The Atlanta Hawks essentially backed itself into a corner when they traded away a ton of assets for Dejounte Murray, urging the team to win now. However, the Hawks, throughout the 2022-23 season, struggled with inconsistencies en route to a 41-win season and a six-game series loss to the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. Thus, there's no surprise that the Hawks are attempting to double down this offseason, setting their sights on Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam.

However, it seems like their pursuit of the All-Star forward has hit a snag. According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports, conversations between the Hawks and Raptors on any prospective Siakam trade “have not generated any forward progress of late”. Fischer noted that the two teams have “discussed various concepts” that would send the 29-year old forward to Atlanta in recent weeks, but evidently they have not arrived at an agreeable middle ground.

In light of the Hawks' decision to trade away John Collins in what basically ended up being a salary dump to the Utah Jazz, their most likely course of action to fill their need at the four will be to go small. Saddiq Bey and Jalen Johnson are the primary candidates to start, while the Hawks could also decide to rely on AJ Griffin to slot in at the three, with De'Andre Hunter moving up a position.

Nevertheless, acquiring Pascal Siakam makes the Hawks' path to a preferable seed in the Eastern Conference standings much easier. Siakam should slot into a more comfortable complementary role, as Trae Young and Dejounte Murray should shoulder the team's playmaking burden. This should allow him to focus more on defense and scoring.

Alas, it's looking rather likely that the Raptors end up keeping Siakam in town. Siakam, for his part, expressed his willingness to remain in Toronto. Given that information, it's certainly understandable if the Raptors feel no urgency to trade away the team's best player, even after the departure of Fred VanVleet. Even then, don't expect the Hawks to go down quietly, especially with the offseason in its early goings.