JULY 12: The trade is official, according to a press release from the Hawks.
The Thunder’s press release indicates that OKC is receiving a 2026 second-round pick in the deal. Atlanta previously traded away its own ’26 second-rounder, but controlled Golden State’s second-rounder for that year, so that’s presumably the one headed to the Thunder.
JULY 8: The Thunder have agreed to trade guard Patty Mills to the Hawks in exchange for guard TyTy Washington, forward Rudy Gay, big man Usman Garuba, and a second-round pick, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
This trade agreement will likely be separate from the five-team sign-and-trade deal that will send Dillon Brooks to Houston, tweets Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype.
Mills, Washington, and Garuba – who are all still technically Rockets for the time being – are all expected to be involved in that Brooks trade, with Mills ticketed for Oklahoma City and Washington and Garuba on track to land in Atlanta.
However, they probably can’t simply be rerouted to new destinations within the same transaction, since the Thunder don’t have the cap room necessary to take on the additional salary, Gozlan notes. OKC would be able to salary-match and go over the cap using Mills ($6.8MM) in a separate deal.
Having initially agreed to take on Washington ($2.3MM) and Garuba ($2.6MM) in a salary-dump trade that netted them two second-round picks, the Hawks will still come out ahead by sending one second-rounder to the Thunder and will shed Rudy Gay‘s unwanted expiring contract ($6.5MM) in the process.
Atlanta will end up with Mills – who may or may not remain on the roster and play a role in the team’s backcourt in 2023/24, per Wojnarowski (Twitter link) – and will save a little money while opening up a couple roster spots. The team is now $8.2MM under the tax line with 16 players on standard contracts, including three on non-guaranteed deals, tweets Gozlan.
Mills almost certainly wasn’t in the Thunder’s plans — they’d agreed to take him into their cap room as part of the Brooks sign-and-trade in order to acquire a pair of second-round picks. Those picks will be Houston’s 2029 and 2030 second-rounders, per Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link).
It’s unclear if the Thunder envision Washington, Garuba, or Gay opening the season on their roster. But even if all three of those players are waived, Oklahoma City will add another second-round pick in this deal, which is presumably the priority.
This will be the third time Mills has been traded this offseason. He was sent from Brooklyn to Houston and will move from Houston to OKC before heading to Atlanta.
A veteran combo guard who will turn 35 next month, Mills was no longer a major part of the Nets’ rotation last season — his 14.3 minutes per game represented his lowest average since the 2012/13 season. He recorded 6.2 points and 1.4 assists per game in 40 appearances, with a shooting line of .411/.366/.833.
Garuba was a first-round pick in 2021 and Washington was a first-rounder in 2022, but neither player has established himself as a consistent, reliable NBA player so far. As for Gay, he has compiled an impressive career résumé across 17 seasons in the league, but he’ll turn 37 in August, so his best days are behind him.
Wow nobody wants TyTy …. can’t believe it
Salary dumping has taken on new meaning this year ……. Garuba got skills.
Rudy can definitely help someone. I hope they buy him out. So Knicks can sign him.
TyTy should have stayed in school another year, but the lure of the NBA…
Yeah, honestly, I’m a bit surprised Atlanta just rerouted TyTy, and they didn’t try to keep and develop him.
The moves by Atlanta all together don’t really surprise me though, they get rid of Collins money he’s owed, and they swap out Mills for Gay, which meets more of a need for Atlanta as they previously didn’t seem to have a plan for anyone backing up Trae, other than using Murray at the point some times whenever Trae needs a breather.
Now, if Atlanta even keeps Mills, they’ll have a veteran backup PG to help rotate in 10-15mpg, and he’ll allow the Hawks to rest Trae and Murray more throughout the regular season…
Now, Atlanta can focus more on rotating Hunter and Jaylen Johnson at their 4 spot alongside Capella and Okongwu at the 5.
Then, they’ll be able to use their backup 2 and 3 minutes rotating Bogey, Bey, and Griffin…
Trae, Mills
Murray, Bogey
Bey, Griffin
Hunter, Johnson
Capella, Okongwu
I think that’s a pretty solid mixture of guards who can create and score from all over, solid, athletic, and versatile 2-way wings, and then defensively sound bigs that can roll to the rim as lob/scoring threats…
After a full off-season under Snyder, and by also simplifying the rotation and each player’s roles on the team, I think the Hawks could actually have somewhat of a breakout this upcoming season…
is PM even done being traded? Trae promised a trade this weekend. PM +CC to Suns for DA is my guess
Capela and Bogdon
And picks
I love this trade!
