MVN - Most Valuable Network

Hawks Provide Glimmer of Hope With Signings

When Atlanta lost Josh Childress at the beginning of the summer, I was ready to jump off the highlight factory’s ship and drown…but the August signings have certainly made me feel a little bit better about the club I’ve grown to love. With one Josh gone, it was fairly obvious the team had the money and mindset to keep the other in town, no matter what the cost, so when Memphis offered Smith a signing sheet and Atlanta matched, no one really batted an eye. But it is a couple of other key signings that should make a positive difference for the team this year. These are the signings of Randolph Morris and Ronald Murray.

Many people have made a big deal out of the signing of Maurice Evans, because it came right after Josh Childress left, but it was simply a quick fix to try and poorly replace a franchise cornerstone. Morris and Murray on the other hand should be great additions. Murray should provide some speed and scoring coming off the bench and hopefully a little energy, all things that Childress could add at times, while Morris should provide some size and rebounding off the bench, something Atlanta can always use.

No one really knows anything about Randolph Morris, but he was a solid player in college and provides plenty of size coming off the bench. At one time he was a high school McDonald’s All American and was highly touted heading to Kentucky. He knows how to play on a big stage and is still a very young player with a lot of upside. If Atlanta can mold him into a decent backup behind Al Horford, he could definitely prove to be a key signing. A lot of people are afraid because he is still unproven, but he is very young and has plenty of size, and for the price may turn out to not be so bad.

Murray on the other hand has plenty of experience and as even been in the postseason before. He is a player who has the ability to score and provide plenty of energy and even a little bit of experience and ball handling. He should be a big help coming off the bench for the Hawks.

So while I think losing Josh Childress is going to immediately put this team out of playoff contention this season, at least Murray and Morris should provide a little bit of skill and hope to help stop the preverbial bleeding.

Sign and Trade Josh Smith

Even after Atlanta recently signed former laker Maurice Evans to a reported 3-year deal, the Hawks are still stuck on what to do with young superstar Josh Smith. Smith is clearly unhappy in Atlanta and is attempting to coax the team into a sign and trade, since his only other option is probably just a single year deal to stay in the worst franchise in the league for only one more year.

There are plenty of interesting options out there, even with Ron Artest reportedly headed to Houston. The funny thing was I was just about to write an article last night about signing and trading Smith to Sacramento for Artest. Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t live that false dream…There have been recent reports of teams in both leagues making offers for Smith, including apparent powers in both Conferences.

One of the more interesting ideas I’ve recently had is sending Smith to Chicago for Gordon and/or Deng. Both players seem to be in standstills with the Bulls while Smith seems to be stuck in the same situation in Atlanta. While it doesn’t necessarily make the most sense as far as filling holes for either team, there are definitely ways both clubs could work around filling the signings. Gordon would be an interesting option behind Bibby at the point, or even combining Gordon with Bibby and moving Johnson to small forward. Bringing in Deng would probably be about the same as Josh Childress, only he’s a better proven scoring option and probably wouldn’t come off the bench. Bringing in both would be fabulous for the Hawks, but I highly doubt the salaries would work out.

One of the teams reportedly involved in talks for Smith has been the Detroit Pistons. The real question is who would come over from the Eastern power. Either Billups or Wallace would be an interesting option, but are rather old and it would be a shame to lose a young player for someone 10-15 years his elder. McDyess would be interesting to bring in although he is a little small for a center and Detroit is probably too big on Maxiell to let him go anymore. I would assume Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton are out of the question for Detroit so it’s really hard to say what the team would have put on the table for an offer.

Any other teams would be mere speculation at this point, and as we all know it is just not very intelligent for teams to leak that kind of information until a deal is finalized. Apparently at the moment the Hawks feel they are in a great position because they continue to scare teams away by threatening to match all offers. The team could delay an entire week before matching an offer for Smith, basically stale-mating any team that wanted to make offers to any other free agents. At the moment, everything is just a rumor and Atlanta is hoping to play out this thing as lost as they possibly can. Smith will probably be spending one more season in Atlanta max, and it looks like 2008 will be known as the summer the Josh era ended in Atlanta…

Childress Escapes Failing Franchise to Play in Greece

While some may have left their hearts in San Francisco, Josh Childress just took mine and ran overseas with it, ending up in a place where the national team recently won the Euro competition. Unfortunately that was in soccer. And the blue and white clad Greeks, while not especially adept at basketball, have now lured away the one chance the Hawks had at building a decent franchise. And now I’m finding it difficult to be a Hawks fan.

I apologize if this article is not articulate or doesn’t have the best points, but I just feel absolutely shocked and destroyed inside right now. By far my favorite player for Atlanta for the past few years, I have always argued that Josh Childress was the most important piece of this franchise and would have gladly paid more to keep him in town instead of Josh Smith. While Smith was a problem in the locker room and separated himself from his team, Childress kept it together. While Smith won a dunk competition and always made the highlight reels, Childress did all the little things the team needed him to do to win. He was one of the best sixth men in the game, and while he deserved a starting role, his versatility off the bench made him invaluable.

