hawks had the evidence and ignored it. They should have seen that the playoff collapses. They should have heard Joe Johnson bristle at fan criticism. They should have noticed the empty seats. Where was the evidence that Joe Johnson deserved the payday?

I will admit that the system is flawed in that the Hawks couldn't replace the player under the rules, so it encouraged them to throw good money after bad. But that was only an encouragement, not a decision maker. They could have taken a step back (which they did anyway) and tried to get the right players in place, but that required balls and a long term focus. We don't have that.

The real reason there needs to be a lockout is that the NBA isn't profitable enough to attract 30 quality ownership groups. Atlanta as a market needs an NBA team, but if there was to be contraction I would guess that the ASG needs to be among the first 4 owners forced out (Shinn already was and Sterling needs to be in the list as well, not sure on #4 but there are several candidates)

[HoopsGuru25]

I never understood why people actually make these kind of arguments when it comes to the length of player contracts and drafting players straight out of highschool.

[parson]

Actually, each year of a lockout just puts Joe's contract back a year. We'll still pay it.

[Geaux_Hawks]

Actually, each year of a lockout just puts Joe's contract back a year. We'll still pay it.

Which equates to having Joe for an additional year of potentially lesser productivity.