The Atlanta Hawks get a return for Paul Millsap after all.
The initial news of Paul Millsap signing with the Denver Nuggets was heartbreaking to fans of the Atlanta Hawks. Luckily, the team isn’t losing him for absolutely nothing. It has been announced that the Atlanta Hawks are part of a three-team, double sign-and-trade deal with the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers.
Sources: Clippers, Hawks, Nuggets working on trade of Danillo Gallinari to LA/Millsap to DEN; Jamal Crawford/Diamond Stone/FRP to Atlanta.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 4, 2017
A result of the sign-and-trade officially lands the Nuggets Paul Millsap, while sharpshooting forward Danilo Gallinari is heading to the Clippers on a three-year $65 million deal. The move allows both sides to sign their respective players to their accepted deals, in a cap space clearing move from both teams.
As a result, the Atlanta Hawks are receiving veteran guard Jamal Crawford, center Diamond Stone, and a 2018 first round draft pick originally belonging to the Houston Rockets. Now that all of that’s out of the way, the Hawks can get down to business.
Jamal Crawford will be returning to Atlanta where he played from 2009-2011, and won his first NBA 6th Man of the Year award. Crawford averaged 16.1 points per game as a Hawk, entirely as the team’s 6th man.
Also hearing while Jamal Crawford wants a buyout from Hawks (several teams interested), he's open to staying there and playing next season.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) July 4, 2017
Initial reports suggest that the Hawks are likely to either buy out Crawford’s contract or seek to trade him to another team. The Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Lakers all seem to be connected to Jamal Crawford in terms of interest.
Though with a hefty $15 million per year salary still on Crawford’s contract, that may be more difficult that anticipated. There still remains the possibility that Jamal Crawford could remain and play with the Atlanta Hawks in the 2017-2018 season. While this seems unlikely to this point, it is far from implausible.
Diamond Stone played one collegiate season at Maryland and was a standout player there. Averaging 12.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in college Stone looked to have professional potential. It hasn’t materialized just yet.
He has the size at 6’11” and 255 lbs to play center, but vitally lacked athleticism and versatility to his game coming out of college. He has seemed to improve and transform himself since then. The Hawks have great developmental personal, and with a currently empty front-court this could be a great opportunity for Stone to show what he can potentially do.
Perhaps the most important aspect of this trade for the Atlanta Hawks is the first round pick they received from the Clippers. The addition of that pick sets the Hawks up with potentially three first round picks in the front-court loaded 2018 NBA Draft. As of now Atlanta owns their own first round draft pick, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ first round pick (lottery protected), and now the Houston Rockets’ pick.
These picks not only serve as a great possibility to potentially land future foundational talent, but can be utilized in other trades as well. Now that most of the big-name free agents are off the board, we expect Travis Schlenk to really hit the market hard.