The Atlanta Hawks were the subject of national ridicule after trading De'Andre Hunter for Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, two protected first round picks, and three second round picks. With his back against the wall, however, Onsi Saleh made a miraculous save.
The Hawks made a series of brilliant moves this offseason with the money freed up in the trade. Without moving Hunter, it would have been impossible to acquire Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Luke Kennard, and Caleb Houstan.
With these four additions, Atlanta has a serious chance to win the Eastern Conference just one year removed from a gut-wrenchingly average season.
The Hunter trade kickstarted Atlanta's new era of prosperity
Critics will say the Hawks should have put their foot down, demanding more picks from the Cavaliers. CBS gave the trade a whopping D- grade, even saying that the Spurs got more from the trade than the Hawks. This is, of course, alluding to the fact that San Antonio owns three years of Atlanta's first round picks.
In a vacuum, perhaps the haters are right. As a trade asset, De'Andre Hunter is worth more than two late first round picks.
But there is a reason nobody was willing to beat Cleveland's offer. Whether it was Hunter's concerning injury history or his inability to crack the Hawks' starting lineup while being paid $22.5 million annually, teams were not willing to match the Cavs' offer.
Critics would also argue that Atlanta could have traded Hunter to the Celtics for Porzingis, eliminating the need to offload a first-round pick to shed the Terance Mann contract. However, this is just false. The Celtics shed salary this offseason to get below the second apron, but Boston couldn't achieve this with Hunter on the books. While Hunter is a great player, the fact of the matter is that he is a significant risk for contending teams.
What the bystanders didn't see was that Atlanta was ready to be a contender, rather than foreshadowing a tanking era. If trading Hunter was the move that kick-started the Hawks' tank, then the analysts who criticized the trade would be right. In terms of pure assets, the trade was suboptimal.
But the trade didn't kick-start a tank; it prompted perhaps the most exciting era of Atlanta basketball since Dominique Wilkins was rostered.
Atlanta is set to be a well-rounded and deep team in the weakest Eastern Conference since 2018. While the Cavaliers and Knicks are the favorites to win the conference this season, the Hawks will shock the pundits and prove the Hunter trade was the correct move after all.