Dreams Die, Hawks Keep Josh Smith

↵Mr. Shoals relayed his enthusiasm for Memphis’ move to poach wunderkind Josh Smith from ↵Atlanta on Friday. Sadly, the beautiful combination of ↵Smith and Rudy Gay will not happen, as the Hawks have ↵matched the offer. Sekou Smith of the Atlanta Journal-↵Constitution finds the Hawks ↵organization trying to hide their elation.↵↵⇥“Tonight, the Hawks organization received an ↵⇥offer sheet from the Memphis Grizzlies for Josh Smith,” ↵⇥Hawks general manager Rick Sund said in a statement ↵⇥released by the team. “We are happy to announce that we ↵⇥will match their offer sheet. Ownership, management and the ↵⇥team are happy to have Josh return as a member of the ↵⇥Hawks. We look forward to training camp in October, and we ↵⇥will continue to look at additional opportunities to ↵⇥improve our roster.”↵↵Now that Atlanta has managed to keep one of its two ↵restricted free agents -- a type of asset it’s almost ↵impossible to actually lose -- the Hawks will look for ↵“additional opportunities” to improve the roster? The ↵roster has gotten worse, buddy. Josh Childress couldn’t be ↵replaced by two Maurice Evanses. Now, perhaps, Hawks fans ↵can buy a Smith jersey or maybe some season tickets (yeah ↵right). But they shouldn’t be ready for a second straight ↵playoff berth.
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↵Memphis, meanwhile ... the Grizzlies did everyone a favor. ↵Smith got a fair deal. Atlanta got to keep their star. And ↵Grizz fans might have trouble bitching about that ↵cheapskate owner for a while. That’s more wins than Memphis ↵has had in years.↵