At this point.....Josh Smith

[HawkItus]

on the heels of the Chillz defection......if you find you are Sund and you realize Smooves position will not budge do you:

A) capitulate to his demands(even if him knowing you are desperate drives the price up a notch. Say he wanted 12, but now wants 13 mill?)

B) be proactive and complete the best possible sign and trade at your disposal

C) continue on the current path and risk even more bad press.

I'm hard headed. At this point if I could get a shooter, competent big man, and a pick or trade exception, I'd do B). I just can't see bowing to a players demands when I think I've set a fair market value. What do you do? And think in terms of you having at least 3 years to see whatever course of action you take to fruition.

[crimedog]

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on the heels of the Chillz defection......if you find you are Sund and you realize Smooves position will not budge do you:

A) capitulate to his demands(even if him knowing you are desperate drives the price up a notch. Say he wanted 12, but now wants 13 mill?)

B) be proactive and complete the best possible sign and trade at your disposal

C) continue on the current path and risk even more bad press.

I'm hard headed. At this point if I could get a shooter, competent big man, and a pick or trade exception, I'd do B).

I just can't see bowing to a players demands when I think I've set a fair market value.

What do you do? And think in terms of you having at least 3 years to see whatever course of action you take to fruition.

I don't think ASG and Sund look at what they offer Smith as "fair market value", I think they look at it as the benefit of the RFA system. Brand leaving the Clippers changed everything but had he not done that, "fair market value" would have been $12m next season for Smith which is higher than I'd like to pay but underscores that teams do value what he can bring.

Second, you have put 3 options up but you are missing the most probable scenario. At this point the news is that they are still offering a contract with an average of less than 10 a year. Why didn't you put up "continue negotiating"? If Smith wants a contract of around 12 and you want to give him one around 9.5, why not work up to 11?

Following your preferred strategy: In 3 years when Smith is on a 5/65 contract playing for Miami (whoever) putting up All-Star numbers and Joe has bolted because he wants to play for a contender and the Hawks are living off of Sund's draft picks (Sene, Swift, anybody?), do you think Sund is gonna say, "well at least I didn't back down and offer Josh Smith more money."?

[HawkItus]

well option C) entails the "negotiating aspect".

[crimedog]

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well option C) entails the "negotiating aspect".

Ah, see, I think most people are looking at the "current path" as leveraging RFA and not making any conciliations on the contract because ASG assumes that Smith and his people have no where else to go and will therefore take the contract eventually.

[WraithSentinel]

I would go with A. After the damage that has been done by Chill leaving. It is all about saving face as much as possible with the fans and players. Both are on the verge of bolting if Smoove doesn't return. Bogut set the market. Time to pay up.

[Swish]

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I would go with A. After the damage that has been done by Chill leaving. It is all about saving face as much as possible with the fans and players. Both are on the verge of bolting if Smoove doesn't return. Bogut set the market. Time to pay up.

And Smoove is more valuable than Bogut wouldn't you say?