Hawks close out their perfect offseason with the steal of the summer

It has been a wild offseason for the Atlanta Hawks. After a series of unexpected trades and sneaky free agent signings, the organization only had one order of business left to take care of: come to terms on a contract extension with Dyson Daniels.

It took awhile for this deal to get done, and for good reason. If the Hawks decided to ink him to an extension sooner, it would have likely resulted in an overpay. Instead, they stood ten toes down and gave their breakout guard a reasonable contract.

According to ESPN's Shams Charania, just three hours before the rookie-scale extension deadline, "Atlanta Hawks All-Defensive guard Dyson Daniels has agreed to a four-year, $100 million rookie contract extension with the franchise, agent Daniel Moldovan of Lighthouse Sports Management tells ESPN."

Earlier today, the Denver Nuggets reached an agreement with Christian Braun, their valuable fourth-year guard who has had a similar career trajectory to Daniels. While Daniels is the better overall player, Braun plays a similar role to him, and that contract may have been something Atlanta pointed to during today's final negotiations.

Similar to Jalen Johnson last year, the Hawks and Daniels came to terms on a deal during the final day of negotiations. Every year, the rookie-scale extension deadline is the day before opening night. With NBA basketball being back tomorrow, Atlanta will have one less thing to worry about as the long-awaited regular season tips off.

This deal, however, has one major aspect that is different from the Johnson contract. Instead of a full five years, Daniels will be on Atlanta's books for the next four. From an agency standpoint, this makes sense given that the annual money will be less than originally desired.

All things considered, this could become quite the steal for Atlanta...

It was reported that Daniels' camp was searching for a contract in the 5 years, $150 million range. This is the exact deal Johnson was given last summer. While injury prone, Johnson has been a quality rotation player for more than just a season, making his deal much easier to finalize.

A fair contract for Daniels was simply hard to project. With all of his spectacular defensive abilities, he is still raw on the offensive end. He made significant improvements on that side of the ball last season, winning Most Improved Player, but it was going to take more than one season of stable two-way play for Atlanta to feel comfortable giving him $30 million a year.

This deal feels like a great one for both sides. Not only does Atlanta have the best defensive player in the world locked up for the next four years, but they will continue to have that financial flexibility that GM Onsi Saleh has prioritized all offseason.