Should the Atlanta Hawks make a trade with the San Antonio Spurs?

The San Antonio Spurs are ceding that they will not compete this season and as a result they are looking to make a trade, saying that every player is available on the roster. They have some nice players but according to Jake Fischer of B/R the AtlantaHawks placed a call to the Spurs enquiring about Derrick White.

White is a 6’4″ guard who is now in his fifth year in the NBA. He has developed from a seldom used rookie where he averaged 3.2 point and 1.5 rebounds per game in his rookie year to an integral part of the Spurs system.

This season he is averaging 14.2 points, 5.7 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 1.0 steals, and 0.9 blocks in 30.4 minutes per game. He is a player with the proven ability to fill up the box score every night, being solid on beoth ends of the floor. So the question is, should the Atlanta Hawks make a trade for Derrick White?

The pros and cons for the Atlanta Hawks trading for Derrick White.

Derrick White has been a solid 3-point shooter for most of his career, shooting 34.0 percent of 3.6 attempts per game. While this is passable, he is only making 29.8 percent of his 5.2 attempts per game this season.

Part of the reason for this is that the Spurs lost their main offensive weapon DeMar DeRozan in the offseason. This mean opponents are now more focussed on players like White and Dejounte Murray. If White came to the Hawks it is likely that he would see his percentage rise again due to having more space on the floor as the Hawks have a huge number of offensive threats already.

However, there are two main drawbacks to trading for White. He has been injury-plagued for most of his career. While he only played 17 games in his rookie season, in the next four seasons there have been 318 games that he could have played. He was only able to suit up for 216 of them. This means he has missed on average 25 games a season and the Hawks don’t need a player who is injured so often, we have seen what this does to the team.

The other reason that the Hawks should not trade for White is the size of his contract. He signed a $73 million deal in the 2020 offseason meaning that the Hawks would be paying him an average of $17 million for the next three seasons.

This means that the Hawks would have to trade the likes of Bogdan Bogdanovic who has been tremendous since his return from injury. They could also trade Kevin Huerter who has been on a whole different level for the Hawks lately and is also crucial for the success of the team. neither option is preferable.

This leaves Danilo Gallinari or possibly a package from the Spurs for either John Collins or Trae Young. The last option is to package up Onyeka Okongwu or De’Andre Hunter with some of the other smaller contracts in order to land White.

None of these options are in the interest of the team. Trading Gallinari, who is a walking mismatch for another 6’4″ guard is just bad for team balance. Trading Young or Collins is out of the question for a player like White who is not a franchise star. Lastly, Okongwu and Hunter are off the table. Since their return the Hawks defense has been the difference and they are largely responsible for the current winning streak.

So, should the Atlanta Hawks trade for Derrick White? Prior to the return of the defensive core, there was a possiblity. Now, with the team fully healthy it has to be a hard pass as he does not make this team better with who the Hawks would have to give up.