Luke Babbitt Traded in Quiet Deadline for Atlanta Hawks
By Chris Guest
The Atlanta Hawks came into Thursday’s NBA trade deadline with tons of speculation about possible trade packages involving Dewayne Dedmon, Kent Bazemore, Mike Muscala, Ersan Ilyasova, Luke Babbitt and Marco Belinelli.
However, despite reports stating that every player (save for awesome rookie John Collins) on the Hawks roster was available, almost no deals were done involving Atlanta – even though there were a lot of seismic NBA moves, mostly from Cleveland.
The only major roster move the Hawks made was offloading Luke Babbitt, who was traded back to the Miami Heat (where he played last season).
Here’s a quick, chronological timeline of what the Hawks did this trade deadline:
Hawks trade Luke Babbitt to Heat for Okaro White
Wizards trade Sheldon Mac to Atlanta for cash and a highly protected second-round pick
Hawks Waive Sheldon Mac
Hawks Waive Okaro White
Ilyasova, Belinelli, Dedmon, Muscala and Bazemore all remain on team
Atlanta saved about $100K in cap space via the Babbitt deal and moved on from him before he bolted in free agency for nothing. Still though, this trade was underwhelming at best and downright boring at worst.
The second-round pick in the Sheldon Mac deal will likely not convey, as the Hawks put some heavy protections on it to assure them that they will still get to make that pick this offseason.
Ilyasova has expressed interest in staying with Atlanta after being bounced all over the map the past two seasons. He has been solid for the team, and clearly, there was not a good deal on the table for Ersan.
Second-year players Taurean Prince and DeAndre’ Bembry were lightly discussed at the deadline, but no deal was done. The Hawks were wise to not move these two young players, as there is still some upside left in them both – specifically Bembry, who has yet to fully showcase his skill set in the NBA.
Going forward, let’s hope that Miles Plumlee will play a lot less (i.e. none at all), so that John Collins can continue to develop and hone his craft. Same goes for Marco Belinelli, who will hopefully cede time to rookie Tyler Dorsey at shooting guard.
In the end, nothing really changed for Atlanta. Per reporting from Michael Cunningham of the AJC, Belinelli and/or Ilyasova might be bought out by the team – as playoff-bound teams look to bolster their bench in advance of a long playoff run.
Next: Atlanta Hawks Youth Movement Part 1: The Rookies
Keep it tuned to Soaring Down South for more transactional news as it becomes available.