One of my boys, a former college teammate and current Atlanta resident, called me last night. He was distraught.
Just when he thought his beloved Hawks were coming up, they lose Josh Childress to a Euro squad.
Now, he's worried about Josh Smith -- and with good reason.
Negotiations between Smith and the Hawks are pretty ugly right now.
The Hawks are willing to pay Smith $57 million over six years (not quite the $60 million I wrote a few days ago). That's only $9.5 million per year.
Atlanta realizes Smith has no leverage (I'm told Europe is not on his radar), and while one could argue the Hawks are being smart financially, they're screwing up by creating bad blood with one of their main cogs.
I was on the conference call with Childress yesterday as he explained his decision to go to Europe. Childress made it clear that the Hawks' seeming indifference toward re-signing him, their hardball tactics and their slow pace during negotiations pushed him overseas. (Sure the money was huge, but Childress may not have even gotten to that point if the Hawks had handled things differently.)
Smith, who's much more valuable than Childress, feels the same way.
He wants $12 million a year. His position is that Philly was willing to pay him close to that until Elton Brand became available. And word around the league is that the L.A. Clippers were willing to give Smith $13 million a year before realizing they could get Marcus Camby for three jock straps and a pair of beat-up Air Force Ones.
Of course now, no team besides Atlanta can offer Smith more than the midlevel exception, so for all intents and purposes, the Hawks can set his market value.
As things stand now, Smith is viewing a sign-and-trade deal (which is unlikely) or acceptance of the Hawks' one-year qualifying offer as his most favorable options.
The Hawks may be fine with getting Smith to sign the qualifying offer because they think they'll still get a great year out of him since he'll be playing for a contract. Then, even though he'll be an unrestricted free agent next summer, they'll still be able to pay Smith more than any other team.
But in that scenario, Smith might be so upset with the Hawks that he would take less money to go elsewhere (as Elton Brand did after getting fed up with the Clippers' negotiating tactics).
Personally, if I were the Hawks, I'd up my offer to the $11 million per year range to keep Smith happy. You don't want a player being angry and feeling slighted. Bottom line is that Smith is blossoming into a star. He's never been in trouble off the court, and your fan base will go berserk if you lose the guy.
Also, there's no truth to the notion that Smith doesn't want to return to Atlanta to play for Mike Woodson. His relationship with Woodson is no doubt strained, but that's not a factor in his willingness or unwillingness to return to Atlanta.
Chris Broussard
