Atlanta Hawks: 4 Big Names Hawks Should Consider in Free Agency

Kevin Durant

And it all comes down to this. Kevin Durant has a player option with the Golden State Warriors this offseason, and though the team will likely be coming off of a three-peat, the scuttlebutt surrounding KD is that he is ready to move on to a different basketball situation.

The New York Knicks are the frontrunner, apparently, and if Kyrie Irving also goes to the Big Apple, the Knicks will be in great shape in terms of high-end talent.

However, could the Atlanta Hawks be a dark horse for landing Durantula? They have a strong young voice in the coaching ranks in Lloyd Pierce, a brilliant core of young talent and Hawks fans would embrace KD much more than Golden State’s fans ever have.

Durant would be coming in as the player to push this Atlanta Hawks squad over the top, and he would do so through his generational offensive game, which continues to chug along at an incredibly high level – much as it has over his 11-year NBA career.

A 10-time All-Star and 8-time All-NBA member with a career 49/38/88 slash line in 11 seasons, Durant is pretty much a guaranteed 25-point, 6-rebound, 5-assist per game guy at this juncture of his career. Though his defense has slipped during his Warriors tenure, it seems his ability to get amped for regular season games has also waned to a massive degree.

If Durant were to come to the Atlanta Hawks, this team would immediately be vaulted into the conversation as one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference – especially in combination with what the team does in other areas of the offseason (the draft, trades, etc.).

While this might be a pipe dream, the Atlanta Hawks brass would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn’t at least gauge Durant’s temperature on joining up with Ice Trae, Red Pepper and John the Baptist in Atlanta.