Remembering the time the Atlanta Hawks almost went all-in for Paul George.
Back in 2017, Indiana Pacers stud Paul George was the biggest name on the NBA trade market. Many teams made huge offers to the Pacers for the 26-year-old All-Star, although he was not traded until that off-season, landing in OKC. One of the teams that made an offer was the Atlanta Hawks.
The news didn’t break until a few months after, but in May, ESPN writer Brian Windhorst reported that the Atlanta Hawks had offered four first-round picks for PG-13.
At that time, the Hawks were just two seasons removed from the 60-win season that netted them the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. They had already lost major contributors from that season, however, with Jeff Teague, Al Horford, Demarre Carroll, and Kyle Korver no longer on the team.
They were clinging to relevance (and a playoff spot) in 2017, riding All-Star Paul Millsap, a young Dennis Schröder and free-agent signing Dwight Howard to a fifth seed in the playoffs, losing to the Wizards in the first round.
Adding Paul George, who was in the midst of arguably his best season, would have made the Hawks instant contenders to make the Finals, especially since they were only sending picks out.
In hindsight, however, this trade could have severely hurt the Hawks’ future, and they could be feeling that to this day.
Granted there are no further details on what picks would be going to Indy or how/if they were going to be protected. At least two of them would have been their own, as they only owned two from other teams at that point.
They owned future picks from the T-Wolves which was eventually used to draft Kevin Huerter, and one from the Cavs, which was a part of the package that helped the Hawks move up to the fourth spot last summer to draft De’Andre Hunter.
Assuming the other two picks were Atlanta’s own from 2017 and 2018, the Hawks also would have missed out on drafting John Collins and Trae Young. Yikes.
Yes, Paul George was and still is a top-ten player in the league and would have been a great addition to a team lacking true star power but there was no guarantee he would re-sign there.
George had one season left on his deal at the 2017 deadline, so he wasn’t a true rental, but all signs were pointing to him going to L.A soon enough. He eventually did re-sign in OKC to run it back with his buddy Russell Westbrook but eventually asked for a trade after two years with the Thunder.
Ironically, the Clippers snagged the six-time All-Star by giving up five first-rounders (and a few players) last summer, so his price tag stayed consistent.
There is a world in which Paul George falls in love with Atlanta and is still on the team today, but it’s become very clear that he was always gunning to return to California. Trading away those four picks would have severely hurt the Hawks’ future, which is now the present.
We saw a similar situation play out in Brooklyn back in 2013 when the Nets sent three unprotected first-rounders to Boston for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry. They were never that successful after that, and two of those picks that Brooklyn missed out on ending up being in the top five.
It set the Nets franchise back years, and they were the laughing stock of the NBA for quite some time. Looking back, it’s a good thing that the Hawks hit the rebuild button when they did. It would have been easy to throw a bunch of money to Paul Millsap and try to pair him with a Paul George type star, and that could have really backfired.
It would have been a franchise-altering move, but one that likely would have been a negative one.