Atlanta Hawks Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: ROY Predictions, Offseason Rankings, NBAGL

August 6th, 2018 at 4:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Mavericks guard Luka Doncic has the best chance to win the Rookie of the Year award, according to an ESPN panel. Doncic will fill up the stat sheet and might wind up with the ball more often than second-year guard Dennis Smith Jr., according to Mike Schmitz. Top overall pick Deandre Ayton ranks second on the poll, with Schmitz noting that the Suns big man likely to get more playing time than any other rookie. Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr., Cavaliers point guard Collin Sexton and Bulls center Wendell Carter Jr. round out the top five.

We have more from around the league:

Retaining Paul George in free agency and dumping Carmelo Anthony‘s contract while receiving projected sixth man Dennis Schroder in return earned the Thunder the top spot on NBA.com’s David Aldridge’s offseason rankings. The rankings are based upon what teams have done during the offseason. The Lakers ranked No. 2 by virtue of signing LeBron James and handing out one-year contracts to other players, thus allowing them to be a force again in next year’s free agent market. The Nuggets gained the No. 3 spot by locking up Nikola Jokic and making trades that cleared roster spots and eased their luxury-tax situation.
Forwards DJ Hogg (Texas A&M) and Malik Pope (San Diego State) and swingman BJ Johnson (LaSalle) are among the top 10 prospects at the G League Invitational, according to Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype. The invitational takes place Sunday in Chicago and over a dozen of last year’s prospects received training camp invites afterward.
The Warriors’ over-under odds for wins next season is 62.5, according to Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. The Celtics ranked second overall with a 57.5 over-under win total with the Rockets third at 54.5. The Hawks have the lowest projected win total at 23.5. The odds for each NBA team were passed along by ESPN’s Ben Fawkes.

Len Ready For Fresh Start In Atlanta

August 6th, 2018 at 1:58pm CST by Arthur Hill

After growing up as a Hawks fan, Alex Len hopes to revive his NBA career with his favorite team, writes Kevin L. Chouinard of NBA.com. A Ukrainian native, Len was attracted to the Hawks because of their connection to countryman Alexander Volkov and was happy when Atlanta expressed interest in free agency last month.

Hawks’ Kevin Huerter Cleared For On-Court Work

August 5th, 2018 at 2:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Hawks rookie Kevin Huerter, who continues to recover from surgery on his right hand, is no longer wearing a cast and has been 100% cleared to participate in on-court basketball activities, writes Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It’s an important step for Huerter, who reportedly underwent a procedure to repair torn ligaments in his right hand shortly before the draft. At the time, it wasn’t clear how the surgery would impact Huerter’s draft stock, but the former Maryland sharpshooter ultimately wasn’t negatively impacted by the injury, having been buoyed by a strong showing at the draft combine several weeks earlier.

Huerter, who entered the draft after averaging 14.8 PPG on .503/.417/.758 shooting in 2017/18, was the 19th overall pick in June, the second of three first-rounders for Atlanta. He signed his rookie contract last month and will earn a first-year salary of $2.25MM.

While Huerter probably wouldn’t be at 100% if the season started today, he still has plenty of time to work his way back to full health before training camps begin. It sounds like he’ll be ready to go when the 2018/19 campaign gets underway in October.

Hawks Sign Alex Len

August 3rd, 2018 at 3:16pm CST by Arthur Hill

AUGUST 3: The Hawks have officially signed Len, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 21: The Hawks are finalizing a deal with former Suns center Alex Len, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.

The new contract will pay Len $8.5MM over two years, sources tell Charania (Twitter link). Both seasons will be fully guaranteed, reports Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who adds that the official announcement probably won’t come until a three-way trade with the Thunder and Sixers is finalized (Twitter link).

The Hawks are over the cap after a recent flurry of moves, but still have their $4.5MM room exception available. Several teams expressed interest in Len before he decided on Atlanta, Charania relays.

Len, 25, spent five seasons in Phoenix after being selected with the fifth pick in the 2013 draft, but never made the impact the Suns were hoping for. He accepted the team’s qualifying offer last summer after finding little interest as a restricted free agent. Phoenix renounced its rights to Len on July 2, shortly after the start of free agency.

Len averaged 8.5 PPG and 7.5 RPG last season as part of a crowded center rotation in Phoenix. He will enter the same type of situation in Atlanta, where he will compete for minutes with Dewayne Dedmon, John Collins, Miles Plumlee and Omari Spellman. The Hawks will have 13 players, all with guaranteed contracts, once the latest moves become official.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Vince Carter Likely To Retire After 2018/19 Season

August 2nd, 2018 at 4:34pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s oldest player recently reached a deal to continue his career for at least one more year, but Vince Carter says he’s “90-something per cent” sure that the 2018/19 season with the Hawks will be his last in the NBA, as ESPN’s Ian Begley relays.

