The Atlanta Hawks have pulled off a three-team trade with the Boston Celtics and Sacramento Kings per Woj of ESPN. Originally the deal was reported as a trade between the Hawks and Celtics but it expanded to a three-team deal with the Kings
The deal started with the Hawks trading Kris Dunn and a future second-round pick to the Celtics in return for Tristan Thompson. Then further details were announced that Bruno Fernando was also included as a part of the deal.
The Hawks then announced that they were involving the Kings in the deal. The Hawks sent the newly acquired Thompson to the Kings in exchange for Delon Wright as another player the Hawks may try as their reserve unit point guard.
The Atlanta Hawks needed to make this trade to have more bench options.
The Hawks needed to trade Kris Dunn due to his $5.0 million contract this season basically being dead money on the salary cap sheet. He only played four regular-season games due to ankle surgery and he was a very poor offensive fit for the team when he returned.
Likewise, Bruno Fernando was relegated to the bench after Nate McMillan took over. He immediately started developing rookie Onyeka Okongwu and this meant that Fernando only received junk time minutes for the rest of the season. Let’s take a look at the actual trade though.
Now, let’s take a look at how each team fared with this deal.
Atlanta Hawks trade partner No. 1) Boston Celtics grades
As the original team in the deal, the Boston Celtics did pretty well out of this trade. After making the first trade of the offseason where they sent Kemba walker to the OKC Thunder and received Al Horford and Moses Brown in return, they had too many big men.
This is also due to Robert Williams III emerging as a really good defensive anchor. Add in Horford’s defensive abilities defensive acumen and ability to space the floor and you can see why Thompson was the odd man out.
The other problem with having Thompson remain was that he was due $9.7 million for the season. The Celtics would like to re-sign Evan Fournier and given the combined salaries of Dunn and Fernando are only $6.7 million, this move saved the Celtics $3.0 million which they can use to give Fournier a better deal.
Then there is the game of the players the Celtics received. Fernando is a throw-in but Dunn can be used to defend the opposition’s playmakers when Marcus Smart sits. If he is used in conjunction with one of the Celtics’ main stars, he will not be as much of a liability at that end. A good, solid move, but not great.
Boston Celtics Grade: A-
Atlanta Hawks trade partner No. 2) Sacramento Kings
While for a moment it looked like the Hawks were going to get Thompson to back up their starting big man Clint Capela. This would have been a sound strategy, however, what they did also works, getting Delon Wright instead.
This move was an incredibly savvy one for the Kings to make. They are facing the prospect of having to re-sign Richaun Holmes in free agency. While the Kings were not good again last season, when Holmes was on the court he made the team better.
With the Kings securing the services of Thompson they have a solid center who can start for the franchise in the event of Holmes choosing to play elsewhere. However, if Holmes does re-sign then the Kings have made it possible to move Marvin Bagley III so they can get something back for the former third pick in the 2018 BA draft.
Moving Wright was also a good move. The Kings have some tremendous depth in their guard rotation. They have Buddy Hield, De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, and the newly drafted Davion Mitchell. Wright was certainly going to lose court time which would have been a terrible waste of $8.5 million worth of cap space.
Sacramento Kings Grade – A
Atlanta Hawks trade grade
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The Hawks managed to achieve a lot of their offseason goals in just one transaction. They managed to ensure bench production with the acquisition of Wright and they got rid of the dead salary which was being paid to Dunn and Fernando.
While they added an extra $2.0 million to their cap sheet, barring injury this is Wright is going to be a solid contributor. The good thing for the Hawks is that they are only looking to give John Collins big money this season so they are able to afford to add a bit more money to their cap sheet.
If the Hawks are going to try and repeat the success of last season they are going to need to bring most of the team back from last season. They have started to upgrade the roster over last season already and given that they have an offseason to work on their chemistry.
While they did trade away the player who Okongwu was competing for minutes with until the All-Star break, the Hawks seem to have a plan for that. It is possible that they will try and use Jalen Johnson in this role until Okongwu returns with Collins sliding to the pivot, assuming he returns.
Atlanta Hawks Grade – A