TRADE ALERT: Spurs Trade All-Star Dejounte Murray To Hawks
On Wednesday afternoon, the Atlanta Hawks finally struck a deal with the San Antonio Spurs to acquire All-Star point guard Dejounte Murray, who Atlanta had been targeting ever since before the 2022 NBA Draft.
First reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Hawks are dealing veteran forward Danilo Gallinari to the Spurs along with three future first-round picks and one first-round pick swap.
Here are all the draft picks the Hawks are sending to San Antonio according to Wojnarowski:
- Charlotte Hornets 2023 1st Round Pick (Top-16 Protected)
- Atlanta Hawks 2025 1st Round Pick (Unprotected)
- Atlanta Hawks/San Antonio Spurs 2026 1st Round Pick SWAP (More Favorable to SAS)
- Atlanta Hawks 2027 1st Round Pick (Unprotected)
After finishing the 2021-22 season 43-39, losing in the first-round of the playoffs after taking it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals the season before, the Hawks knew that they had to make a big move at some point this offseason to get All-Star Trae Young more help.
Former first-round pick John Collins had his name brought up a lot in pre-draft trade talks around the league, but interest in Collins was not as high as Atlanta had anticipated.
Dejounte Murray was not thought to be available heading into the offseason after the Spurs had declined to talk about trades involving their young All-Star leading up to this past season’s trade deadline, but the narrative within San Antonio’s front-office has changed since the end of the year, as they drafted two young backcourt pieces in the first-round of this year’s draft as possible replacements for Murray.
Coming off a year in which he made his first All-Star appearance of his career, Dejounte Murray has proven to be a focal point in this league and seems to be the perfect facilitator and athlete to put next to Trae Young in Atlanta’s backcourt.
In 68 games with the Spurs during the 2021-22 season, Murray averaged 21.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 9.2 assists and led the league with 2.0 steals per game.
San Antonio’s goal heading into the 2022-23 season now becomes more clear, as the team continues to try and build for the future. For the Hawks however, they saw an opportunity to become a top-tier team in the Eastern Conference right now, which is why they sacrificed a ton of future assets to make this trade a reality.
Now having one of the best backcourt duos in the entire league, the Atlanta Hawks will look to surround their two young All-Stars with as much secondary help as possible with free agency on the horizon.
