- All-Star Hawks point guard Trae Young has practically doubled his free-throw output from his rookie season, as Sarah K. Spencer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution relays. Young concedes that this is in due in part to growing respect from league referees now that he is no longer a rookie. But it can also be attributed to conscious adjustments in approach from Young. He is now second in the NBA in made free throws per game at 8.0, behind just James Harden‘s 10.5 made free throws per night.
3:59pm: The Hawks have announced in a press release that both Capela and Labissiere will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
1:53pm: A pair of centers acquired by the Hawks at the trade deadline won’t be making their debuts for the team anytime soon, according to head coach Lloyd Pierce, who said today that Clint Capela and Skal Labissiere are still “weeks” away from playing, per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter links).
Capela missed the last seven games before the All-Star break – three with Houston and four with Atlanta – due to plantar fasciitis in his right heel. After being acquired by the Hawks in a four-team trade at the deadline, the 25-year-old said he was aiming to get back on the court later this month, but based on Pierce’s update today, it sounds like that won’t happen.
As for Labissiere, he has been on the shelf since December 28 due to a left knee injury. The Trail Blazers’ last update, issued on January 8, suggested he’d be re-evaluated in four weeks. Instead, he was traded to Atlanta around that four-week mark and we haven’t gotten a concrete update on his timeline since then.
The 15-41 Hawks are much closer to the top spot in the draft lottery than they are to the No. 8 seed in the East, so the club won’t rush its injured players back onto the court. Still, Atlanta would presumably like to see how Capela and Labissiere look alongside the team’s young core before the end of the season.
Labissiere will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer. Capela is on a long-term contract, but the Hawks will want to see if he meshes with big man John Collins, who will be eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2020 offseason.
- The Hawks will be looking to accelerate their rebuild during this offseason, Chris Kirschner of The Athletic writes in his latest mailbag. They will likely look to add younger veterans instead of acquiring bad contracts as they did last offseason, Kirschner continues. Davis Bertans, Joe Harris, Gordon Hayward, Evan Fournier and Maurice Harkless are potential targets, Kirschner adds.
- To take the leap from All-Star to MVP, second year Hawks point guard Trae Young must evolve on defense, according to Scott Gleeson of USA Today.
The Trae Young-led Hawks enjoyed an exciting 2018/19 season, and their returning players were confronted with big developmental questions, according to The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner. Kirschner revisits an earlier column from before the Hawks’ season kicked off with answers to those questions.
Young’s All-Star performance this season has proved that he has the goods on offense, but many of his teammates have underwhelmed thus far this year as the Hawks have stumbled to a 15-41 record heading into the All-Star break.
FEBRUARY 12: The Hawks have formally announced Goodwin’s promotion, announcing in a press release that they’ve signed him to a multiyear deal.
FEBRUARY 11: The Hawks and guard Brandon Goodwin have agreed to a two-year standard contract, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter). Goodwin, who had spent the season on a two-way deal with Atlanta, will be promoted to the team’s 15-man roster as a result of the agreement.
After going undrafted out of Florida Gulf Coast in 2018, Goodwin appeared in 16 games with the Nuggets during his rookie season, playing sparingly on a pair of contracts with the team. When his two-way deal with Denver expired last summer, he signed a similar contract with Atlanta and has provided depth at the point for the Hawks this season.
In 25 games, Goodwin has averaged 6.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG, and 1.6 APG in 13.6 minutes per contest. His shooting line is .404/.324/1.000 — he hasn’t missed any of his 24 free throw attempts in 2019/20.
After making a series of deadline-day trades, the Hawks were left with an open spot on their 15-man roster, having sent Jabari Parker and Alex Len to the Kings for Dewayne Dedmon. They’ll use that spot to promote Goodwin, so no corresponding move will be required.
Terms of the agreement haven’t yet been reported, but Goodwin will likely get a minimum-salary contract that’s fully guaranteed for the rest of this season, but not for the 2020/21 season. If he plays out the deal, he’d be eligible for restricted free agency in the summer of ’21.
- Hawks point guard Trae Young was one of the notable omissions from the 44-player list of finalists released on Monday for Team USA’s 2020 Olympic roster. Young admitted that he would have liked to receive consideration, as Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution details. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hurt by seeing it,” Young said. “Obviously I would have wanted to play on the team.”
- The Hawks, Knicks, and Pistons project to have more than enough cap room for a maximum-salary player this summer, with the Heat and Hornets potentially joining them, says John Hollinger of The Athletic. As Hollinger observes in his preview of the NBA’s 2020 cap outlook, there are several other teams that could create some cap room if free agents walk or players turn down options, but there won’t be much league-wide space this offseason.
The Knicks have had a miserable 12 months, finishing the 2018/19 season with a league-worst 17 wins, missing out on their top free agent targets, and then firing head coach David Fizdale and president of basketball operations Steve Mills during the 2019/20 season.
None of that seems to have had a noticeable impact on the team’s market value though. Once again, the franchise is considered the most valuable of any of the NBA’s 30 clubs, according to a report from Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes. The Lakers and Warriors aren’t far behind, having both surpassed the $4 billion mark for the first time this year.
