Despite his name repeatedly coming up in possible trade scenarios, Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith says his attention has not wavered.
“I’m just trying to stay out of the way and focus on what’s in front of me and not worry about anything else,” Smith said at the team’s shootaround Wednesday.
Smith denied having any conversations in the past 24 hours with his agent or with a Hawks front office led by general manager Danny Ferry, who made waves this past offseason by trading Joe Johnson to the Brooklyn Nets. Smith insists he’s concentrating on Wednesday night’s game against the Miami Heat, which could be his last game playing for the team that drafted him.
Selected out of high school at No. 17 overall in the 2004 draft, Smith has become a star in Atlanta. He is averaging 17.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 48 games this season.
Sources told ESPN on Tuesday that the Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics are three teams known to be in talks with Atlanta about the athletic forward ahead of Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline.
In conversations with the Bucks, the Hawks’ interest is believed to start with Monta Ellis, sources told ESPN on Tuesday, at least in part because Ellis could play next to point guard Jeff Teague.
Barring a deal that featured three or more teams, Boston likely would need to part with Paul Pierce to acquire Smith, which could well rule the Celtics out of the chase for Atlanta’s versatile forward, ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reported.
Sources told ESPN that the Phoenix Suns, who had shown interest in Smith, are not out of the running.
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