1. I'm amazed the Hawks' ownership remains this idiotic. 2. Good for Childress, assuming he's fine living by himself with an interpreter in Greece. 3. This may prompt several more Euro defections, but things will even out. Teams there can only afford so much before they bankrupt themselves. They're overbidding to get 3rd-tier players. Evan
Way to go Hawks. Getting off to a good start to the offseason after building "some" optimism after taking the C's to 7 games. Fail.
I don't blame Childress at all. He's the kind of guy that will love living on the Mediterranean. And obviously the Hawk's franchise is just a mess. I think both the NBA, the Hawks and the fans lose out on this one though. I enjoyed the way he played. And let me echo all those before me who said, "I wish we could have got him."
The $20m figure was correct but as i mentioned previously it's after-tax... The terms of the contract after the official announcement are the same as the ones I posted earlier in this thread.
This is a little off topic but what if this jennings kid ends up bering a star in euroleague and gets offerd this kind of contract after whe proves him self, will he ever play in the nba? I guess that would make the first pick of the second round very valuable. No team would be stupid enough to draft the kid in the first round if they knew his euro league team would out bid the offer.
One factor is whether he is truly happy living overseas - plenty of guys get homesick when they're just off at college. The other is whether he thinks he can get significantly more by getting around the rookie contracts. I'd guess if he's in the top half of the lottery (picks 1-7) he won't take long coming back. I will say - I'm glad that there's a better option for ready-to-play kids out of high school than the NCAA's farce. Let Europe become the minor league system. Evan
Even at 3yr/$20m, he's going to have to be the next Anthony Parker to be considered worth it. If he ends up being the third best player on the team, other teams might be hesitant to sign NBA players to bloated contracts.
It is interesting that the Hawks have gotten themselves in a favorable position in terms of young talent (2005 Draft excluded), but are now hurting themselves by things like this.
Great opportunity. I think this is just what Morey was thinking in the offseason. A team would implode and their management would be forced to start over and rebuild. The Hawks lost Childress, their going to lose J. Smith, and they have talent to spare. I think that Morey could take advantage of this and go after some of their other talent, ex. Mike Bibby, Acie Law or anyone other than J. Johnson, Harford. Trade for Bibby and give them draft picks, Brooks, Novak, B. Jackson (ex. contract).
Bottomline seems to be that Childress doesn't want back with the Hawks. The earlier articles mention him wanting out and wanting a S&T. So maybe the money isn't the issue per se-- he just didn't want to be a Hawk for 5 years, even at 36 million.
Josh Childress could be back in the NBA as early as next year without being on the Hawks. In order for the Hawks to keep his rights next season and keep Josh as a RFA, they have to make another qualifying offer for him. He will still as 300% of his previous salary against the Hawk's salary cap until the expiration date October 1st. That's about $12 million on your cap and you have Bibby's salary coming off your cap, next year. If you want to want to chase FAs with all of your cap, you will have to forget about making a qualifying offer and renounce him. Then, they will have lots of money to play around with, while Josh Childress fields offers from other teams and opts out of his euro contract.
The Hawks probably felt that they were being low balled. A 5 year 33M was a reasonable offer for Childress,but it's a loss for them in any case.
Rashard Lewis was S&T for a TE + 2nd round pick. I think a TE might have been what the Hawks were looking for but none of those contending teams had.
I don't blame him. Maybe his agent convinced him that this Euro deal would be a good work-around. Play there for a year, see if he likes it, and if he doesn't, opt out and sign with a team other than the Hawks (like the Rockets? I wish).
