Atlanta Redeems Itself, Signs Josh Smith

After a plethora of horrible moves, the worst franchise in the NBA finally made a good move when they signed Josh Smith. Their mistakes of the past years’ free agencies and drafts have been well documented. This year, they let their supposed glue guy and super sub Josh Childress leave for Europe, which was a first for an American player of his pay level. Smith was the only guy from the ‘best of the rest’ (Iguodala, Deng, Okafor) to remain unsigned, yet the Hawks did not panic. They initially lowballed Smith with a 5 year $45 million dollar contract and waited for a team to make a fair offer to him. The Grizzlies did just that with a 5 year $58 million dollar deal. They probably avoided overpaying him like the Bulls (Deng – 6 years $80 mill) and 76ers (Iguodala 5 years $70+ mill) did for their top free agents. While the Hawks are starting to appear more stable on the court and could see another playoff berth this year, this is clearly a team that needs stability from the top (its owners). If that could be settled, this team, already in a great market where NBA players love to play, could become a real franchise.