How Much Longer Will Kent Bazemore Be an Atlanta Hawk?
By Chris Guest
Despite a slow start to the offseason, news broke late last week that the Atlanta Hawks had traded Dennis Schröder to the Thunder for Carmelo Anthony.
Though Melo will not play a single second in a Hawks uniform, the team was able to finagle a 2022 lottery-protected first round pick out of the Thunder, while also obtaining a low-risk, low-cost flyer in Justin Anderson from the 76ers. This was an excellent deal from the Hawks’ perspective, but it does beg the question: How long will Kent Bazemore remain on the team?
With both DS17 and Mike Muscala (who was sadly sent to the 76ers in the Schröder deal) gone, Baze is the sole remaining member of the Hawks team that won 60 games during the 2014-15 season.
With an entirely new regime that is completely focused on the future by acquiring young players and a treasure chest of draft picks, Bazemore will likely not remain on the team for long.
Baze still has 2 years remaining on the 4-year/$70 million deal he signed in the fateful summer of 2016, with the second year being a rather sizable $19 million player option – which he is almost certain to pick up.
With that in mind, though, the Hawks have no real impetus to trade Baze anytime soon. There’s no question that he would benefit a playoff contender more than he would the Hawks, but the team already cleared up titanic amounts of cap space by dealing Schröd – why would they need more unless they wanted to get involved in what will likely be a wild free agent market in 2019-20?
The team will most likely still be in its primordial phase that offseason (unless the young core clicks far sooner than expected) so moving Baze to get into that market doesn’t make much sense.
Of course, if a team completely blows GM Travis Schlenk away with an offer for Baze, he will almost certainly listen politely then ask for another draft pick before deciding to pull the trigger on any deal for the 29-year-old wing.
At this juncture, Baze is slated to be the second-oldest player on the team behind the recently acquired Jeremy Lin. Lin and Baze should be able to provide oodles of veteran leadership to the young Hawks rookies and sophomores, which is an invaluable asset to have on any team – let alone one that recently hired a new head coach.
Sure, Baze’s inherent defensive abilities (he was trending towards a top-5 finish in steals in the league before getting injured) and smooth three-point jumper (career-high 39.4 percent from distance on a career-high 4.2 attempts per game) would be a boon for any and all playoff teams in the NBA next season.
In the Hawks locker room, however, the continuity he would bring to a franchise that has been in constant flux all offseason would be even more valuable to the young core of Trae Young, John Collins, Kevin Huerter, Omari Spellman and Tyler Dorsey.
Even if he is traded at the deadline during the 2018-19 season, his veteran presence would be invaluable to such a youthful Hawks team.
Next: Hawks Projected Starting Lineup for 18-19 Season
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