Childress weighing offer from Greek team

[wfhawkfan]

LAS VEGAS – In a potentially stunning move that reflects the growing challenge Europe’s basketball leagues pose to the NBA, Atlanta Hawks free-agent forward Josh Childress is strongly considering a three-year, $20 million offer from Greek powerhouse Olympiakos, several league sources said Sunday night.

Childress flew to Greece late Sunday and is scheduled to meet with Olympiakos officials on Monday. Childress, 25, is so flustered with the Hawks’ refusal to make a sign-and-trade deal to another team, one source familiar with his thinking believes there’s “better than a 50-50 chance” he’ll sign with Olympiakos.

“Unless he just gets there and doesn’t like it at all, I think he’s going to go,” one league source said.

Childress is a restricted free agent, but the Hawks would have no matching rights with a FIBA contract. Olympiakos’ offer also would allow Childress the opportunity to return to the NBA over the next two summers. The Hawks would maintain his restricted free-agent rights provided they make him a qualifying offer.

Childress’ talks with the Hawks have yet to gain traction because Atlanta officials have made it clear their first priority is to resolve negotiations with forward Josh Smith, their other restricted free agent. Privately, Childress has expressed little enthusiasm in returning to play for the organization, sources said.

The Memphis Grizzlies are the only remaining team with enough salary-cap room to make an offer exceeding the $5.6 million mid-level exception, and they so far seem content on saving their money for next summer. Several NBA GMs interested in Childress said they wouldn’t make a mid-level offer to him because they believe the Hawks would match.

Childress’ agent, Lon Babby, has instead looked to Europe to create leverage for his client, a unique approach that would have seemed unlikely as recently as three years ago. The U.S. dollar’s declining value compared to the Euro, coupled with the influx of money from Russian owners into the Euroleague, has now made Europe a much more attractive option for players.

Already this summer, the San Antonio Spurs’ 2007 first-round draft pick, Tiago Splitter, rejected an offer to join the NBA franchise because he can make more money by remaining in Spain. Toronto Raptors free agent Carlos Delfino signed a three-year, $13.5 million deal with Khimiki of Moscow. Juan Carlos Navarro of the Grizzlies returned to Spain for a reported five-year contract with FC Barcelona that could pay more than $20 million.

Even so, Childress, who averaged 11.8 points and 4.9 rebounds per game last season, would send far greater waves through the NBA should he leave for the Euroleague. He would be the kind of coveted, young American talent who hadn’t previously left the NBA for Europe. Childress, 6-foot-8, played his college ball at Stanford, and is believed to have the international curiosity and maturity it might take to leave the NBA behind for a year.

If Childress joins Olympiakos then chooses to return to the NBA in either of the next two summers, he’ll likely be entering a more lucrative free-agent market than the current one.

Link from Yahoo

[Admin]

Wow that would be a stunning event. I really like Childress and I'd hate to see him not with the Hawks next year and hearing more rumors of one of our players not wanting to be back with the team is disheartening, whether it's based in fact or not.

[DJ_Money]

That would be a stunner.

The only rationale could be because of the difference in currency. There's absolutely nothing we can do about that.

[Frenzy]

wow wtf

[wfhawkfan]

If the Hawks , or any team for that matter, aren't going to offer him 7 million per, I guess he has to strongly consider going overseas. This would be horrible for us if he goes through with it.

::prays::

[DeacKillsaDevil]

embarassing

[EazyRoc]

Losing Childress without getting anything in return would be a devastating loss for the Hawks. Offer him a 4 year, 30 mil contract.

[lifelong]

Seems like Childress has a pretty good agent who managed to generate some kind of leverage. This is a good way to turn the tables on the Hawks, who have pretty much had the two Joshes by the balls until this story.

[Guest]

This is an unintended consequence of RFA. When the Hawks hold his rights they have absolutely no reason to pay him more than the MLE, but that was before the emegence of another basketball league.

