Josh Smith May Soon Be Headed to Memphis

I will try and put all personal hopes and dreams aside as I type this. From the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

The Memphis Grizzlies have sent a contract offer worth $58 million to Atlanta Hawks restricted free agent Josh Smith today, according to multiple NBA sources. . . As the only team left with significant room under the salary cap, the Griz have shifted out of a summer holding pattern and targeted the versatile 6-9, 235-pound forward.

The Hawks have seven days to match what I'm assuming is a five-year deal at $11.6 million per; a six-year offer would be a Hawks-level lowball, which even Atlanta would match without blinking. According TO the Commercial Appeal, Memphis is also trying to sign Iranian center Hamed Ehadadi. The fun never stops down there.

The Grizz may be bleeding money and looking to get sold, but how can you not be stoked about the prospects of a Mayo/Gay/Conley/Smith/Marc Gasol (or Darko!) starting five. Hakim Warrick is still in there, though they may need to move him for cap purposes, and Smith makes him dispensable. Who knows what that ownership is looking to do; maybe they're out to sell street cred and online cachet on the futures market as a means of rescuing their franchise's finances.

As for the Hawks, yeah, they could match, and still might. But what an utterly defeated organization. Losing Josh Childress really punked them, and the lack of enthusiasm for re-signing Smith makes it seem like they've been totally demoralized. How a team could not want to build on that playoff performance is beyond me, especially when they've been wandering the wilderness for so long. Now I guess we all get why Childress was so content to make history rather than stick around.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.