1. I have lived in Israel. Hitting someone with your car there is considered normal behavior. My guess is that he was just trying to fit in.

2. I agree with Matt that Bynum is a end of the bench guy who will probably see a lot of time in street clothes.

Chad is guilty of the mistake that most fans make and that is that in evaluating this signing he didn’t take into account not only how many minutes Bynum will play but how much money we had available to allocate to an end of the bench guy.

This signing in my opinion just supports my point of view that Mr. Big Shot isn’t going anyplace this year except to another NBA Finals with the Pistons

P.S. When I lived in Israel there were several occasions that I drove on the sidewalk to avoid a traffic jam and the police just waived me on. Quite an experience. I would never try that in Los Angeles.

One other point to consider here.

Bynum is quick and can get into the paint with his dribble drive.

We have traditionally had problems defending against quick penetrating guards.

I would think that MC will be able to use Bynum in practice to help us improve our defenses against quick penetrating guards.

“1. I have lived in Israel. Hitting someone with your car there is considered normal behavior. My guess is that he was just trying to fit in.”

So true. I’ve been to Israel twice and the drivers there are from another planet. I was stuck in a traffic jam on the freeway in Tel Aviv and there were bikers going 100+ mph weaving around the cars. It was bugged out.

FORGET THIS NEWS. There’s an OLD SCHOOL Detroid BAD BOYS fight in the WNBA game between the Shocks and Sparks. DAMN. Those girls can fight.

I miss PistonsGirl4Life. She always had the good Shock updates!

I’m sure there’ll be some highlights on your local sport news tonight. It is only 9:39pm on the east coast. My man Laimbeer doesn’t disappoint when watching one of his games whether is is playing or coaching. Rick Mahorn got eject too along with Planette Peirson. On the Sparks side it is that overrated rookie Candace Parker and some girl I don’t know got ejected too. Looks like Parker can add first rookie to get suspended on her resume.

So Rick got decked from behind by one of the Sparks players? After shoving Lisa Leslie? If any of that is even 1% true it’s priceless.

Unfortunately for the Shock, I’m guessing detroitbadgirls.com is a very different site from the one we frequent.

@Mike:
“1. I have lived in Israel. Hitting someone with your car there is considered normal behavior. My guess is that he was just trying to fit in.”
I’ve lived in israel more than you and your ignorance is something to be awed. You’re either really dumb, have lost any connection between your fingers and your brain, or have distorted memories.
foget it, you’re so full of shit i won’t even bother.
trying to fit in…what a joke

Hey Mike,

I beg to differ.
Your view of Israeli drivers seems to be biased. I can tell you for sure that road rage in certain US cities is much worse.

With regards to Bynum – I truly hope he can deliver. Two years in Maccabi Tel Aviv had not brought the expected results.

I also watched bynum play with maccabi. I am hoping that a little intensity and some stable coaching will calm him down. He definitely has the talent, and can show up to play when he gets in that mood.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Bynum, Sharpe agree to terms with Pistons
Free-agent guard had been in NBDL, overseas; Sharpe has interesting past.
Eric Lacy / The Detroit News

The Pistons have agreed to two-year contracts with free agent Will Bynum and second-round draft pick Walter Sharpe, representatives for the players said Tuesday.

Mark Bartelstein, Bynum’s agent, said he expects the point guard to sign today. Bartelstein added that the deal gives Bynum about $700,000 guaranteed the first year, before a second-year team option.

“He has great quickness, can really put the ball on the floor and is a big-time athlete,” Bartelstein said.

Advertisement

Sharpe, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound forward, signed his guaranteed contract earlier this month during the beginning of the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League, said his agent, Danny Servick. Sharpe is considered by several scouts as someone with “lottery pick level talent,” Servick said.

Bynum, a 6-foot, 185-pound Chicago native, played college basketball at Arizona for a season and a half, then transferred to Georgia Tech.

His last stint in the NBA was with Golden State — 15 games during the 2005-06 campaign, according to NBA.com.

With the Warriors, Bynum averaged 3.6 points and 1.3 assists. He also has spent time in the NBA’s Development League, overseas in Tel Aviv, Israel, and turned down several offers outside the United States to play for the Pistons, Bartelstein said.

