Atlanta Hawks Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Landry Fields: Hawks “Bet On The Character Makeup” Of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray

July 12th, 2022 at 11:00am CST by Arthur Hill

The Hawks‘ trade for Dejounte Murray was about finding a backcourt partner who fits well alongside Trae Young, general manager Landry Fields said in an interview with Mark Medina of NBA.com. Atlanta paid a steep price for Murray, sending three first-round picks and a pick swap to San Antonio along with Danilo Gallinari, but Fields believes the deal was worth it to find a possible long-time complement to Young.

Murray and Young have both been primary ball-handlers throughout their careers, so they’ll have to work on blending their offensive games together. Defensively, Murray can take on the toughest matchups and make it more difficult for opponents to exploit Young.

“We bet on the character makeup of Trae and Dejounte,” Fields said. “Both of those guys want to win, and will do what it takes to win. They need that because their roles will be a lot different than they were last year, from both respective teams. As long as they’re able to do what it takes, Coach [Nate McMillan] then comes in and is able to get creative with how they’ll operate. From a front-office standpoint, we’ll determine if we need to inject more here, here or here. Hopefully, all three of those are working at the same time.”

Fields addresses several other topics during the interview, including:

The trade that sent Kevin Huerter to the Kings in exchange for Justin Holiday, Maurice Harkless and a future first-round pick:

“Justin Holiday gives us more length around the perimeter and an ability to shoot from the perimeter. That opens things up for Trae and Dejounte with an ability to space the floor. That gives room for Clint [Capela] and John [Collins] as they’re working down in the interior. Hopefully, De’Andre [Hunter] continues to take the steps that he needs.

“With Moe, he’s a guy that plays hard and gives us depth at the four. It’s helpful in that regard. He’s a vet. He’s got great character and we like what he brings to the locker room. He’s not the most outgoing guy, but enough so that we feel there’s an impact there, too.”

John Collins, who has been the subject of frequent trade speculation since re-signing with the Hawks last offseason:

“This isn’t one of those, ‘We have to get off of John.’ That’s absurd. There’s a misinterpretation of that. You always think of the player from that standpoint because he is constantly in talks. You try to make sure with him that we check in and make sure he’s doing all right. It’s something where it’s less about wondering if he’s the long-term fit and it’s more about the fact that he gets called on a lot. The moment those calls come up, people talk. Then all of a sudden, here we are in the media with this thought that John Collins is not wanted by the Hawks.”

The status of McMillan, who reportedly could be on the hot seat if Atlanta gets off to another slow start:

“Coach has been great. After the season, as a staff, [president of basketball operations] Travis [Schlenk] had a chance to sit with him. He was working with him throughout the offseason. It’s his renewed approach to things and his viewpoints. He was leading by taking ownership and responsibility. It was good to see. You need that. I know he’s excited about the group. But he’s also hungry to get back to where we are, too. He’s been here day in and day out in Vegas. He’s been in the gym at our facility. He’s always been there.”

Frank Kaminsky Signs One-Year Deal With Hawks

July 12th, 2022 at 10:05am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 12: The signing is official, the Hawks announced in a press release.

JULY 8: Free agent big man Frank Kaminsky has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Hawks, agents Mark Bartelstein and Andy Shiffman tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). It’ll be worth the veteran’s minimum, according to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Kaminsky began the 2021/22 season with the Suns and had a regular role in the team’s frontcourt rotation, averaging 10.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG, and 1.4 APG on .545/.333/.900 shooting through his first nine games (20.1 MPG).

However, Kaminsky’s season came to an early end due to a stress reaction in his right knee, which required surgery. The Suns waived him in April, making him an unrestricted free agent, and a report last week indicated the 29-year-old was unlikely to return to Phoenix after spending the last three seasons with the team.

Kaminsky is fully recovered from that right knee procedure, tweets Wojnarowski.

