Finding three players drafted by the Atlanta Hawks who improved after leaving the team.
It’s always frustrating to see your team trade away a player only to see that player do well on another team. It’s also something that Atlanta Hawks fans have seen quite a bit in the last few decades.
Whether it is the system fit, a late-blooming player, or another reason, players often thrive after getting a change of scenery after struggling or just not taking the next step in their last home. If Clint Capela breaks out next season for the Hawks, he’d be a great example of this actually working in Atlanta’s favor.
Here we’ll be taking a look at three times where this didn’t work in the Hawks’ favor, highlighting three players who went on to have solid careers after leaving the ATL.
I’m not including players who the Hawks drafted then traded right after, never playing a game for the team like Luka Doncic, Kelly Oubre, or Pau Gasol.
Here are three players who were drafted by the Atlanta Hawks but have better careers with other teams:
Boris Diaw
Drafted by the team with the 21st overall pick in 2003, Boris Diaw spent the first two years of his 14-year career on the Hawks. Atlanta, who tried to use the 6’8 power forward as a guard, played him a bunch off the bat, to mixed results.
He didn’t show much on the offensive end but handled himself well defensively. After his second season in the league, Diaw was used as the premier piece in a trade with Phoenix wherein the Hawks acquired a future seven-time All-Star.
Diaw and two future firsts were sent to the Suns in exchange for Joe Johnson. It was a win-win trade, with Diaw instantly turning a corner in the desert, winning the ’05-’06 Most Improved Player Award and Johnson showing his ability to be the focal point of an offense in Atlanta.
The French forward spent a few more seasons in Phoenix before heading to Charlotte where he headlined some pretty bad teams. He then joined the Spurs in the twilight of his career, acting as one of the team’s most important role players during their 2014 Championship run.
While the Hawks probably would do the Johnson trade over again if, given the chance, they did lose one of the most well-rounded players of this generation in Diaw who had a more than solid career post-Atlanta.
Jason Terry
With Steve Smith and Mookie Blaylock already gone, and Dikembe Mutombo in his last full season with the team, the Atlanta Hawks took Jason Terry 10th overall in 1999, hoping he’d be the major building block of the team’s next rebuild.
Terry was certainly one of the Hawks’ better players in the early ‘2000s, teams that underachieved and never made the playoffs. “The Jet” averaged 16.2 points and 5.5 assists per game during his five years in Atlanta, forming a somewhat respectable big three with Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Theo Ratliff.
The Hawks opted to move on from Terry after a 28-54 ’03-’04 season, trading him to Dallas in exchange for Tony Delk and Antoine Walker.
Neither Delk nor Walker lasted on the Hawks, while Terry became a very solid player for the Mavs, winning the Sixth Man of the Year in 2009 and helping the team win the Finals two years later.
He bounced around a few teams after leaving Dallas, and only retired two years ago at the age of 40.
Adam Keefe
While not on the same level as Diaw or Terry, Adam Keefe was dumped by the Hawks after just two years and quickly became a high volume bench piece for the Karl Malone, John Stockton Jazz teams of the ’90s.
The Hawks traded him for Tyrone Corbin and a second-round pick two years after taking him 10th overall, only to see his numbers spike when he arrived in Utah.
The center played a total of 405 games for Utah, averaging 16.7 minutes per game and essentially working as Malone’s backup power forward.
Keefe had a good career as a role player and while it’s hard to see if he would have put up the same numbers if he had stayed in Atlanta, he did have at least a note-worthy stint with the Jazz, making two Finals after leaving the Hawks.
Honorable mentions:
Which Atlanta Hawks player had the best career after leaving the team?