Atlanta Hawks: Josh Smith still wants to be traded
Miami–Even as Josh Smith is having a strong season for the Hawks he has let the team know he wants to be traded as the March 15 deadline approaches, according to people with knowledge of Smith’s thinking.
And the reasons for Smith’s dissatisfaction with the team now have to make the Hawks wonder if they will be able to sign him to a contract extension next season.
By the end of last season Smith wanted out of Atlanta because he believed he was singled out for unfair criticism by coaches and media. Those concerns have died down for the most part this season but now Smith believes he needs a fresh start with a franchise where he can better reach his potential on and off the court, according to one of the people with knowledge of Smith’s thinking.
The person said one of Smith’s complaints is that he believes the Hawks didn’t do enough to promote him for selection to the All-Star team, which he thinks contributed to lesser players being voted to the team by Eastern Conference coaches. Smith, an Atlanta native who has played his entire eight-year career with the Hawks, also would like to play for a franchise he believes is more committed to winning a championship.
As the trade deadline approaches, the Hawks have taken calls from teams interested in acquiring Smith—Golden State is among the teams who have inquired. But the Hawks so far have given no indication that they intend to part with Smith, who likely would command a high price in a trade.
Smith, 26, is under contract through next season, after which he can become an unrestricted free agent. If the Hawks don’t trade Smith and can’t alleviate his concerns by then, they face the real possibility of him signing with another team in the summer of 2013 because there figures to be a strong market for him.
I asked Smith about all of this last night before the Hawks played the Heat but he declined to comment. This is the third season in a row he’s been at the center of trade rumors.
“I really don’t pay any attention to it,” he said. “I just go out there and play the way I play and not worry about anything else. I know this is a business. Whatever happens, happens in the long run. But I know as long as I’m with the Hawks, I have to put my best foot forward.”
This season Smith is averaging 17.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.5 steals. No other player in the league can match those numbers across all categories. It’s that all-around productivity that makes the Hawks reluctant to part with Smith.
Smith’s value as a defender at the basket becomes obvious when Hawks opponents drive to rim when Smith goes to the bench.
“People look at the offensive end but defensively he changes the game,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said recently. “He is one of the few players I think that can play a defensive game and impact the game even if his offense is not on that night.”
The main knock on Smith’s game is his shooting.
After making 39 percent of his long two-point shots last season, a mark that was right at the league average, Smith is making just 31 percent of those attempts this season while attempting nearly two more per game. However, he’s attempting more shots per game at the basket and fewer 3-pointers than last season and his free-throw rate is up slightly.
Smith’s free-throw percentage has plummeted to a career-low 57.7 percent this season after he made a career-high 72.5 percent in 2010-11. His free-throw percentage has improved over the last 20 games or so.
Smith said he’s improved his free-throw shooting by taking his time at the line and expects his jump shots to start falling more often as the season goes on.
“It’s a long season but it came to you real quick,” he said. “They are throwing games at us left and right. If you look around the league most people’s percentages are down more so than usual.”
Smith’s emotional demeanor on the court has drawn fire from critics and has caused friction with teammates at times. But Jerry Stackhouse , an Atlanta resident who had developed a relationship with Smith before joining the Hawks this season, said Smith has grown in that area and Smith’s ability makes it difficult for the Hawks to trade him.
“His talent, that’s what you can’t give up on with Josh,” Stackhouse said. “It’s easy to say, ‘All right, let’s just move him.’ And then he goes and clicks at the next stop and you’ve got to look at that every night and you had it in house. That’s kind of the dilemma with Josh. You know you are going to get some uneasy moments from time to time but, for the most part, he’s really about winning. He wants to win. He’s competitive. I relate to that.
“How he handles his emotions and frustrations, sometimes he rubs people the wrong way and bruises them. But I think he’s happy-go-lucky. He thinks, ‘It was just heat of the moment’ and we can move on from it but he can bruise people. I think he’s learning that. He is learning to control his emotions a little better and it’s good for our team. The better Josh Smith is, the better the Atlanta Hawks are.”