“He could have made at least twice as much overseas,” Bartelstein said.

Bynum’s performance earlier this month in Las Vegas appears to have been the deal-maker.

Bynum started three of the five games summer-league and averaged 11.8 points and 3.2 assists.

Sharpe, the 32nd overall pick, started all five summer-league games for the Pistons and averaged 8.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.4 steals.

Sharpe has an interesting past — to say the least. He played at Alabama-Birmingham, after a stint at Mississippi State, but experienced several off-court problems in college that shortened his career.

Sharpe, however, was recently diagnosed with the sleep disorder narcolepsy, is taking medication for it and primed to turn his life around, Servick said.

“Don’t make your mind up about Walter based on what you Google, read or see (online or on TV),” Servick said. "Since he was diagnosed, he hasn’t had any problems.

“He’s a great kid that absolutely loves basketball.”

You can reach Eric Lacy at elacy@detnews.com.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080723/SPORTS0102/807230406/1127

Hey Mike,

I beg to differ.
Your view of Israeli drivers seems to be biased. I can tell you for sure that road rage in certain US cities is much worse.>>

My view of Israeli drivers is based upon first hand experience.

If you want to call it biased, fair enough.

FORGET THIS NEWS. There’s an OLD SCHOOL Detroid BAD BOYS fight in the WNBA game between the Shocks and Sparks. DAMN. Those girls can fight.>>

Unfortunately we lost, the game. LOL

Cooper and Bab Boy Bill continue to tangle with one another.

Having lived in Los Angeles when Cooper played here, I saw a lot of him.

His game made Posey look like a choir boy.

Cooper definitely ranks in my top 5 of dirtiest players to have ever played in the NBA.

@Mike, yeah the Shocks lost but there was two very questionable calls that favored the Sparks. Detroit can’t get a break in the basketball field. Oh well at least still got Red Wings. :)

@Mike, yeah the Shocks lost but there was two very questionable calls that favored the Sparks. Detroit can’t get a break in the basketball field.>>

I will concur with that.

Candace Parker is the immediate future of the WNBA. It is their best financial interest that the Sparks win. Helps the ratings and raises the media contract, ticket and gear revenues

Per ESPN, Childress is going to Greece.

Man, what a crazy offseason! We’re so much better then last season! ECF’s, here we come!

Man, what a crazy offseason! We’re so much better then last season! ECF’s, here we come!>>

I think we get into the Finals this year and win it all.

I have a real good feeling about this coming year.

Go Stones.

LOL Craig

Yeah, Childress is gone for three years. This makes me sad, since he’d make a fantastic bench player and could start on several teams. Atlanta better resign Josh Smith for its own sake, because it no longer has the comical glut of small forwards that has defined the club for so long.

There seems to be more Artest buzz, though.

Another showing of how inept the owner ship is in atlanta. Childress walks, and they have nothing to show for him. It must suck to be a hawks fan.

Anyone read the Tay for Artest rumor? I’d do it. Everyone knows he’s a nut, excluding 3/4 of his multiple personalities, but RonRon can guard any superstar in the east outside of superman DHo. He also gives us an offensive option who can create for himself and others. Bottom line- if he plays, we win.
The discussion is in the IF. The possibility that he’d be a distraction on a team of veterans or a poor influence for our youngs is there, but I’m confident in our teams overall character and ability to limit Artest’s off the court influence.
Does Joe D take that kind of risk? Probably not. Holy 2008-2009 capspace!!
How’s that for an exciting off season, Craig.

@craig: well as i get it olympiakos (the greek team who signed him) will pay compensation to the hawks. don’t know how much but they’ll get some $$$.

Paul M.

I believe if you check into it you will find that Smith is a PF and not a SF.

Marvin Williams started for them at SF.

Smith is an undersized PF with mediocre rebounding ability for a PF. His shooting percentage last year from more than 5 feet was under 30% and he can’t handle the ball.

i don’t give a flying fishfry what position josh smith is. not when he accomplishes this by age 23:

“The first player to block at least 225 shots and hit at least 25 three-pointers in the same season; he has had at least 200 blocks and 25 triples in three straight seasons; The third player in history to average at least 17.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.5 steals in a season. The others are Hall of Famers David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon.”

i’ll take that player. at shooting guard. small forward. parking attendant. whatever.

man, these are the dog days. ya’ll are discussing will bynum, israeli drivers and the shock. in one thread. thank god nfl training camps are opening up.

