Grading the Atlanta Hawks' Blockbuster Deal For Celtics Center Kristaps Porzingis

General manager Onsi Saleh may be new to his role, but he's starting things off with a major move as Kristaps Porzingis is now an Atlanta Hawk.

The Celtics center was traded to Atlanta this evening for a three-team trade that sends Kristaps Porzingis and a second-round pick to the Hawks, Terance Mann and Atlanta's No. 22 pick to the Nets, and Georges Niang and a second-rounder to the Celtics.

BREAKING: Boston, Atlanta and Brooklyn are finalizing a three-team trade that sends Kristaps Porzingis and a second-round pick to the Hawks, Terance Mann and Atlanta's No. 22 pick to the Nets, and Georges Niang and a second-rounder to the Celtics. pic.twitter.com/1fcbIslyVF
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 24, 2025

From both a basketball and salary cap perspective, this makes a ton of sense on both sides. Porzingis should be a fantastic fit in Atlanta - he can play alongside Onyeka Okongwu in a double-big lineup or play PF in case Jalen Johnson gets injured. While Okongwu is a bit undersized, there's no question that adding a true seven-footer in Porzingis should be able to mitigate any rim protection issues the Hawks have. A frontcourt of Jalen Johnson, Porzingis and Okongwu is one of the best in basketball and they can also bring Zaccharie Risacher off the bench. Porzingis shot 41.2% from deep this season on 6.2 attempts per game while being an excellent rim protector. He finished this season with a block percentage of 4.8%, which was above known shot-blockers like Myles Turner and Rudy Gobert.

The pairing of Porzingis and Trae Young is also extremely fun. They should be able to find chemistry right away in the pick-and-roll and Young's gravity will open up more catch-and-shoot opportunities for the big man. Dyson Daniels, who never shot above 32% before joining the Hawks, shot 34% from deep on a career-high 3.4 attempts per game partially because defenses devote so much attention to stopping Trae. I also wonder if the Hawks would explore a massive lineup of Johnson, Daniels, Risacher, Porzingis and Okongwu that can overwhelm smaller opponents. In any case, Porzingis should be able to take some scoring burden off of Young, which should be viewed as a massive positive.

Inside the paint, he isn't quite as dominant as his size would indicate. Porzingis finished last season shooting 69% at the rim, which was a drop-off from the 74% he shot at the rim in 2023-24. There is also the caveat that Porzingis is a massive injury risk. He is almost a lock to miss 20+ games this season based on his past seasons and he was extremely hobbled for the Celtics in their second-round series against the Knicks. He averaged just 4.2 points and 3.7 rebounds in 15.5 minutes throughout the six-game series, shooting 24.0% from the field, as he was dealing with an undisclosed illness that severely impacted him. While it's not expected to be a long-term issue at the moment, the Hawks are taking on some injury risk by acquiring him. It isn't a question of whether the big man will miss time - it's whether the Hawks have a good plan to manage his absences from the lineup. Fortunately, the established presence of Johnson and Okongwu should give them some breathing room in that regard.

From a salary cap management perspective, this deal is excellent for the Hawks. Atlanta took on Terance Mann's contract as part of the trade that sent Bogdan Bogdanovic to the Clippers and it became clear that Mann was not able to make as much of an impact as they had hoped. His contract, which has another three years and cap hits of $15.5 million, $15.5 million and $16 million in those respective years, quickly became bad money and Saleh deserves credit for fixing that issue. While the Bogdanovic deal did not work out for Atlanta, that was a Fields move and Saleh should not be held entirely accountable for the move. Even so, Mann played solid defense during his time in Atlanta and brought a veteran attitude to the locker room. He should be a key player for the Nets this upcoming season. Conversely, Porzingis is in the last year of his deal and the $30.7 million dollar cap hit he carries for this season carries no further cap penalties for Atlanta. However, he will not fit into the $25 million TPE that the Hawks got from the Dejounte Murray trade, meaning that the Hawks are still free to use it.

Georges Niang is a bigger loss for the Hawks. When he came to Atlanta, he had a reputation as a great floor-spacer stemming from hitting over 40% from deep on respectable volume for six out of the nine years of his career. That reputation held up over his time in Atlanta and he was vital for the team's spacing down the stretch. However, he was extremely targetable on defense and just didn't have the mobility the Hawks needed from their PF. Still, he was a good reserve for the Hawks and he should have a big role on the Celtics next season with the absence of Jayson Tatum. As a result of the deal, his $8.2 million dollar salary will no longer be on Atlanta's books.

The Hawks are still safely under the luxury tax and brought in a big-time frontcourt piece that makes them a better team for the 2025-26 season. They did send out the 22nd overall pick, but the late first round is not as strong as it is in other years due to many players heading back to school. Atlanta still has a first-round selection at the 13th overall pick and this frees them up to go in any direction they see fit. While the chances of getting someone like Khaman Maluach of Duke seem a little less likely after acquiring Porzingis, they are no longer reliant on trading up in the draft to grab a center that can pair with Okongwu. At the moment, I think this is a very reasonable deal that makes a lot of sense for the Hawks and fills a big need at a reasonable, or even slightly cheap, cost.

Overall Grade: A

More Atlanta Hawks News:

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