The Atlanta Hawks are having a torrid time at home, having dropped their last five games at State Farm Arena. During this time they have not dropped a road game. This means that the script has been flipped on their form line from the start of the season when State Farm was a fortress.
A big part of this is that they have been going through an injury crisis, which is fortunately starting to abate. However, the questions are being asked about their effort on defense and their offensive output in the fourth quarter.
Now, one way that the Hawks could fix this is by making a trade. At Soaring Down South we recently asked if trading Gorgui Dieng was the answer and while he could get them a nice rotational piece, this would not fix the problems that befall the Hawks at the moment.
Would Domantas Sabonis fix the Atlanta Hawks issues.
Domantas Sabonis reportedly wants out of Indiana and therefore the Pacers have lost some of their positional strength in trade talks. Obviously Dieng would not be enough to make this trade happen as Sabonis has worked his way into being one of the better big men in the league.
He is averaging a double-double for the third season in a row and is a big reason that the Pacers have remained competitive. There is also the advantage that Nate McMillan coached Sabonis back when he was head coach of the Pacers so he knows what the sixth-year man can do.
However, as he is on around $20 million per season until the end of 2023-24, the Hawks would have to give up a major piece to land Sabonis. The players who would make this deal work are any of John Collins, Danilo Gallinari, Bogdan Bogdanovic, or Clint Capela. All of these players are crucial to the success of the Hawks.
On top of that, only Capela is a worse 3-point shooter than Sabonis which means that the spacing on the floor would be worse, not allowing Trae Young to get to work as freely inside the paint. Trading Capela is not the answer though as the Hawks have defensive issues when he is not on the court.
So, should the Hawks be interested in Domantas Sabonis? Despite loving his heart, intensity, and effort on the court, the answer is no. The Hawks just need to get some more players back and they will be competing with the best teams in the NBA again.