AJC: Josh Smith is not on trading block

[Hawksquawk]

Smoove isn't leaving the Highlight Factory anytime soon. (Hyosub Shin / hshin@ajc.com)

I haven’t said much about the Josh Smith trade rumors because there’s nothing to them. You can guess how well that approach worked.

It started with Chard Ford’s ESPN.com blog post, which he based on league GMs looking at Atlanta’s roster and speculating that ASG can’t afford to keep Josh, J.J., Al, and Marvin together after this season (Rick Sund said he never heard from Ford).

That led to more speculation but still not much in the way of hard news. And as these things tend to go, the secondhand speculation aspect of the original “story” gets lost and suddenly the rumor is the Hawks are looking to move Smoove. (Rule of thumb in these cases: Beware the question mark headline.)

It’s not true. Sund didn’t want to comment on the rumors, which is his usual policy, but Smoove confirmed that team management reassured him he’s not on the trading block.

“They didn’t need to,” he said. “Some people …

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