Analyst Proposes New Pascal Siakam Trade for the Hawks
The Hawks are currently on a five-game losing streak and their latest loss came against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night. The Raptors now passed the Hawks in the standings and Atlanta is currently out of the playoff picture. Going back to the summer, the Hawks have held a rumored interest in Raptors forward Pascal Siakam and those talks have only grown louder since the Hawks have begun to lose and drop in the standings.
Michael Pina, an analyst at The Ringer, discussed five hypothetical deals to kick off trade season, and sure enough, a hypothetical trade to send Pascal Siakam to the Hawks was discussed.
Pina had the Hawks sending Bogdan Bogdanovic and De'Andre Hunter to Toronto in exchange for Siakam. Here is what Pina had to say about the hypothetical trade:
"Atlanta is a wandering basketball team, helped and hindered by its franchise point guard. Will Siakam cure what ails the Hawks? Probably not. But if they can add someone this talented for Hunter and Bogdanovic, might as well go for it. The haul seems low, but how much can Toronto really get for an expensive soon-to-be 30-year-old who isn’t very malleable and is about to become an unrestricted free agent?"
Pascal Siakam vs the Hawks
I would not agree with sending out Bogdanovic in a trade. He is in the midst of perhaps his best season as a Hawk and Atlanta would sorely miss him on the bench. He is a candidate for 6th Man of the Year candidate and has arguably been the second-best player on the Hawks this season. I think Hunter would be involved in any deal for Siakam, but the other pieces could be players like AJ Griffin, Patty Mills (for salary), or rookie guard Kobe Bufkin.
According to NBA Insider Shams Charania at The Athletic, in a new report that he released this week: "Teams such as the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers are expected suitors for Siakam or Anunoby but believe Siakam appears to be the likelier player to be dealt, league sources tell The Athletic. Siakam, 29, is earning $37.9 million in the last year of his Raptors contract this season while Anunoby, 26, has a $19.9 million player option for next season that he will almost assuredly decline to enter free agency."
Charania also says "The Hawks held intense conversations with the Raptors surrounding a Siakam deal over the offseason, as The Athletic reported, and the Pacers and Kings have both checked in and engaged at different points with Toronto over the last year. For the Kings, a better start to this season than a year ago (12-8 this season compared to 11-9 last season en route to a 48-win campaign) provides confidence that they can grow internally rather than compete for the expected cost of talents such as Siakam and Anunoby."
Will a deal get done? If the Hawks keep losing, they may feel that they have to make a move.
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