Grade the trade: Hawks land pair of former 1st-round picks from Rockets

Less than one week after the Atlanta Hawks shipped out the longest-tenured player on the roster, John Collins, they once again pulled the trigger on a trade.

“Atlanta sends out the draft rights to Alpha Kaba to Houston for TyTy Washington, Usman Garuba, ‘28 HOU 2nd, ‘25 MIN 2nd and $1.1m cash,” tweeted Lauren L. Williams of the Atlanta Journal-Constituion on July 1 providing confirmation and context to an earlier tweet from Shams Charania of The Athletic.

This deal is less of a blockbuster than the Collins trade but could have significant implications.

The Hawks traded Collins in large part to create space under the luxury tax and are $8.8 million below the threshold after the trade and now find themselves on the other side of such a trade, says Jeff Schultz of the Athletic.

Rockets doing this for cap space purposes,” Schultz tweeted in the aftermath. “Hawks getting cash back in deal.”

Houston, who entered the offseason with the most money to spend in free agency, are now fifth on the list behind (in order from most to least) the San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, and Orlando Magic after a couple of high-profile and high-priced moves to land some veterans.

The Hawks have been mired in trade rumors for most of the season.

That will not stop even with Collins now gone thanks to moves like this that don’t fit the projected plan for the current roster. This Hawks team entered the offseason above the luxury tax line and did well to get below it.

Atlanta is looking to get a 41-41 team back to its glory as an Eastern Conference Finals threat while the Rockets are trying to go from rebuilding to being a competitive brand.

So, how did both sides do in working toward their respective goals with this trade?