The Atlanta Hawks traded for Kristaps Porzingis last offseason, but this proved to be a fool's errand.
Atlanta acquired Porzingis for pennies on the dollar, shipping Georges Niang to Boston while Terance Mann and a first round pick went to Brooklyn.
All things considered, the trade was a solid value proposition for the Hawks. Mann’s three-year, $47 million contract required a first to move on from, meaning the Hawks essentially grabbed Porzingis for free.
Porzingis was both a fantastic fit and talent on the Hawks. Unfortunately, he just cannot consistently play regular season games.
Over his brief tenure in Atlanta, Porzingis played in 16.6% of possible minutes – missing swaths of time for both injury and illness (likely stemming from his POTS diagnosis). No matter how good a player you are, when you play less than a sixth of the team’s total minutes, you just aren’t that impactful.
By trading him for Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga – the league’s two least popular trade assets – Atlanta has waved the white flag on the Porzingis era.
Atlanta is simply moving on for anything possible
I wanted the Hawks to trade Porzingis for two reasons: First, he isn’t exactly reliable from a health standpoint. The Hawks lack center depth behind him; they could use a different center at the price of a couple of second round picks.
By converting Porzingis into a center (or by trading him and separately trading for Jock Landale), Atlanta improved their interior presence – the primary culprit for their weak record.
Second, I would like the team to turn Porzingis's contract into a more attractive free agent option. In this case, the Hawks drop from $25 million (assuming Porzingis walked in free agency) to $15 million in cap space, but now Atlanta has bird rights on Kuminga. If he can impress this season, perhaps he can earn a one-year overpay for the following as a trial run alongside an exciting young core.
Unfortunately, the return package for Porzingis isn’t exactly remarkable.
Kuminga is one of the least valuable assets in the NBA today. Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy even said that for the G League Ignite’s trade demand to have any merit, there would have to be demand on the market.
Apparently, Onsi Saleh saw this as his sign to step in and remove a pair of potentially valuable assets for Porzingis, a player everyone knew was gone next season.
This is a shrewd move given the circumstances. But had you told me on opening night – after Porzingis publicly stated he had his POTS under control, and after Trae Young made a song with Quavo and 2 Chainz saying “ATLANTA, GA is where I stay” – that Porzingis would be traded for Kuminga and Hield, I would have been quite disappointed.
Indeed, I am disappointed. Porzingis was such an incredible player in a Hawks uniform as the ultimate high post threat. Unfortunately, we only saw 413 minutes across 52 team games. I wish him and his health the best in Golden State, and I hope Kuminga can prove Steve Kerr wrong. But as of today, this looks like a fold from the Hawks.