Soaring Down South
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Atlanta Hawks Make Supremely Weird Trade For Jeremy Lin

By Jack ODonnell

OAKLAND, CA - MARCH 6: Jeremy Lin #7 of the Brooklyn Nets warms up before the game against the Golden State Warriors on March 6, 2018 at ORACLE Arena in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CA - MARCH 6: Jeremy Lin #7 of the Brooklyn Nets warms up before the game against the Golden State Warriors on March 6, 2018 at ORACLE Arena in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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As the rest of the world slowly drifted into blissful slumber, Woj lit up NBA Twitter by announcing a three-team deal involving the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks and Brooklyn Nets.

The bulk of the trade was on the Denver side of things but the “blockbuster” move of the deal for Hawks fans was Jeremy Lin being traded to the Hawks.

The terms on which the team agreed to weren’t initially given, so some amazing thoughts ran through our collective head here at SDS. Had we grabbed another pick for next year’s draft? Had we gotten off one of the surprisingly bad deals that plague our roster i.e. Miles Plumlee, Dennis Schroder, Kent Bazemore?

Nope. We swapped second round picks in 2023 and picked up another second round pick in 2025.

The Atlanta Hawks took on 13 million dollars in salary this year in this deal (granted, Lin is an expiring contract), filling extremely valuable cap space that could have been used for other salary-dumping trades from cap strapped teams, in order to get an injury prone point guard on a roster filled to the brim with guard options.

I don’t really see anything of value here for the Hawks and have no idea what compelled Travis Schlenk to do this deal.

We’re no longer the hoarders of cap space that gave us so much potential in this cash-thin market, even this late into the offseason.

We might have been able to steal an asset when facilitating a three-team trade for a superstar, we could’ve taken on bad contracts from almost every other team in the league (kinda like what Brooklyn did in this very trade) or we could’ve gone out and gotten a guy like Clint Capela who remains unsigned (something we were very much on board with).

And in case you haven’t forgotten, we drafted our next franchise cornerstone at point guard, eschewing a generational prospect in Luka Doncic in favor of Trae Young, who has looked quite good during his time in the Las Vegas Summer League.

This move also likely augurs that the Atlanta Hawks’ leading scorer from last season, Dennis Schröder, will not be long for the team, as they now have 4 natural point guards on the roster including two-way player Jaylen Adams.

Either way, this is an odd move, especially considering what the Nets received by taking on the salary of Kenneth Faried (a 2019 first round pick (protected 1-12) from the Nuggets. Honestly, it seems strange that the Hawks were not the team to take on that money for Faried, which is, again, something we had explored previously.

Next: Ranking the Hawks 7 Best Young Assets

I may be overreacting a bit to this trade, but with so many possibilities this offseason, what a strange way to put them to bed.

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