Smith said his emotion fuels his performance but he’s made an effort to tone it down in the past couple seasons. He said he’s especially done so this year as injuries to Al Horford and Joe Johnson have increased the team’s reliance on him.
“I’m definitely an emotional player but I’m kind of bottling it up, understanding the importance of what my team needs and just trying to stay positive and have constructive criticism when possible,” he said. “Now I’m at the point of my career where I can voice my opinion a little bit more and it will be recognized more than back in the day [when] it got drowned out more so than anything else.
“[Teammates] know that I have good intentions, no matter how it’s delivered. I am saying stuff because I want to win games. It’s not nothing personal or to try to hurt or bash any one of my teammates or anyone else.”
Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
754 comments Add your comment
TMACfan
March 9th, 2012
12:54 am
^this
Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
March 9th, 2012
12:56 am
“what i know is GS offered Monta for Josh, Hawks said no.” MC
FIRE SUND
corporate tv ball sux
March 9th, 2012
12:56 am
i like watching kirk/ teague/smith/ivan/zaza ball. especially with such a solid bench. cant help injuries.
hawks fan down under
March 9th, 2012
12:59 am
if josh wants out then trade him for a big man.
no one will trade for jj, unless they are stupid rich or just stupid. he’s a very good player tied to one of the worst contracts in pro sports history.
hawks fan down under
March 9th, 2012
1:01 am
as always….sack LD before any trades happen.
Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
March 9th, 2012
1:01 am
“Man quit catching feelings and play the game. You can’t play in the NBA and be sensitive.” -Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
FIRE SUND
Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
March 9th, 2012
1:05 am
Imagine how fast we would be with Teague and Monta Ellis in the backcourt.
Teague-Monta Ellis-Joe-Zaza-Dampier or Collins
No defense but we would be able to put up some points.
drmaryb.[*_*].
March 9th, 2012
1:05 am
Bees Knees!
Grand Master JeJe! Sugar Bunny … You know wassup with Joe’s knees man. They’re knocking like Nervous Pervis Ellison when he heard that trade rumor of him and Al going to the other Magic City for Dwight.
LOL! (wink-wink).
TMACfan
March 9th, 2012
1:09 am
DO IT NOW! PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!!
NO ONE IS GOING TO TAKE JJ’s contract so this is the best option. Orlando get 2 big players, Portland clears space as they go into rebuild mode, Cleveland gets the “legendary” Marvin (Ramon Sessions will go somewhere), The Hawks get A LOT BETTER!!!
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=85noqvt
GET IT DONE!!!!!!!!!!!
Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
March 9th, 2012
1:10 am
Smooth’s wife wants to live in another city because there are too many strip clubs in Atlanta.
northcyde
March 9th, 2012
1:10 am
Sorry people. But I’m not in a “kaboom” mode. I’m going for it right now. And I like how everyone forgets about Zaza at center ( who has done a good job this year, even on Dwight ).
Pau Gaso is NOT a downgrade from Josh Smith. One is a better offensive player, the other a better defensive player. Both can rebound the basketball. Both can block at least 1.5 shots a game. Josh is more dynamic in transition. Pau is better in the halfcourt offense.
Add him for this season. If he doesn’t work out, you trade him at next year’s trade deadline for expiring contracts.
Gearon owes it to this city to go for it at least once. Bring in a guy who has won a Gold medal in the World Championships, took Team USA to the brink in the 2008 Olympics, and has won 2 NBA Championships in the past 3 years.
TMACfan
March 9th, 2012
1:26 am
Starting five:
Teague
JJ
Gerald Wallace
Jsmoove
D12
Money team
Hawks Blog Legend Worldwide Clyde
March 9th, 2012
1:26 am
Josh Smith for anybody. You can’t handcuff you gotta let them go.
Slimjr
March 9th, 2012
1:31 am
T minus 5 days, 22 hours, 29mins Houston!
Slimjr
March 9th, 2012
1:39 am
Reset the counters:
T minus 6 days, 22 hours, 22mins Houston!
Grandad
March 9th, 2012
1:57 am
James
Get your facts straight.
Sac Town hired Keith Smart; formerly of Gldn St.
Very good move.
He knows how to teach and communicate with Cousins.
*[I do not like the phrase '`handle`'] as in;
he knows how to handle Cousins.
Cousins is a grown man.
‘`You do not handle grown men`’ – Bill Russell -
K.Smart is doing a wonderful job in Sac.
-plus-
Chris Webber has taken Cousins under his wing
and is serving as his Big Brother, so to speak. *[mentor]
Yes, Cousins is/was a hot-head but SAC Kings look to
have the situation well under control.
Josh was never a hot-head like Cousins.
Josh was not a ‘`head case`’ as you say.
Josh suffered from immaturity;
and the lack of a formal Basketball education.
HS he transferred to Oak Hill … then … mostly played …
AAU … straight to pros … Woody … LD ?
Nobody has ever taken Josh under their wing and taught him …
how to play Basketball – the right way.
Who is josh`s mentor ?
It may very well turn out to be Stackhouse.
Atlanta Hawks: Josh Smith still wants to be traded | G-trends
March 9th, 2012
2:01 am
[...] Could Josh Smith be the First Domino? HoopsWorldReport: Josh Smith requests trade from Hawks…Source Tags: josh [...]
Wabe
March 9th, 2012
2:02 am
Man some folks on the hangtime blog on NBA.com got some of the dumbest trade proposals…
Not sure why folks are high on trading Smith for Gasol. I’d stay away from that. I honestly don’t see Pau as a guy that could propel us as one of the top teams in the East.
northcyde
March 9th, 2012
2:06 am
Teague
JJ
Marvin
Gasol
Zaza
Pargo
Green
T-Mac
Ivan
Dampier
Vlad
Stack
*********
If Horford can come back in time for the playoffs, bring him off the bench as the 6th man until he can go all out. Close the game with
Teague
JJ
T-Mac
Horford
Gasol
Give us a fighting chance this year @ Gearon and Sund
northcyde
March 9th, 2012
2:20 am
So you’d just give up and blow the team up?
The Lakers are the one team in the league that would swap star PFs like that. Give them Josh and a defensive PG in Kirk. They’ll bite.
With Pau, we’d have to scrap a little harder on D, but be a better and more balanced team on O.
don
March 9th, 2012
2:32 am
He doesn’t know what he wants. he toyed with philly… He should have gone then… He smokes too much weed…. He has da talent to be one of the best, but He doesn’t have da brains…..like Kevin Love or kobe … He’s not an All star…
vava74
March 9th, 2012
2:37 am
Trade Horford and amnesty Marvin.
Horford wants to play the same position that Josh is playing and at a better level than Al will be able to.
We cannot expect Horford to happily accept to be the work horse at the C spot that for instance Zaza is being.
Horford has softened over the past few years and we should trade him whilst his value is at the highest possible level.
That will give us pieces and cap space to re-sign Josh for more money and improve the ball club.
No one will want to trade for JJ (maybe only packaging him with Horford) nor Marvin.
Also, I simply can’t see any other reason besides LD’s ineptness preventing us from having Josh balling like he has been with JJ working as the #2 guy.
Anyone doubts that if we had JJ instead of Hinrich in Miami we would have won????
Even with Horford down, with Josh balling and JJ working as a #2 guy we have the pieces to make a strong playoff showing.
vava74
March 9th, 2012
2:49 am
I know that it’s almost impossible, but we should try this:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=6s7dv76
ORL could tank the rest of the season and look for a decent lottery pick.
Horford would be a good fit back in Florida where the latino community would embrace him.
Dumping Turk to us and not re-signing Hinrich would instantly give them 11 million of cap space going forward, plus the 6 million in differential between Howard and Al’s salary.
For us:
It would be a do or die move (because Howard could be a rental and Josh could follow him after 1 year), however, we would need to be on Larry Brown’s phone to make it work.
Teague, JJ, Turk, Josh and Howard is a super duper starting 5 (only weak link is the Turk on D, but he and McGrady would do wonders as point forwards making plays).
Only major trouble would be FT shooting but, honestly, our paint would be so heavily guarded and our rebounding so tight that I doubt that we would have that many close games.
Teague penetrating with Howard and Josh able to put back any misses, JJ instructed to be a balanced act (#3 offensive option + perimeter defender)…
Heck… the ECF would be guaranteed and the sky would be the limit.
Obviously, it takes two to tango and I doubt that ORL will not get a better package than this one.
vava74
March 9th, 2012
2:53 am
Actually I now realized that Howard has one year more (at least that is what the TM says), so we would have 1 and half years of J-Smash and Howard together.
I would totally go for it and if both departed we could always amnesty JJ after the 2013 season and start over with LOADS OF CAP SPACE and tanking the 2014 season.
Atlanta Hawks: Josh Smith still wants to be traded | Youth Canvas
March 9th, 2012
3:16 am
[...] “[Teammates] know that I have good intentions, no matter how it’s delivered. I am saying stuff because I want to win games. It’s not nothing personal or to try to hurt or bash any one of my teammates or anyone else.” Source [...]
Josh Smith Trade Rumors? What Else Is New? - Soaring Down South
March 9th, 2012
3:18 am
[...] Hawks are going through another saga with its red-headed step child Josh Smith. As reported by Michael Cunningham of the AJC, Smoove has apparently requested a trade, again. Now, we remember last year after the playoff [...]
rETURNoF4eVA
March 9th, 2012
3:19 am
get rid of Joe Johnson now
Shiloh 2014
March 9th, 2012
4:17 am
Thanks you, Bye in advance and have some salty peanuts on your way out the door.
Shiloh 2014
March 9th, 2012
4:22 am
vava74 .. Stop smoking and typing
Josh Smith pide ser traspasado de Atlanta « Postebajo
March 9th, 2012
5:14 am
[...] Atlanta Journal Valora esto: Share this:TwitterFacebookMe gusta:Me gustaSé el primero en decir que te gusta esta [...]
vava74
March 9th, 2012
5:45 am
Shiloh 2014,
Yeah, let’s just give up and trade the only guy in the team which is a difference maker (clear evidence during this past few weeks).
We must do the opposite: make a push to satisfy him.
brigadierjerry
March 9th, 2012
5:59 am
For what it’s worth:
Rockets, Hawks, Warriors Could Be Engaged In Howard Talks
Mar 09, 2012 12:43 AM EST
The Rockets, Hawks and Warriors are not on Dwight Howard’s list of preferred destinations, but they could be teams willing to trade for him without any long-term assurance.
Houston has long been agressive in its pursuit of a superstar, as they nearly traded for Pau Gasol and have also been involved in discussions for Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire in previous seasons.
The Hawks play in Howard’s hometown and could offer Josh Smith and Al Horford.
The Warriors could possibly land Howard by giving up Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Ekpe Udoh, but it would give him only 12 home games to be convinced to remain with the franchise.
“That’s not a lot of games to get attached to Golden State,” one rival executive said.
If the Magic are able to engage teams off Howard’s list, the asking price for the Nets, Lakers and Mavericks would presumably increase.
Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/219561/Rockets_Hawks_Warriors_Could_Be_Engaged_In_Howard_Talks#ixzz1ocGFtwDe
BLITZ – 3/9/12: Forever Notorious | JAYFORCE
March 9th, 2012
6:01 am
[...] Atlanta Hawks Josh Smith Wants To Be Traded? [...]
terrell
March 9th, 2012
6:03 am
Better be trying to trade Joe, Al, or Duck’s azz.
jase
March 9th, 2012
6:04 am
i been a faithful hawks watcher for years. imma say this though. trade josh and im done. he is our team. he is our spirit. wherever he goes, i go.
jase
March 9th, 2012
6:09 am
we would be so boring without josh. i mean yes we have teague but he may not have the energy he has if our ALL STAR LEADER josh wasnt around. josh stays or we are done. we wouldnt even be .500 without hmuch less have a winning record. josh is the hawks.
Friday Bullets: Orlando gelingt Revanche, Dallas verliert in Phoenix. | FIVE Basketball-Magazin - NBA Blog
March 9th, 2012
6:13 am
[...] dass er eine Luftveränderung anstrebt und die Stadt von CNN und Coca-Cola gerne verlassen würde.(Link) Brisant dabei ist, dass Smith einer der besten Freunde von Dwight Howard ist. Nachtigall ick [...]
terry smith
March 9th, 2012
6:16 am
trading josh smith better get something good in return hawks need somebody to put fans in seats a marquee player would be good.
terrell
March 9th, 2012
6:21 am
Is jump shot Joe playing tonight?
terrell
March 9th, 2012
6:24 am
If we trade Josh, who the heck starts at pf? Ivan? Duck? lol. Better get Aldridge, Amare, etc.. back back, or hello lottery.
yodaddybrother
March 9th, 2012
6:27 am
people making up rumors as always because this comes out of left field.
The person they need to trade is Joe Johnson while he still has some value, real or perceived.
A team like Minnesota needs a player like him to elevate them. Beasley & Wes Johnson for Joe Johnson. Gives Josh more shots that he deserves and moves the albatross contract. Beasley moves marvin to his rightful place on the bench and Wes Johnson is young and solid. I’m not sure about the numbers but Joe Johnson has to go.
Also Josh Smith has a trade kicker in his contract. Any team he goes to will have to take back like $4 mill + his contract which is like 12.5 already. I don’t know if any team is willing to do all of that.
and to make it work for the Hawks we need multiple first rounders and some young talent…24 and younger or Dwight Howard.
other trade chips: Marvin Williams, Kirk HInrich, Joe Johnson and Al Horford. Those are the trade chips
Just Joe
March 9th, 2012
6:29 am
Philly would be an interesting trade partner.
Josh Smith, Kirk Hinrich & Erick Dampier to Philly for Jrue Holiday, Nikola Vucevic & Elton Brand.
Holiday is slumping under Collins, but I believe he still has star potential. I really like the Vucevic kid. Mixes it up at 7′, but also has 3-pt range on his jumper. Brand expires next summer, but gives us some post scoring & size in the meantime (minimizes the immediate effect of losing Josh).
Just Joe
March 9th, 2012
6:33 am
Only team taking Joe (IMO) would be Orlando in an effort to keep Dwight happy.
Turkoglu, Reddick & a 2013 1st rd pick (flip Reddick for an expiring contract…Minnesota or the Clippers would love to have him).
terrell
March 9th, 2012
6:38 am
Why the f did we give Joe all of the $? Damn, damn, damn!
terrell
March 9th, 2012
6:39 am
Why the f did “they” give Joe all of “that” money?
terrell
March 9th, 2012
6:40 am
Philly already has a mini Josh Smith in Thaddeus.
terrell
March 9th, 2012
6:44 am
Come on Joe, do the right thing. Restructure your contract so we dont lose Josh. Youre a 10 mill a year guy at best.
I can dream cant I? lol
Mac-Town (#maconchevyrider)
March 9th, 2012
6:59 am
Interesting days ahead, Josh wants to go, Marvin and Hinrich are useless. Which one(s) are REALLY likely to be moved?
Devonte
March 9th, 2012
7:12 am
Hawks trade J.Smith & McGrady to Philadelphia for E.Brand,L.Allen, and Brackins.
Devonte
March 9th, 2012
7:20 am
Hawks trade J.Smith & McGrady to Philadelphia for E.Brand,L.Allen, and Brackins by Staurday.