<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">If all goes according to published reports, star-on-the-rise Joe Johnson today will move from Phoenix, which last year had the NBA's best regular-season record, to Atlanta, the team with its worst, in a sign-and-trade deal. And everyone charged with securing talent for the Hornets should be feeling stung, and fans should have a bit of a sick feeling in the pits of their stomachs. A league-wide moratorium prohibits teams from commenting on such matters until today, so we won't know until this morning how vehemently New Orleans did or didn't pursue Johnson. But we know this without a single word from the team: Little good can be said about the franchise when Johnson, who wanted out of Phoenix, continues his rise with the Hawks, one of the few teams in as much or more of a rebuilding mode as the Hornets. If money was the deterrent -- Johnson received a five-year, $69.6 million deal from Atlanta that the Suns could have matched, but were asked by Johnson not to -- New Orleans should be ashamed. Because while entering free agency with an excess of cash and cap room is a good thing, exiting it with much of that $20-million plus holstered doesn't jibe with a spare-no-expense mantra, not when franchise-type players are available to fill gaping holes. It costs more than lip service to play ball, and Johnson's ability guaranteed he'd come with a hefty price tag. Heftier, even, than Bobby Simmons, the former Clipper whom the Hornets targeted in free agency and were outbid by the Milwaukee Bucks, of all teams. In each of Johnson's four years, his scoring has risen, to 17.1 last season, along with 5.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists, a steal and a deadly eye (47.8 percent from 3-point range) in a team-high 39.5 minutes per game. He's 6 feet 8 and 230 pounds, a small forward in body with a point guard's skills and demeanor. He was so critical to Phoenix's success that, to a man, Suns players lamented his six-game absence in the playoffs because of a facial fracture, wondering if his injury was the difference in being eliminated in the conference finals. And Phoenix was headlined by league MVP Steve Nash, All-Star forward Shawn Marion and center Amare Stoudemire, a futuristic talent who challenges the vocabulary for descriptive superlatives. </div> Source
