Hawks held trade talks with Knicks over former rebounding champion

We are less than two weeks away from the start of training camp. The regular season will be here before too long and it is fair to wonder just how set this Hawks roster is.

They turned Dejounte Murray into Dyson Daniels and Larry Nance Jr. among other useful assets, leaving them with a helio-centric roster around three-time All-Star and one-time All-NBA pick Trae Young. 

The Hawks had other plans this offseason too.

“I know the Knicks talked to Atlanta this offseason about a deal involving [Clint] Capela,” SportsNet New York’s Ian Begley wrote on September 13. 

That Capela is available is not necessarily news. Despite the Hawks’ insistence on keeping him in the Murray trade, Capela has been a staple of trade speculation for months. He is also on an expiring two-year, $46 million contract.

Hawks CEO Steven Koonin also made some telling comments about the team’s makeup.

The Hawks already roster just four players who are 30 and up, including Capela who reached the threshold in May.

“I think we’re going to be long, we’re going to be athletic, we’re gonna be very young, and I think this team is gonna be an incredible amount of fun,” Koonin said on “Dukes & Bell” on August 30. “And there’s a good chance Trae Young is our oldest starter at 26 years old.”

Capela has started 272 of his 275 appearances with the Hawks.

Hawks have ready-made backup plan in event of Clint Capela trade

The Hawks also have options in case they do decide moving Capela – rather than risk losing him for nothing in free agency in 2025 – is the best course.

Backup center Onyeka Okongwu has seemed primed for a larger role for the past year-plus, though his being undersized could be an issue. The Hawks also have 6-foot-11 veteran Cody Zeller – another part of that Murray return package.

Okongwu got paid, inking a three-year, $61.9 million contract extension before last season.

The Hawks currently boast the eighth-most expensive center group in the NBA. All but one team ahead of them have an All-Star or even MVP-caliber player in that spot.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the lone exception and they had the best record in the 2023 regular season. Atlanta is in a different spot, coming off their first missed postseason since the 2019-20 season.

At this point, it makes more sense to take the current group into the season.

Offers are not going to get better without an injury to a team’s current player or actual production enticing potential suitors.