If the Atlanta Hawks (17-20) want to get their season back on track, moves will have to be made. That was the indication from general manager Travis Schlenk on Tuesday ahead of news on Wednesday that Bogdan Bogdanovic, John Collins, and others were cleared from health and safety protocols.
Their returns, along with Clint Capela and Kevin Huerter being further removed from their stints on the list, should go a long way toward correcting some of what we’ve seen last week.
Still, we cannot ignore Schlenk’s frustration.
Adding fuel to the fire is a pair of reports from The Athletic, one naming Danilo Gallinari and Cam Reddish as available while another ran through some possible targets. Among them, Myles Turner of the Indiana Pacers (whom we also liked) as well as the Boston Celtics Marcus Smart and Jalen Brown.
The Atlanta Hawks should have plenty of options should they enter the trade market
Of course, we have also suggested Brandon Ingram as a potential target. With Reddish being involved, perhaps reuniting him with Zion Williamson in hopes of appeasing the latter would finally sway the New Orleans Pelicans.
The crowd interested in acquiring Reddish has already begun submitting their proposals as well.
There is going to be no shortage of suggestions and ideas until the trade deadline in a little over a month.
With Schlenk’s frustration geared more toward the defense, and his attempts to downplay his insistence on deadline activity, we will focus our latest efforts on two-way and defensive-minded players exclusively. That further narrows down a pool that is already in question with the play-in tournament keeping teams engaged deeper into the season.
So who should they target?
Atlanta Hawks trade-deadline target No. 1: Caris LeVert was playing well before entering protocols
Our first suggestion could come at a relative discount to the Hawks were they to pursue him. Caris LeVert was one of several players mentioned by name with it was reported the Indiana Pacers would be moving forward with a rebuild. Naturally, the focus has been on stud big-man Domantas Sabonis and center Myles Turner.
With the Hawks weakness at the point of attack and on the perimeter – they rank 20th in opponents’ three-point percentage – LeVert could solve that problem as well as a couple of others.
Opponents are shooting just 31.4 percent on defended threes against him this season.
Of Atlanta’s wing stoppers, only Kevin Huerter and Cam Reddish have come close to that type of lockdown on the outside.
This deal includes Bogdan Bogdanovic as opposed to Gallinari. But it solves issues for both teams with the Hawks upgrading their shooting guard position with LeVert and getting a reliable vet bench option in Torrey Craig. A first-round pick might have to be added. But, with that pick likely to be in the mid-to-late 20s if this hypothetical deal works out, it’s worth it.
Indy gets Reddish as part of its rebuild and Bogdanovic to keep or flip in another deal.
The availability is a big deal because LeVert hasn’t cracked 50 games in any of the last three seasons and has only once appeared in more than 60 games. He made 71 appearances with 10 starts back in 2018, his second year in the league, as injuries have been an issue to this point.
That could lead the Hawks to stay away as he’s also in health and safety protocols. But the more prudent route would be to try to get him for a song while other teams focus their efforts elsewhere.
Their loss could be the Hawks gain
LeVert is averaging 17.8 points on 43.1 percent shooting with 4.0 assists, 3.3 assists, and 1.0 steals this season. He was averaging 25.5 points on 44.1 percent shooting overall and 31.7 percent from downtown in the four games before going into protocols.
He hasn’t shot the three-ball very well at just 31 percent is just a 33.3 percent shooter for his career. But he is just two seasons removed from shooting 36.4 percent from distance.
Atlanta Hawks trade-deadline target No. 2: Taurean Prince would be a better addition this time around
One of the key bits of info from Schlenk’s interview was his reference to the Atlanta Braves and how they opted for smaller moves instead of making a drastic change to the makeup of their roster. It is a method that makes sense for the Hawks, given their wealth of young assets, to try and better supplement them rather than dumping them off prematurely.
Cam Reddish’s name comes to mind in this regard.
As such, there are several lesser-known (but still high-quality) options that the Hawks could pursue to shore up their perimeter defense while maintaining flexibility going forward with Clint Capela and Kevin Huerter among those who cannot be traded until the offseason.
At, or near, the top of that list should be a familiar face in Taurean Prince. The 6-foot-7, former first-round pick of the Utah Jazz (12th overall) spent the first three years of his career in Atlanta.
His second season when he averaged 14.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists was his best.
This trade harkens back to the draft when it was rumored the Timberwolves were sniffing around Reddish and landing Patrick Beverley is arguably an even bigger get than Prince.
Beverley is holding his assignments 11.6 percent below their averages from deep this season.
Prince has developed into quite the shooter, this season notwithstanding, shooting over 38 percent from beyond the arc three times in his career and 40 percent just last season which he split between the Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Now, with the Minnesota Timberwolves, he is averaging 4.9 points and 2.2 boards in just over 15 minutes per game. He’s shooting 37.8 percent overall and 31.2 percent from three. But this wouldn’t be an offensive acquisition.
While Prince’s matchups are shooting above their averages on threes this season, he was holding them 3.4 percent below their averages on triples as recently as 2020 with Brooklyn.
