To Trade or Not To Trade Dewayne Dedmon?
By Jason Marks
With the NBA trade deadline less than a month away, everyone is wondering what players on the Atlanta Hawks will stay or go.
General Manager Travis Schlenk has many valuable assets that should allow the Hawks to be sellers at the deadline, but there is one they shouldn’t part with unless they get a very good deal.
Do The Hawks Even Have to Make a Trade?
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They can, but the question is what kind of value can they actually get? With the Hawks having three 1st-round picks in this upcoming NBA Draft and two 1st-rounders in 2019, the need to stockpile draft picks is not really necessary.
Ersan Ilyasova, Marco Belinelli, Malcolm Delaney, and Luke Babbit‘s contracts all run out at the end of the season, making them tradeable assets. Mike Muscala has a one-year option he can pick up at the end of the season. Kent Bazemore and Dennis Schroder‘s names come up in trade rumors, but questions about their value on the market could make executing that trade difficult.
What About Dewayne Dedmon?
Dedmon has a one-year option at $6.3 million. Unless he is planning to opt-out at the end of the year, there’s no real reason to trade him. The premise of this article would change if there is a productive player or a late first-round draft pick worth getting. At a reasonable price tag, Dedmon has shown to be a valuable asset as a stretch five.
It’s a mystery how little playing time Dedmon has seen since returning for his leg injury, as he’s been averaging 10 rebounds per game since his return to the roster. Dedmon’s weakness has been getting into foul trouble, but that’s a supremely fixable flaw.
With Dedmon’s price tag, the value of getting equal productivity and veteran presence in return could be highly unlikely.
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The Hawks are in good shape with draft picks and plenty of cap space to work with in free agency. Trading Dedmon for a likely 2nd-round pick or a veteran with an expiring contract could be counter-productive. If Travis Schlenk’s putting together a foundation for Atlanta’s future, Dewayne Dedmon can and will be a big part in it.