The Atlanta Hawks have more immediate issues to worry about than the offseason, but the upcoming summer certainly looms large. They have several players on expiring contracts, and many of them, such as Clint Capela, could seek out greener pastures.
Capela is in the fnal year of a two-year, $46 million contract and will be an unrestricted free agent after the campaign.
Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus listed Capela as the Hawks’ “most likely flight risk.”
“Many free-agent decisions speak more to whether the team wants to spend money to keep a player and less on who might steal them,” Pincus wrote on March 25. “The Hawks must decide if Clint Capela is their starting center of the future or whether they should hand the reins to 24-year-old Onyeka Okongwu. Capela is taller (6'10") than Okongwu (6'8"), but he's almost 31 and has slowed with age.
“The Hawks can look for a center in the draft (via the Los Angeles Lakers and/or Sacramento Kings' first-rounders) or in free agency. Capela should find suitors elsewhere, although he'll undoubtedly be taking a pay cut from his $22.3 million salary this season. He should sign a new deal in the $5-14 million-per-year range.”
First, Capela opened the 2024-25 season – his fifth with the Hawks – as the starter in mid-January. The Hawks replaced him with former No. 6 overall pick Onyeka Okongwu, a decision that was a long time coming.
It also all but signaled Capela’s time in Atlanta was near an end.
Capela has not played since March 10, sidelined by a hand injury that may have effectively ended his season and Hawks tenure in one fell swoop.
All in all, Capela may indeed be the Hawks’ greatest flight risk. That does not mean they are dreading or even unprepared to lose him this offseason. It does make their decision to hold onto him at the trade deadline look short-sighted, though his injury woes have underscored that.
Hawks other flight risks could prove more costly
Pincus listed three others as potential flight risks for the Hawks, naming Caris LeVert, Garrison Mathews, and Larry Nance Jr.
Mathews has been sparingly used this season despite his surprising contributions during the 2023-24 campaign. Nance too found playing time difficult to come by consistently before suffering what also threatens to be his final game as a Hawk.
LeVert is the conundrum.
LeVert is the Hawks’ second-leading scorer and playing the fourth-most minutes since the trade deadline.
This version of the Hawks will not be the one that takes the floor in 2025-26, no matter how well they fare in the postseason. They will have Jalen Johnson back next season, for one thing. But a number of other players figure to be replaced this coming summer.
Capela, the 2020-21 rebounding champion, could be chief among them.