Jack:

You may not care but the Pistons management does.

Smith is over rated as far as his contribution to making the team better.

Childress actually contributed more wins to the Hawks last year than Smith. In fact Smith’s contribution was fairly negligible

Childress produced wins at double the rate that Smith did

.20 vs .11 per 48 minutes played.

http://www.wagesofwins.com/Atlanta0708.html

Look st the fact regarding Smith this summer.

Philly preferred Brand to Smith
Clippers preferred Camby to Smith
Memphis has cap space and doesn’t even want to consider him.
The Hawks still have signed him.

If we was so great than people would be knocking down doors to get this 23 year old rather an a 30 year old who blew out his Achilles last year and a 35 year old with no offense

@Mike, I’m not a stat guru. I believe some stats are important but sometimes once you get beyond the basics, you can start making stats say whatever you want. Hell, if you want a stat, I’ll give you one. What was the Pistons winning percentage in games which Darko played his first 2 years in the league? I’m not sure of the exact number but I bet its something ridiculous like 75-80%. Now of course, he only played in blowouts with the Pistons on the winning end of the vast majority of them. But the raw stat says we won 75-80% (guessing at the exact #)of the games in which he played. But, to your credit, your Philly, Clippers, Memphis statements really opened my eyes. Now that was an effective way of convincing someone that Josh Smith may be overhyped. Damn Mike, now you’ve got me changing my mind again back to not wanting him on the Pistons :-) . Damn you! Now, I’m back on the fence again.

JD: We need Sauce!!! Where is Sauce? Sauce will put a hilarious spin on this spitwad Childress has lodged squarely on the face of David Stern. I know it may sound like I’m being sarcastic, but I’m serious, man. Not only will I laugh my ass off because Sauce is quite funny, but it’s likely to draw mad passionate responses.

Besides, name someone who actually likes David Stern AND the NBA? And no, naming David Stern himself doesn’t count.

Oh, and Mike, I don’t think those are accurate or thorough claims at all re: Josh Smith.

Camby is going to make $15.65 million total for the next two years. 75% of that figure is about what Josh Smith would get in each season of probably a 4-5 year deal if he got his way. Comparing the acquisition of Camby to the non-acquisition of Smith is apples and oranges, my friend.

The Grizzlies are pretty much idiots, but every GM has a base level of competency. I’m sure Chris Wallace knows not to mess around with Josh Smith this summer in particular when he has Hakim Warrick for one more year at about $2 million dollars (and maybe Hakim re-ups for a fair and Darrell Arthur at his disposal for even less per year over the next four years. It makes more sense to me to wait and see what those two do than to shatter the bank and tie up a lot of money for multiple years by going after Smith. Besides, The Grizzlies are cheap as hell, but their cap space in the following years is only going to get more and more outrageous.

And on the Sixers tip, would you really take a slightly cheaper Josh Smith over Elton Brand, who has averaged 20 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks a game all while shooting 50%+ from the field for eight seasons if you felt confident Brand was healthy? Just because Josh Smith isn’t Elton Brand doesn’t mean he’s not a fantastic player in his own right.

And the Hawks? They just let Josh Childress go to Greece for nothing more than a buyout payment. Let’s see what they do about Josh Smith now. My guess is that he stays in town (at least with a tender offer if he doesn’t back down from wanting out at all costs) because his options are drying up fast anyone due to no fault of his own. Mike Bibby has one year left at $15 million. In Rick Sund’s defense, he has been there for a year, so give him a break. Besides, he knows it’s foolish to make a rash decision about Smith when he has to account for Bibby’s albatross this season. If he can manage to postpone it one year with a tender to Smith, maybe things change in the Smith-Hawks relationship and then Sund’s a genius and Smith gets paid like he should be.

*fair amount

LB, whats your take on Smith coming to the Pistons in a sign and trade for maybe Tay + some other bench piece?

Comments from Keith Langlois on the Bynum signing. I think he has it correct on all accounts.

