Atlanta Hawks: A Bradley Beal trade only works financially

The Atlanta Hawks are coming off of their most successful season in quite some time. That’s led to some extra attention, even here in the offseason. From what to expect with John Collins in his restricted free agency to hypothetical trades for draft picks. All of it just points back to how good this roster was last season and can be going forward.

So when Bleacher Report mentioned the Hawks as a possible trade destination for Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards, naturally, it got our attention.

While we have suggested there could be a consolidation of sorts coming for the Hawks — several members of their young core are due for new contracts, including Trae Young — our efforts were mostly towards the frontcourt.

An Atlanta Hawks-Washington Wizards trade centered around Bradley Beal would be nice on paper

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First things first, we have gotten no indication from either Beal or the Wizards that they are looking to move on from each other. There have the standard “sources with knowledge” leaks but that has been going on for quite some time with Beal.

And the Hawks have given even fewer signals they are looking into the situation.

The trade works financially though.

Depending on how they go about retaining Collins, sending a combination of Bogdan Bogdanovic along with Kevin Huerter or Cam Reddish (likely both) would be enough to match Beal’s over $34 million annual salary and satisfy league rules.

You’d also have to include a bevy of picks, resulting in something like this:

However, just because a trade can work in the books doesn’t mean it will on the court. Could Beal and Young even co-exist?

This isn’t necessarily a worry with Beal as we watched him work with Russell Westbrook this past season who, like Young, is a high-usage player, even for a point guard. Young finished sixth among qualifiers in usage rate last season. Beal was one of the few players to rank above him. Their relative position flipped in the postseason but both were still in the top 12.

Bogdanovic was fourth on the Hawks last season with a 21 percent usage rate. That’s well below Beal. And, while Huerter and Reddish’s rates were in the mid-to-high teens, Collins was over 21 percent himself.

Beyond that (Young is a willing passer after all), Atlanta would be giving up a trio of versatile wings. They would also be giving up the means to replace them cheaply with picks.

On the positive side, they would get to keep De’Andre and Clint Capela in addition to Collins.

Danilo Gallinari and Onyeka Okongwu would also still form a formidable backup frontcourt duo and perhaps Kris Dunn can be a serviceable backup point guard next season. He certainly brings defense. However, the depth on the wing would be non-existent, unless Solomon Hill returns.

And he alone certainly is not enough. We saw how valuable the Hawks depth was throughout last season and the playoffs. They could always pursue a guy like Doug McDermott to round out the bench. But sacrificing the current depth doesn’t seem to be worth it.

For all of his great scoring ability, Beal doesn’t solve the problems that ultimately cost the Hawks the series against the eventual world champs. And when framed that way, there’s more incentive to stand pat than not in this case.