Yes. We can offer a near $20m contract without Howard on the books. No need for a sign and trade. I think sports media still doesn't understand that there is no benefits to sign and trade in the new CBA (you can't offer more years/money) unless you need to circumvent the cap, which we don't.
If they're lookin a JSmith walk away for nothing - hell yeh they'd grab Asik's contract... its easily worth flippin for a 1st rd pick... his production at 8.3m of cap...
yes Howard don't sign they have the money to just pay Smith and Atlanta gets squat. They are getting Asik for free essentially if we do a sign and trade.
im happy as long as josh smith does what we need rebounds, defend, rebounds and rebounds. THATS IT. i dont want him to have the ball unless its alley oop dunks or putback slam
That's pretty much what I'd want too. I still hate the idea of eating that much cap space unless DHo has made something like that a requirement for him coming here, because particularly for this team it's a no-brainer. I've followed the Rockets since they came here and last year's team was just something different than I've seen before. These kids fight. Howard would change the team dramatically and I really don't want to gut this team for a hopeful WCF trip. I have been wrong before...
Hawks do not want to lose him for nothing just like the Bucks because Redick was not going back to the Bucks, so they got 2 draft picks out of nothing. Right now, the Hawks are set at PG and G, the position they really need is C, or Asik, so which is why everything is pointing to Asik for JSmoove. I can see even if Dwight doesn't come here, we may still trade for JSmoove and take another crack at 2014 with possibly DeMarcus Cousins (want), Zach Randolph (don't want), or Chris Bosh (want/don't want) at a lesser rate, or go for gold with Lebron.
A year ago, the Rockets signed a guy with shaky shot selection in Delfino. He's a better three point shooter than Smith. Smith is better inside the arc. Pre-Rocket Delfino's TS% was basically the same as Smith's. I would expect Smith to be about as efficient as Delfino on offense, but with more production. Elite defender, Good rebounder, and a Delfino-like efficiency on offense. Yeah, I don't want him. The price maybe too high to acquire him..it just depends on what deals Morey can work.
The temperature on Dwight lately has been very GSW-y. I hope, hope, hope we don't wind up offering Josh Smith the max for more than 1 year. Barring a significant upgrade at the PG I don't think we're contenders with Smith at the 4. We've got Lin, Asik and Parsons coming up for renewals soon. We could get locked into mediocrity with a quickness.
I would love to have Smith, IF and only IF we have Dwight. If not keep the cap space for the 2014 golden price - Lebron James.
