The Atlanta Hawks swiftly went from being interested in trading for Kristaps Porzingis to landing him from the Boston Celtics. While the deal cannot be finalized until July 6, the Hawks are also not done wheeling and dealing.
Atlanta could not fit Porzingis’ $30 million salary in the final year of a two-year $60 million contract in their highly valued traded player exception from the 2024 Dejounte Murray deal.
They made it work with Georges Niang and Terance Mann’s contracts and can strike again.
“The Hawks have been looking for advantageous trades with their $25 million TPE, and still maintained that tool by sending out Terance Mann and Georges Niang,” NBA insider Jake Fischer reported on X on June 24. “Atlanta, $30M below the tax line, is still open for business, sources say, potentially in sign-and-trade market as well.”
This is not news, given the Hawks have consistently been rumored to have an interest in exploring the trade market this offseason.
ESPN’s Shams Charania offered a similar report earlier in the day.
“Atlanta has a massive 25.3 million dollar trade player exception,” Charania reported on June 24, per SDS’s Zach Langley. “I’m told they’re really likely to use that exception, either get a game-changing player or pick up players with salaries and get assets with that as well.”
Hawks learned valuable lesson quickly
The links between the Hawks and a potential trade go back even further, and they speak to an official changing of the guard.
New Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh has certainly made a strong first impression.
Saleh met with Hawks media for the first time on Monday, and he laid out his vision for building roster, speaking to drafting the best player available, and being locked in with Trae Young. This move shows he is also flexible.
Adding an aging veteran like Porzingis cost the Hawks two rotation players who played key roles last season and a draft pick they could have used to build out their roster cheaper.
Instead, this is a move clearly showing Saleh is looking to take a step forward.
There are questions to answer still. Will Porzingis start or, perhaps more likely at this stage of his career and with his injury history, come off the bench? He brings a definitive shot-altering presence and can space the floor, so long as he can remain on it.
The Hawks also know that hoping for your young players to simply progress is a recipe for stagnation, which leads to disaster in sports.
There is a lot of work to be done still, but this was a power play for Saleh to start his Hawks era.