Prepare for Joe Smith

Saturday Night UPDATE: According to Sekou Smith, Solomon Jones is in fact heading to IND on a 2 year contract at the minimum, prompting this exchange between Smith and myself:

My question:

@sekousmith01 So what was the purpose of restricting Solo if they are just going to let him run for 2 years @ the minimum?

His response:

@THHB Good question. I'll have an item on the blog tomorrow where Solo explains his situation.

So I guess we'll stay tuned and all will be revealed.

Also, looks like we put the HHB Mojo on the Lakers---We had placed Lamar Odom in yellow based on his leanings toward the Lakers in many reports, but as of Saturday Night Yahoo Sports reports he was close to signing with the Heat. We are moving this race back to "Too Close Too Call."

(We rejoin yesterdays' blog--already in progress)

Well, we learned from our friends that Joe Smith is snacking with the front office again tonight, meaning the Hawks would seem to be serious about bringing in the age 34 year forward, considering this would be the second round of munchies with the team.

We already posted our thoughts on the matter here so we won't rehash them in this stream of consciouslessness now. That tempts us to wildly speculate that Smith was being offered what the going rate is for an older frontcourt guy--hopefully something along the lines of the 2 year, 6 million dollar contract agreed to by Chris Wilcox and the Pistons earlier in the offseason.

This would leave the Hawks enough to sign another slightly above replacement level frontcourt player, but the one we were eyeballing, former Hawk Theo Ratliff, was snapped up by the Spurs, which means it definitely would have been a good idea. Ratliff would have been able to provide some shot blocking off the bench, which was currently the occupation of restricted free agent Solomon Jones.

And speaking of the former Floridian, did anyone see that the Pacers might have been interested in the restricted free agent? We've even had some Indiana fans poking around the site, looking for nuggets of info regarding the "big" fella. We'll say this--we still don't agree with "locking him down" with the qualifier, but after observing the free agent landscape and Solo's numbers a little closer, it wouldn't hurt to have him back on the squad for another season--but he simply can't be counted on for extended minutes--he's a spot player at this point until his play proves otherwise. Oh, and "locking him up" would not be ideal until he's proven he's better than the replacement player.

Says in POR that Andre Miller will finally come on down as their replacement for Steve Blake, who always seemed better suited for role playing games anyway. Miller's contract is rumored to be almost the same as Bibby's (3 and 21). This means the Sixers join the Knicks as teams that are likely to be looking at now former Pacer PG Jamaal Tinsley. Tinsley has some sick assist rates, and though he can't shoot straight, it might not matter on either of those teams. Also, Memphis has taken the qualifier off of Hakim Warrick--presumably to make room for Allen Iverson. Both Warrick and Iverson are two of the higher rater free agents left to sign on our PER chart.

And since we've seen some more signings (Moon to Cleveland, Ratliff to the Spurs), it's time to update the Big Free Agent Board--please remember to follow the color coded maps and signs to recognize the teams that these fine gentlemen have selected. Here is the updated list of free agents for 2009 with their corresponding PER (Hawks players in bold; Attempted to highlight in the team's colors that the free agents choose--and as always, no wagering.)

David Lee (RFA)	19.07
Nate Robinson (RFA)	18.95
Paul Millsap (RFA)	18.77
Andre Miller	18.71
Charlie Villanueva	18.64
Chris Anderson	18.16
Ramon Sessions (RFA)	17.65
Marcin Gortat (RFA) Leon Powe Ben Gordon	17.20 17.20 17.02
Jason Kidd	16.95
Hakim Warrick	16.91
Antonio McDyess	16.63
Lamar Odom	16.60
Brandon Bass	16.49
Mike Bibby	16.38
Drew Gooden	16.34
Marvin Williams (RFA)	16.04
Shawn Marion	16.02
Allen Iverson	15.89
Ron Artest	15.64
Trevor Ariza	15.51
Grant Hill	15.26
Rasheed Wallace	14.91
Hedo Turkoglu	14.82
Von Wafer	14.79
RFM	14.79
Anderson Varejao	14.62
Rasho Nesterovic	14.15
Zaza Pachulia	14.14
Joe Smith	13.85
Raymond Felton (RFA)	13.80
Shelden Williams	13.78
Chris Wilcox	13.37
Jarrett Jack (RFA) Matt Barnes Ben Wallace	13.10 12.60 12.18
Wally Szczerbiak	12.18
Anthony Parker	12.16
Solomon Jones (RFA)	12.08
Robert Swift	11.50
Theo Ratliff	11.22
Glen Davis (RFA)	10.77
Raef Lafrentz	10.40
Channing Frye	10.09
Mario West (RFA) Ime Udoka	10.00 9.57
Stromile Swift	6.80
Malik Rose	5.28