The more I have read and learned about European soccer leagues and their structure it becomes more and more appealing as opposed to our American Leagues. They don't have salary caps and the incentive for teams to get better is that they get relegated if they suck. That way you don't have leachers (Clippers for example) who just are middle of the pack and take from revenue sharing and the luxury tax. Just a little rambling from me on the structure of sports leagues, there are pros and cons to each system and right now we are seeing a con of ours and a pro of European sporting leagues.

[LOL_Hawks]

Quote:

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wow wtf

That's what I'm sayin. This DEFINITELY came out of left field.

But this might be the start of a new era: If players want to make more money, the European teams are willing to give away mad stacks of money. They do it for soccer, they'll do it for basketball too.

[WraithSentinel]

This is a complete stunner. This is one way to get ASG of their lazy tails. Josh Smith should consider this route as well. it is one way to put pressure on this ownership.

[Seano]

Quote:

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Seems like Childress has a pretty good agent who managed to generate some kind of leverage. This is a good way to turn the tables on the Hawks, who have pretty much had the two Joshes by the balls until this story.

Agree, great job by the agent. If the ASG is being stupid about things, then get out there and beat the bushes and find your own best offer for the player- wherever that might be. This is a great way to force the ASG and Rick Sund to start aggressively fielding offers for an S&T, rather than sitting back and letting Chillz simmer on the back burner while they try and get the Josh Smith situation resolved. That's a bit of an insult to Childress anyway, and I could see why he might feel somewhat slighted to be so clearly relegated down the list of priorities like that. And I don't understand why they seem incapable of negotiating with both Smoove and Chillz at the same time? I mean really, is it that hard to negotiate with both....and if it's clear that Childress doesn't want to come back, is it that hard to just say 'Ok' and let he and his agent know that you'll start looking for S&T deals immediately?

Damn these people are inept, and if the ASG somehow manages to bollocks this one up and set the terribly embarrassing precedent of losing a good young American born player to the fricken Greeks- then it will just further our reputation as an NBA laughing-stock, the butt of jokes for years to come. That would be pretty sad, and any positive carry over or buzz from the playoffs would just vanish for me, because we would have some of the worst ownerships in professional sports...and Clippers East, here we come.

[Diesel]

This is why you don't disrespect your own free agents.

[Diesel]

Lon Babby was JT's agent. This guy knows all the tricks. Josh Childress is the one Hawk who is "net" friendly. I would like to see what he has blogged on his homepage. I'm sure that there is some animosity for being treated as a 2nd class citizen. I'm also sure that this new "leverage" is a way to get something moving. I wouldn't believe that Chillz is "money" motivated only. However, we are a team that has placed him behind an inferior player on the depth chart and told him that he plays better off the bench.

I would say that this is a Babby trick, but I wouldn't deny a lot of the truth in it. I fear that Chillz is fed up and wants to play for another NBA team. He probably has been told by a multitude of teams that if you played for us, you could be a starter. I'm also sure that his agent has prolly sought out some sign and trade deals for higher priced players which is why the ASG hasn't moved. They're scared to go over the Luxury tax cap so they're waiting til Smoove signs before they offer Childress a lower deal.

Bottom line is ASG has f----- up.

I really believe that now we have lost chillz and may lose Smoove too.

[Zone034life]

This shines light on the Smoove situation as well. People like Coach X has chosen not to put any blame on ASG. Well coach, do you still fell that way?

I was holding back from saying this but if we lose Smoove or Chillz for little or no compensation it is apparent Billy Knight should have kept his job. He had the inside track to signing David Anderson and the Joshes. Sund has been thrust into a very tough situation.

With Bibby coming up on a free agent season, finally being able to release Speedy next offseason and MW being a RFA this team has parts it could move to be able to compensate Smoove and Chillz.

It seems ASG have really disrespected Smoove and chillz and they will have to leave town if Chillz goes overseas and Smoove takes the QO or demands a trade. This ownership group is killing NBA basketball in Atlanta.