 
   * The reported signing of Will Bynum all but assures him of a spot on the 15-man roster, which means the Pistons liked what they saw of Bynum in Las Vegas.

      I was struck by Bynum’s embracing of the opportunity. As Michael Curry told me, "This guy is a million-dollar player in Europe. The fact he’s out here in the Summer League, that says it all."

      Bynum seemed truly humbled and appreciate of the opportunity. Always a flat-out scorer – Bynum remains a high school legend in Chicago – he showed up in Las Vegas focused on hounding the opposing point guard and proving he could run a team, to the point that Curry and Joe Dumars both told him to not forget about who he was, an off-the-dribble penetrator and a scorer, too.

      Bynum just got back from Israel in early July and soon took a phone call from Dumars, inviting him to Las Vegas. He worked out three times a day on his own before going to Vegas, where he played hard every second. Summer League ended last Sunday and Curry called him that night to tell him the Pistons wanted him to come to training camp with them. Bynum was sitting on a nice offer to play in Italy next season.

      The Bynum signing is going to spawn at least two streams of questions: What does this mean for Lindsey Hunter, and was Bynum signed with the expectation of moving Chauncey Billups.

      The answers: Nothing and no.

      If Hunter decides he wants to play one more year, he’ll be used much like last year – in spots during the regular season, when he would again be mostly inactive, more during the playoffs. Hunter would be a great mentor for Bynum, by the way, because it’s Hunter’s role that Bynum would be hoping to fill – high-energy pest.

      But that’s a lot different than being the backup point guard and playing 12 to 18 minutes a night. So the addition of Bynum in no way implies an imminent trade of the incumbent point guard.

http://truebluepistons.blogspot.com/

Wages of Wins arguably overvalues rebounds and undervalues shot creation (to give you an idea, replacing Sheed with Biedrins this year would have made the Pistons around a 70 win team in his system). There have been some articles from the other NBA statheads challenging Berri’s methods that have gone completely unanswered. I’m not completely discounting it, but I think people should take its conclusions with a grain of salt.

Childress ranked well statistically no matter what metric you look at, and he seemed like a consummate glue guy. I wish he’d stay in the NBA, but he’ll be making good money, and he’ll be living it up in Europe. Can’t really blame him.

Yeah, I agree that it won’t affect Lindsey. Signing Bynum does mean that Juan Dixon shan’t be returning.

Regarding signings and FA’s is like that old Barron’s investment commercial. “The individual who buys your stock is just as equally convinced the price will go up as you are convinced the price will go down.”

What this means is each of these teams has looked at various individuals and said “above this price he’s a bad acquisition, below this price he’s a good acquisition” and then factored in their own needs. I mean, I think it’s a 10:1 post ratio of every signing so far that someone has said Team X overpaid and we almost always agree.

The Celts realize what Posey meant to them, put a dollar figure on his production and intangibles and then said, this is what it is. FA’s look at organizations and want to play for a winner. But the fact is 29 teams every year lose the NBA championship. Does L. Hunter get from anyone else what he’s getting from Det? Perhaps a contender, but then it’s up to the individual to weigh the intangibles. Likewise, that’s why Bos didn’t up it’s figure (in this case, years).

But with the dollar/euro exchange rate, no FREAKIN’ income taxes and other perks, cars, apts, etc., the option of going overseas has greatly eclipsed the once vaunted “stashing overseas.” Look at some of the guys going there this year: Childress. Juan Carlos Navarro, Delfino, and a couple of others. Most of these guys are servicable NBA players.

If you look at Brand, the Clips, Sixers and GS all had about the same value they were offering. A good number of these FA’s over priced themselves. Another, Artest, was an idiot. How he thought playing this year and becoming a FA next year would improve his stock and money is ludicrous. He’s a year older, he’s got another year having to suppress his blow up at some point, the Kings aren’t going to be very good (not to the point where he is responsible for it) and teams are already clearing cap for the summer of 2010. He might be the “missing piece” for a team or two, but he’s not going to get paid as a #1 alpha dog when he’s 30+ or so. I mean, nobody is building their team around RonRon and I think very few teams are going to pay him to be a #2 alpha dog.

