I'll spare you the full article. It's the same stuff we've already heard, "Hawks plan to match any offers for Smith, Childress."
Here's the good stuff...
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Both Smith and Childress can sign offer sheets with other teams, but the Hawks have the right to match any offer. The Hawks will get first crack at Smith, who is expected to meet Tuesday with his representatives and Hawks management, the first day they are allowed to do so by league rules. Such a meeting with Childress could also occur.
"We want to sit down and talk to [the Hawks] first and gauge their interest and see exactly where we are," said Wallace Prather, one of Smith's agents. "I think everybody realizes that Josh loves it here and loves his teammates and loves playing in his hometown. If everything goes well, hopefully, we wont have to talk long. But if they send us off to find another offer, then we'll have to do that as well."
Smith is expected to be in Philadelphia for a visit later in the week. And the 76ers, with more than $11 million in projected salary cap space, can offer Smith a lucrative, frontloaded deal greater than the $45 million offer the Hawks made — and Smith turned down — last summer, when Smith was eligible for a contract extension.
The problem with Brand is that he might be injury prone and he is getting older. JS's problem is that he could give half@ssed efforts after the big contract. He doesn't exactly play with 100% heart every night now.
Assuming Sixers keep Iguodala, I don't think Smith fits Philly that well. Sounds a little redundant to have both, although having a young talent of the caliber of Smith never hurts.
Bottomline, even if the Sixers got Smith, Philly may still be missing an important piece. So given the estimated cost, he may not be that good of an investment.
brand did come in the league as the #1 pick and avrged 20.8 10.0 on 48% but he and ron artest went 17-65 in the regular season. following year, he and coach tim floyd returned learned and ready for next year, and subsequently they went 15-67 and they traded Elton Brand for BRIAN SKINNER and tyson chandler. even in college brand was a beast for duke but they lost the championship to
al horford was a best player on a two time NCAA champion team and started at undersized center for the hawks and averaged 10.9 10.0 his rookie season, leading a underdog team into the postseason for the first time in 9 years, put up 20-10 in his first playoff game and lead the hawks defensively and consistently offensive to the most epic playoff series in all the 08 playoffs against the nba champion celtics
brand did come in the league as the #1 pick and avrged 20.8 10.0 on 48% but he and ron artest went 17-65 in the regular season. following year, he and coach tim floyd returned learned and ready for next year, and subsequently they went 15-67
Yeah, because those teams sucked. I doubt Tim Duncan could have dragged those bums into the playoffs. Not really Elton's fault.
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and they traded Elton Brand for BRIAN SKINNER and tyson chandler. even in college brand was a beast for duke but they lost the championship to
al horford was a best player on a two time NCAA champion team
Irrelevent.
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and started at undersized center for the hawks and averaged 10.9 10.0 his rookie season, leading a underdog team into the postseason for the first time in 9 years, put up 20-10 in his first playoff game and lead the hawks defensively and consistently offensive to the most epic playoff series in all the 08 playoffs against the nba champion celtics
Not that Horford wasn't nice, but JJ and Smith were easily more influential on the Hawks success (not that 37-45 and a fluke series is much success anyway). Anyway, look at the damn stats, you're comparing a 10-9 guy to a 20-10 guy. SMH at this board.
brand did come in the league as the #1 pick and avrged 20.8 10.0 on 48% but he and ron artest went 17-65 in the regular season. following year, he and coach tim floyd returned learned and ready for next year, and subsequently they went 15-67 and they traded Elton Brand for BRIAN SKINNER and tyson chandler. even in college brand was a beast for duke but they lost the championship to
al horford was a best player on a two time NCAA champion team and started at undersized center for the hawks and averaged 10.9 10.0 his rookie season, leading a underdog team into the postseason for the first time in 9 years, put up 20-10 in his first playoff game and lead the hawks defensively and consistently offensive to the most epic playoff series in all the 08 playoffs against the nba champion celtics
yeah id say horford>>>>>brand
I'm a big Horford fan and in the future I'd rather have Horford over Brand but to say Horford is better than Brand right now is ridiculous. Horford's offensive skills right now are limited while Brand has beasted in the league and in the playoffs as the primary offensive option. He has averaged 20pts 10 rebs and 2 blks over a 9 year career while Horford didn't reach any of those averages last year. Even on defense, as someone who watched 80% of the Hawks' games, Horford's post defense isn't as stout as Brand's.
As for playoff performance, like the Hawks' team, Horford overall play was fairly inconsistent versus Boston. He followed up a big game 1 by fouling out with only 9 points in game 2 then had a huge Game 3 followed by a 4 point 1 for 6 effort in Game 4. That's a huge contrast to Brand's first playoff performance a couple of years ago when he averaged 25.4 pts 10.3rebs 4asts 2.6 blks over 12 games including a 40 pt game on 18-22 shooting in game 1 of the 2nd round
All the college stuff you listed about Horford is irrelevant because when judging two NBA players' skill level, anything in college is irrelevant. Laettner and Hurley led Duke to championships but it had no bearing on their NBA career
Sund's history shows that he'd rather overpay for size than for actual talent and he was successful in doing this with Rashard Lewis by signing him to a 7 year, $60 million contract extension 5 years ago.
However Josh Smith(2008) has more value than Rashard Lewis(2003) but Sund probably doesn't realize this and he'll probably lowball Smith with a similar type of offer.
Josh Smith to meet with Hawks tomorrow
