Grade the Trade: Hawks send Dejounte to Timberwolves in stunning idea

Would the Hawks make this trade?

There are two primary questions that need to be answered to evaluate this trade from the Hawks’ side. The first is whether they would truly be willing to go into the luxury tax for the right team, or if that’s just lip service. Karl-Anthony Towns is going to become very expensive starting in 2024-25, jumping up to $52.36 million in salary. A Hawks team hard-capping itself at the tax line will struggle to maintain a roster around Trae Young and Towns.

The other question is whether the Hawks think that Towns can play in double-big lineups with either Clint Capela or Onyeka Okongwu. If so, they can effectively bring Towns into John Collins’ vacated spot in the starting lineup, although they’ll certainly play him plenty at center.

Offensively, the pairing of Trae Young and Karl-Anthony Towns would be absolutely lethal. Towns may need to cool his jets calling himself the “best shooting big in NBA history” but he’s not far off. He has hit 39.5 percent of his career 3-pointers, making at least two per game in four straight seasons. The variations of offensive two-man actions will be spectacular, along the lines of Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic in Denver.

Defense is where the pairing becomes more strained, as Towns is not a steady rim protector and putting him as the backline behind Young is a tough ask. The Hawks would need to focus on surrounding them with solid defenders, again a la the Nuggets around Jokic. It’s possible, but it requires Towns to be spectacular on offense.

Does this trade change the Hawks’ outlook? Perhaps, or perhaps not, but what it does is give them a new look. Running back the same group invites the same basic result. A change of this magnitude introduces variance into the equation, and perhaps that sends the Hawks back up the standings.

Towns’ contract is going to be punitive, and combined with the team-building constraints he introduces, this is an overpay for him. It’s the right kind of idea, and this new Hawks team would be fun to watch, but it’s probably not the right move to make if giving up Murray is the cost, especially if the Hawks have an owner unwilling to pay the luxury tax in future seasons.

Grade: C+