Hawks should keep him
Wonder if that pascal deal is still coming?
Hawks have 2 good players at every position now
Trae and Mills
Murray and Bogi
Bey and Griffin
Hunter and Johnson
Capela and Okungwu
And ofcourse you have recent draft pick Kobe Bufkin too
Any trade now kinda messes up that good little rotation and depth you’ve put together.
Not that I’m opposed to it I’d actually love to see a Trae for Pascal kinda deal.
Murray to PG, Bogi to starter which puts Kobe into the back up 2 role or atleast has him competing with Griffin for that spot
I doubt Mills was staying. He will be included in another salary shedding deal shortly.
Besides, stating the “Hawks have 2 good players at every position now” is laughable when you allude to Mills be the guy that brought it all together. No, he is not a ‘good’ player. Even at his peak he was at best replacement level. Bufkin is probably already superior, though inexperienced.
I don’t understand the mills hate. He’s always been a solid back up point guard. Just watch in the World Cup this year and he will carry Australia
Mills was much more than a replacement level player.
Doesn’t OKC now have like 17 or 18 guys under contract? Seems that will have to waive or trade some to get down to the roster limit.
They’re actually up to an insane 21, which doesn’t include Keyontae Johnson’s two-way deal.
They’ll have to complete all their moves in the right order so as not to go over the 21-man offseason limit, and I assume a bunch of the guys they’re getting in salary dumps (Oladipo, Washington, Garuba, Gay, maybe Bertans) won’t stick around.
So how do they move them???
Trades, buy outs, or take the salary hit for year (expiring contract like Oladipo)
Could you explain their options. Thanks
I expect they’ll just waive them — they don’t have much leverage to negotiate buyouts, and they’d have to attach second-round picks to trade them again, which would defeat the purpose of the original deals.
Either waive them or include them as salary-matching expiring contracts in another deal as a 3rd or 4th team in a trade.
Would be nice to have an overview of all the bigger contracts some teams might want to get rid off.
I didn’t know that offseason roster limit increased to 21. Must be in the new CBA with the addition of the 3rd two way slot huh?
Yep, exactly. They didn’t want the third two-way slot to mean less room for other camp invitees.
SAM PRESTI, GM OF ALL TIME 37 FUTURE PICK 1S AND 2NDS AND A LOADED ROSTER….
I would be so happy if my squad got TyTy and Garuba for the bench, wtf is happening
I like TyTy too. I d say they are keeping him.
Patty Mills is doing the Luke Ridnour tour this offseason. Brooklyn>Houston>Memphis>OKC>Atlanta. One more trade and he gets a free sub
Would be nice to spend an article on OKC and see what their plans might be with all those players.
Went through all teams to check some long shot players to be included in a multi-team trade. Aiding in the Lillard trade or a salary dump of Brooklyn seem two nice scenarios :
1) Brooklyn salary dumps Ben Simmons for Bertans, Gay, Garuba, Washington and Oladipo.
Bertans in the Durant trade exception.
Garuba into the Irving trade exception
Gay, Oladipo and Washington to a third team for 2nd rounders
37,9 million trade exception for Brooklyn plus going below luxury tax.
2) To Charlotte for Hayward doesnt make much sense, unless Charlotte wants smaller contracts for salary matching
3) Chicago: Demar DeRozan?
4) Cleveland: Ricky Rubio?
5) Miami: split up the Kyle Lowry contract into smaller contracts as a third team in the Damian Lillard trade?
Garuba and Washington might have some value if Portland goes for a rebuild?
Portland could then either keep them for a buy out scenario or add some picks and get a good player in return.
8) New York: expiring contract of Fournier?
9) Philadelphia: somehow a role in a trade with Harden and/or Harris? Dont see how yet.
10) Washington: Shamet? Gallinari? Muscala?
11) Dallas: Hardaway Jr.
12) Clippers: Morris, Batum, Covington
13) San Antonio: McDermott, Bullock, Collins, Birch, Osman, Vassel
14) Utah: salary dump destination