Atlanta Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter has assumed the mantle from John Collins as the Hawks star most often mentioned in trade rumors, usually due to the team’s overall cap situation.
Hunter, 25, is the highest draft pick on the team and averaged a career-high 15.4 points on 56.3% true shooting last season while taking on the toughest defensive assignments.
He is also starting a four-year, $90 million contract extension this season.
The Hawks have a couple of players due for new money soon in Saddiq Bey and Oneyka Okonwu and could need to shed salary elsewhere to retain them. Collins was the first big move and Danny LeRoux of The Athletic says to “expect” general manager Landry Fields to make another one unless he can win enough to justify the cost of the group.
Fields could try to thread the needle, unloading Hunter’s contract for an upgrade at the position, or even divesting one good player into two. And we have some ideas
Pelicans’ Brandon Ingram would add another bonafide scorer to Hawks
Brandon Ingram has had a rough go of it with Team USA during the FIBA World Cup, going from presumed star to a veritable afterthought as he’s admittedly struggled with not being the focal point of the offense.
Make no mistake, though, Ingram is a really good basketball player.
He averaged career-highs with 24.7 points and 5.8 assists, adding 5.5 rebounds and knocking down 39% of his looks from beyond the arc last season.
The Los Angeles Lakers traded the former No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 draft to the Pelicans for Anthony Davis in 2019. Ingram was the second youngest player in his draft class, and turns 26 years old on September 2, leaving him on the front end of his prime despite already having logged seven years in the NBA.
He is heading into the fourth year of a five-year, $158.2 million contract.
That has been a key point for players and organizations in recent NBA history with both sides being more apt to push for a trade, though for players it is generally as simple as taking the most money from your current team and then figuring the rest out after the fact.
This trade would boost the Hawks’ offense, particularly without Trae Young and Dejounte Murray.
And, while Ingram has struggled off the ball in FIBA play, his game is far better suited for the NBA – he shot 41.7% on 2.7 catch-and-shoot threes last season and is a willing passer. The biggest dropoff would be on the defensive end of the floor, though it can be argued that Hunter’s defense isn’t raising the Hawks floor or ceiling.
Julius Randle would make the Hawks more versatile
Whereas Ingram ran into difficulties trying to adapt his game to the international style of play, Julius Randle has run into rough patches of his own with the New York Knicks. An All-Star and All-NBA selection in two of the last three years, he has also bumped heads with coaches, officials, and even his teammates.
This would be a volatile move, to be clear, posing a risk of blowing up in the Hawks’ face if Randle’s antics continue. But he is a three-level scorer as well as a capable playmaker and defender when his head is right.
Another former Los Angeles Lakers draft pick, Randle averaged 25.1 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in 2022-23.
He shot just 34.3% from deep last season but that is a bump up from the year before.
The good news is that the 6-foot-8 power forward is a willing shooter, to say the least, which could make him a good fit for Quin Snyder’s three-point-reliant offensive system. Snyder’s Utah Jazz teams were typically at or near the top of the list in attempted threes, and Young has already said they expect to shoot more next season.
Randle, 28, is just entering the second year of a four-year, $117 million contract, and has not demanded a trade. But, as it has been with Ingram in New Orleans whom Randle also played for, trade rumors have floated around the Knicks big man.
Making KAT a Hawk
There is increasing buzz outside of the Minnesota Timberwolves is they will have to break up their big-man duo of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert.
Sparked in part by the team’s success playing a defensive-oriented brand of basketball, it is Towns who has been viewed as the potential odd-man out. He is in the final year of a five-year, $158.2 million contract but will begin a four-year extension worth up to $224 million beginning in 2024-25.
Gobert still has three years and over $131 million still owed to him and, as the older, more offensively limited player, figures to have less of a trade market. The Timberwolves are also trying to navigate the dynamite between Towns and budding superstar Anthony Edwards.
Edwards isn’t getting traded this year but Towns very well could be, based on growing sentiments around the league.
Towns averaged 20.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 4.8 assists last season, making just 29 appearances due to injury. But Minnesota was one game above .500 with or without Towns last season.
This could require a third team since sending Capela to Minnesota is counterproductive. But the Dallas Mavericks have been one of the teams the Hawks big man has been linked to while they could seize an opportunity to unload one of their less favorable contracts to Minnesota who adds shooting around Edwards in the scenario above.
And Hardaway’s contract expires after the 2024-25 season.
Even if this deal doesn’t go down during the season, the Hawks may want to explore this potential option next summer if Towns’ situation doesn’t improve.
Blazers’ Jerami Grant could make for sense for Hawks
The Portland Trail Blazers re-signed Grant this offseason, inking him to a five-year, $160 million contract with the idea they would continue to add around Damian Lillard. Lillard’s trade demand has altered those plans.
Portland has said they believe they can keep Lillard and No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson but the former has held firm in his demand.
If he goes, Grant almost certainly will follow him out the door, perhaps to Atlanta.
Grant averaged 20.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists while shooting 40.1% from beyond the arc last season. But him alone for Hunter would not be a sound move for the Hawks, not considering the age difference and greater financial commitment. But, if the Hawks could add a two-time All-Defensive Team selection in Matisse Thybulle, it becomes a lot more palatable.
Thybulle is in the first year of a three-year, $33 million pact after the Trail Blazers matched the offer sheet he signed with the Dallas Mavericks.
He averaged just 4.1 points and 2.0 rebounds last season, split between Portland and the Philadelphia 76ers. But Thybulle saw his three-ball return after being traded, sinking 38.8% of his 3.9 deep looks per game with the Blazers.
Portland could bank on Hunter’s continued development while the Hawks get better right now at power forward and in perimeter defense, especially if Thybulle’s three-point shooting stays.
Hawks pursuit of Pascal Siakam is well-documented
The potential trade that has been among the most often discussed this offseason was Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam to the Atlanta Hawks. But, due to various hurdles, nothing has been consummated, though the Hawk are said to have made at least one offer for the two-time All-Star.
There was even word that Hawks rookie Kobe Bufkin could be a swing piece to getting a deal done in the end.
The Hawks are said to have already offered Hunter for him.
Siakam’s stance on signing a contract extension complicates things, to be sure. But only if the Hawks plan on low-balling him in free agency. As long as he is not specifically against re-signing in Atlanta next summer, it is a non-issue.
Their pursuit shows they believe he would be a good fit with the rest of the group under head coach Quin Snyder.
The groundwork has also already been laid thanks to the previous offer.
Atlanta is said to be fully content to enter the season as currently constructed. But that does not mean they will finish the season that way. And with an outside belief that they could need to win to keep the group together, doing what it takes to land Siakam might not seem as daunting as it would if they could think longer-term.
Sometimes the best answer is the most obvious one. This deal has not happened but it has certainly had the most smoke of any of these scenarios.