Move over, Melodrama! Sit down, Dwightmare! Here comes the… Smoovement? The Smoove Move? Smoove Takeoff? Josh Kibosh? J-Moove? Okay, maybe this needs work.
After earlier reports from ESPN’s Chris Broussard that the Brooklyn Nets were interested in acquiring Josh Smith, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports and ESPN’s Marc Stein both confirm the Nets’ interest hasn’t waned. Wojnarowski calls the Nets “solely focused” on completing a deal for the Hawks forward. Stein reports that one team “close to the situation” (please help me figure out what that means) predicts Smith will end up in a Brooklyn Nets uniform before Thursday’s 3 P.M. trade deadline.
It’s still not clear just what the Nets would deal to acquire Smith — a third team would most likely have to get involved, and Nets GM Billy King has only completed one multi-team trade since joining the franchise, netting the Nets Troy Murphy in a four-team deal at the beginning of his tenure. Kris Humphries and MarShon Brooks remain the Nets’ strongest trade pieces, which isn’t the type of package you’d expect Atlanta to jump for. Along with draft picks, the Nets could sweeten the pot with the rights to Eurostashes Bojan Bogdanovic & Ilkan Karaman, but that still doesn’t seem like enough. “Interest” and “hard push” are just buzzwords unless the Nets can find assets appealing enough to interest Atlanta.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst adds that the Hawks are not interested in Kris Humphries, nor are multiple teams the Nets are trying to rope into a multi-team trade.
There are 52 hours until the trade deadline.
