Rumor: Hawks in No Rush to Sign-and-Trade Al Harrington

From Marcus Thompson of the CC Times:

The Warriors, the Indiana Pacers, coveted free-agent forward Al Harrington -- they're all waiting on the Hawks. A person familiar with negotiations said the sign-and-trade is taking so long to work out because Atlanta hasn't decided what's enough in return for Harrington. Meanwhile, Harrington sits in limbo, and so do the Warriors.

The question is what does Atlanta want? Does it want Warriors forward Troy Murphy or Pacers center Jeff Foster? Is Warriors swingman Mickael Pietrus the deal-sweetener that will convince the Hawks to trade Harrington to the Warriors? Or do the Hawks want a proven and steady point guard in Indiana's Anthony Johnson? Is there a player on another roster whom Atlanta covets enough to bring a third team into the mix?

Neither the Warriors nor the Pacers have the money under the salary cap to sign Harrington outright. Nobody but Atlanta does, so Harrington needs a sign-and-trade to get the amount of money he wants. So all sides have no choice but to wait for Atlanta.

How could Billy Knight and the Hawks not know what they want? They've had over a month to think this through. Al Harrington's not a superstar or even an All Star. The Warriors shouldn't hang around all summer and wait for the inept Hawks to complete a deal. Given the Pacers' recently granted $7.5 million dollar trade exception and Harrington's local ties to Indianna, the Warriors are probably nothing but a distant second in the race for Mr. Lipton. It's time to move on and focus on bigger fish. The 76ers are reportedly getting lowballed big time for Allen Iverson. It's a great time to sneak in and make a decent offer for The Answer.

Do you want the Warriors to continue to pursue Al Harrington?

Also see: