Atlanta Hawks: Trade Josh Smith and Lose AJC Writer Mark Bradley?

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Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist Mark Bradley has reached into his proverbial sock and thrown the red challenge flag.  I wish we could take him up on the offer.

Bradley writes that the Hawks will lose him if they trade Josh Smith for anyone other than Kobe Bryant.  That statement is utterly ridiculous.

Here is the news cycle of today’s sports world: one NBA insider named Chad Ford can hear a few rumors from NBA general managers and publish those rumors as rumors in a notes section of his NBA draft column. 

Then, an intrepid columnist from the local Atlanta media, like Bradley, can reference that notes section in a quickie article to try and drum up page views, web site hits, and erratic fan comments on his sports blog. 

Then, a concerned Hawks observer like me can take apart Bradley’s article.  Classic Bleacher Report fodder—I could argue with Bradley for hours over beers about his article today about the Hawks mercurial forward Josh Smith.  (I don’t know if he is a small forward or power forward and that is part of the problem).

I spent about 15 minutes today at work and I came up with 50 players that I would rather have on my team than Josh Smith. 

Okay, I think Smith is improving and worth keeping, but c’mon, are you going to win an NBA title with Josh Smith?

If you throw out the salaries, contracts, and budgets, there are over 50 NBA players that I would take over Smith.  Here are a few—Hedo, Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, Andrew Bynum, Brandon Roy, Paul Pierce…

Yao Ming, Paul Millsap, Carlos Boozer, Nene, Chris Anderson, Kendrick Perkins, Amare Stoudemire, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, 'Melo, Thaddeus Young, Brook Lopez, Vince Carter, Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo, Danny Granger, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose…I could go on, but you get the idea.

Well, Bradley might say not all of those guys are power forwards. Neither is Kobe.  FYI, J-Smoove does not want to play power forward.  He wants to play on the perimeter.  Al Horford should really be your power forward.

I like Josh Smith.  I am the first person to jump out of my seat when he dunks or blocks a shot.  He is as athletic as anyone in the NBA.  Maybe only LeBron is more athletic.  Maybe, but Smith is not even a top-30 NBA player. 

He will be lucky to make the All Star team in two years, let alone be better than Hawks guard Joe Johnson.  He is the third-best player on his own team and I think Bibby had a better year than Smith had this year, so that makes him the Hawks fourth option on offense.  The future of this team is Al Horford.

If Bradley had to coach Smith, he would start drinking every morning about 9 am.  Smith is kind of like Jeff Francoeur. 

No matter how many times hitting coach Terry Pendleton tells Frenchy to make sure he sees pitches in every at bat, he continues to swing at the first pitch.  No matter how many times Coach Mike Woodson tells Smith not to shoot jumpers, he still shoots jumpers. 

Are you going to blame that on Pendleton, on Woodson?

Listen, J-Smoove is going to be hard to move because of the $6 million trade kicker that Chad Ford from ESPN reports in his column.  But, that does not mean that GM Rick Sund should not pursue any opportunity to improve this Hawks team.  A huge chasm exists between the Hawks and the top three teams in the Eastern Conference. 

Mr. Bradley threw out some names that he would not want in exchange for Smith.  Let’s take a look at a couple of these guys and some trade scenarios.

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