The pick going to the Hawks has a lot to do with the salary they would be taking back.
Atlanta Hawks trade-deadline target No. 3: The Hawks could use “Kenny Hustle”
The Oklahoma City Thunder aren’t planning on contending for quite some time. Owners of an unfathomable amount of draft capital for the next half-decade, the Thunder have garnered a lot of attention around here with some of the options they have to offer and Kenrich Williams is another.
Williams is averaging 7.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.0 steals while shooting 45.9 percent from the floor and 38.4 percent from deep in 20 minutes per game coming off of the bench.
The efficiency isn’t a fluke and represents a dip from the previous season when he averaged 8.0 points, 4.1 boards, and 2.3 assists in over 21 minutes per.
He shot 53.3 percent from the floor and 44.4 percent from deep for the campaign.
Another 6-foot-6 wing, Williams is a versatile defender. Of the 349 players to appear in over 20 games, Williams is eighth in defensive rating. Only Milwaukee’s George Hill has been better while also averaging at least 20 minutes per game. His plus-16.6 on-off differential leads the team.
All of this likely has him as an appealing target for multiple teams. That will drive the price to pry him loose up hence Reddish and the first-round pick. There is also a little issue of redundancy with the Hawks already rostering Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot but he has been getting torched on the perimeter.
There are layers to this one.
In most instances, the Hawks could do much worse than walking away from all of this with Williams.
Atlanta Hawks trade-deadline target No. 4: Keita Bates-Diop is toiling away in San Antonio
The San Antonio Spurs are in an interesting position. They are long overdue for a full-blow rebuild. But their penchant for finding and developing players has led to a rather hodgepodge roster being in the mix for the play-in tournament entering play on Friday. That has left them with a few players who are in a similar limbo.
One of those players, Keita Bates-Diop, would help solve a couple of issues for the Hawks and should require a minimal investment.
Seeing around 15 minutes per game, Bates-Diop is averaging 5.2 points and 3.6 rebounds on 53 percent shooting. He is shooting just 30 percent from three but got up to 33 percent back in 2020.
His per-36 numbers show he is arguably enjoying the best season of his career with 12.1 points, 9.1 boards, 1.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and just under one block per game. But, again, that isn’t really why we are here.
This trade keeps all the major players in town (for the time being) and takes advantage of Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot’s contract which becomes guaranteed on Friday at 5 p.m. ET. With the Hawks getting healthier, there will be fewer minutes at shooting guard. Perhaps there are second-round pick swaps involved or picks outright exchanged to push this deal through.
At 6-foot-8, Bates-Diop offers the size to guard fours but has shown enough athleticism to cover smaller, quicker wings too. His matchups have shot 32.4 percent on triples with him on guard, 1.6 percent below their average. That would put him right on par with our next entry defensively.
He also has a 30-point game, off of the bench, banked this season in a game that came just before Christmas and saw him go 11-for-11 from the field including 3-for-3 from range.
This might be more along the lines of a secondary deal to replenish depth should the Hawks go after a big fish. There should be trepidation to trust him as anything more than that if Gregg Popovic hasn’t entrusted him with more responsibility.
Atlanta Hawks trade-deadline target No. 5: Justise Winslow has a very useful skillset
Continuing with our theme of defense and/or versatility to help strengthen the Hawks core, may we present an option that won’t break the bank in Justise Winslow. Hawks fans may remember him as a failed lottery pick of the Miami Heat. But he has quietly been one of the most versatile players and better perimeter defenders in the league.
Now, his raw numbers haven’t been much to look at over the last two seasons, spent split between the Memphis Grizzlies in 2021 and the Los Angeles Clippers this year.
Winslow is averaging just 3.7 points, 2.9 boards, and 1.0 assists in 11 minutes per game.
Just two seasons ago he was putting up 11.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.0 assists. The year before that it was 12.6/5.4/4.3 with 1.1 steals per contest. Those numbers came with him playing the second and third-most minutes of his career.
This deal would probably require the Clippers to fall out of contention by the deadline. With their future prospects made brighter by the anticipated return of Kawhi Leonard, they could go on an inspired run.
If not, the Hawks should pounce
Winslow has averaged 13.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.0 blocks over the Spurs last two games.
Through it all, Winslow has maintained his passing ability. At one point he was the backup point guard for the Heat. And, in a display of his versatility, has played some small-ball five with the Clippers. That isn’t something he would need to do on the Hawks, of course. But it’s nice to know that that particular wrinkle can be thrown at opponents.
Isaiah Hartenstein is a 7-footer with potential from long-distance.
This is still about perimeter defense, though, and Winslow is in the mold of those before him. He’s allowed his matchups to shoot 32.4 percent fro behind the three-point line; 2.4 percent below their season average.
As a reminder, the Hawks best perimeter defenders this season have been Huerter whose assignments are shooting 31.4 percent, and Reddish who has allowed his matchups to shoot 32.9 percent from downtown.