The Atlanta Hawks have reportedly completed a trade for Dorian Finney-Smith. Atlanta sent Buddy Hield, Ryan Nembhard, and cash to the Charlotte Hornets for the veteran, who has long been renowned as one of the better defensive wings of his era.
Though Finney-Smith is 33 and coming off of a tough 2025-26 season, his defense remains reliable and his size should help provide defensive balance to a small second unit.
The Hawks' rotation projects to heavily feature Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Luguentz Dort, Kingston Flemings, CJ McCollum, and Aaron Wiggins. All five of those high-level guards brings something intriguing to the table, but Alexander-Walker and Wiggins at 6'5" are the only two in the group who stand taller than 6'4".
Starters Dyson Daniels at 6'7" and Jalen Johnson at 6'8" certainly help offset those concerns, but the second unit was devoid of a proven perimeter player with the size to defend bigger wings or 4s.
Finney-Smith should thus be a perfect fit. He stands at 6'7" and 220 pounds with a near 7'0" wingspan, and has a long history of defending at a high level. That includes 2025-26, when he appeared in just 37 games and perhaps inevitably struggled to find his jumper.
If Finney-Smith can continue to defend at the level expected of him and ideally rediscover his jump shot, then the Hawks will have made a pivotal addition to their rotation.
Dorian Finney-Smith offers the size, defense Hawks' second unit needed
Hawks fans shouldn't lose too much sleep over the fact that Finney-Smith missed 45 games in 2025-26. 27 of those 45 absences were due to the fact that he underwent offseason ankle surgery and thus missed time at the start of the year.
Finney-Smith was generally healthy and available the rest of the way. Houston simply didn't always have space for him with its surplus of forwards creating minimal opportunity for playing time.
In Atlanta, Finney-Smith should have every opportunity to play meaningful minutes. Rookie Zuby Ejiofor, second-year forward Asa Newell, and 23-year-old enigma Mouhamed Gueye will all have a chance to secure minutes at the 4, but the veteran should be able to compete with them and potentially round the second unit into form.
Otherwise, the Hawks may very well have relied on an undersized bench or overburdened Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu as starters who'd need to be present to anchor the second unit—particularly after big man Henri Veesaar recently sustained a torn ACL.
As for what Finney-Smith brings to the table, he overcame offseason surgery to rank in the 77th percentile in perimeter isolation defense in 2025-26, per Basketball Index. The year prior, when he was battling the ankle injury he had surgery to resolve, he ranked in the 98th percentile in the same statistic and the 91st percentile in off-ball chaser defense—all while shooting 41.1 percent from beyond the arc.
If the Hawks can get that version of Finney-Smith in 2026-27, then his size, defense, shooting, and non-guaranteed 2027-28 salary would elevate the second unit and create invaluable balance in the rotation.
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