After Paul Millsap left the Atlanta Hawks in free agency last summer, every player from the 2014-15 Hawks starting lineup that won 60 games was gone. Now, their best player is 24-year old German point guard Dennis Shröder. The Hawks are filled with a mix of veterans and young players with lack of experience while undergoing a rebuild. They are actually doing very good in that regard, sitting dead last in the whole league with a 10-27 record. The Hawks are destined to get a top pick in the NBA Draft and are willing to trade some of their pieces in exchange for more assets.
The issue is, as reported by Basketball Insiders' Steve Kyler, that the Hawks seem to ask too much in exchange for their two best players, Schröder and Kent Bazemore. Even if the return is not what they like, they listen to offers and to not turn away from trade chatter. Schröder is under contract until the 2020-21 season for a flat $15.5 million per season. His contract is the Hawks' main attraction for trade talks given its value. Meanwhile, Bazemore is under contract until the 2018-19 season plus a $19.2 million player option in 2019-20, which makes his contract a little harder to move given he is a solid role player at most.
Despite the losing, the Hawks are in a pretty good spot for the remainder of the season and for this next free agency period. They have some solid veteran expiring contracts like Ersan Ilyasova, Marco Bellineli, and Dewayne Dedmon plus some youth with potential in Taurean Prince, John Collins and Malcolm Delaney. The cheaper veteran contracts become more valuable as the deadline comes closer and could help the Hawks acquire the assets they need to complete a faster rebuild around the younger players. The Hawks will also try opening even more salary cap space for this summer, as they could land a free agent or two that helps their team's future.
Follow Us
Subscribe