Speaking on a conference call for the Jr. NBA World Championships, Carter explained on Thursday that he’s not interested in chasing rings, which is why he opted to sign with the Hawks rather than a legit title contender. The 41-year-old said he’d rather compete for a regular rotation role than sit on the bench for one of the league’s top teams.

“I still want to play the game,” Carter said. “Whatever minutes are there, I want (them).”

Carter didn’t entirely rule out the possibility of joining a contending team next season if he feels he no longer has much left to contribute on the court and wants to simply serve as a mentor. However, he doesn’t consider that a likely scenario. “I think before that happens I’ll probably retire anyway,” Carter said.

Besides presenting a good opportunity for regular minutes, playing with the Hawks in Atlanta may also allow Carter to get a head start on his post-retirement plans, notes Begley. The veteran swingman said he intends to pursue a broadcasting career after his playing career is over — Atlanta is the home of the NBA on TNT studios.

Rockets Remain In Market For Wing Player

August 1st, 2018 at 10:18am CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets are poised to finalize a deal with Carmelo Anthony after he clears waivers later today, but signing Anthony won’t necessarily complete Houston’s offseason. As ESPN’s Zach Lowe details in a recent podcast conversation with Chris Herring of FiveThirtyEight, the Rockets remain in the market for at least one more wing player.

“They are going to get another wing,” Lowe said of the Rockets. “It’s going to happen.”

The Rockets lost two key forwards last month when Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute signed with new teams in free agency. Despite re-signing Gerald Green, adding James Ennis, and lining up a deal with Anthony, Houston could use another player with the ability to make threes on offense and guard talented perimeter players on defense.

Earlier this week, we heard that Houston has interest in Hawks swingman Kent Bazemore — Lowe and Herring discuss that possibility, with the ESPN analyst suggesting that the Rockets would likely offer Atlanta a package of Ryan Anderson and their 2019 first-round pick. However, the Hawks aren’t the only team the Rockets are keeping an eye on.

According to Lowe, the Rockets have also talked to the Heat. While Lowe doesn’t identify any specific Miami players that Houston is targeting, he speculates that perhaps the Rockets would be willing to offer that same package of Anderson and a pick for someone like Tyler Johnson.

The Rockets have also “kicked the tires” on Cavaliers shooting guard J.R. Smith, per Lowe. At $14.72MM, Smith has a smaller 2018/19 salary than players like Bazemore and Johnson, so the Cavaliers wouldn’t be able to trade him straight up for Anderson ($20.42MM) and a pick. Smith also only has a modest partial guarantee on his 2019/20 salary, making his contract much more palatable than Anderson’s. That could complicate any trade discussions between the two teams.

Although Lowe doesn’t go into more details on any other trade talks the Rockets might be having, there are a handful of other players around the NBA who would be logical targets as Houston dangles Anderson and a draft pick. Nicolas Batum, DeMarre Carroll, Marvin Williams, Danilo Gallinari, and Courtney Lee are other wings who make between $12-24MM in 2018/19 and are under contract for multiple seasons, though some players in that group are more realistic trade candidates than others.

Rockets Pursuing Hawks’ Kent Bazemore?

July 30th, 2018 at 8:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Rockets are interested in dealing for the Hawks’ Kent Bazemore, according to Kelly Iko of RocketsWire.

While the addition of Carmelo Anthony after he clears waivers seems like a foregone conclusion, the Rockets are in the market for a defensive-minded wing. Bazemore fits that bill but Houston would have come up with a package that would interest the Hawks.

Presumably, the Rockets would deal Ryan Anderson’s contract to make the numbers match up, but they’d have to attach a draft pick and/or young player to entice Atlanta’s front office. Anderson has two years and $41.7MM left on his deal with no options; Bazemore has two years and $37.3MM left on his contract but holds a player option for the final year.

A package of Anderson, Chinanu Onuaku and a 2019 first-rounder would be feasible financially but Atlanta doesn’t view Onuaku as a ‘move-the-needle’ player, according to Iko.

Bazemore averaged 12.9 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 3.5 APG and 1.5 SPG in 65 starts with Atlanta last season.

The Pelicans are also looking at Bazemore, according to Iko, but Atlanta doesn’t want Solomon Hill as part of the deal.

