Atlanta Hawks: Kent Bazemore, Dewayne Dedmon Trades Floated by Bleacher Report

A quick peek at two trades involving two Atlanta Hawks veterans in a recent Bleacher Report article.

The Atlanta Hawks are (hopefully) heavily involved in trade talks surrounding their best veteran players, and Bleacher Report seemingly agrees with that assessment.

Two Hawks veteran that we have floated as potential trade targets on multiple occasions are Kent Bazemore and Dewayne Dedmon.

Both players are having solid seasons for the Hawks and are clearly among the team’s most effective in terms of helping this young Hawks squad actually win games on a night-to-night basis. Bazemore is the best player on the Atlanta Hawks – his only competition being John Collins, he of the stunning second season – and Baze is definitely the best trade asset on the team.

Bleacher Report frames their trades as “Trade Ideas to Prevent a Warriors 3-Peat.” While that idea may be nothing but floundering folly, the trades that writer Grant Hughes came up with from the Hawks side of things are quite reasonable. Here’s the Bazemore scenario:

For the Hawks, this is a rock-solid trade. We’ve floated similar ideas regarding Baze to the Rockets before, but this deal puts a finer point on it. With Baze in tow, the Rockets should easily make the Western Conference playoffs – meaning the 2019 pick would convey immediately.

Because the 2019 draft class is regarded as weak that might not be the best thing, but there are still a variety of interesting and talented players late in the 1st round that the Hawks should have on their radar.

Now, on to the Dedmon trade:

Again, this is a very reasonable trade. Jason Smith is in the final year of his deal and Dedmon is probably not worth a first round pick on his own at this juncture. Nabbing two more second rounders to the Hawks’ already near-overflowing draft asset coffers would be a boon for General Manager Travis Schlenk’s front office.

With the trade deadline somehow only a month away, expect the Atlanta Hawks to make a deal sooner than later with Baze and Dedmon (along with Jeremy Lin) being the headlining players that could be on the move.