Entering the day, the Hawks had only been carrying 12 players on guaranteed contracts for 2022/23 — it appears Kaminsky will become the 13th, filling one of the team’s remaining roster openings. The former lottery pick will join a frontcourt rotation headed by Clint Capela, John Collins, and Onyeka Okongwu.

Suns Trade For Jock Landale

July 6th, 2022 at 6:20pm CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 6: The Hawks have officially traded Landale to the Suns in exchange for cash considerations, Atlanta confirmed in a press release. As we noted earlier this week, Landale’s minimum-salary contract has a small partial guarantee ($46,120).

JULY 2: The Suns will acquire Australian center Jock Landale from the Hawks, tweets Shams Charania of the Athletic. Atlanta will receive cash in return, according to Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link).

Landale, 26, was a rookie with the Spurs last season, averaging 4.9 points and 2.7 rebounds in 54 games. He was shipped to the Hawks this week as part of the Dejounte Murray trade.

Landale signed with San Antonio in 2021 after going undrafted out of St. Mary’s. He also plays internationally for Australia and won a bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics.

The addition of Landale will help fill a vacancy for Phoenix, which lost back-up center JaVale McGee to the Mavericks in free agency and is exploring trade offers regarding starting center Deandre Ayton.

Hawks Trade Kevin Huerter To Kings

July 6th, 2022 at 12:52pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 6: The trade is now official, according to a press release from the Hawks. Within the team’s announcement, president of basketball operations Travis Schlenk referred to Holiday and Harkless as “two defensive-minded, quality veterans who can help our team on the court and in the locker room.”

JULY 1: The Hawks and Kings have agreed to a trade that will send sharpshooter Kevin Huerter to Sacramento, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

According to Wojnarowski, Atlanta will receive forwards Justin Holiday and Maurice Harkless in the deal, along with a future first-round pick.

That first-rounder will be the Kings’ own 2024 selection and will be lottery-protected, reports Chris Kirschner of The Athletic (Twitter link). If it doesn’t convey immediately, it would be top-12 protected in 2025 and top-10 protected in 2026. If it still hasn’t changed hands by that point, the Hawks would instead receive two second-rounders, says Kirschner.

The Kings have clearly made it a priority this offseason to add reliable outside shooting to complement their two stars, De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. Huerter made a career-high 38.9% of his three-pointers in 2021/22, attempting 5.6 per game.

Neither Fox nor Sabonis is a major threat from beyond the arc, but they should be surrounded by solid floor-spaces. In addition to striking a deal for Huerter, the Kings have also drafted Keegan Murray and agreed to sign Malik Monk since the offseason began.

The Hawks, meanwhile, will replenish their stash of draft assets slightly after giving up three first-round picks and a swap to acquire Dejounte Murray earlier in the week.

Atlanta will also move off Huerter’s four-year, $65MM contract, creating a little extra long-term flexibility and also shedding some salary in the short term. As Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype tweets, Atlanta is hovering right around the tax line for 13 players.

While the Hawks will miss Huerter’s shooting, their first-round pick, AJ Griffin, was considered one of the top marksmen in this year’s draft class and should help make up for that loss. Assuming both are retained, Holiday and Harkless also offer some defensive versatility that Huerter lacked.

The Hawks have now agreed to acquire two of the Holiday brothers today — they also reached a deal to sign point guard Aaron Holiday.

Hawks Hiring Mike Longabardi As Assistant Coach

July 4th, 2022 at 3:26pm CST by Luke Adams

The Hawks are hiring Mike Longabardi as an assistant coach, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

With former Hawks lead assistant Chris Jent leaving Atlanta to take a job on Darvin Ham‘s Lakers staff, Joe Prunty will be promoted to become Nate McMillan‘s new top lieutenant and Longabardi will essentially fill Prunty’s old role, Wojnarowski explains.

