Hawks Trade Deadline Roundup
The NBA trade deadline nearly always brings a frenzy of activity and excitement, but certain teams are always more involved than others. This week, the Hawks were among the most active teams on the trade market, swinging four deals of varying significance to improve their roster this season and preemptively accomplish some of their goals for the coming summer.
Atlanta, who had been mentioned in various trade rumors since December, had been interested in acquiring a center all season and was a near certainty to make a consequential move before Thursday's deadline. They finally broke through with a deal late Tuesday night, acquiring Clint Capela from the Rockets in a four-team deal that sent Evan Turner and Brooklyn’s 2020 lottery-protected first-round pick (via Atlanta) to Minnesota. In doing so, the Hawks significantly upgraded at a position of great need and eliminated the need to sign a starting center this summer.
Capela should provide Atlanta with a meaningful boost on defense and give Trae Young another weapon to use in the pick-and-roll, and while his presence could present complications with John Collins’ future as a Hawk, Capela is a nice fit with the Hawks’ offensive style. At age 25, he’s young enough to fit into Atlanta’s long-term trajectory yet experienced enough to help stabilize a developing team.
During Wednesday’s game against the Timberwolves, the Hawks swung another deal, this time with the Kings for center Dewayne Dedmon, who spent the 2018 and ’19 seasons in Atlanta. They sent Alex Len and Jabari Parker back to Sacramento while also receiving two second-round picks. Dedmon had the best years of his career as a Hawk, blossoming into one of the league’s more valuable 3-and-D centers, and while his shooting stroke abandoned him in Sacramento, the Hawks hope he will morph back into the established floor-spacer he was last season.
Though limited in his range of skills, Dedmon offers perhaps the two most valuable elements – shooting and rim protection – a modern center can. Provided he can rediscover his shooting touch, Dedmon should restore some competence and flexibility to the Hawks on both ends of the floor. Atlanta now has 48 minutes’ worth of capable center play, which should give the team a significant boost given the current state of the big man rotation.
The Hawks’ next move was a fairly inconsequential one from their perspective. They acquired Derrick Walton Jr. and $1.3 million from the Clippers for a top-55 protected second-round pick. Atlanta will waive Walton, which means Tony Ressler functionally got paid $1.3 million to help the Clippers facilitate a later trade for Marcus Morris.
Finally, the Hawks traded another heavily-protected second-rounder for Skal Labissière and $1.9 million in cash so that Portland could trip its luxury tax bill. In this case, however, they actually plan on keeping Labissière, which now leaves five centers on the roster – excluding john Collins, who has played roughly half his minutes at center this season with so few viable alternatives on the team. Lloyd Pierce, of course, cannot possibly play five centers in his rotation, but the 23-year-old Labissière was a low-risk, medium-reward gamble for a team still in the midst of a rebuild. Damian Jones and Bruno Fernando hardly cost anything at this point, and those three will likely compete for third-string center duties (though Collins should probably be the front-runner for that job at this point).
In total, the Hawks emerged as clear winners from this year’s deadline. Atlanta has positioned itself to be more competitive in the short term without meaningfully sacrificing its long-term flexibility. Travis Schlenk clearly upgraded the roster while locking in solid starting and backup center options for the next few years – Capela is under contract through 2023 and Dedmon’s deal runs through 2021 with a non-guaranteed year in 2022 – and Atlanta now avoids the risk of overpaying for a center in a weak free-agent market this summer.
Parker and Len were the only rotation players sacrificed via trade, and both had missed good portions of the year with injuries. The Hawks retained all of their own first-round picks moving forward and still own Oklahoma City’s 2022 lottery-protected first-rounder (Schlenk deserves credit for wresting that the Nets’ pick away from them in the Taurean Prince trade this summer and flipping it into an above-average starting center).
Prioritizing winning for the rest of this season could cost the Hawks a more favorable draft position, but many people within the league aren’t over the moon about the upcoming draft class. If the team hopes to compete for a playoff spot in 2021, veterans like Dedmon and Capela – not to mention a more experienced Young – will be more useful in that pursuit than another top-four pick.
With Atlanta unlikely to be a player on the buyout market, its roster is likely finalized. Now we’ll find out exactly what kind impact this week’s deals will have on the court.
