Joe John­son

Once every­body gets over not get­ting LeBron James, John­son appears to be near the top of sev­eral teams’ list, includ­ing the Miami Heat.

John­son is appar­ently ready to explore all of his options and com­mented specif­i­cally on the pos­si­bil­ity of mov­ing to Miami and team­ing up with Dwyane Wade: “That’s a great sit­u­a­tion — you have to look at it,” John­son said.

“I’m not say­ing I’ll go play with him or him. But being a free agent, you pay atten­tion to everybody’s salary cap, what every­body can do.”

Yahoo Sports

Dwight Howard

To date, no team has made a bet­ter case for win­ning a title, and, on Thurs­day, Orlando made its best case yet.

The Magic have too many weapons for the Hawks. The Magic have too many weapons for the league.

“It takes a near-perfect game to beat that team,” Mike Wood­son said.

As you might expect, Stan Van Gundy down­played his team’s dom­i­nance when asked about it Thurs­day. “We’re play­ing OK,” he said.

Fan­Na­tion

John Salmons

Might John Salmons wind up play­ing for the team to which he and the Bucks just lost? As crazy as that sounds, there is a pos­si­bil­ity it could happen.

The Hawks may lose star shoot­ing guard Joe John­son in free agency and, if that occurs, the Hawks could tar­get Salmons as a pos­si­ble replacement.

Salmons has a player-option clause in his con­tract, mean­ing he has the choice to stick with the Bucks for another sea­son at $5.8 mil­lion or become an unre­stricted free agent on July 1 and sign with the team of his choice.

Fan­Na­tion

Jamal Craw­ford

As expected, Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Craw­ford won the 2009-10 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award.

He deserved it. Crawford’s scor­ing off the bench was a huge part of Atlanta’s suc­cess this year.

The team fin­ished with a 53–29 record and the #3 seed in the East­ern conference.

Inside Hoops

Josh Smith

Hawks for­ward Josh Smith is tak­ing a page out of Joakim Noah’s book, knock­ing one of the NBA’s host cities.

Smith took a jab at Mil­wau­kee, say­ing “every­body knows there’s noth­ing to do” in the city that will host Atlanta in Games 3 and 4 of the playoffs.

Smith made his com­ments Thurs­day when asked what he would do in Mil­wau­kee this week­end. He says he has never really done any­thing in Mil­wau­kee and will “just be happy to find a restaurant.”

Real GM

Joe John­son

Atlanta Hawks guard Joe John­son is an unre­stricted free agent this sum­mer and there is a belief that the New York Knicks will be com­ing after him hard after very likely get­ting turned down by Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.

But sources claim that John­son is not going to leave Atlanta, partly because he “never is cri­tiqued, crit­i­cized or cursed” no mat­ter what he does.

There is not one Knick of recent sea­sons who can relate to that.

Yahoo Sports

Josh Chil­dress

Josh Chil­dress, who is cur­rently play­ing with Olympia­cos in Greece, remains inter­ested in a pos­si­ble return to the NBA.

Chil­dress can opt out of his con­tract with Olympia­cos after this sea­son and would be a restricted free agent with Atlanta.

He could also sign a qual­i­fy­ing offer with the Hawks for one year and become a free agent in 2011, or ink a mul­ti­year deal with the club.

Real GM

LeBron James, Joe Johnson

Ric Bucher of ESPN quoted a league source on Thurs­day when he said that LeBron James might be more inter­ested in com­ing to the Knicks if they have Hawks’ shoot­ing guard Joe Johnson.

“If it’s LeBron James they want,” Bucher said, “a league source says the Hawks’ shoot­ing guard is a very good place to start.”

Real GM

Joe John­son

Hawks star Joe John­son is expected to miss a few games this week with an Achilles injury.

He did not travel with the team and has been ruled out for Tuesday’s game at New Jersey.

The guard will likely miss Wednesday’s tilt with the Rap­tors as well.

John­son has not missed a game all sea­son and has sat out just four con­tests since the 2007-08 campaign.

Real GM

Joe John­son

An East­ern Con­fer­ence GM thinks Joe John­son will sign with the Knicks if they are not able to land LeBron James or Dwyane Wade.

“I think that’s a done deal,” the GM said, refer­ring to some type of unspo­ken agree­ment between Johnson’s agent and the Knicks.

Sources also report that the Rap­tors would be open to send­ing Chris Bosh to New York in a sign-and-trade if David Lee is included in the deal.

Real GM