Would you pay Smoove 14.5 starting salary?

[Admin]

According to MemphisX if the cap is 58 million then Smoove could be offered a deal starting at 14.5 million. The total contract would be roughly 5 years at 84 million with him making 19 million his final season. So knowing all of that, would you match that deal?

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25% of the salary cap with 8% raises. 5 year length.

Example: $58 million salary cap

$14,500,000 million 1st year salary

$15,660,000

$16,820,000

$17,980,000

$19,140,000

So 5 years/$84.1 million dollars.

[exodus]

I am a big Smith fan but he just isn't worth that. If it was my decision i just couldn't match that offer.

[Admin]

It would be extremely difficult that's for sure. It's hard to imagine that Golden State would actually offer him that much, but if they offered Arenas 100+ then maybe they would.

[HawkItus]

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I am a big Smith fan but he just isn't worth that. If it was my decision i just couldn't match that offer.

see this is my point......if they sign him to this type of deal what can we do?.......let's say GS offers him that......what salaries that we want would match up for the trade?

[jhay610]

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I am a big Smith fan but he just isn't worth that. If it was my decision i just couldn't match that offer.

I am also a huge Smith fan and that is top-flight money. What a fix we're in now. The problem is you will take such a PR hit if you don't resign this kid and we will fall off the NBA map again. I would hate to tie up this much cap for Smooth but it would take a VERY GOOD trade for me to let him go. I don't want future protected picks. I want guys who can play. Now.

We have invested too much into Josh to let him go somewhere else and flourish while we go back to the dreaded draft board, where we may or (more likely) may not find a player of equitable value. Even if we do get some nice pieces in future drafts, we will have to wait on them to develop and Joe will likely walk as our window closes.

At some point you just have to bite the bullet and pay your players. We should have been more proactive last year. Time for Sund to earn his $.

[frosgrim]

If Smith signs the offer sheet, then we can't do an SNT: all we can do is match or let him walk. The issue then becomes if GS wants to play ball with us and trade? Its a very dangerous game right now for the ASG.

What is ironic is that Al Harrington could be a piece that comes back to Atlanta if Smith is offered the Max. I am not saying that Harrington will be traded, but from GS's perspective giving us back Harrington makes more sense than giving up Biendris. Plus the cap numbers work better.

[jhay610]

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but if they offered Arenas 100+ then maybe they would.

Yeah that is crazy. If Arenas is worth that to GS then I could see them maxing Smooth. Arenas is a ballhog that is coming off of a major surgery. He was obviously not the same player that he used to be in this year playoffs.

If they are willing to invest that much into a player that never was a bona-fide superstar with serious health-concerns, why wouldn't they do the same for a 22 year-old rising star with a clean bill of health?

[coachx]

I hesitantly voted yes. Losing Smith for nothing accomplishes nothing since we can't spend that money to court other team's guys. The thought of this being spun as way to throw big money at to Marvin next year is not a pretty thought.

By matching a $14.5 starting offer we would lose Chillz for sure and probably lose flexibility to re-up Marvin for anything more then the MLE next year. At least Bibby's salary woud be coming off to help us out and Speedy's insurance checks don't hurt. Signing Smith for $14.5 would give us around $3.5 million to fill out the roster on vet minium players without going over the salary cap tax.

What will really hurt are those years he is making $17 mill and $19 mill. At least he would only be 27 then so his body should still be in it's prime.

If we could work out a sign and trade for Bedrinas (BYC like Smith) that saves us $5-$7 mill in cap space down the road....then that may be ideal. Do the Warriors have an expiring deal they could throw in to save us money down the road ? Maybe Bedrinas can be had for $9 mill starting out and they throw in some filler with an expiring $3 mill contract.

1/2 of $14.5 mill = $7.25 mill (BYC for Smith)

1/2 of $9.2 mill = $4.6 mill (BYC for Bedrinas) + $2.65 expring conract filler = $7.25 mill

Do I understand the rules right ? Would a trade like this work ? If so, we preserve some talent on the roster and preserve future salary cap flexibility for when JJ and Horford need knew deals down the road.

[jhay610]

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$19 mill. At least he would only be 27 then so his body should still be in it's prime.