[mattlanta]

This is starting to get out of hand. How are we supposed to fix this? What are the chances of Chillz staying in Atlanta? Panic?!

[Peoriabird]

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It seems ASG have really disrespected Smoove and chillz and they will have to leave town if Chillz goes overseas and Smoove takes the QO or demands a trade. This ownership group is killing NBA basketball in Atlanta.

Seem like everyone on this board wants their cake and eat it too! On one hand posters want the ASG to go out and sign the best big and the best shooter in the free agent market while over paying their restricted free agents. This is not NY fellows! We are not going over the luxury tax period! So in other words we have about $18 million dollars to spend and judging by the numbers posters have been throwing out there to sign Childress and Smith, We will not be able to bake our cake and eat it too. I think that this is a ploy by Childress' agent to get more money and i hope Sund doesn't budge one bit! If an extra $3-4 million on the life of a 4-5 year contract means that much to childress, then last year meant absolutely nothing to him and thus he is not the kind of player you build championships with anyway. But here again, I don't think that Childress is behind this!

I've seen post that have criticized the ASG for being Cheap and wanting to fill out the rest of the roster with D-leaguer if they sign Smith and Childress to lucrative deals. My question to you is; What else do you expect them to do if all the money is spent??? Other will say, lets just do a sign and trade for Chris Kaman? Well, does chemistry factor into this at all? Will the Sign and trade of Smith make Childress want to play here more or less? I'm pretty sure many would be happy if we sign and traded them both! And if we didn't make the playoffs because of it, we'll have good old ASG to blame!

[Diesel]

This is not about having your cake and eating it too.

This is about VALUE.

What Value would we get from the 6th pick if Chillz walk? 4 steady years and then nothing?

You have to notice.. .sometimes owners make sacrifices to maximize the team's value. Going over the Luxury tax does not hurt the team. It hurts the owners. This indeed is not NY because NY doesn't find good value. Welp, in the Joshes we have good players, worth the money, but we're f------ up the negotiations because we're too cheap to pay for value.

Maybe you're right.

Maybe we should just forget about CHillz.

Go into this season a little better than mediocre.

Lose out on going to the playoffs because while others were getting better, we remained the same.

Go into the lottery again and restart the welfare mentality.

[Nicholasp27]

this has far bigger implications

now that teams have to compete against euro teams offering 7mil/year to our 6th men, salaries in general are gonna start rising quick for 2nd/3rd/4th tier players, as lots of agents will use this for leverage and salaries could get out of hand very quickly

[Gray Mule]

Well, dang! If, and that's a big if, Childress wants out, ownership should have been told

ASAP and the ownership should know that he was serious. Smith, ditto. I'm sure that

Atlanta has an offer on the table for both. However, this is not a really serious offer,

just something necessary to retain the right to match any NBA offer sheet signed.

Now, let's play the "What if" game. Suppose Childress jumps overseas. Hawks are

left holding the bag. We get nothing. Now, Smith seeing this, does the same thing.

Ownership and all Hawk fans are now in shock. We've been stripped and there's not

a darned thing we can do about it.

Furthermore, if this happens, what are we to do? We now have the money to go

shopping for other players. The price will be much higher. The law of supply and

demand kicks in. The supply has just went down and the demand has gone up.

Losing one Josh would be terrible. Losing two would effectively kill us. Doing a

sign and trade for these two would no longer be an option. Knight and the Hawks

ownership didn't see this possibility or they would have signed them both last year

when they had the opportunity. I hope. If they did see this option as being a

real possibility and didn't act, then they were stupid beyond belief.

In politics, we hear all kinds of things being said. Some of it is even true but a lot

of it is just a bunch of bull crap and we are left to decide which is which.

The same thing is going on here in the NBA. We here all kinds of rumors of what

players have or have not said and offers that may or may not have been made.

Agents encourage this to drive up the price of their clients and get both the player

and his agent more money, IE, NBA politics.

Rumors? Half truths? Facts? Decisions must be made in the middle of all this.

What a mess.