I love it when players say they’ll take less money to have a shot at a chip…..ok, how much less? Posey as a prime example. Kobe frets about losinig Turiaff, but if Kobe went to the Lakers and said I’ll opt out next year and take a bit less to keep Ronny here and to resign Vujacvic, think the Lakers listen? Of course they do. But we all know Kobe ain’t going to do that.

Of course, when it comes to rational behavior, the Griz & Atl don’t count. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the hawks overpay Smith just to take the fan sting out of Childress going overseas.

As for stats, of course Beidreins and the like will have high rebounding numbers just based on the number of shots due to tempo of the game, likewise field goal percentage because of the proximity to the basket from rebounding the ball. Does it translate to a slow down piston game? Of course not. Rebounding is hard, but if you’re a half court set team the rebounding is going to be tougher than an up and down the court team. Anybody ever wonder why Camby leads the league in blocks for the last 3 years? His teammates suck on D. But can he guard Shaq? Amare? KG? straight up on a consistent basis? Nope. Of course, he’s Def POY.

My short point to my long ramble is exactly what we’ve been saying: The Pistons as a whole are worth more than the individual parts to other teams.

Oh, and Mike, I don’t think those are accurate or thorough claims at all re: Josh Smith. >>

In my opinion Josh Smith is fan over rated ESPN highlight film.

Brand was 20 – 9 the year before the injury and I saw him play for year in Los Angeles. I loved his game but he will be 30 years old and doesn’t figure to reach 20 – 9 again after this injury or at least not exceed it.

Smith averaged 17 and 8 last year and is 7 years younger

So Brand was 3 – 1 better than Smith. If Smith was that good given that he is 7 years younger than Brand I would think that the 76ers would prefer Smith over Brand, but they didn’t.

If Smith were that good Philly or somebody would have signed Smith by now. He can’t even get $12 million a year from anyone.

In today’s market $12 million a year is what a very good player gets not a star and he can’t even get the $12 million a year.

“If Smith were that good Philly or somebody would have signed Smith by now. He can’t even get $12 million a year from anyone.”

“Philly preferred Brand to Smith
Clippers preferred Camby to Smith
Memphis has cap space and doesn’t even want to consider him.
The Hawks still have signed him.”

That, or just think of the time a team would invest in making an offer to Josh Smith only to have it be matched by the Atlanta Hawks.

That, or just think of all the teams that actually have $12 million to pay the guy!

Philly, Clippers and MEM likely didn’t prefer those guys to Smith but they did the moves they did because the people they acquired were UFA or basically given away (Camby for 2nd round pick? You can’t even make that trade in NBA Live!).

oh and…

“RFA” means restricted free agent
“UFA” means unrestricted free agent

Josh Smith = RFA, meaning Hawks can match what any team offers him
Brand = UFA
Camby = for a 2nd round pick? Only a team with cap room could make it

That’s why we do what we can to get him at $12 mil a year. He’s a stud already (see JackStud’s post). He’s 22 years old. If you don’t think he can improve on his deficiencies in the 5 years BEFORE HE EVEN HITS HIS PRIME, you’re crazy. He’s a future MVP type player. And as limited as he is offensively, he’s EXPLOSIVE, finishes at the rim, drives the lane— i.e. he does things NO ONE on the Pistons does. And he already gets it on defense— his numbers have been staggering for 3 years straight. That’s what we call a trend. Mark my word, if we get Smith, we’re contenders in the East not just this year, but for probably the next 5-10.

Yeah, Mike, not sure why you’re so down on smith, but I think that he just got caught up in a bad free agent year. I mean, Z-bo and AK are making max money right now. Smith still being with out a contract isn’t so much a statement against him, so much as a result of teams not having money to spend and Atl having a ton of leverage after all the chips have fallen. If he isn’t signed long term this summer, then next summer he gets paid. I think he’s going to play next season at a discounted rate, and would love it if he was a stone.

It took Karl Malone a good 5 years to really develop his midrange game. Amare just in the last 2 seasons has finally started hitting the midrange. Hell, McDyess is becoming a better shooter every year. Rip couldn’t hit a three to save his life until LB finally let him start shooting them in practice after the ’04 season.

The point is, professional basketball players, who treat the game as such— a profession— practice at the things they suck at and they get better.

