The Hawks made two deadline-day deals yesterday. However, neither deal included the one Hawk everyone has been talking about with regards to a trade.
The Hawks did not pull the trigger on trading Josh Smith, opting instead to keep him for the rest of this season. The team will presumably try now to re-sign him in the offseason when he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Smith may demand a maximum-level contract, and depending on what other offers he gets the Hawks may do just that - the Hawks can offer a five-year deal where other teams can only offer a four-year deal.
The Hawks did make two trades yesterday. First, they sent Anthony Morrow to Dallas for Dahntay Jones. Morrow has been slowed by injuries this season and has been averaging 5.2 points in 24 games since arriving in the Joe Johnson trade from Brooklyn. Jones is averaging 3.5 points in 50 games (15 starts) this season, his tenth out of Florida State. The move will save the Hawks about $1.1 million, the difference between Morrow's $4M price tag and Jones' $2.9M amount. Both are free agents after this season.
The Hawks also picked up PF/C Jeremy Tyler from the Golden State Warriors for a second-round draft pick in 2013. Tyler is in the final year of his rookie deal, a three-year deal signed in 2011. He will make the minimum of $884K this year. Tyler has been averaging about three minutes per game this year in 20 appearances but could see a tiny bit more time on the court due to other injuries for the Hawks.
But the big story, for today, is the one man the Hawks did not trade. After the deadline passed, Ferry had the following to say:
"We weighed the positives and negatives of each of our opportunities and at the end of the day, we felt like the best decision was to stand pat based off some of the things we were looking at."
"We were in an unusual situation where Josh's contract, our cap space and flexibility going forward, having a good team right now, there were a lot of factors that played into this."
"I think the main factor is we value Josh. I think he's been important to our group this year and we can finish the year strong and hopefully we play well and we're a solid playoff team."
The 29-23 Hawks - and Smith - will host the Sacramento Kings tonight at Philips Arena.
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