Smoove: A very Hard decision!!

[Wurider05]

I like Smoove alot but there is no way we should give him a max or near max deal based on his potentially being a better player. Let someone else take a gamble. He is not a max player. To me a max player is someone who is an allstar. Don't come with the he will be a future allstar crap. Hell Speedy could be labeled a future allstar. No one knows what the future holds. Smoove has been the 2nd option on this team for two years now. We know what he is now. I don't want to get burned. Just look at Michael Redd and the Bucks. Watch what happens in Orlando when the big contracct they gave Lewis bites them in the ass. Remember when Detroit made us sign Konkak to a big contract? This was his contract year. Let his play of this year determine how much he is worth. Same goes for Marvin next year. He is not worth the max. I say 5 years 50 million dollars. He is still young and will get another big contract if he pans out. I like Smoove and I like the team we have now but overpaying him now will kill us down the line. I think that we can survive with:

ACIE/Bibby

JJ

Marv

Horford

ZAZA/SOLO

I am in now way suggesting we let him walk so don't get it twisted.

If we max him god forbid Marvin decides to play up to his potential next season. Then he is going to want his money. Then Horford is going to be due in a few years. Then JJ will be ready to reup. I really would not want to be the one who has to make this decision but I really feel that it will come down to Smoove vs. Horford. Good Luck Mr. Sund and welcome to the ATL!!!

[KB21]

If Atlanta allows Josh to walk or does a sign and trade and takes back less than proper value for him, you will be one of the very first ones on here criticizing Rick Sund for not seeing what Josh Smith could become down the road when he becomes a monster on someone else's team.

Josh Smith is a keeper. You don't find many players that can change the game on both ends of the floor like he can. No, he isn't consistent with his performance right now, but he's 22 years old and consistency will come. It would be foolish to let him walk or trade him for lesser players simply because you are too afraid of spending $60-70 million on him.

[Packfill]

Quote:

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I like Smoove alot but there is no way we should give him a max or near max deal based on his potentially being a better player. Let someone else take a gamble. He is not a max player. To me a max player is someone who is an allstar. Don't come with the he will be a future allstar crap. Hell Speedy could be labeled a future allstar. No one knows what the future holds. Smoove has been the 2nd option on this team for two years now. We know what he is now. I don't want to get burned. Just look at Michael Redd and the Bucks. Watch what happens in Orlando when the big contracct they gave Lewis bites them in the ass. Remember when Detroit made us sign Konkak to a big contract? This was his contract year. Let his play of this year determine how much he is worth. Same goes for Marvin next year. He is not worth the max. I say 5 years 50 million dollars. He is still young and will get another big contract if he pans out. I like Smoove and I like the team we have now but overpaying him now will kill us down the line. I think that we can survive with:

ACIE/Bibby

JJ

Marv

Horford

ZAZA/SOLO

I am in now way suggesting we let him walk so don't get it twisted.

If we max him god forbid Marvin decides to play up to his potential next season. Then he is going to want his money. Then Horford is going to be due in a few years. Then JJ will be ready to reup. I really would not want to be the one who has to make this decision but I really feel that it will come down to

Smoove vs. Horford

. Good Luck Mr. Sund and welcome to the ATL!!!

Um, they gave JJ a max deal and he was not yet an all-star. Horford is three years away from a big contract so he is not part of the equation yet.

[PureGreatness]

we have to keep smoove!i dont mind over paying a him a tad as long as he doesnt turn into andruw jones. he should give us 16-20 ppg. problem is if we keep him we gonna sooner or later play him at the 3 because you folks want horford at the 4.

[Cwell]

U prolly sound just like a Suns fan before they lost Joe Johnson.They were prolly laughing at us? WHO LAUGHING NOW LOL

[Chris18]

We must keep Smoove at all costs.

[KB21]

Yep. The Joe Johnson deal should be a black mark on Bryan Colangelo's resume. The Suns got very little for Joe Johnson in that deal.

[mrhonline]

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We must keep Smoove at all costs.

That's the thing. The only cost is money.

The logical move is to keep him, and then trade him later if necessary.

[Chris18]

Losing Smoove would be worse than not drafting Chris Paul, Deron Williams or Brandon Roy and would haunt this franchise for the next decade. Money should not be an object if the ASG was willing to go get Bibby because they are going to invest a lot next year.

