RealGM

Home court advantage has rescued several teams during these NBA playoffs, most notably the regular season top dog Boston Celtics.

Home cooking will be on the minds of just as many teams come July 1, when the NBA's annual summer free agent frenzy kicks off.

Teams like the Hawks, who have restricted free agents Josh Smith and Josh Childress, will have the right to match any offers made to their players.

Whether it will be as easy as simply matching remains to be seen, what with teams having all sorts of creative ways to navigate the league's salary cap and luxury tax thresholds.

Phoenix had the same right with Joe Johnson three summers ago but parted ways with him because of a front-loaded contract the Hawks put on the table that forced the Suns into a sign-and-trade deal. Johnson went on to become the Hawks' captain and a two-time All-Star.

This summer's crop of quality restricted free agents will be unusually large because only six first-round picks from the 2004 draft were signed to extensions last fall. Atlanta native and Orlando Magic All-Star center Dwight Howard is the only player from the class to receive a maximum (five years and $85 million) extension.

The five hottest names on the (restricted) free agent market this summer (in alphabetical order):

Link

lethalweapon3 wrote:Guessing they'll sign Smoove via matching, no matter what.

The "no matter what" part will likely affect whether they'll part ways with Chill, however. Anything above what the MLE offers this year ($5-6 million?) for Childress will be shied away from by the owners, particularly if they can use that kind of money to add some sorely needed depth to the bench. I'd miss that "picture-perfect" jumper of his, though! That, and the FG%, since it incredulously goes in more often than I'd expect.

There are some halfway-decent free agent replacements at the wing for what Chill currently offers, but we obviously can't say the same for Smith at the 3-4. That's one factor, plus the lousy pub in a town still seething over the Nique trade, if they let Smoove go and replace him with something less than a bonafide playoff-caliber star (who won't skip town the next year like Manning).

The period of the contract will probably be interesting for Smoove, moreso than the salary. He's young now, but tying him down for more than 6 seasons accepts the risk that he might grow injury-prone, or worse, due to complacency his offensive style and on-ball defense might morph into something resembling Antoine Walker's.

~lw3