If the hawks trade Smith, they are the Pirates of NBA

[johnny878]

the pirates are the team in mlb that make their fans suffer for years and whenever they get a young player with promise, they trade him away getting pennies on the dollar in return.

the hawks have been rebuilding forever and the moment the team shows promise. there is talk of trading away one of its two bright spots(other being marvin williams, al horford sux) and getting NOTHING in return. wtf.

do you think JJ would resign with the team with an aging bibby and under utilized marvin as his supporting cast? or go to a team with an actual chance of winning and play 2nd fiddle?

he would likely leave. putting the hawks in rebuilding mode with little hope for the future

[JoshB914]

I disagree. There are many plausible scenarios where Smith could be dealt and it would upgrade the team immediately or at least very soon. I don't want to deal him, but I don't think dealing Smith surely means we are going into rebuilding mode.

[HoopsGuru25]

This post is full of overreactions. Horford doesn't suck and the Hawks have shown no signs in the past of being the Pirates. We haven't sold any draft picks(can't say the same for other teams)and the only core player we willingly got rid of in the last 4-5 years was Al Harrington who happened to be ahead of Marvin(2nd pick)on the depth chart and we got a lottery pick for him. The Childress situation was an unprecedented situation and we actually benefited from that in the long run.

People can speculate every summer on how we are going to cut payroll or w/e but the bottom line is that the ASG spent the money to get Joe and keep Josh. They were willing to pay for Amare in 2007 and they paid for Bibby 8 months later. They even allowed BK to waste our last chance at capspace on guys like Speedy,Lo,and AJ. The Hawks may trade Smith...but I highly doubt it's a straight up salary dump.

[johnny878]

like who? i dont see anyone they could realistically trade smith for and improve the team. sund would have to work some magic. which will be hard since the hawks arent dealing in a position of strength.

The other team has to pay the trade kicker. The other team knows Smith's trouble with Woodson. They know how anxious the hawks would be to get rid of him. What incentive would they have to trade equal value back.

there arent alot of players in the league that are equal value as him anyways.

[JoshB914]

like who? i dont see anyone they could realistically trade smith for and improve the team. sund would have to work some magic. which will be hard since the hawks arent dealing in a position of strength.

The other team has to pay the trade kicker. The other team knows Smith's trouble with Woodson. They know how anxious the hawks would be to get rid of him. What incentive would they have to trade equal value back.

there arent alot of players in the league that are equal value as him anyways.

Chris Bosh? Monta Ellis? A top 5 pick perhaps?

I agree with you that if we are planning to go into full-out rebuilding mode again that is a disaster. But trading Josh doesn't mean that's what we're going to do.

Of course I think we can be pretty sure this is all just the annual speculation regarding Josh Smith. Chad Ford had to spit out his usual BS summer rumor regarding Smoove and the rest is history.

[ATL DirtyBird]

This is off of ESPN insider!

Several league sources have told ESPN.com's Chad Ford that the Atlanta Hawks have been working hard the past few weeks to see whether they can find a taker for Josh Smith.
Smith's contract includes a trade kicker which could make it difficult to trade him.

Sekou Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution agrees with Ford that the possibility of trading Smith has been discussed internally.

You tell me!

[LL Cool Scott]

Well...first off - if we trade Smith it's almost certainly a salary dump move. Considering how much money we've lost the last two years and considering the makeup of our ownership, I'm not at all surprised. They can dress it up as a basketball decision like the Hornets did with Tyson Chandler, but nobody will be fooled by that. I'm preparing myself for the worst.

God, I hope Belkin wins this lawsuit and takes control of this team. Anything would be would be better thanthe ownership situation we have now.

[Jamaaliver]

The thing about Josh Smith, and any of the current hawks, is that he is not a world beater. Nt a franchise player. Not a superstar. He's never averaged 20 points per game. He's never averaged 10 rebounds a game. He is a liability in a half court offense. He has no jumper, no post game.

He IS a beast athletically. He IS a matchup nightmare. But 18 points and 8 rebounds do not make you untouchable. Your loyalty seems to be to the success of 1 player, as opposed to the overall makeup of a contending team.

We have 4 very good young players who all realistically play the same two positions. We have SERIOUS needs at the other 3 positions. ( A real 7 ft center, a pg with scoring ability, a backup SG.)

On THIS team, JSmoove isn't the difference between a contender and the very average team we are.
He will be the difference on a number of other teams. (SAS, Det, Den, DAL, Hou)

Any move we make this summer has to improve the TEAM. If we can make a move that improves the team, no matter who it is, we have to do it.

[raleigh]

Not just pirates, but these pirates:

[Jamaaliver]

mrhonline, I'm a little curious why you have this in your personal photo collection......but to each his own.

[parson]

Wow, Mrh, do you remember that pic of mine that YOU had to block? Brrrrrrrrr.