Setting the Hawks on the correct path

The people who find these ideas completely ridiculous might find some solace in a statement of my self proclaimed biases. 1. The Hawks are going no where until Joe Johnson is gone. (He wants the ball as much as Lebron James, but has half the talent) ( No player in Atlanta should get paid this much, with a team struggling to pack its seats with fans on a regular basis you only break the bank for players who the fans come out to see, Joe Johnson was never one of those players) 2. Joe Johnson and Mike Woodson are the reason Marvin Williams has in no way lived up to our expectations. With that being said you won't see a trade involving Marvin below, because if I had to rate my favorite players Marvin is in the top 2-3.

Now that all of that is out of the way let's dive into some trade scenarios.

My true belief is that the first step we must take is to dump Joe Johnson even if we don't get great contracts back and great players.

So here is the first trade. Atlanta Hawks and the Washington Wizards

This sends Washington Joe Johnson and Zaza Pachulia for Rashard Lewis, Javale McGee and Trevor Booker ( or we grab Jordan Crawford back) with exchange of first round picks no protection or with protection.

All we get out of this is a center and a first round draft pick and honestly we could loose Javale if he asks for a lot in his pending free agency. Personally I am done with overspending for the sake of keeping players. I can't remember a time a team reached to overpay someone and it panned out.

Rashard Lewis has two years left on his deal. I call that considerable cap relief right when Joe Johnson's contract would have become considerably daunting.

Now will the Wizards take on this risk? I think they might even after this deal they will have considerable cap room and a much better player than they have in Rashard Lewis. It pushes them closer to being competitive and gives John Wall a veteran he can rely on in big moments. And they don't have to worry about trading him because Rashard Lewis has been dealt a few times and he wasn't as productive as Joe Johnson will be. Now there is the Nick Young Jordan Crawford problem. All I can say to that is Joe Johnson can play multiple positions and it increases their trade chips and leverage in negotiations.

Now we have a huge hole at the two guard spot because resigning Jamal Crawford is not an option. Well personally I would like to move Marvin there and keep everything status quo. And if we do that we go into next year with some huge trade chips Josh Smith on an expiring deal and Rashard Lewis on an expiring deal. That could bring some major, current and future talent to Atlanta, but for the sake of it lets trade Josh this season.

Now these two trades weren't my first options. Honestly I would like to trade Josh Smith for Eric Gordon and a pick, but I don't think the clippers would go for that with Blake Griffin at PF spot. Maybe Joe Johnson should go there, but I digress. I came up with two scenarios. Josh Smith straight up for Andre Iguodala. I am not in a hooray mood about this trade, but it does give us one of the more defensively tight teams in the league. The other trade is a straight up for Monta Ellis, which continues to give us that offensive punch without all of the ball hoggedness, but we do loose the advantage of having a 6'7" shooting guard.

So we end up looking like this

Jeff Teague/Andre Iguodala or Monta Ellis/ Marvin Williams/ Al Horford/ Javale Mcgee

Kirk Hinrich/hopefully Jordan Crawford/ Damien Wilkins (must bring him back)/ Rashard Lewis/ and who ever we can manage here.

Our lineup can be very flexible with Al Horford and Javale Mcgee playing center. Jeff Teague and Kirk Hinrich starting together and other scenarios.

So what do you guys think? I feel it gives us a good amount of future cap relief and a draft pick or two.