Why do the Atlanta Hawks make this trade?
While there is a school of thought that the Dejounte Murray trade counts the Hawks out of securing Donovan Mitchell, However, if the Hawks want to risk small-ball with three superstar guards then there is always a chance to see how it may succeed.
Losing Griffin before he plays would hurt as would seeing the longest-tenured player and the Serbian sharpshooter. However, the Hawks could cover the loss of Collins by moving De’Andre Hunter to the four, and Murray, who is a high-volume rebounding guard would play on the wing.
However, what this trade also does for the Hawks, is it frees up about $15 million in cap space which the Hawks can use to sign any number of free agent forwards who can bring size to the franchise. There are still players of the quality of Markieff Morris available for signing.
This trade would certainly shake up the franchise and could end up going either way for the Hawks. They could climb the top of the NBA mountain or they could flame out in the first round of the playoffs again. The franchise needs to ask themselves, will the risk be worth the reward?