Josh Smith is already so good at so many things, if he works at his shot, he’ll be an elite talent in this league. And I’m pretty sure Joe D and Curry can him motivated.

get him motivated

Mike, you’ve done the impossible. You wrote a post that both Lawyerboy and Boney agree in their disagreement of.

mike, i’m echoing craig here when i say it’s a mistake to use this fa market as a bearing of what a guy is worth. there’s basically one team with cap room (memphis) and they have no interest in signing anyone. if philly would have waited on smith and not tried for brand and then atlanta matched, they’d be s.o.l. they had to go for a sure thing. it’s a crap marketplace PLUS needing to overpay smith to scare off atlanta is how he and virtually every other rfa of note is still on the market. and yes, ronny turiaf and his 8mpg doesn’t count as a “rfa of note.”

now, you can not like smith for whatever reason you don’t like him, but that doesn’t change the fact that at 22 he’s doing things that all-time top 50 nba players did. if i were joe, i would try to take advantage of a soft market and an apparent animosity between rfa and current management to get said player at a reasonable price.

of course, i also still stand by my rip/mcdyess for a.i. deal. now especially with denver dropping salary like melo drops snitches.

Smith’s real value is probably somewhere between Mike and Joel’s positions. I definitely wouldn’t base anything on grab-bag stats like the quote in Jack’s post; after all, a lot of people used to call Marbury an elite point guard for a long time because he averaged 20/8, and the only other guard to do so was Oscar Robertson. You can assemble stats like these to make any decent player seem like he’s in elite territory, as long as you make specific enough criteria.

Smith’s offensive game needs a lot of work, and it’s his handles, not just his jumper, that prevent him from being a big scoring threat. He dribbles high and just fumbles the ball more than he really should. He does attack the basket a lot, but he turns the ball over on a lot of these possessions because of poor dribbling. His jumper is awful, and I don’t know why Atlanta let him take as many of those shots as they did, but he operates much better from the post area. Woodson was really dumb for allowing him to do anything around the perimeter, but Smith was still effective inside. This is just one more reason Smith may be smart in trying to leave Atlanta. Woodson has been terrible at player development. Horford and Childress came from good programs, but I don’t think they know what the hell to do with Marvin Williams, and Smith’s problems on offense are pretty much the same ones that have hounded him since his first NBA season.

Defensively, everyone here has probably seen that he can be a big impact as a weakside blocker, but his man to man D has some issues, and he gets lost on rotations sometimes. He’s a plus on that side of the floor, but he is far from being a smart defender as of now.

Smith has the potential to be a perennial All-Star, but he has several kinks to work out in his game. I also don’t think Atlanta is the best environment for him to succeed in, since they have a terrible coaching and development staff, and the team seems content enough with their 37 win season that they let just one of their best players go.

E-Double: Going back to what you said re: putting together an offer for Smith with Tayshaun as the main piece … Thanks to Jim reminding DBB in an earlier thread, the ludicrous BYC (Base Year Compensation) rule makes it difficult even if we were to be interested so it’s moot.

The low-down on the BYC is, whatever amount Smith signs with Atlanta for before the “trade” part of the “sign and trade”, his salary would only count for HALF of that in a trade (ie: $12 million in the first year of a deal is really only worth $6 million in a trade). If Smith signed for $12 mil./year (around what he wants, I believe) and came to us in a subsequent deal, if we wanted to send back Tay, Atlanta is getting more than 125% back on the contract they dealt (another rule outlined in the CBA stating you can’t trade contracts worth any more than 125% in cap space of the amount you get back counting toward the cap in the deal.), so Atlanta would have to send us MORE than just Josh Smith to get the cap aspect to work, not the other way around. The only way we could presumably wing it is if you sub Dice for Tay and go Dice (and you could add any single <$1.5 million/year contract like Afflalo or Cheikh) for Smith. Atlanta is NOT doing that, especially now that Billy Knight is out and Rick Sund (who I believe to at least be a decent GM, way more so than Knight) is in charge in Atlanta.