Longabardi is a veteran NBA assistant coach who spent the 2021/22 season with the Kings. He previously served as an assistant on staffs in Houston from 2003-07, Boston from 2007-13, Phoenix from 2013-15, Cleveland from 2016-19, and Washington from 2019-21.

Longabardi, who a reputation as a defensive-minded coach, won titles with the Celtics in 2008 and the Cavaliers in 2016.

Contract Notes: Konchar, Roby, Landale

July 4th, 2022 at 2:14pm CST by Luke Adams

John Konchar‘s contract with the Grizzlies called for his $2.3MM salary for 2022/23 to become guaranteed if he remained on the roster through Sunday, and there has been no reporting indicating that he and the team agreed to move that date back. As such, we’re assuming Konchar’s salary for ’22/23 is now locked in.

If that’s the case, it doesn’t come as a surprise. Konchar was a solid role player for the Grizzlies in 2021/22, averaging 4.8 PPG, 4.6 RPG, and 1.5 APG with a .413 3PT in 72 games (17.9 MPG). His salary is relatively modest and he had already been owed a partial guarantee of $840K.

Konchar is one of many players on non-guaranteed contracts for 2022/23 whose salaries will become guaranteed this summer if they’re retained through certain dates. We’re tracking all of those players and decisions right here.

Here are a few more contract notes from around the NBA:

Although Isaiah Roby was earning a minimum salary ($1,930,681) when he was waived by the Thunder on Sunday, he had been on a four-year contract that was worth more than the minimum in year one, which means any team interested in claiming him off waivers can’t use the minimum salary exception to do so, as Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report tweets. A club that wants to put a claim in on Roby would need the cap space to absorb his salary or a trade exception worth at least $1,830,681. Waivers claims are rare for non-minimum players, but Roby showed promise in Oklahoma City last season and could draw some interest.
Jock Landale‘s non-guaranteed minimum salary became partially guaranteed for $46,120 when he was traded from San Antonio to Atlanta last week, Hoops Rumors has learned. That was the exact amount that needed to be guaranteed for salary-matching purposes, as Landale’s $46,120 was added to Dejounte Murray‘s 2021/22 cap hit ($15,428,880) to get to within $5MM of Danilo Gallinari‘s incoming $20,475,000 figure (it was also partially guaranteed, but San Antonio needed to be able to match the whole incoming amount). The Hawks have since agreed to flip Landale to the Suns, and it doesn’t appear his partial guarantee will increase any further in that trade, since no salary-matching is involved.
In case you missed it, we relayed earlier today that Otto Porter‘s new deal with the Raptors is worth $12.4MM over two years. We’ll get more info on the specific details of contracts like Porter’s and many others beginning later this week, when the July moratorium lifts and those signings start becoming official.

13 Trade Exceptions Set To Expire In July

July 4th, 2022 at 12:49pm CST by Luke Adams

A total of 13 traded player exceptions created during the 2021 NBA offseason are set to expire this month if they go unused.

A trade exception is an NBA salary cap exception that can be generated when a team trades a player away. It allows that team to acquire a certain amount of salary without sending out any in return for one year after the exception was created. The club is permitted to trade for a player earning the amount of the exception, plus $100K.

For instance, the Trail Blazers are set to use their $20,864,198 trade exception, created in February’s CJ McCollum trade, to acquire Jerami Grant, who is earning $20,955,000 in 2022/23. Grant narrowly fits into that TPE after accounting for the $100K in wiggle room.

Most trade exceptions expire without being used, but teams can sometimes find a use for them — especially the bigger ones like Portland’s. So it’s worth keeping tabs on which ones are still available.