Yeah, and by then we'll have a more concrete idea of what his ceiling is. If we are vastly overpaying, that 19 mil expiring would be a useful trade piece...

[crimedog]

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I am a big Smith fan but he just isn't worth that. If it was my decision i just couldn't match that offer.

Yeah its tough. Both of the options suck. If you sign him to that contract then you handicap yourself financially and flat out spend a ton of dough. If you let him walk, you take a huge step back on the court which won't help with the ticket sales.

That being said, we have no clue if GSW is going to make an offer to Smith at all. They might be targeting Iggy or Calderon to fill their ball-handling hole (that sounds dirty).

[Traceman]

I could see trying to work out some sort of 3 or 4 way deal where we land Biedrins (or maybe Ellis) at a significantly lesser number (5 yrs/$50M or so) but if I were unable to get that done, I'd have to suck it up and pay Smoove.

[AnakinJoe]

This is feeling more and more like AK-47 or Shawn Marion. Those guys, Smith included, are elite stat-stuffers who bring unique qualities to the court. But none of them are max-type players. It almost feels like anything less than max is almost considered disrespectful. It's stupid when a 5 year/$65M deal is somehow insufficient for a guy who still requires the "he's only XX" excuse, despite having played 300 NBA games.

[Iman]

I think that when we didn't put a huge effort into extending Smoove last offseason, we were basically gambling. We knew that an offer as large as $14.5 mil or so was possible but we also knew that Smoove might have a bad 2008 or even with a good season, not get many offers. When we made that gamble I think we in effect committed to matching no matter what. Smoove isn't worth that much money but neither was Kmart when we offered it to him and for sure Arenas isn't. I think we match and retain Smoove no matter what, if nothing else just due to the excitement and hometown factors.

[pound4pound]

Arenas is worth that much - that is the difference.

[BusBoyIsBack]

Of course. Is it overpaying him for 2-3 million a year? Sure. But what the hell would be saving the money for?

If we lose Smoove, this whole rebuilding thing that started back in 2004 is all for not.

We no longer have assembled the most promising young roster in the Eastern Conference.

We no longer have the fan favorite, hometown kid, the best weakside shotblocker in the NBA and player with potential to be a top 10 player in this league.

We certainly don't make the post-season next year and with Zaza back at starting C, I dont see us making it for quite some while.

[pound4pound]

The truth is, I go back and forth on this. He isn't a max player: He can't be trusted with the ball leading a break - or late in the 4th, but maybe he is a max player for us. Bibby only has one more year of his insane deal and we get Speedy's salary back in insurance - so we certainly look like we can afford it. We really aren't talking about 14.5 but 3.5 - the difference in the 11 base he can expect from Philly.

So is Josh worth 3.5 million more than what we want to pay?

Is there 3.5 million worth of improvement in a 22 year old?

That improvement comes from becoming a back to the basket threat, less outside shots, and less passing up our point guard on the break.

[AnakinJoe]

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We no longer have the fan favorite, hometown kid, the best weakside shotblocker in the NBA and player with potential to be a top 10 player in this league.

Out of curiosity, how many more NBA games or how old does Smith have to be to drop the "potential" word and accept that he has reached whatever level of performance he will reach? 540 NBA games and 25 years old? 780 NBA games and 28 years old?

[AHF]

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We no longer have the fan favorite, hometown kid, the best weakside shotblocker in the NBA and player with potential to be a top 10 player in this league.

Out of curiosity, how many more NBA games or how old does Smith have to be to drop the "potential" word and accept that he has reached whatever level of performance he will reach? 540 NBA games and 25 years old? 780 NBA games and 28 years old?

Look at the ages that most guys peak and then use that as a rough guideline for when to stop expecting improvement. Smith is still easily in the stage where potential has to be considered, IMO.

[jhay610]

he definitely hasn't peaked, or even plateaued, at age 22.

[Chris18]

This situation could have been avoided last summer but the ASG was to cheap to give Josh the kind of money that he deserved. This should be a lesson to them when it comes time to re-sign Al and Marvin that we need to do it quick without the posibilty of losing our players for nothing.