Now every time i look at the Josh Childress bobblehead doll on top of my TV, I’m going to die a little more inside. Not to even mention the fact that I got that bobblehead the night of the first time I attended a Hawks game in Phillips Arena and was instantly transformed into a fan of the young highlight factory. The franchise highly regarded as one of the worst in all of pro sports (thanks for trying to overshadow that lately Sonics), Atlanta, as John Hollinger of ESPN so nicely put it, “overplayed their hand” in assuming that they could just wait on the Josh’s until the market came down enough for the team to escape spending as little money as possible. Now, while Smith may have a better shot at landing a big deal, he would return to a franchise that has now lost all potential momentum from making the playoffs last season and now has fallen back into the dismal failures they’ve always been.

The move for Childress probably paves the way for plenty more American players to do the same. A handful of other big names have also bolted to Europe, and with the Euro doing better than the dollar right now it doesn’t seem like such a bad option to be a superstar overseas. Childress would instantly become one of the highest paid players in Europe and would basically become one of the star players in his league. Instead of playing for a franchise that doesn’t seem to care about him in a league that sometimes doesn’t realize he exists, Childress will now become a star and will be paid like it. I wish only the best for Childress. He deserves the money and he deserves the recognition. It’s just really going to kill me not to see him in a Hawks uniform next season.

I’m not sure how the Hawks save their franchise now. Josh Smith wants to leave, and if he does, the team instantly drops to the bottom of the league once again and will continue to remain one of the lottery teams every year. I really thought the franchise was ready to turn things around but it seems this summer that they’re still the same old fiscal hermits that refuse to spend money and keep players in the city. Bringing Bibby in was just a smokescreen to keep us idiot fans believing in the team only to have our hearts broken this summer when the team can’t even show it’s franchise rocks that they want to keep them. I feel bad for players like Joe Johnson, who came in to turn a franchise around only to get swept up in the trash, or Al Horford, who got drafted onto a team in which he gave his heart to have an amazing rookie season more important to his team than Kevin Durant and now he’s stuck being a gem in a city of crap. Josh Smith has every right to be upset in Atlanta and want to leave. There may be a new GM, but the management is still failing this city and I don’t see things getting better any time soon.

I’m sorry but it’s extremely hard to continually support a franchise that consistently fails its city like this.

Smith Stuck Unhappy in Atlanta?

While things remain relatively quiet for one Josh, the other Josh has certainly been at the center of much of the 2008 free agency talk after the big Brand and Davis departures. The problem is that there seems to be nowhere left for the big name players to go. Luol Deng, Emeka Okafor and Josh Smith all seem to be stuck in their current locations, praying for a sign-and-trade as their respective teams delay and delay, waiting for the market value of their stars to drop. Memphis seems to be the only team that actually has the money to sign anyone, but they’ve already expressed a desire to stay young and rebuild for the future. The grizzlies have no desire to pick up a bunch of huge, risky contracts during the summer.

The power this gives the teams, like the Hawks, is that they can just wait it out and watch the market value continue to drop for their superstar. Josh Smith is very upset because Atlanta hasn’t offered him a ton of money yet, but they are not known for offering players huge contracts and will continue to wait it out until they can get Smith as cheap as they want to. It hurts Smith right now, but the truth is it’s probably the best idea for Atlanta right now. If they can manage to keep Smith fairly cheap, they can offer a bigger contract to Childress and keep both of the Josh’s in town.

Childress has actually also met with the 76ers recently, as they are probably looking for a less expensive option now that Brand has come to town. There is probably no possibility of them bringing in both Brand and Smith, but Childress may be cheap enough to bring in alongside Brand. This could prove to be a very dangerous situation for the Hawks. If they are not careful, teams will be considering Childress as a less expensive and less risky option than Smith and may offer him the kind of contract to get him out of Atlanta. While everyone is afraid of Smith, the Hawks should take advantage and scoop up Childress while they can.

I would love to see the Hawks keep both Smith and Childress, but they brought in another player recently who was kind of under the radar but I’d love to see playing in Atlanta next season. No, please don’t think I meant Kwame Brown. I’m talking about Randolph Morris. He’s a player originally from Atlanta who played his college ball in Kentucky. When he came out of college, many people thought he had the type of talent to be a lottery pick. After a couple years of anonymity, Morris’s stock has plumeted. The thing we need to remember is that he has size and youth and that his career is far from over. Kwame Brown has shown that he can’t do anything when given the opportunity, but Morris really hasn’t been given a shot yet. With the proper floor time and coaching, I don’t see why Randolph Morris can’t become the NBA player everyone thought he would be. Just please stay away from Brown.

Stay tuned to Impending Firestorm for the rest of the summer as we see what the Hawks decide to do with two of the bigger restricted free agents.