Atlanta Hawks’ Best Free Agent Signings of the Decade
By Dallin Duffy
Highlighting the Atlanta Hawks’ best free agency signing of the past decade.
The Atlanta Hawks don’t often throw open the bank come free agency, making each signing a pretty big deal.
Some of the best Hawks of recent memory were acquired via free agency, such as Dikembe Mutombo, Joe Johnson, and Paul Millsap.
This decade has been no exception to that, an here we’ll be taking a look at the best free agency hits of the Hawk’ decade.
2012 – Lou Williams
Atlanta native Lou WIlliams signed a 2-year deal with the team back in the summer of 2012.
Probably the most famous 6th man in NBA history, Lou did come off the bench for the Hawks, still averaging 11.9 points per game during his 2 seasons in Atlanta.
Nagging injuries kept Williams from appearing in more than 60 games either season, missing 43 games in his first year.
He still showed his trademark ability to get incredibly hot on offense on occasion, and was when he first really showed a deadly three pointer.
2013 – Paul Millsap
Trillsap just landed at the #2 spot on our top Hawks players of the decade ranking, and he’s easily the best free agent singing during that time.
Paul Millsap went on to make the All-Star game in each of his four seasons in Atlanta, adding both floor spacing and back-to-basket offense to go along with game-changing defense. Numbers wise he averaged 17.4 points, 1.2 blocks, 1.7 steals and 8.3 rebounds per game, leading the team in points in 3 of his 4 seasons.
The now-Nugget was a true model of consistency during his Hawks tenure, and nearly every Atlanta fan misses him.
2013 – Demarre Carroll
Just a month after singing Millsap, the Hawks also went after his former Jazz teammate, DeMarre Carroll.
Carroll played just two years total with the Hawks, but was an intrugal piece of the ’14-’15 60-win team.
He brought high-energy defense and a knockdown three during his 142 starts with the team.
Carroll left in 2015 free agency, signing a massive deal with the Raptors, money he definately earned in Atlanta.
2017 – Ersan Ilyasova, Dewayne Dedmon
I lumped these two together, as both the big men were signed on the same day, July 21st, 2017.
Ilyasova went on to play in 72 games for the Hawks, acting as a nice stop-gap power forward and bridge to John Collins. He averaged 10.7 points and 5.6 rebounds during his time for the Hawks, earning a reputation for drawing charges along the way.
Dewayne Dedmon played 2 full seasons for Atlanta, providing floor-spacing threes and solid defense.
He also averaged 10.4 points a game to go along with the 7.7 rebounds and 1 block a game.
Both players are the type the Hawks could use right about now.
Next. Atlanta Hawks' Top 5 Players of the Decade. dark
Looking back, Atlanta hasn’t really hit any home runs this decade in free agency, more like a series of doubles with one grand slam: Paul Millsap.
We’ll see if their offseason strategy changes at all as we enter the first full decade under Travis Schlenk.