I’ve heard some chatter, tangentially, across the web about the potential of Atlanta trading Josh Smith to the Cavs. I haven’t addressed any of it here because I assumed it was all crap. Smith’s a young, athletic PF but other than that, what indication is there that he’s the kind of player the Cavs would want? I won’t pull out any statistics - although I probably should - but if you watch basketball closely you should have a pretty good sense of where he falls into the landscape…he makes highlight plays, has very good games, and has terrible ones. The highlight plays, obviously, aren’t important. Add up the other two things and what do you get? An average player.
At any rate, I don’t have to do any advanced analysis because thankfully, someone who is actually a journalist quashed the rumors. ESPN’s Ric Bucher (@ricbucher on Twitter):
“FYI, ignore Josh Smith rumors. He *can’t* be traded til Aug + contract is almost impossible 2 move. Besides, Hawks don’t want to move him.”
The rumors probably dealt in some capacity with the draft - and because Smith signed his contract in August last year, he can’t be traded until at least one year from that date. *M*