Here are the 13 exceptions set to expire this month:

Boston Celtics: $17,142,857 (expires 7/18)
Los Angeles Clippers: $8,250,000 (expires 7/18)
Indiana Pacers: $7,333,333 (expires 7/7)
New Orleans Pelicans: $6,382,262 (expires 7/7)
Chicago Bulls: $5,000,000 (expires 7/7)
Memphis Grizzlies: $4,054,695 (expires 7/7)
Brooklyn Nets: $3,246,530 (expires 7/6)
Toronto Raptors: $3,070,052 (expires 7/6)
Atlanta Hawks: $1,782,621 (expires 7/7)
Golden State Warriors: $1,782,621 (expires 7/7)
Milwaukee Bucks: $1,517,981 (expires 7/7)
Boston Celtics: $1,440,549 (expires 7/7)
Brooklyn Nets: $118,342 (expires 7/6)

The Celtics’ $17MM exception, created in last year’s Evan Fournier sign-and-trade, is the most noteworthy one here, but it appears unlikely to be used. Boston reached a deal last week to acquire Malcolm Brogdon without having to use the exception, and now appears to be a long shot to strike another major trade agreement.

The third exception on this list, the Pacers’ $7.3MM TPE, will disappear if Indiana decides to operate under the cap. The team would have to renounce the exception in order to actually make use of its cap room.

While it’s possible some of the other exceptions on this list will be used before they expire, they won’t accommodate any of the deals that have been agreed upon to date.

The full list of outstanding trade exceptions can be found right here.

Spurs, Pacers, Pistons Still Have Cap Room Available

July 4th, 2022 at 9:01am CST by Luke Adams

While many free agent agreements have been reported since last Thursday evening, few will become official until the NBA’s moratorium period ends this Wednesday. That means the terms that have been reported – and the cap space or cap exceptions teams will use to complete those signings – haven’t yet been locked in.

Still, we have a pretty good sense of what the cap room situation looks like for teams around the league. Here’s a snapshot, as of the morning of July 4, of which clubs still have the most spending power:

Teams with cap room:

By our count, the Spurs project to have about $38MM in remaining cap room, and could push that number even higher by stretching Danilo Gallinari‘s partial guarantee across three years when they officially waive him. However, it’s very unlikely they’d do so unless they have a specific need for that extra room. San Antonio could also create some extra space by waiving Keita Bates-Diop or Tre Jones, who have non-guaranteed salaries for 2022/23, though there has been no indication that will happen.

The Pacers, meanwhile, should have a little over $26MM in cap room once the Malcolm Brogdon trade is finalized, based on our projections. Like San Antonio, Indiana has a couple players without full guarantees (Duane Washington and Terry Taylor) and could create more cap space by waiving one or both.

The Pistons have already committed a chunk of their cap room to taking on Nerlens Noel, Alec Burks, and Kemba Walker from New York, but haven’t used it all yet. If Walker gives back his minimum salary in a reported buyout agreement and Detroit uses its room exception to sign Kevin Knox to his two-year, $6MM deal, the team could have $14MM+ in space — or even more, if Walker’s dead money is stretched across three seasons.

It remains unclear what the Spurs, Pacers, and Pistons will do with their remaining cap room. All three teams have been linked to restricted free agent center Deandre Ayton at some point during the offseason and could theoretically still make a run at him, with Indiana and Detroit perhaps sending back players in a sign-and-trade deal to fit a max deal for the big man under the cap. Still, there’s a sense the Pistons have backed off Ayton after landing Jalen Duren on draft night, and it’s unclear whether the Spurs or Pacers have serious interest.

Accommodating salary-dump trades to acquire more assets could be an option for all three teams, either in the offseason or close to the trade deadline.

The Knicks are the other team expected to use cap room this summer, but after signing Jalen Brunson and Isaiah Hartenstein, they won’t have much left over. Even if they waive Taj Gibson and sign Brunson and Hartenstein to the lowest starting salaries possible based on their reported contract terms, New York projects to have less than $5MM in remaining room.

