Why Won't the Atlanta Hawks Commit to Josh Smith?

By: Stephen Patterson

I was browsing through the days' NBA stories and rumors on HoopsHype.com earlier and came across an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Josh Smith's contract with the Atlanta Hawks that, in the words of former NFL-player Tiki Barber, left me absolutely flabbergasted.

Josh Smith was recently approached by a reporter and asked about his contract and a potential extension and had this to say on the matter: “I can’t get extended,” Smith said. “They didn’t give me the money; I had to go get it. That’s something I have to play it out and see how it goes from there.”

When Michael Cunningham, the author of the article on the AJC website, did research on the matter, he found out that not only is Smith eligible for an extension with the Atlanta Hawks, but the team has had since August 2011 to begin talks with their star power forward and apparently haven't even mentioned it to him.

For some reason that baffles many basketball fans, myself included, the Hawks front office has never shown as much love for Smith as he probably deserves.

In 2008, as a restricted free agent, he couldn't get a contract offer from Atlanta and most other teams wouldn't offer him a contract either because they knew the Hawks would almost certainly match it. Finally, the Memphis Grizzlies made him an offer, however, as many teams had predicted, Atlanta matched the moderately low offer.

If the Grizzlies had more cap space at the time, or had they had more serious interest in snatching Smith away from the Hawks, they very possibly could have made something happen and offered him a front-loaded deal that Atlanta probably wouldn't have matched.

However, the Hawks didn't refuse to give Smith a mega-deal because they were worried about money issues, as they signed Joe Johnson to an egregiously horrible contract worth $124 million over six years in 2010.

Later in 2010, the team followed that up by also locking up Al Horford with a five-year contract extension worth $60 million dollars.

Yet, the Hawks wouldn't even offer Smith a deal back in 2008, only retaining him after the Grizzlies' moderately low contract offer of $58 million over five seasons (compared to potentially $12-15+ per season).

Since then, Smith has requested a trade on multiple occasions after it became clear that the Hawks' management was content with first round playoff eliminations and not competing for championships. However, the team has refused to accommodate his requests, leaving him stuck in Atlanta.

The franchise promised last summer that they would be more competitive this season, however, they followed that statement up by signing a bunch of players to minimum or near-minimum contracts and to the surprise of no one, were once again eliminated in the opening round of the postseason.

The only player of real value that the Hawks have that doesn't have a grossly untradeable contract (Johnson) or gets paid too little to receive fair value back in a trade (Jeff Teague), remains to be Josh Smith.

With teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers likely to make some trades this summer, now is the time Atlanta should seriously consider fulfilling Smith's wish of getting dealt elsewhere.

Considering there is almost no chance Josh Smith will sign a contract extension with the Hawks after the way he has been treated over the past few seasons, this summer might be the teams' last best chance to move the disgruntled forward and receive anything of value in return.

They could potentially pry Pau Gasol from the Lakers or Andre Iguodala from the Sixers. Who knows, maybe they can even unload Marvin Williams with Smith in a potential move and land a Metta World Peace or someone else? There's nothing the Hawks have to lose at this point by making calls.