Are the Pistons After Josh Smith?

When Sekou Smith of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that one of the blockbuster sign-and-trade offers on the table was from an "Eastern Conference big dog," a lot of Pistons fans began to wonder if Joe Dumars was finally ready to make his long-awaited move to break up the core.

At the moment, that does not appear to be the case, as both A. Sherrod Blakely of Booth Newspapers and Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press report today that the Pistons and Hawks have not spoken in several weeks. Blakely speculates that a deal could still happen if the Pistons were willing to part with Tayshaun Prince, but even if the Pistons agreed, a deal might not be so easy.

What exactly is the problem? For one, most armchair GMs are forgetting the fact that Atlanta won't be able to get dollar-for-dollar back in any sign-and-trade deal for Smith. Since it's all but certain that Smith's next contract will include at least a 20% raise, he'll be a Base Year Compensation player, meaning the Hawks will only be able to accept 50% of the first-year value of his contract back. In other words, if he signs a contract worth $12 million a year, it'll only count as $6 million in a trade. (Dave Dial of MLive's Full-Court Press explains the nitty gritty details.)

This doesn't mean that a sign-and-trade would be impossible, but it makes it harder for the Hawks to get a player of the same caliber talent in return. The easiest way around this problem is to force the Pistons (or any team trying to get Smith) to accept a bad contract along with Smith.

How bad? Looking at Atlanta's roster, I'd say Speedy Claxton bad. Claxton will make $5.7 million in 2008-09 and $5.3 million in 2009-10. It's not horrible considering he's off the books in time for the Summer of Free Agent Nirvana in 2010, but still, he'd be grossly overpaid for two years. Even worse, any team acquiring Smith and Claxton may face luxury tax woes considering they'd be taking back so much more salary than giving up.

That said, something has to happen with Smith, who's arguably the most talented free agent still left unsigned. And while I don't have the most confidence in Atlanta's front office to get a creative deal done, Joe Dumars is one of the best front office execs in the league, so if there's a deal here to be found, Detroit has as good of a chance to land Smith as anyone.