Report: Mike Dunleavy Jr. Seeking Buyout From Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks latest acquisition may not ever make it to Phillips Arena. Is a buyout in the works?
It’s been quite a busy week for the Atlanta Hawks organization. They started 2017 by beating the the San Antonio Spurs on New Year’s Day. That was fun. In the middle of the week, news broke that the Hawks would start listening to trade offers for Paul Millsap, Kyle Korver, and Thabo Sefolosha. That was less fun.
On Thursday, just before they would tip-off with the New Orleans Pelicans, the first domino fell. The Hawks traded Kyle Korver to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a protected first round pick, Mo Williams, and Mike Dunleavy Jr. The two team’s attempted to find a third team that would take on Dunleavy, but they were unsuccessful.
Saturday the trade was finalized. The real prize for Atlanta in this trade was the first round pick. Mo Williams is essentially retired, at some point they’ll buy him out or trade his contract. Dunleavy was expected to stay with Atlanta, at least until they found a team to trade him to.
ESPN sources say Dunleavy is seeking a buyout from the Hawks but Atlanta wants to keep him after acquiring Dunleavy in the Kyle Korver trade
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 9, 2017
That may no longer be the case. According to Marc Stein and Marc J. Spears of ESPN, Dunleavy is seeking a buyout from the Hawks. The Hawks, on the other hand, would like him to report to the team.
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That’s not ideal. They are clearly not on the same page. It’s hard to blame Dunleavy. He just went from a team that is going to compete for a championship to a team that is starting to sell off all their expiring contracts.
Dunleavy is a 14 year veteran, having spent most of his career with the Golden State Warriors, Indiana Pacers, and Chicago Bulls. He’s a three-point specialist that has a career three-point shooting percentage of 37.6 percent.
This season he has struggled to get on the court. Over 23 games, he’s averaging 4.6 points and 2 rebounds per game on 40 percent shooting and 35.1 percent from three-point range. He’s only playing 15.9 minutes per game.
Still, this was pretty cool.
LeBron James wanted a better shooter off the bench, so David Griffin landed another shooter. It’s pretty simple. This isn’t a great situation for the Hawks, it’s never a good thing when someone doesn’t want to play for you, but it could be a blessing in disguise.
Without Dunleavy on the roster, that leaves more minutes for DeAndre’ Bembry and Taurean Prince. We’ll keep you updated on how all this plays out. There’s never a dull moment during the madness of trade season.