NBA Offseason 2010: Where D-Wade, LeBron and Joe Johnson Could Go

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I know that it is only the first week of the 2009-2010 season and the Hawks still have 80 games to go, but with the best free agent pool of this century only one year away, it is just way too hard not to talk about it.

Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, LeBron James, and Dirk Nowitzki are just the tip the free-agent iceberg. Another player on that upcoming free agent list, and perhaps just as valuable, is Atlanta Hawks guard Joe Johnson.

Johnson and the Atlanta Hawks are entering their fifth season together, having made huge strides in the first four. It began after a blockbuster trade in 2005, when Johnson was sent from the Phoenix Suns to the Hawks.

Johnson got to work right away, and quickly asserted himself as a premiere player in the league. He recorded four 40+ point games, while leading the team in both scoring, averaging 20.2 points a game, and assists, dishing out 6.5 per outing. He also set a franchise record for minutes played with 3,340.

However, in the 2005-06 campaign, the Hawks finished 26-56, good for fourth in the Southeast Division. They gave up the fourth most points per game with 102, and were ranked 29th out of 30 teams in attendance.

With a new head coach in Mike Woodson and a new franchise player in Johnson, that season was a rebuilding one, with the hope of a bright future.

In 2006-07, the Hawks were the youngest team in the NBA. Although the young core was beginning to gain experience together, the season was all about injuries. Seven of Atlanta’s top players missed at least 20 or more games that year. For the first time in Johnson’s six-year career he was placed on the injured list where he missed 25 games.

He still had a special season. His 25 points per game put Johnson among the top-ten scoring leaders for the season, and he earned a spot on the NBA All-Star Team; the first Hawk to do so since 2002.

The injuries though were too much for the Hawks to overcome and they finished the season at 30-52. There was some good news. For the third straight season, Atlanta saw their win total increase and all of their top players (Johnson, Josh Smith, Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, and Zaza Pachulia) reached career-highs in scoring average.

In the past two seasons with Woodson still guiding the ship, Johnson and the Hawks continued making positive strides. In 2007-2008, the Hawks had a 37-45 record as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, returning to the playoffs for the first time since the 1998-99 season.

The Hawks got eliminated in the first round, but it was one of the best first round series in NBA history. Atlanta put that year’s eventual NBA Champion, the Boston Celtics, through a seven-game war. No team could win on the other one’s floor. But, the 2006-07 clock for the Hawks would strike midnight and the Celtics won the final battle in blowout fashion 99-65.

Last season was the best season under Woodson's tenure. A 47-35 record was the first time the team finished the season above .500 in a decade. As fate would have it, the Hawks would also bring an end to the franchise’s 10-year drought from the second round of the NBA playoffs. The 47 wins were the most for the Hawks since 1997 when they went 50-32.

During his four years with the Hawks, Johnson has averaged 21.9 points per game, 5.6 assists per game, and 4.9 rebounds per game. He has also shot .448 from the field, .369 from three-point range, and has played in at least 79 games each year except for the previously mentioned '06-'07 campaign.

Before the season started, the Atlanta Hawks offered Johnson, who is 28, a four-year, $60 million-plus offer. However, Johnson turned it down this summer, setting himself up to be a part of an elite free-agent pool at the end of this season.

Johnson did say that it was not because he wants to leave Atlanta at the end of the season, but that his sole focus was on the team and this season at training camp. He also added that he liked that the Hawks resigned Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby, and Pachulia in the offseason.

The Hawks do have a great young nucleus that includes Johnson, Smith, Al Horford, Williams, and veteran Mike Bibby directing the show. Every year since Johnson arrived the Hawks continued to improve.

Because Johnson didn’t re-sign with the team over the summer, the Hawks will also have a chance to test out next year’s first agent pool.

The biggest one in that pool is obviously “King” James, and I think it is safe to say that becoming an Atlanta Hawk is not on the King’s future throne list. I am not concerned with James anyways. There is a much better player that would fit nicely with Atlanta’s young core—Dwayne Wade.

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