Hawks Waive Carmelo Anthony

July 30th, 2018 at 10:05am CST by Luke Adams

10:05am: The Hawks have officially waived Anthony, per a team press release.

9:24am: Anthony has finalized a buyout deal with the Hawks, agreeing to give back the equivalent of the veteran’s minimum salary, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The veteran forward will make that money back when he officially signs with the Rockets, while Atlanta opens up a small slice of cap room as a result of the agreement.

The Hawks should have about $2.9MM in space, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, though it remains to be seen how the team plans to use it, with agreements for Len, Carter, and Hamilton still to be finalized.

8:05am: Now that all the physicals related to last week’s three-team trade are complete, the Hawks are expected to move forward with waiving Carmelo Anthony today, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.

Assuming the transaction is finalized on Monday, Anthony will be on track to clear waivers on Wednesday. His $27.93MM cap charge makes a waiver claim by a surprise suitor essentially impossible, so he’ll become an unrestricted free agent. At that point, he reportedly intends to sign a one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Rockets.

Once Anthony is officially released, the Hawks will have 12 players on guaranteed contracts, but the team has lined up agreements with three players to fill its projected 15-man regular season roster. According to reports, Alex Len, Vince Carter, and Daniel Hamilton will all sign with Atlanta. The Hawks figure to finalize those moves soon now that the Anthony trade – which involved both the Thunder and Sixers – is formally complete.

There has been no indication that the Hawks will ask Anthony to give back any of his 2018/19 salary as part of a buyout. Still, the team will recover a small portion of that salary via setoff once the 10-time All-Star signs with Houston, as cap expert Albert Nahmad tweets.

Anthony’s cap hit for the Hawks will still exceed $27MM, and while the team could open up a huge chunk of cap room by stretching that figure over three seasons, that’s not expected to happen. Instead, Atlanta figures to simply keep Carmelo’s whole cap charge on its books for the 2018/19 salary, allowing the club to maximize its cap room in future seasons.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Carmelo Anthony: OKC Wasn’t A Good Fit

July 26th, 2018 at 7:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

While awaiting to clear waivers, Carmelo Anthony admits he never really fit in with the Thunder last season, Jemele Hill of ESPN’s The Undefeated reports.

Developing chemistry with Russell Westbrook, Paul George and his other Oklahoma City teammates proved to be a difficult task for Anthony. Following a disappointing postseason in which he averaged 11.8 PPG and 21.4% from long range, Anthony publicly complained about his role.

The Thunder managed to trade his contract to the Hawks, a transaction that was made official on Wednesday. He’s expected to join the Rockets once Atlanta officially places him on waivers and he clears that process.

Anthony claims OKC didn’t do enough to help him make the transition after the Knicks dealt him.

“I think last year — and I haven’t talked about this before — everything was just so rushed, going to the team for media day and the day before training camp. Them guys already had something in place, and then I come along in the 25th hour like … Melo just come on and join us,” he told Hill. “Like, you can figure it out since you’ve been around the game for a long time. That’s why it was so inconsistent. At times, I had to figure it out on my own rather than somebody over there or people over there helping me.”

Anthony isn’t comfortable with the notion of getting waived but his family convinced him that he was better off going through the process to get into a better situation. He also had to waive his no-trade clause to make it happen.

“I had a conversation with my wife and family. I said to them, I’m not taking no buyout. I’m not getting waived. And they said, at the end of the day, nobody is going to know that,” he said. “You have to do what you have to do. It’s going to be a blip on your radar. It’s on to the next chapter. It took me a while to get to that point where I’m like, OK, I’m going to accept it.”

Anthony wouldn’t confirm he’ll join forces with Chris Paul and James Harden and reunite with former Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni but he hinted at it.

“I think everything is trying to get cleared right now. I’ll let the people do what they do,”he said. “I just sit back and when the time comes, and the call gets made, we’ll make that move.”

Latest Signings Give Hawks 15 Guaranteed Contracts

July 25th, 2018 at 10:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

Tonight’s agreements with Vince Carter and Daniel Hamilton will bring the Hawks to 15 guaranteed contracts once their signings become official, posts Bobby Marks on ESPN Now. Carter will receive a $2.4MM veteran’s minimum deal that will count $1.5MM toward the salary cap. Hamilton will receive a minimum contract worth $1.35MM. The Hawks used most of their $4.4MM room exception to sign Alex Len and have both two-way slots filled with Jaylen Adams and Alex Poythress.