Griz Extend Offer Sheet to Josh Smith

In an interesting and unexpected development, the Commercial Appeal's Ron Tillery is reporting this morning that the Grizzlies have sent Atlanta Hawks restricted free-agent forward Josh Smith an offer sheet for $58 million.

JSmoov on the Move?

The CA piece doesn't specify the number of years the offer sheet is for, though I assume it's for 5 years. It also pointedly doesn't say that Smith has — or will — sign the offer sheet.

Even with the disarray in Hawks land, I can't imagine Atlanta would just let Smith walk for that amount. I suspect the offer sheet will be leverage for Smith to work out a deal with Atlanta.

However, if the Hawks really don't want to pay Smith, then I wouldn't be surprised to see a sign-and-trade deal emerge, possibly involving Javaris Crittenton and Hakim Warrick. That might make a lot of sense for both teams. This is only my own conjecture; calls to team sources this morning have not yet been returned.

I'm not convinced Smith is a great fit with the Grizzlies, but he is a great talent, so if the team could get him for this price, I would endorse that move.

Even if nothing comes of this, the Grizzlies extending the offer sheet should have some positive impact on fan and media criticism that the team is only interested in keeping down payroll.

The other interesting nugget in Tillery's story today is that the team is targeting international free agent Hamed Ehadadi, a 23-year-old Iranian center currently getting set to represent his country in the Olympics.

Ehadadi has been performing very well in international play lately and has started to pop up as a NBA prospect, including a mention in this recent Chad Ford piece. With only two centers on the roster for next season and with Darko Milicic recently suffering an achilles injury while working with the Serbian national team, the Grizzlies need more depth in the middle. So, interest in Ehadadi makes sense.

Submitted by Chris Herrington on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 3:13pm.
Chris Herrington's blog | 4 comments

Smith update

The Atlanta Journal Constitution's Sekou Smith has a piece up now about the Josh Smith offer sheet that pushes the story along a little bit, filling in two elements that were unclear from the Commercial Appeal story.

The AJC reports that the offer sheet has indeed been signed and that the $58 million dollar offer covers five years.

With Smith signing the offer sheet, the seven-day clock for the Hawks to match is set in motion.

At this point there seem to be three potential outcomes:

1. The Hawks can match the Grizzlies offer and retain Smith for the $58 million number. This is significantly more than the five-year, $45 million offer the Hawks had previously made to Smith, but is still well in line with his market value. I don't think anyone would be surprised to see Atlanta match this offer.

2. The Hawks could decline to match the offer and allow Smith to sign with the Grizzlies for that amount. I find this outcome unlikely, but given the disarray in Atlanta, it is at least possible.

3. The Grizzlies could rescind the offer (on the agreement of all three parties) and enter into sign-and-trade negotiations with the Hawks, something that would probably make a lot of sense for both teams.

Whichever way this goes, don't expect anything to be resolved until next week.