Atlanta Hawks Interested in Re-Signing Dewayne Dedmon to Short-Term Deal

A short piece about the Atlanta Hawks potentially re-signing center Dewayne Dedmon to a short-term deal in the 2019 NBA offseason.

Dewayne Dedmon finished up the second year of his contract with the Atlanta Hawks as one of the most important and productive members of the team – and easily the team’s best pure center (John Collins is more of a four man).

As a pure seven-footer with quick feet on defense and the ability to step out and bomb three-pointers from all over the court, Dedmon serves as the Hawks’ Brook Lopez (who is player that might make sense for the Atlanta Hawks to sign in free agency). However, if they don’t poach Lopez from the Bucks, it seems that re-signing Dedmon is high on the team’s priority list.

Per a story by Shams Charania at The Athletic, the Hawks could look to sign Dedmon “to a balloon one-year deal, according to sources — or a shorter-term contract like the two-year, $14 million deal he signed in 2017.”

Both options are fairly attractive, though it must be noted that Dedmon will turn 30 years old before the start of the 2019-20 season, so he does not seamlessly fit with the team’s young core in terms of year-over-year growth and development.

However, providing the team’s bright young franchise cornerstones (Trae Young, John Collins, Kevin Huerter) with a stable group of players around them (like Dedmon) should also help lead to them improving move rapidly than a roster that is cycled through year after year.

Dedmon seemed to be beloved by his teammates during the 2018-19 season, and he also provides a long and strong rim finisher for Trae Young’s masterful passing – while also hitting 38.2 percent of his three-pointers on a 41.3 percent three-point attempt rate per Basketball Reference. Both of those numbers represented career-highs for the veteran big man.

Though Atlanta Hawks fans might be happier to see a fresh face on the team as a big man, it must be noted that re-signing Dedmon does not preclude them from taking a big man in the draft. Perhaps they want to keep Dedmon on as a mentor to a potential big man of the future such as Jaxson Hayes or Brandon Clarke.

Either way, Dedmon’s indefatigable motor and infectious energy will be fun to see on the Atlanta Hawks in the 2019-20 if he is brought back.