| Hawks News: Lo-Wright Returns While Harrington Remains Up In Air Authored by Patrick J. Austin - August 8, 2006 - 2:01 pm
The Hawks appear to be the focal point in this stagnant period of the off-season. They have the last “big name” free agent (a.k.a. Al Harrington) in a holding pattern but are open to consummating some sort of a sign and trade. Of course, a deal will only be completed if Billy Knight’s demands are met. What might those be? They’re actually quite simple – a first round pick with minimal protection, no multi-year contracts, three million dollars, and the inclusion of John Edwards in a Harrington package.
It appeared as though the Hawks and Indiana Pacers had agreed to a sign and trade that would have sent Harrington to Indy, with a fresh six-year/sixty million dollar contract, in exchange for a trade exception and a future first round draft choice. However, this deal did not meet all of the aforementioned demands. Therefore, the deal appears to be caput (at least for now), which has prompted other teams to return to the Harrington sweepstakes. Golden State has maintained a strong interest in Harrington and their GM, Chris Mullin, even said he’d be open to a deal but only if the Hawks were “interested in a basketball move.” Essentially, that’s code for Mullin wanting Billy Knight to take on a big contract like Troy Murphy or Aldonal Foyle and I don’t see Knight agreeing to it.
Fortunately, during this protracted Harrington situation, the Hawks haven’t been prevented from making moves. They recently agreed to a two-year/six million dollar contract with former Hawk, Lorenzon Wright. This was a fantastic signing both in terms of finances and basketball wise. I thought Lo-Wright would get at least mid-level exception money from some team in need of size. I mean, when you look at the contracts big men are getting nowadays (e.g. Nene signing for sixty million dollars) it would make sense for a solid contributor like Wright to ask for somewhere in the neighborhood of six or seven million a season. Signing him for six million over two seasons is the definition of a bargain. On the court, Lo-Wright will provide stability, rebounding, and toughness. His numbers won’t jump out at you, but his contribution will be felt. He was an important piece to the Grizzlies frontcourt the past couple of years and I believe he’ll be just as important with the Hawks young frontcourt. He could wind up being a great mentor to our rookie big man, Shelden Williams.
It’s strange how things work out. I remember when we first acquired Wright from the Los Angeles Clippers back in the 90’s. He was supposed to inject youth and energy to our aging frontcourt which featured Dikembe Mutombo. The infamous Pete Babcock was so enamored with Lo-Wright that he signed him to a six-year/forty-two million dollar contract AND traded two first round picks to the Clipps in order to acquire his services. Obviously, Wright didn’t live up to expectations. His play was solid, but not worthy of such a large contract and the loss of two draft selections (one of which turned into Chris Wilcox). We eventually dealt Wright to Memphis in the Shareef Abdur-Rahim trade. Now things have come full circle; Wright is back in Atlanta but signed to a much more reasonable deal and he’s expected to bring veteran experience and leadership to our young and energetic core of big men.
The Wright signing will also play a part in the continuing Harrington negotiations. Now that the Hawks have added some quality depth to the frontline, no team can try and finagle with Knight about his demands trying to offering up mediocre big men with bloated contracts. B.K. can now confidently say the team is only looking for draft picks and cash rather than a stop-gap at the power forward and/or center position.
When it’s all said and done I believe the Hawks and Pacers will hammer out a deal for Harrington. Indiana is the only team willing to give him the contract he desires along with the financial flexibility (e.g. the 7.5 million dollar trade exception) and draft selections to entice Billy Knight. |
