If the Atlanta Hawks want to lean into their strength instead of trying to re-invent their roster, they could turn to Zach LaVine. The Chicago Bulls free agent is seeking a max deal and his unrestricted status means the Hawks are free to pitch him on them. Having a point guard like Trae Young is a good place to start.
Young was sixth in the scoring and led the NBA in total points last season. But he also led in total assists and was third with 9.7 dimes per game. Over 35% of Young’s 3917 total passes went to starting shooting guard, Kevin Huerter, and sixth-man, Bogdan Bogdanovic.
The two also accounted for nearly 25% of his assists.
For as good as Bogdanovic and Huerter were last season, and have shown to be in the past, LaVine is in an entirely different stratosphere.
The Atlanta Hawks have the pieces to pull off a sign-and-trade for another star
This suggestion comes from Rob Schaefer on NBC Sports Chicago, one of the hosts of the “Bulls Talk Podcast”. Schaefer and his co-hosts – K.C. Johnson and Anthony Gill – were trying to assess what a fair return for Lavine would look like if the guard wanted to leave Chicago.
Their conclusion was that it would be close to impossible to get equal value back as is often the case in such situations as LaVine’s.
But Schaefer did see pieces on the Hawks roster that would intrigue at least him.
“ issue as a team right now is they kind of have so much depth and so many quality pieces that just don’t quite ascend to that level of a star complement for Trae Young. What if you could get a De’Andre Hunter or an Okongwu back.”
While Schaefer used an “or”, we will convert this loose proposal to include both Hunter and Okongwu. This takes away the headache of having to deal with Hunter’s contract as he heads into the final year of his rookie deal. Okongwu is just heading into his third season, and it would sting to lose such a promising young piece.
This deal would allow the Hawks to keep Clint Capela around if they wanted.
But Hunter’s $9.8 million salary plus Okongwu’s $6.4 million salary would satisfy the base year compensation rule that will kick in on LaVine’s new deal. But it will not even come close to his new number, whatever that ends up being.
This deal is not dead, though. Adding Bogdan Bogdanovic gets the deal done financially, per Spotrac’s roster manager tool.
If the Hawks renounce the cap holds for their free agents — namely, Kevin Knox ($17.5M) and Skylar Mays ($2M) — and find a taker for Danilo Gallinari, then they only have to swap Bogdanovic in for Okongwu to make the money work.
Gallinari’s 2022-23 salary counts as $21.4 million for the Hawks, but just $5 million for a potential new team, complicating matters much in the way LaVine’s base-year compensation would.
We sent him to the Oklahoma City Thunder for point guard, Ty Jerome, in our example. Ironically, Jerome was Hunter’s college teammate.
Hoops Hype’s Yossi Gozlan proposed a package around some combination of Bogdanovic, trade-chatter stalwart John Collins, and Kevin Huerter. Bogdanovic is heading into the final guaranteed year of his contract with an $18 million player option for the 2023-24 season.
The Hawks just gave Collins and Huerter $190 million combined in new money last summer.
But both have been floated in proposals with the Hawks exploring options for Collins at this year’s trade deadline.
Including Collins would complicate things for the Bulls – hello again, LaVine’s base-year compensation – but he certainly profiles as someone who could interest the Bulls with his size and rebounding ability.
Still, the Hunter-Okongwu package Schaefer touched upon may be the Hawks’ most attractive offer when you consider the Bulls’ needs, the Hawks’ future finances, and fit.
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the Bulls could take a different approach to building out the roster if LaVine exits. Hunter and Okongwu would both add what the Bulls are looking for in younger packages than the 27-year-old LaVine.
There are plenty of drawbacks and hang-ups in both Schaefer and Gozlan’s proposals. The first (and most important) being does LaVine want to play for the Hawks? These proposals also take away valuable defensive pieces from the Hawks who would also presumably have to include draft capital to satisfy the Bulls.
If they can get past all of that, however, and all parties still feel good about the outcome – the Hawks were considered top suitors for LaVine by Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer – this is a deal worth exploring.