We knew when the Atlanta Hawks hired Danny Ferry as their general manager that it would mark a wholesale change in the way this franchise did business, but nobody expected the change to be this drastic, this fast.
With two landmark moves in a period of hours today that wiped nearly $90 million off the payroll, the Hawks went from a franchise that considered losing in the second round of the playoffs to be the pinnacle of human achievement to being one that could matter -- I mean really, truly matter -- for the first time since Dominique Wilkins was making nightly highlight films.
For those who just crawled out from under a rock, the Hawks first sent Joe Johnson to New Jersey for the expiring contracts of Jordan Farmar, Johan Petro, Jordan Williams Anthony Morrow and DeShawn Stevenson (who will have a non-guaranteed multi-year deal, per sign-and-trade rule requirements, but is effectively an expiring contract). The Hawks then traded Marvin Williams to Utah for the expiring contract of Devin Harris. Farmar will be bought out for $1.5 million, Harris may be re-routed someplace else, and Petro will be given Pape Sy's former jersey just to see if anyone can tell the difference.
Fernando Medina/Getty Images
The departure of Marvin Williams and Joe Johnson makes Atlanta a player in 2013 free agency.
That's the summary, but let's zoom out to the big picture. I'm not sure anybody has put together all the dots on this, but consider the following:
• Josh Smith is from Atlanta.
• Dwight Howard is from Atlanta.
• Dwight Howard and Josh Smith played together in high school and remain friends; in fact Howard was the best man in Smith's wedding.
• Chris Paul is not from Atlanta, but is from North Carolina and wanted to play in Atlanta coming out of college.
• Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Josh Smith all will be free agents next summer.
• Dwight Howard's main target in 2013 free agency, Brooklyn, just used up all its potential cap space in Monday's trade with Atlanta.
• Atlanta now has only two players under contract for next season, center Al Horford and first-round pick John Jenkins, and will have well north of $40 milion in cap room.
• Atlanta could rather easily trade Horford, an All-Star center with a below-market contract, to create more room if needed.
Yes, this is the real endgame for Atlanta: Not just Howard, but Howard and CP3. The Hawks are now in position to do it, and can get to that point in several different ways.
It's just an idea right now, but it's an unbelievable, transformative idea. Twenty-four hours ago everybody looked at this franchise and wondered if they could eke out another second-round playoff berth before Johnson's contract swallowed them whole. Now the questions are regarding whether Atlanta could get good wing players to pair up with their three stars.
I can't overstate how huge it would be for this franchise in particular, one that has foundered locally with poor attendance and embarrassing TV ratings, symbolized by the poor PA announcer begging somebody, anybody, to cheer during sparsely attended January weekday games ... or, for that matter, playoff games.
This would finally, after four decades of being an afterthought in this sports market -- four decades in which the Hawks have yet to make an Eastern Conference finals -- establish Atlanta as a place that mattered, a Hawks game as a worthwhile diversion, and perhaps, this franchise as something more than an occasional diversion from college football.
Unbelievably, they can now get there. The most obvious way is to wait until 2013. Atlanta can sign Paul and Howard to max contracts next summer, re-sign Smith for roughly the same money he makes now (which would trump any other offer he'd likely get since the Hawks can give him a five-year deal), and likely juuuuuust squeeze in under the current cap.
The Hawks can get there in other ways too, however. Consider the fact that if Orlando decides to deal Howard sooner rather than later, Atlanta's likely offer of Horford, Teague, Jenkins and/or draft picks is likely to be as good or better than anything anybody else offers. (This, obviously, is pending whether Houston is willing to truly throw in the kitchen sink on a Howard rental).
Such a move would give Atlanta zero contracts on their books besides Howard's heading into the 2013-14 offseason; again, they could sign Paul into their cap space, re-up Smith and be on their way. Alternatively, they could make a similar offer for Paul via trade, sign Howard in free agency, and be on their way.
The wild card in all this, obviously, is whether Atlanta is still on "The List" for either of these players, or for Smith for that matter, who had been angling for a trade. But Smith's gripe was never with his hometown, but rather with the fact that the Hawks never seemed committed to winning. It's a lot tougher to make that argument if they go out and get Howard and Paul.
NBA Free Agency
NBA free agency is under way and ESPN.com has you covered with all the latest deals, trades and potential moves.
Free agents | Trade Targets | RC
• Insider: Free-agent PER rankings
• More: TrueHoop | Trade Machine
Similarly, Atlanta becomes a lot more attractive for Howard if it seems ready to commit to building a long-term winner, and has a GM who can do something more than shoot money out a firehouse. And more attractive to CP3, obviously, if Howard and Smith are there too, and the team isn't owned by Donald Sterling.
It's a perfect storm, in other words, and one has to presume that Ferry didn't start down this road without at least a wink and a nod that this might be doable.
As for New Jersey, this is what happens when you're desperate. I've killed them for other reckless moves, but this one actually wasn't that terrible. They replaced one year of $14 million of flotsam with one year of a $20 million Joe Johnson, and then signed Joe Johnson to a three-year, $69 million deal on top of that. Not ideal, perhaps, but again they're desperate to have a compelling product for their relocation to Brooklyn. (And trust me as a Jersey boy, this is a relocation. People in New Jersey only vaguely know where Brooklyn is; forget about actually going there).
The Nets cover themselves with a go-to option in Johnson if Deron Williams leaves, give themselves a very good spot-up shooter and secondary scorer if Williams goes, and give themselves a great shot at being a top-four seed in the East. Brooklyn's starting lineup will be among the best in basketball, presuming it re-signs Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez, and a bench (speculatively) of Jason Kidd, Mirza Teletovic and MarShon Brooks will at least be respectable in the backcourt. A lack of frontcourt depth and porous defense will keep them from contending for anything important, but they'll be entertaining enough to put fannies in seats, and that was the idea.
However, Utah baffles me. The Jazz just took on an extra year of Marvin Williams at $7.5 million, and I have no idea why. While Williams isn't a bad player, he's not worth this amount and he does little to solve Utah's twin needs of perimeter shooting and real backcourt players. While the Jazz have a ton of cap room in 2013-14, Williams eats into it, and that paper cap room is going to disappear in a hurry if Utah tries to retain any of its own free agents -- such as Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap or Mo Williams.
The fact they just handed Danny Ferry a free pass to potential world domination -- and, ironically, paved the path to their getting Paul with a trade of Williams, the man Atlanta took instead of him in the 2005 draft -- is another reason to question this deal; at the least they should be getting a first-round pick for their trouble.
