5 trade deadline targets to help fix the Atlanta Hawks perimeter defense
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.