Atlanta Hawks Trade Deadline Recap: Sound, Fury Signifying Nothing

A swift trade deadline recap for the Atlanta Hawks.

The Atlanta Hawks were expected to be among the most active sellers at the NBA’s trade deadline, which came and went at 3 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 7.

With a triumvirate of talented and reportedly sought-after veterans in Kent Bazemore, Dewayne Dedmon and Jeremy Lin, the Hawks were listed as obvious trade candidates for teams looking to bolster their rotations ahead of hopefully lengthy playoff runs.

Instead, Hawks fans were treated to two underwhelming moves – despite the team being rumored to be looking at moving Taurean Prince to the Thunder as well as expressing interest in acquiring former #1 overall pick Markelle Fultz (which would’ve been a joy for this writer).

First, let’s explore the only trade that actually involved a current Atlanta Hawks player:

In this trade with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Atlanta Hawks gave up erstwhile second round pick Tyler Dorsey, who had received precious little playing time this season as the Hawks retooled around Trae Young, Kevin Huerter and DeAndre’ Bembry.

In return the Hawks briefly get former Hawk Shelvin Mack, who will be waived.

Then, the team’s second trade came with about as little fanfare as one would expect:

The Hawks only gave up a wee bit of cash in the deal, so no outgoing players from the team were involved.

So the sum of these deals is that the Hawks opened up two roster spots and left their entire roster intact save for Tyler Dorsey.

It seems that Hawks General Manager Travis Schlenk was unwilling to take on bad salaries that lasted past this year, which is why the team did not deal Bazemore for Brandon Knight with the Rockets. Furthermore, the price that the Orlando Magic paid for Fultz (a Top 20 protected pick and a second rounder) was fairly prohibitive from the Hawks’ perspective, as his value was almost completely unknown.

Lastly, with two open roster spots, the Hawks will be able to guarantee perhaps nab a buyout guy or guarantee the team’s two-way contracts of Alex Poythress and Jaylen Adams, allowing the team to sign two more two-way flyers before the season ends.

We will have far more reactions and recaps to this fairly uninteresting trade deadline on Soaring Down South, so stay tuned.