Finding one player the Atlanta Hawks could sign from the Chicago Bulls.
In our ongoing series to find one player from each NBA team the Atlanta Hawks could sign this summer, we hit a bit of a roadblock when getting to the Chicago Bulls’ roster.
Unless they cut someone in the next couple of months, the Bulls will have zero players becoming unrestricted free agents this fall. Luckily, for the purposes of this exercise, they do have a few restricted free agents the Hawks can try to sign away, including point guard Kris Dunn.
Although he has yet to play like the fifth-overall pick he was in 2016, Dunn has established himself as a solid perimeter defender. ESPN’s metric of defensive real plus/minus has Dunn tabbed as the fifth-best defender in the league this season, the second-best guard.
His defensive rating of 103.6 was better than other notable defensive-stoppers like Avery Bradley, Pascal Siakam, Marcus Smart, and Kawhi Leonard. The Atlanta Hawks could really use a lockdown guy like Dunn to back up Trae Young, and because of his other limitations, he could be fairly cheap.
Dunn’s downfalls on offense are real, and he actually regressed on that end of the court this year. He shot 25 percent from three (112 attempts) in his fourth NBA season, averaging 7.3 points per game, his worst since his rookie campaign.
That could make him a perfect fit in Atlanta, as the team has a load of young, offensive-minded players to take the burden off of Dunn on that end.
It’s yet to be reported on how invested the Bulls are in Dunn, but with rookie Coby White looking like a future star in the Windy City this year, an outside team may be able to steal Dunn away on an offer sheet.
The Hawks have the cap space to do so, and while they should be careful to not overpay someone as one-dimensional an injury-prone as Dunn, he could be a great addition to one of the league’s worst defenses.
Should the Atlanta Hawks sign Kris Dunn?