So much for a sign and trade with Atlanta to get Josh Childress, he has signed on with Greek club Olympiakos. Not that the Jazz were giving any signs of making such a deal (thanks for the effort Kevin), it was just a pipe dream that a few of us fans/writters were having. Josh is not a superstar in any definition of the word, but a very nice player that is vital to a club with championship aspirations like our Jazz. He was not going to help a team like Atlanta too much because he can't be your second best player, but with the Jazz he could have been a Tayshawn Prince or Bruce Bowen type of contributor when their teams won the trophy, just what this version of the Jazz are needing.The first thing to look at in this deal is the money, because the money is what it is always about regardless of what the athlete says. The deal is for 3 years and apparently worth 7 Million per year after taxes and conversion from the Euro to the Dollar. To compete with that an NBA club would have had to come up with a 10-12 Million per year type of deal to come close to the take home pay he is getting. With the salary cap and economic structure of the NBA right now that type of deal is salary cap suicide for a player of his caliber. Basically it would take a 4 year $45 million deal to match it apples to apples. Imagine paying Andrei Kirilenko that much, we would be ready to set fire to Kevin O'Conner. Oh wait, we're paying AK a little more than that right now and we can't stop complaining about it (and AK is a better player that Childress).
The more interesting part of this deal is the possible ramifications that his signing might have on other players of his caliber. For us Jazz fans this means players like Ronnie Brewer, Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver might be getting offers that are too good to pass up and too rich for the Jazz to match. These are players that the Jazz need to keep on board and need to keep developing if they want stay at the top of the pile in the NBA. For a restricted Free Agent like Childress (or Millsap next year and Brewer shortly after that) going to Europe ultimately gets him to un-restricted status quicker while still getting paid. To keep his rights the Hawks would have to make a qualifying offer each year which goes against their cap. I just don't see a team outside of the Knicks that would be willing to eat up a portion of their cap for a player that is 5,000 miles away with no intentions of coming back. Basically the Hawks are screwed on this one and are going to loose Childress for nothing in return. Childress also got an opt out after each year of his deal so as soon as he gets a better offer back home he can take it.
Lets hope this does not become a popular trend for other good, but not great young players or the Jazz could be just as screwed as the Hawks are. Up to this point in the globalization of the NBA it has been the US teams picking off the players from Europe and now we may be seeing the start of an new reality. Fortunately, the Jazz are not run by complete morons like the Hawks and should be able to keep this from happening to us. I think...
