and ENOUGH with the JSmooth to the Warriors talks. It’s not happening, deal with it. Just like how Baron Davis left for LA, it happened, deal with it. And J Rich ain’t coming back to the Dubs anytime soon, deal with it.

Biedrins and Smith are alike in that they’re both basketball players who are much taller than your average human.

In most other respects, they aren’t similar at all. Smith makes his offensive living with a jumper that in all honesty isn’t very good and isn’t an efficient scorer. He’s an adequate rebounder as a combo forward. He’s a nasty shot blocker and a great athlete who is reported to be a superior defender.

Biedrins converts at a high percentage on anythng he gets his hands on inside. He can be a good (but not great) shot blocker, but seems to avoid it because of foul issues. Biedrins is one of the better rebounders in the game.

i don’t buy this that Josh and Andris are too much alike. they are 2 completely different players in many ways. Josh is capable of playing the 3 and Andris is well.. Andris. Josh is so freakishly explosive and Athletic for his size. Another thing. That frontcourt won’t get us a championship?? And what you are assuming Brandon Wright at the 4 will eventually get us one?

forget Marc Gasol

but doesn’t is seem likely that he’s gonna the Hawks will resign him? I think this pretty much takes out the notion of him joining the dubs

means we have to ship out 5.5 mil, and we don’t have anything at that value that’d interest atl. and it’d put us over lux tax.

We cannot ship anything out for him now. It can’t be done. It’s not a matter of will. It’’s a matter of the rules. He will be a member of either the Hawks or Memphis until December at the earliest.

but smith is restricted, Baron wasn’t

that was quick…

movement.

It is not clear that Smith would have accepted an offer earlier. Remember, it’s not the offer that’s important. It’s getting a player to accept the offer. Earlier in free agency, Smith had a possibility for more bidders and valued himself higher. Then those suitors went away and ATL didn’t seem in a rush to get something done. With only Memphis out there, the real question was

I do not believe we were never in a position where Smith was going to accept such an offer. Timing is important and the timing of the offer meant that we’d have had to have held off on signing Monta and Biedrins and Turiaf and Maggs and probably lost Azubuike if we wanted to wait for the Smith price to drop to where it did, a price ATL was more than willing to match.

There was NEVER an opportunity to trade if ATL didn’t want something we had (stop trying to foist Al back to a team that didn’t want him when they had him) and it would have certainly cost more in salary than what he wound up getting as well..

It was a no risk offer. They more or less decided that they didn’t like this year’s FA crop. They don’t have anyone that they had to keep on their own roster due a big raise who would make their cap room use-it-or-lose-it like we did. They thought he was worth that price and if they got him for it, it would be a deal. If not, it didn’t impact their plans. Smith got tired of waiting for an offer that ATL wasn’t quick in getting to him, so, after the suitors interested in overbidding went for other options dried up, he took the only leverage he had left. Smith didn’t have to sign the offer sheet. Don’t blame anything on the Griz.

Frankly, $11mil a year for Smith is a risk if he doesn’t improve. He’s not nearly the dominant force that so many here seem to make him out to be. He’s a tweener forward, a good one, but still somewhat limited as a result. He’s shown a very, very flat improvement curve since he got to the league. It may mean he’s due for a breakout, but it may also mean that what you see is what you get, and frankly, it’s not 11mil a year productivity yet.

Memphis figured: “what the hell. Let’s float an offer. So what if he doesn’t take it? We were content to let the cap room roll over to next year anyhow. So if he doesn’t take it, we’re no worse off. If he takes it and ATL matches, we’re no worse off. If he takes it and we get him, well, then we’ve changed direction but it’s a price we’re happy with. What, you mean he TOOK that offer? Wow. Never figured that he’d do that. OK, so it’s matched. We’re still where we wanted to be, waiting for next year’s FA crop.”

Smith (or his agent) figured: “Damn, I’m worth way more. I didn’t even entertain offers this low a month ago, but who else is gonna give it to me at this point? Philly went with Brand. LAC doesn’t have that much cash to deal anymore. Warriors and Clips spend their change when I still wanted $12 or $13 per. So if this is the offer coming in, either we hold out for ATL to boost an offer or we’re looking at the qualifying offer for a year before unrestricted free agency. And that means that the offer next year has to be even bigger than what I wanted this year or I’m coming out short by taking a low salary for the season.”

This is not part of a sign and trade proposal. If you match an offer sheet, it cannot be part of a sign and trade and no negotiations about the match or any subsequent dealings are permitted once an offer has been made. If there’s a trade, it wouldn’t have been until December.

This was all about Memphis saying, “why not?” and Smith, seeing less and less out there, figuring that this was enough money to make it worth while.