The Atlanta Hawks are at a crossroads this offseason in terms of what direction they want to go in building their team. They've been a team that's not good enough to make a serious playoff run, but not bad enough to get a high draft pick and accelerate a rebuild. With NBA free agency coming up, the Hawks made the recent decision to allow Saddiq Bey to become a free agent by not tendering a qualifying offer as per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The Hawks could have made Saddiq Bey a restricted free agent and thus been able to match any offers he received in NBA free agency. But it appears as if he will be moving on to his next team. Bey just completed his first full season with the Hawks, but suffered a torn ACL that cut his season short.
Bey was originally acquired by the Hawks during the 2022-23 season in a trade with the Detroit Pistons. This past year, prior to his injury he appeared in 63 games for the Hawks including 51 starts in a little over 32 minutes per game.
He averaged 13.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists with splits of 41.6 percent shooting from the field, 31.6 percent shooting from the three-point line and 83.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
If Bey is on track to make a full recovery from his ACL injury, he will likely garner significant interest on the free agent market. A healthy Bey is a capable wing on a contending team.
Hawks add youth in busy offseason so far
The decision to allow Saddiq Bey to walk in free agency comes a day after the Hawks made one of the first blockbuster trades of the offseason. On Friday, the Hawks pulled off a trade with the New Orleans Pelicans sending Dejounte Murray to the Pelicans in for Larry Nance Jr., Dyson Daniels, E.J. Liddell and multiple draft picks.
It's not clear what role Nance has for the Hawks or if he may be rerouted to another team in a separate trade. But Daniels is a solid pickup in that he is still very young and developing. He's got the tools to be a good combo guard in the NBA and he's already a strong defensive player.
The Hawks also made a smaller trade during the NBA Draft, sending A.J. Griffin to the Houston Rockets for the No. 44 overall pick. They later moved that pick to the Miami Heat for the rights to Nikola Djurisic. While Griffin is a good, young player with potential, he was buried on the Hawks depth chart and the team already has other young players likely ahead of him in the rotation.
But one of the Hawks' biggest offseason acquisitions so far was the No. 1 overall pick in Zaccharie Risacher. The Hawks made Risacher their pick after Alex Sarr refused to workout for them. The Hawks already have Onyeka Okgonwu and Clint Capela up front. Risacher is a wing a has a pathway towards more immediate playing time and role for next season.
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