After the massive news of Kawhi Leonard heading to Toronto broke early Wednesday morning, the Atlanta Hawks made a bit of a blockbuster deal themselves the next day.
Dennis Schröder and Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot are headed to Oklahoma City, while Justin Anderson and Carmelo Anthony along with a 2022 lottery protected first-round pick are headed to Atlanta while Mike Muscala is headed to Philly to finish out the 3-team deal.
After the Hawks drafted Trae Young and traded for Jeremy Lin, it became extremely apparent that Schröder was not going to be on this roster come opening day. After the potential felony charges and talk of wanting to be traded, the Hawks abided and sent him to a potential Western Conference Finals team.
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The Hawks should feel fantastic that they were able to get off Schröder’s deal while getting a first-round pick in return. Though the loss of Moose will be deeply felt by all true Hawks fans, he’s a worthy price to pay in order to get DS17 off this team.
Having to take Melo’s massive contract back is perfectly fine as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Atlanta is going to buy him out and he’ll sign with his top suitor (most likely Houston, with Miami a dark horse candidate).
The fact that his deal expires after this season means we just have to eat that massive cap hit for one season and then we’re free — versus paying Dennis $15.5 million a year for the next 3 seasons.
Dennis is a great backup point guard for OKC as we all learned in the 2014-15 season that saw Atlanta win 60 games as Schröd came off the bench to provide an exciting scoring punch.
Justin Anderson is an interesting piece for the Hawks to obtain in this deal, as he’s only 24 years old and might be worth taking a look at as a long-term prospect. Losing Musky stinks, but hopefully he’s going to a situation in which he can immediately contribute to a potential Eastern Conference Finals contender.
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After an offseason full of questionable moves, from taking Trae Young over Luka Doncic to trading for Jeremy Lin, Travis Schlenk restored a lot of faith in the Hawks fanbase by making such a smart move to dump Schröder’s salary and still extract a first round draft pick and a young player who might have untapped potential.