[BusBoyIsBack]

If by hard decision you mean biggest no brainer we've ever faced, then I agree.

Josh Smith is the hometown hero. He is symbolic of our team's future. Young athletic team where the sky is the limit in terms of potential.

If we did not re-sign him it would be the worse decision in Hawks management history. Worse than Nique, worse than draft day hindsight, it would be absolutely terrible.

[Iman]

I think it might be a harder decision for Smoove than it will be for Sund.

I doubt Smoove gets a max offer, but in my mind, no matter what the offer, we match. The market sets the value for Smoove. If there are no offers, we offer around $10mil per for six years and let Smoove decide. If he turns us down, we still have him for one more year and can trade him for whatever we can get.

[Wurider05]

I am not saying resign him. I am saying that he isn't worth the max or nowhere near it. So how much is a block worth?? I am not saying that he is a bad player. You don't pay a player a max deal based on potential. You draft on potential. You guys are really overrating his drawing power. People go to see the Atlanta Hawks. They don't go to see JJ, Smoove, or MARV. They go to see the Hawks or whomever we are playing. You think that if we trade JSmoove attendence is going to drop at phillips arena. Yeah right!!!!! I just would hate to see us end up like other teams that dole out max contracts to "good" players. As for JJ and the PHX. JJ had proven himself. There were no questions about his talent level, no guessing if he was going to get better. JJ was the 4th option on the Phoenix Suns. You can't compare the two.

[Lascar78]

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That's the thing. The only cost is money.

The logical move is to keep him, and then trade him later if necessary.

Exactly. Even if you knowingly overpay, you HAVE to keep him. You simply can not afford to give up a guy of that caliber because you were too cheap. He is the local guy, he is the guy who gets the crowd excited with his highlights, and in some ways he is the face of the team. He is not our most valuable player in terms of winning games, but from a PR stand point there is absolutely no way we can afford to let him go, and I feel 100% certain that even the dumb-dumbs at the ASG know that. He will go nowhere.

If you sign him to too big a deal and he doesn't develop after a year or two, then you have a bad contract just like every other team in the league, and you can trade him if you have to.

[Deeman]

This is not a hard decision at all you resign him. I dont see any team offering him more than 70million dollars anyway.

[DJlaysitup]

Maybe we could trade him to Sac. for Shelden and fillers?

[jerrywest]

Smoove will never be untradable. He brings enough to the table and his recovers from injury like an alien. Heck he probably is an alien. Since he is restricted we can match any offer - and match we will. No rush for us. We ain't letting him go under any circumstances. Take it to the bank. Smoove isn't a cap hold and he earns too little to sacrifice another year without big money. With 76ers & Bobcats needing different types of players, the guy holds no card. Even Chillz has more cards than Smoove (although for less money).

[AmishBoy]

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You guys are really overrating his drawing power. People go to see the Atlanta Hawks. They don't go to see JJ, Smoove, or MARV. They go to see the Hawks or whomever we are playing. You think that if we trade JSmoove attendence is going to drop at phillips arena. Yeah right!!!!! I

Only the media would flip out. The a**holes on these sports talk radio stations would act like it's the end of the world. If we win, people will come.

[dig]

He is worth more to us than any other team for marketing and PR reasons (as well as our lack of game-changing talent). We can afford to sit back and see what other teams offer him, and simply match the highest deal that comes in... few teams have cap space this summer, and those that do will give him a big contract but probably not max $$.

I'm hoping for a deal around six years/$70M that starts at $10M and escalates to $13M by the last year... I think that's fair. Not too untradeable, yet decent value if he blows up. Smoove may not have made the All-Star team last year but he's already a top 20 player in the EC... if he played for a coach he respected he could be an All-Star even without developing a jump shot/offensive game...

[HawksBalla]

For people saying that Smoove is a draw at the ticket office...um, hello, did you see our attendance figures all season?????????? He is exciting, but he doesnt pack the stands.

[jerrywest]

I don't think Smoove is a max player. He certainly has no leverage to get the max from the Hawks or from any other team. We will easily keep him.

Can someone make a list of players who are younger than him and better than him?