The 125% rule puts the Camby trade in perspective. To my knowledge, and I very well could have an incomplete understanding of this, if the Nuggets were going to take a player(s) back in the deal (instead of “picks”), that player(s) would have to make between $6.4-$10 million this year to Camby’s $8 million even. If the Nuggets weren’t just doing a salary dump (as everyone knows they were) and actually wanted a player(s) back, in a 1-for-1 they’d have to receive Cuttino Mobley OR Chris Kaman (both of whom make less than 25% more of what Camby makes) or some combination of multiple players’ contracts which come out to a sum between $6.4-$10 million. That, of course, is why the compensation was made in the form of a draft pick (ie: huge loophole in the rule). As to why the Nuggets only demanded “the right to exchange 2nd round picks in 2010” is beyond me. I think they could’ve at least wriggled two future 2nd rounders, let alone one, for a guy with the résumé of Marcus Camby.

Back to Smith, even though he COSTS $12 million/year in this scenario, in any trade he’s used he COUNTS for $6 million against the cap figure for the team who acquires him. Of course, if he signs the same hypothetical contract but is not traded at all, he COUNTS for $12 million against Atlanta’s cap as well as their wallet. In a non-plausible, not even hypothetical scenario, would I take Smith for Prince + others? I’d consider Smith for Prince + Amir, but not for Prince + Maxiell. But as I said, the Collective Bargaining Agreement would render any of those scenarios moot. exhale

Read on ESPN that the Hawks were offering him a $60/6 year deal. That’s really low-balling him, and I can certainly understand Smith’s reluctance to rejoin the team if this is true. And it really helps to explain Childress’s rationale for his move, since a big part of his decision making was that he felt the team wasn’t doing anything to move forward. This could all blow up in Atlanta’s face, and they could end up with neither.

LB,

They could throw in Speedy Claxton, which I’m sure they would be more than happy to do.

Never mind, they don’t have him anymore.

I think they still have Claxton. He was signed until 2010 last I checked, unless they cut him recently.

Yes, it appears they do. Different sites treat him differently since he was out for the season.

The two sites I rely on (especially to cross-check) both have Claxton there through 2010 for just a pinch under $11 million total. Some sites must think he’s a surefire bet to retire despite the fact he’s playing in Utah right now. So if you throw Claxton into the mix, who’s very expendable based on his injuries and the Bibby-Law depth chart, things get way more complicated from my viewpoint.

Claxton has managed to compile a very hot/cold NBA career thus far while never playing in more than 71 regular season games in a single season. He has only appeared in 42 games with the Hawks over 2 full seasons, missing all 82 last year. If (the dreaded gigantic IF) the injury woes are behind him and he can get back to about 65+ games per year, albeit on not as dazzling athleticism, he could truly score at a clip similar (or maybe slightly better) to the one Stuckey displayed during the regular season (not the playoffs). He’s only 30, but again, is he finished based on injuries? Or, if he isn’t finished, is his production going to take a giant nosedive?

Well, he’s shown up to play in the Rocky Mountain Review Summer League this week and done nothing of note, other than be a guy playing in these games who has had an NBA contract for eight straight years and has one for two more. I guess he didn’t have to even go do that, so I don’t really care what his box scores show in those games. I like that he made that choice, as well as the fact that he’d easily be our best on-the-ball defender who gets more than situational minutes (Hunter). He’s small, but he will take the ball away from you in an instant.

That all being said, we have Rodney Stuckey and now Will Bynum. Unless Speedy is healthy and Arnie believes that he could reasonably play 60+ games/season these next two years (which he’s only done in 3 of 8 years thus far), the only way this makes sense, is if we deal for him, and he retires (salary dump!). If people are worried about Stuckey being a worthwhile choice for starter this season (as many DBBers are), you can’t even begin to consider Claxton. Therefore, we’d have no choice but to house 4 PGs or shift Stuckey to back up Rip primarily. I think everyone can agree that we’d have a glut of PGs, and to eat that $11 million over the next two years just to get Josh Smith (and give up Tayshaun Prince + more, mind you), not worth it at all in my book. However, if Claxton immediately retires? Now you’re talking my language, and depending on what the Pistons send back to Atlanta (+Amir or + Afflalo & Cheikh makes most cap sense in this situation) you’ve at least got my attention.

Claxton would never play a minute for the Pistons. Willingness to take on his contract might be the key to getting Josh Smith without having to sacrifice superior talent.