Sports

Hawks keep Smith; Bucks land Redick

Hawks general manager Danny Ferry gave a simple explanation why he turned down the chance to trade Josh Smith yesterday.

“We value Josh,” he said.

Ferry confirmed the Hawks entertained offers for the 6-foot-9 forward leading up to yesterday’s NBA trade deadline. Ferry ultimately preferred to keep Smith, his team’s leading scorer, even while accepting the risk he could lose the 27-year-old star in free agency with no return for the team.

“We weighed the positives and negatives of each of our opportunities and at the end of the day we felt like the best decision was to stand pat based off some of the things we were looking at,” Ferry said.

Ferry shed two big contracts before the season when he traded guard Joe Johnson to the Nets and forward Marvin Williams to Utah. Those trades created cap space that helped make it easier for Ferry to decide against dealing Smith.

The Hawks (29-23) made two other moves. The team traded former Nets guard Anthony Morrow to the Mavericks for guard-forward Dahntay Jones. Atlanta also acquired backup center Jeremy Tyler from Golden State as the Warriors moved to escape the luxury tax.

Elsewhere, there was no eye-catching activity, resulting in minor deals yesterday to the disappointment of those hoping for a frenzy.

The Celtics’ core stayed together, leaving J.J. Redick as the biggest name to be traded.

Redick, the Magic’s shooting guard, center Gustavo Ayon and reserve point guard Ish Smith went to the Bucks in exchange for guards Doron Lamb and Beno Udrih, as well as forward Tobias Harris.

In other deals:

* The Suns sent point guard Sebastian Telfair to the Raptors for center Hamed Haddadi and a 2014 second-round draft pick. The pick will be the later of either the Sacramento or Toronto selections.

* The Thunder unloaded Eric Maynor, a free-agent-to-be, to Portland for a trade exception and the rights to Greek forward Georgios Printezis.

* Jordan Crawford was traded by the Wizards to the Celtics for the expiring contracts of center Jason Collins and guard Leandro Barbosa.

* The Heat dealt backup center Dexter Pittman and a second-round pick in this year’s draft to the Grizzlies for the rights to center Ricky Sanchez.

* The Bobcats acquired Josh McRoberts from the Magic in exchange for Hakim Warrick.