Atlanta Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh showed he was as locked in with Trae Young as he said, trading for Kristaps Porzingis to bolster the back line. Young, for one, seems to appreciate the addition.
He extended a fitting greeting to his new teammate on social media.
“Welcome the [unicorn emoji] to the A!!” Young posted on X in June 25, tagging Porzingis in the message.
Porzingis’ diverse skill set and height earned him the title of the “The Unicorn” as a rookie in 2015-16, after the New York Knicks made him the No. 4 overall pick. He has also spent time with the Dallas Mavericks.
Most importantly, it is an apt description for the 7-foot-2 Porzingis.
He is one of seven bigs (4s and 5s) in league history to average at least 19.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists while shooting at least 36% from deep since 2015-16, per Stathead.
The group includes Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Kevin Durant – who gave Porzingis his nickname –, Nikola Jokic, and Porzingis’s former teammate Jayson Tatum. Durant, Porzingis, and Karl-Anthony Towns are the only ones to average 1.0-plus blocks during that span.
That is lofty company to keep, and Porzingis is hardly out of place.
Advanced metrics shine different light on Kristaps Porzingis trade
Porzingis comes with durability concerns, playing in a career-low 42 games in 2024-25. He has seen his number of appearances decline in two straight seasons and has cracked the 65-game threshold once since his rookie campaign.
That 2015-16 season was also his lone season with at least 70 appearances.
The Hawks could offset that by at least reducing Porzingis’ workload, if not bringing him off the bench behind Onyeka Okongwu next season.
However, there may be even more cause for concern.
Porzingis posted a career-worst minus-4.4 on-off efficiency differential in 2024-25, per Cleaning The Glass. He had the fourth-worst mark among qualifying players on the Celtics’ roster and was the only one in that group with at least 300 minutes logged.
Notably, Porzingis’ offense has been his greatest area of dropoff. That could be aided by playing alongside two offensively-geared players in Okongwu and Young, when that does happen.
Porzingis is also not the Hawks’ only injury concern.
Starting power forward Jalen Johnson, who has one 70-game season in four years and played in a career-low 36 contests last season, his second straight campaign with a decline. At guard, 2023 first-round pick Kobe Bufkin has been beset by a litany of injuries.
Key free agent Caris LeVert, whom the Hawks are said to have an interest in re-signing, is another player whose injury history could be cause for pause at the negotiating table.
Even Young is not insusceptible, appearing in a career-low 54 games in 2023-24.
He has since bounced back, appearing in 70-plus games last season for the third time in four years. Still, it underscores just how precarious a position the Hawks are in, even with the general optimism around their moves so far.