When Sekou Smith revealed that the Hawks were in pursuit of Joe Smith on Tuesday, it registered just above "dang" but below "yahoo" inside the walls of the HHB.
It's not that Joe Smith isn't a good player or even someone who wouldn't help the Hawks--it's just that with better options still available, it's settling a bit to get Smith now.
Younger, more productive players such as Drew Gooden and Leon Powe (yes, we know he's hurt) are still out there for the Hawks to bring in to address their rebounding and overall front court effectiveness.
Gooden provides some nice creativity in the post (though it's unclear whether that matters in Atlanta's offense) and Powe gives the energy and hustle that Woodson seems to enjoy in his frontcourt players (assumed again because they don't get to play much offense unless it's coming from 20+ feet from the basket).
Their stats, especially compared with Smith's, prove this out---Gooden and Powe's rebounding rates are higher, as is their PER. Both also get to the line considerably more than Smith, with Gooden getting 16.2% draw foul rate and Powe a staggering 27.8% to Joe Smith's comparitively pedestrian 9.4%.
Gooden is entering his Age 28 year; Powe his Age 26th. Smith is on his Age 34 season and has seen some slippage in his numbers, though his career has always been a bit of a roller coaster. We're sure we'll hear someone talk about Smith's veteran leadership and being a Proven Winner (trademark pending), but the HHB believes that there is no winning formula like production and finding the pieces that fit what your team lacks--and asking a 34 year old big man who has been in the L since he was 20 years old to be that might not be the best bang for the buck at this point.
Bottom line, while it's an improvement in outlook that the Hawks are looking at a player like Smith, and that he is interested in return, we would prefer that the team seek out Gooden and Powe first--younger, more long term and potentially still improving or able to maintain level better options that fill in some of the skills white space more completely than Smith does.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
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6 comments:
That is exactly how I feel about joe smith.... do i think he will do a good job yes... do I also think we can do better definitely.
"Gooden provides some nice creativity in the post (though it's unclear whether that matters in Atlanta's offense)"
It doesn't.
I think Joe Smith is the cheapest and we all know how frugal the ATL Spirit is.
I think people overestimate how much control Woodson has.
If we bring in a vet that can score, Woodson is gonna have to let him get touches.
Lyle,
I love it when people agree with what's written---heck, I love it when they can even decipher my ramblings.
CoCo,
If there's going to be negativity, I would prefer the use of witty phrases or a Fire Woodson tag on the bottom. Or maybe just a sad face emoticon, like :-(
TF,
It would be sad if Woodson gave Joe Smith (or any "veteran") even one touch more a game than Al Horford, much less touche-s, which would indicate that he gets to have the ball more than once in a game (which would again be more than Horford).
:-( (see how that works?)
I know right?
It wouldn't be a Hawks blog if people weren't talking about Horford's misuse. lol.
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