Mid-level exception teams:

The Hornets, Grizzlies, Thunder, Magic, and Jazz all still have their full non-taxpayer mid-level exceptions available, giving them the ability to offer up to about $10.5MM to a free agent. It’s worth noting though that Utah’s cap situation remains in flux as we wait to see what other moves the team has up its sleeve after trading Royce O’Neale and then agreeing to a blockbuster deal involving Rudy Gobert.

The Hawks, Nets, Heat, Pelicans, and Suns haven’t committed any mid-level money to free agents yet, but unless they shed salary, they’ll probably be limited to the taxpayer MLE (worth about $6.5MM) due to their proximity to the tax line.

The Bulls have used a small portion of their mid-level exception and should still have $7MMish available to spend, but doing so would push them into luxury tax territory, which ownership may be against.

There are some teams that could theoretically open up part or all of their mid-level exception if they’re able to turn reported free agent agreements into sign-and-trades. For example, Ricky Rubio agreed to a three-year, $18.4MM deal with the Cavaliers that will presumably use the MLE, but if Cleveland and Indiana were able to work out a sign-and trade deal involving Rubio, it would free up the Cavs’ mid-level to use on another move.

A.J. Griffin Signs With Hawks

July 3rd, 2022 at 11:52am CST by Arthur Hill

The Hawks have officially signed first-round pick AJ Griffin, the team announced in a press release.

The Duke forward, who was taken with the 16th selection in last week’s draft, will receive about $3.5MM during his first NBA season and roughly $17.1MM over the four-year deal.

Griffin, 18, averaged 10.4 points and 3.9 rebounds during his lone season with the Blue Devils while connecting at 54.7% from the field and 44.7% from three-point range. He was named to the ACC All-Freshman team and earned honorable mention All-ACC honors.

Southeast Notes: Hawks, Beal, Wizards, Magic, Hornets

July 2nd, 2022 at 4:34pm CST by JD Shaw

Dejounte Murray is excited to team up with Trae Young and had been talking to his new partner in the Hawks‘ backcourt about the possibility for the past two to three weeks, according to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. Speaking at press conference Friday, Murray said Atlanta was the only team he wanted to join and told reporters that he probably would still be with the Spurs if it hadn’t been for the opportunity with the Hawks.

Atlanta paid a premium price to acquire Murray, sending Danilo Gallinari and a sizable package of draft assets to San Antonio. General manager Landry Fields said the Hawks took time to assess the risks before committing to the trade.

“This wasn’t one of those that came about in a day,” Fields said. “Looking at what we were going to part with up front was one thing and then once we started to engage with San Antonio, it turned into another thing. We took time between talks to sit and think about how this was going to impact us in the future, how was this going to impact our current team, projection-wise what we are going to look like in several years, after factoring all of that in, we got to a place we were comfortable with.”

Here are some other notes from the Southeast Division:

Justin Holiday and Maurice Harkless, who are being acquired from the Kings in the Kevin Huerter trade, are both expected to be on the Hawks’ opening night roster. Kirschner adds. He also states that Atlanta continues to listen to offers for John Collins.
The Wizards were able to retain star free agent Bradley Beal in free agency, but questions remain about whether it was the right move for the team, Josh Robbins of The Athletic writes. Washington agreed to a five-year, $251MM deal with the three-time All-Star, prompting Robbins to explore whether keeping Beal at that price will keep the Wizards stuck in mediocrity due to their limited cap flexibility.
The Magic‘s free agency moves further prove the team believes in its young core, Khobi Price of the Orlando Sentinel opines. Orlando reached agreements with Mohamed Bamba, Gary Harris and Bol Bol, and guaranteed Moritz Wagner‘s salary. The team appears ready to run it back and continue developing its own players rather than adding outside help.
The Hornets are expected to hire Tyrone Corbin and Bob Beyer to Steve Clifford‘s coaching staff, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report tweets. Corbin worked for Clifford in Orlando, while Beyer coached under Clifford in Charlotte. Corbin and Beyer hold over 30 years of combined NBA coaching experience.

Arthur Hill contributed to this post.