NBA Insider Shares Details Of Hawks Trying To Acquire Brandon Ingram In Three-Team Deals At Trade Deadline

The trade deadline passed nearly a month ago and it was one of the craziest in NBA history. Luka Doncic was traded to the Lakers, Jimmy Butler was traded to the Warriors, Atlanta made a flurry of moves to trade veteran players, and Brandon Ingram was traded to the Toronto Raptors. There were plenty of big name players that were on the move, but there are usually stories that come out about things that almost happened but didn't.

Leading up to the trade deadline, there were multiple reports connecting the Atlanta Hawks to Ingram before he was traded to the Raptors. It made a level of sense due to Jalen Johnson being out for the season and the fact that the Hawks did not own their own draft picks for the next three seasons and could not tank for the rest of the season. The Raptors traded Bruce Brown (expiring deal), Kelly Olynk (two years left), a first round pick, and a second round pick. The Hawks seemingly did not want to give up any real assets for Ingram, which is understandable given his health and the contract extension he was going to be due.

In an article today, NBA insider Michael Scotto was talking about the Hawks-Ingram talks and how Atlanta was trying to put together three-team trades to land Ingram:

"Atlanta attempted to improve the roster with a big splash by trying to acquire 27-year-old forward Brandon Ingram ahead of the trade deadline, which would’ve aligned well with Young (26).

Sources told HoopsHype that the Hawks and Pelicans had several three-team trade conversations, which included two of the following four players leaving Atlanta in different trade scenarios for Ingram that ultimately fell through: Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu, De’Andre Hunter, and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Hunter and Bogdanovic were traded to the Cavaliers and Clippers in separate deals."

You can read the full article here.

The Hawks were looking to find ways to upgrade their roster, but showed some restraint in terms of giving up assets, which is a smart move to me. This team does not have a lot of tradeable assets and while Ingram is a good player, he is not reliable when it comes to health and his contract extension would have been big. He signed a 3-year, $120 million extension with the Raptors once he was traded. This is a transitional year for the Hawks and giving out a long-term idea is something they likely did not want to do. Atlanta moved off of Hunter and Bogdanovic's contracts, clearing more money for the future.

This upcoming offseason is going to be an important one for the Hawks. Let's see how the front office decides to manage it.

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