Bass for J Smith?

[LarBrd33]

Why does anyone think Josh Smith is available?  He's a solid player on a two year contract paying him 12 mil a year.

I'm confused why his name keeps coming up in thread after thread after thread.  If he could be had, we'd have him already.

Joe JOhnson is the albatross in Atlanta... not Smith.

Getting J Smith for Bass makes about as much sense as the Magic getting Rondo for Glen Davis.

News out of Atlanta is that the team is committed to build around Johnson, and wants to get out of Smith's contract. I have no idea why they'd want to do such a thing, but if Smith can be had for cap relief/picks/youth, I think we should pounce. The numbers work for a large array of trades.

Not doubting you, but do you have a link?  If I were in their shoes, it would be the Joe Johnson contract I'd want to dump. 

As for the OP, I go back and forth on this.  The recent Gerald Wallace trade set the bar pretty low for a player of Smith's caliber, but if Atlanta's looking to win now, they'll want a third star.

Short-term guys probably won't be appealing considering Horford's injury though.

Agreed... I'd like to see a link that says Atlanta wants to dump Josh Smith.  I don't buy it.  I think at this point they are regretting the Joe Johnson contract.

[Sketch5]

NBA trade machine said this worked at least on paper...

Boston gets: Evan, and Smith

Atlanta gets: Cousins,and Bass, and Moore

Sac gets: Allen, JO, and JJJ

This would be a trade deadline trigger pull. Great for Boston Good for Atlanta with Horford out.

Not good for Sac, but talking with some one the other day, they said Sac didn't want to pay players if they didn't have to, because they want to move house and want the Cap space for later. So with Evans and Cousins going to be wanting big contracts in a couple years in our wildest dreams this would happen.

With Smith and Even the C's get very athletic and scoring might not be as bad with an other guy that can create his own shot, and the D is still really good. Have to move KG to Center for the rest of the year, not a fan of that, but it'd be okay for half a season.

Then ask Ray to come back for a one year run and mentor Evans.


Come on Red if your up there help make this happen!LOL!

[celticsfan8591]

First of all, as others have mentioned, Atlanta wouldn't trade an All-Star for a role player, a mediocre rookie who doesn't play, and (at best) a mid-first round pick.  Second, why should we do this? Josh Smith wouldn't make us a title contender. Our problem is our inability to generate offense consistently, so we address that by adding a guy who can't create shots for himself or others and isn't a great outide shooter? Going forward, a core of Rondo, Smith, and an aging Paul Pierce will keep us in the second round of the playoffs for years, which is IMO the worst case scenario. I'd rather be atrocious for a few years and accumulate high lottery picks and build that way.  We should finish this year, let KG and Ray go, hope Pierce retires, and start rebuilding

[LooseCannon]

Josh Smith being available probably stems from reports like this Yahoo Wojo article:

Josh Smith hasn’t changed his mind on a future with his hometown Atlanta Hawks: He believes he’s probably run his course with Atlanta. Without an owner committed to making the changes to push this team past its second-round Eastern Conference ceiling, sources said he’d still welcome the team putting him into a trade.

Rival executives say GM Rick Sund has told them everyone is available for deals, although Sund’s most reluctant to move Al Horford. There had been serious discussions between Atlanta and the Minnesota Timberwolves for Smith around the NBA draft, but they never materialized.

Around draft time, there were rumors of Orlando trying to work a deal for Smith.  There was talk of the Hawks trying to trade Smith to the T-Wolves so they could take Enes Kanter with the second overall pick.  Talk that Smith named the Celtics as one of his preferred destinations if traded combined with Atlanta GM Rick Sund's supposed love of KG and Ray Allen led some people in these parts to speculate about trades.

Both logic and rumor suggest that the Hawks want to reduce payroll.  Of their top players, Horford is the player they value the most and Johnson is seen as difficult to trade because of his ridiculous contract, so Smith seems to be the logical choice to move if the team feels it needs to shake up its core because it can't go any farther with its current pieces.