Big Man Shuffle: Cavs "Sign" Golden State's Rob Kurz As Joe Smith Signs With Atlanta

Instead of doing battle in meaningful Eastern Conference playoff games, Joe Smith (right) and Hedo Turkoglu will voluntarily sign with teams that will be done before May.Just call Danny Ferry "the man with a plan." We will have to wait about nine or 10 months to see if his plan works, but there's no doubt that he has one, and he's simply not done adding pieces to an already-loaded Cavaliers team.After learning that Joe Smith, last year's backup power forward, had signed a one-year deal with the Atlanta Hawks, Ferry wasted no time in landing ex-Warrior Rob Kurz. And by "landing," we mean inviting him to training camp with a non-guaranteed contract.But before we get into Kurz, Smith has to boggle you. Here's a former #1 overall pick who, based on that status, has been a huge bust during his 14-year NBA career. On top of that, he has been a career loser, playing for horrible Golden State teams to start his career as well as the famous Minnesota teams that made losing in the first round of the playoffs into an art form. Smith has also had stints in Milwaukee (enough said) patched in with brief stretches with all sorts of teams, but he only got into the second round of the playoffs for the first time in his career as a Cavalier in 2008. So when you read reports that Smith turned down a similar offer from the Cavs to join the Hawks, who will be his 10th team, you have to wonder if this guy enjoys losing. Maybe no team in the NBA will have a brighter spotlight on them this upcoming season than the Cavaliers, considering the arrival of Shaq, LeBron's contract year, and a host of other factors that make it the equivalent of a championship-of-bust season.Instead, Smith will join the Hawks, a team that he himself saw firsthand is extremely inferior to the Cavs. And if reports are true that Smith was bothered by the fact that the Cavs signed Leon Powe based on what it would do to his long-term playing time, give me break. Powe may not be back until April, so Smith will probably have an entire regular season "to himself." But it's obvious that winning a championship isn't higher than being a career journeyman and #1 overall bust on Smith's list of priorities.Now, on to Kurz.The 6'9", 232-pounder out of Notre Dame was undrafted coming out of college. Kurz, who turned 24 in March, played 40 games for the Warriors last season during his rookie year and averaged 3.9 points and 2.0 rebounds in 11 minutes. He was also 15-for-38 (39.5 percent) from 3-point range while shooting a better percentage from downtown than from the field (38.9 percent).This swap, however, shows that until Powe is healthy enough to contribute (and the Cavs would be wise to give him as much time as he needs), Mike Brown will be looking at either J.J. Hickson or Darnell Jackson to be the backup power forward behind Anderson Varejao. For Hickson, it's going to be a big year as he will have to defeat a back injury and show that he can, indeed, live up to expectations as a first-round pick and become a rotation player by his second season.But that will definitely be a lot more fun to watch than anything going on down in Atlanta. At least, anything dealing with the Hawks. That's for sure.