Sports Page Atlanta

I have never been so happy about a non-Hawks signing as I was about Elton Brand’s 5 year, $80 million deal with Philadelphia. The biggest pursuer of the Hawks’ coveted restricted free agent, Josh Smith, was taken out of the running by committing themselves elsewhere. However, this does not mean our long summer ordeal is over. Teams, including Golden State (losers on trying to re-sign Baron Davis) and the Clippers (who failed to re-sign Brand to go with their acquisition of Davis) are aggressively pursuing Smith and fellow free agent Josh Childress.

It all goes back to last year, when the Hawks had the opportunity to sign Smith (22 years old) and Childress (25) to three years deals without other teams being allowed to make any offers. This is sort of deal is typical in the NBA, and a boon for both sides: the player gets more money then they would make as a restricted free agent (since their new contract kicks in a year earlier) and the team saves money on a year-to-year basis.

Of course, the Hawks aren’t famous for the wisest of decisions and the decision to not sign Smith and Childress to deals last summer will go down as one of former General Manager Billy Knight’s most questionable moves. However, the team’s mismanagement has extended beyond Knight’s tenure. New GM Rick Sund’s decision to retain Coach Mike Woodson will only make negotiations more difficult with Smith. Anyone who watches Hawks games can attest to Smith’s dislike for Woodson: his body language during time outs would be kindly described as “negative” and his history of in-fighting with the coaching staff (including a two game suspension two seasons ago) makes it clear that Woodson is not Smith’s number one choice for coach. While I normally would be opposed to the concept of a player acting immaturely like Smith, it is hard to argue for Woodson when one takes a look at his abysmal record over the last four years, including his underachieving team from last year. Sure, the Hawks made the playoffs and took the Celtics to seven games; however, Woodson also presided over a talented team going 37-45 in a weak conference.

It is impossible to overstate the loss Smith would have on the team. While still raw and immature in several aspects of his game, including settling way too often for a contested shot or poor three (where he shot only 25% last year, though it felt worse than that), his upside is simply unreal. He is only 22, but still averaged almost three blocks a game last year. His defense overall does still need some work (blocks are not the be-all-end-all of defensive statistics – he has difficulties with post-up play), however, he continues to improve every year. The most important thing which Smith added last year was an offensive game. Again, he still shoots too many threes, however, he showed an aggression going to the hoop which he had not had in previous seasons. While it is still not as fine tuned as it could be, again, he is only 22! Smith should be a cornerstone of the franchise for years to come, not a hot free agent commodity.

Childress’s value, while not as clearly apparent, is still immense. Childress is the quintessential sixth man – indeed, he could easily contend for sixth man of the year for seasons to come. He is a high energy player who does an excellent job getting back on the fast break and has an excellent jump shot (he shot 57% from the field last year). However, where Childress really shines is rebounding. Despite only averaging six rebounds in thirty minutes of play per game last year, Childress always seems to be right in the thick of the boards, blocking out players taller than him to fight for a rebound. This sort of high energy is exactly what an NBA team wants from its bench.

The Hawks core is one of the youngest and brightest in the NBA. Joe Johnson is establishing himself as one of the star scorers in the league, Marvin Williams is emerging as a complete all-around player, Mike Bibby will enter the 2008-9 season with a whole summer to get use to his teammates (where his mid-season acquisition last year did not give him time to adjust to each player’s preferences of where they want the ball), and thinking about Al Horford’s future in this league makes me giddy with excitement. With Smith and Childress on this team, the Hawks are possibly contending for a championship spot out of the East in the next few years. However, I can’t help but feel that poor management decisions which have plagued the team for years will cause this young nucleus – which we saw a brief glimpse of for three amazing games against the Celtics – to disappear before it ever really gels.

After all, there’s only so many Elton Brands out there to bail us out.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Atlanta Hawks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.