the restricted free agent market has spoken, and it says to pay Josh Smith his 6 year 71 million contract and make him our cornerstone franchise player to keep the Hawks good and make them great, eventually. I mean Luol Deng (23) has a verbal agreement to the Chicago Bulls for 6 years $72 million, and for him averaging 18.8 points, 7.1 rebounds at 51.7% FGs i think thats fair.
Luol Deng (23) 18.5 ppg 7.1 rpg 2.1 apg 51% FGs ---------- 6 yrs $71 million
Andris Biedrins (22) 10.9 ppg 9.8 rpg 1.4 bpg 62% FGs ------ 6 yrs $62 million
Andrew Bogut (24) 14.3 ppg 9.8 rpg 2.1 bpg 54% FGs ------- 5 yrs $60 million
Maurice Evans:
Mo Evans is a good player, here is the Hawks.com press release of his career statistics. he has some shooting ability, he is a pretty good defensive player, and he played an important role in his Lakers days and more recently with the successful Magic, but unless he can have a career year as a super-effective 6th man, averaging double figures and shooting at least 50% FGs, he can't/won't replace what Childress brought to our team, and even if he did those things or better, it will never be as cool, great as seeing Josh Smith and Josh Childress, the two prized prospects of the last-high-school draft of 2004, out there on the court at the same time. I think Evans will be good with us though.
Randolph Morris:
Yes. This is a good signing, this guy may be the good defensive starting center the Hawks have been looking for so we can move Horford to PF and Smith to SF, as its supposed to be. Morris will be great for blocking shots, rebounding, and hustle plays at the center position, he is 6'11 270 pounds, but much quicker than he looks. If he is able to focus on those things above and just make sure Horford gets the ball, if he constantly looks for the assist to Horford instead of scoring, best case scenario he could possibly average the following: 5 ppg 5 rpg 5 apg 2 blks. Quite frankly, i don't give a damn what his numbers are, i'm just glad we don't have Kwame Brown.
WHEN we resign Josh Smith we can start speculating on the potential of this team, this is really the biggest off-season of Hawks franchise history, and if they do this right, we can make ourselves a force in the Eastern Conference. Of course, that remains to be proven, we might not even start Morris, but i guarentee he'd be a better starter at center than MARVIN WILLIAMS at POWER FORWARD, that kid isn't power anything. Anyway, the negotiations with Luol Deng is an encouraging sign to Hawks fans though, because if he can repair that relationship and be the franchise player of the Chicago Bulls and get that money he desired, it shows Smith can... well, this is the Atlanta Spirit Group we're dealing with, so we can only hope those 'owners' are intelligent enough to pay Smith what he deserves so we can contend for the whole east in the next few seasons. i think people underestimate what the core of Al Horford, Josh Smith, and Joe Johnson can do together with this past year of growth and improvement, which is why i'll never forgive the Hawks management if they don't give the long-term contract this Atlanta-native deserves. Forget sign-and-trades, i've heard a few rumors of sign-and-trade proposals, and i scoff at the notion of trying to get "equal value" for Smith, its not happening. I've been wanting to write an article about the potential free agents we could target to make our team better, but we can't spend any more money until we lock up Josh Smith, it don't make no sense for this process to be taking this long, its no question the value of he on our team, Hawks fans will not be able to breathe until and unless we resign Josh SMITH, a 1-year qualifier is not cutting it.
I'm sure most hawks fans share this sentiment with me and that is that we cannot and will not fully support this team and look forward to this season until and unless we resign Josh Smith.
Once that is done though, i fully believe we can be a top 8 team in the Eastern Conference, no doubt.
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