Three Biggest Takeaways From Atlanta's trade to acquire Dorian Finney-Smith

In what is likely to be the final move for the Atlanta Hawks before the regular season begins, Atlanta sent Buddy Hield and Ryan Nembhard to Charlotte in exchange for Dorian Finney-Smith, who the Hornets acquired earlier in the offseason from the Houston Rockets. It was not a huge trade that moves the needle in any certain way for the Hawks, but they acquired a veteran forward who they hope is in for a bounce-back season after an injury-riddled 2025-2026 season with the Rockets.

When looking at this trade, what are the biggest takeaways for the Hawks?

1. Roster crunch solved

Since trading for Lu Dort and Nembhard in July, the Hawks have been sitting at 17 players on their roster, two more than the regular season limit. The Hawks were going to have to figure out how to solve this roster crunch, and over the past couple of weeks, they have done that.

The process began by waiving Devin Carter a couple of weeks ago, but injuries to Mouhamed Gueye and Henri Veesaar complicated matters and there was speculation as to whether the Hawks would move one of them.

But Atlanta opted to move two players who were not likely to play big roles for this team, especially Hield. Does this mean that Finney-Smith is going to play major minutes every night? No, but if he can bounce back from last season, play good defense, and hit open shots, then this could be a nice win for the Hawks. If not, his contract is not guaranteed for next season and Atlanta can move on.

Things could change between now and the trade deadline, but this is going to be the roster for the Hawks entering the season.

2. Atlanta maintains flexibility

Even with Hield and Nembhard, the Hawks had a path to financial flexibility by way of either trading those players or letting them go next offseason. Atlanta's front office wants to maintain optionality to make moves if the opportunity comes up and they still have that, even after trading for Finney-Smith.

After this season, Finney-Smith's contract is non-guaranteed and the Hawks could waive him or use his salary in a trade. Combine that with CJ McCollum ($21 million), Lu Dort ($17.7 million), Jock Landale ($14 million), and Mouhamed Gueye ($2.4 million), the Hawks have nearly $70 million in expiring money they could use to make a move of some kind during the season or allow themselves to have a lot of cap space next summer.

Does this guarantee the Hawks do something big? No, not if the right opportunity does not present itself, but it is better to be in the position to make these moves than not.

3. Path is clear for Kingston Flemings

With Carter and Nembhard gone, the path is there for Kingston Flemings to be the backup point guard this season.

Now, I think he probably would have been anyway, but Hawks head coach Quin Snyder is not shy about playing veterans over rookies. Now, Flemings is arguably already the best pure point guard on the team (does not mean he should or will start, which he won't) and he has a clear path to playing time off the bench. The Hawks don't have another pass-first guard off the bench and Flemings can play a big role this season.

Now, rookies are bad, especially 19-year old point guards, but Flemings has real potential and he should see the floor.

Add us as a preferred source on Google