For the first time, all 30 NBA teams have a perceived worth of $1.3 billion or more, per Forbes’ annual report. Every team’s value increased by at least 6% since Forbes put out their 2019 valuations last February, with a handful of franchises jumping by 20% or more.
The NBA-wide average of $2.12 billion per team in 2020 is also a new record — that league-wide average surpassed the $2 billion mark for the first time. NBA franchise values are up almost sixfold over the last decade, according to Badenhausen.
Here’s the full list of NBA franchise valuations, per Forbes:
- New York Knicks: $4.6 billion
- Los Angeles Lakers: $4.4 billion
- Golden State Warriors: $4.3 billion
- Chicago Bulls: $3.2 billion
- Boston Celtics: $3.1 billion
- Los Angeles Clippers: $2.6 billion
- Brooklyn Nets: $2.5 billion
- Houston Rockets: $2.475 billion
- Dallas Mavericks: $2.4 billion
- Toronto Raptors: $2.1 billion
- Philadelphia 76ers: $2 billion
- Miami Heat: $1.95 billion
- Portland Trail Blazers: $1.85 billion
- San Antonio Spurs: $1.8 billion
- Sacramento Kings: $1.775 billion
- Washington Wizards: $1.75 billion
- Phoenix Suns: $1.625 billion
- Denver Nuggets: $1.6 billion
- Milwaukee Bucks: $1.58 billion
- Oklahoma City Thunder: $1.575 billion
- Utah Jazz: $1.55 billion
- Indiana Pacers: $1.525 billion
- Atlanta Hawks: $1.52 billion
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $1.51 billion
- Charlotte Hornets: $1.5 billion
- Detroit Pistons: $1.45 billion
- Orlando Magic: $1.43 billion
- Minnesota Timberwolves: $1.375 billion
- New Orleans Pelicans: $1.35 billion
- Memphis Grizzlies: $1.3 billion
The Raptors are among this year’s big “winners,” with their value rising 25%, from $1.675 billion a year ago to $2.1 billion this year following their first NBA championship. The Clippers also had a noteworthy bump, moving from ninth place on Forbes’ list to sixth after landing Kawhi Leonard and Paul George last summer.
Although every franchise’s value increased, the Nets had the smallest jump, just 6%. The Magic‘s modest 8% increase resulted in the team slipping from 23rd on last year’s list to 27th this year.
It’s worth noting that when a franchise has been sold in recent years, the price often exceeds Forbes’ valuation, so these figures are just estimates.
- David Aldridge of The Athletic shares some Mavericks-related trade deadline leftovers, reporting that the team inquired on Alex Len before the Hawks sent him to Sacramento. Aldridge also says there was “scuttlebutt in the air” that Delon Wright and/or Justin Jackson were available.
After engaging with the Kings earlier in the season about a possible Dewayne Dedmon trade, the Hawks didn’t necessarily expect to circle back to those discussions at last week’s trade deadline, according to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, who says the team felt no real pressure to acquire another center following the Clint Capela trade.
However, Sacramento got back in touch and general manager Travis Schlenk saw an opportunity to land a player he liked, along with a couple second-round draft picks.
“They came in last minute,” Schlenk said of the Kings, per Kirschner. “The way the deal came together was we anticipated Jabari (Parker) was going to probably opt in (to his $6.5MM player option for 2020/21), so we weren’t going to be taking on that much money (by adding Dedmon’s $13.3MM salary for ’20/21).
“Now you’re taking on only $6MM, and we got two seconds. That’s really what drove us. I don’t want to say that we weren’t looking to do it when it came around, but we jumped at the opportunity because it was a small value money-wise, and we got two assets in it.”
Dedmon, who played well for the Hawks before signing with the Kings during the 2019 offseason, struggled in Sacramento and lost his starting role early in the season. According to Kirschner, there’s a belief in Atlanta that the big man was so unhappy with the Kings that it affected him on the court. Atlanta will rely on Dedmon and Capela to help improve an interior defense that has struggled this season.
Let’s round up a few more Hawks notes…
- Schlenk had been eyeing Skal Labissiere since his days working as an assistant GM in Golden State, says Kirschner. The Hawks were able to acquire Labissiere from Portland on deadline day in what was essentially a salary dump, but it sounds as if the team will have interest in keeping him beyond this season if he looks good down the stretch. The big man can become a restricted free agent this summer.
- John Collins‘ name popped up in trade rumors leading up to the deadline and there was speculation that the Hawks may start looking to move on from the former first-rounder if they acquired an impact center. However, Schlenk downplayed that notion, as Kirschner details. “John has been playing with Damian (Jones) all year,” Schlenk said. “His skill set is the same (as Clint’s). John has been playing with Bruno (Fernando) all year long. This isn’t the first time that John has played with another center. I think the public is making a lot more out of it than we are.”
- Asked directly if Collins is considered is still considered a priority for the Hawks’ long-term future, Schlenk responded, “Yeah. John is one of our best players.”
- The Hawks’ deadline moves left them with an open spot on their 15-man roster. According to Kirschner (via Twitter), one option being considered is promoting two-way player Brandon Goodwin to a standard contract. Goodwin has averaged 6.9 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 24 games (13.9 MPG) for Atlanta this season.