Winners and Losers From The Atlanta Hawks Trade For Luguentz Dort

After a bit of a quiet period, the Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Dallas Mavericks made a three-team trade that sent one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA to Atlanta. As part of the deal, Atlanta acquired Luguentz Dort from OKC, as well as Ryan Nembhard from the Mavericks. The Thunder picked up another slew of second-round picks, and Atlanta sent former No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher to Dallas.

There are plenty more moves to come for the Hawks, seeing as they have 17 players on their roster and the regular season limit is 15, but who can be the big winners and losers from Sunday's trade?

Winner: Atlanta's defense and physicality

One of, but certainly not the only reason, that the Hawks lost to the Knicks so emphatically over the last three games of their first round series was the physicality and toughness of New York. Players like OG Anunoby and MItchell Robinson out-physicaled the Hawks and pushed them around, for lack of a better term.

That won't be happeing with Dort on the team.

This is not to say that the Hawks are going to be the most physical team each and every night, but they might be. Dort is known for his toughness and physicality and pairing him with Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker is going to give Atlanta a lot of options when it comes to their defensive lineups.

It is too early to say if Dort is going to start or not (I lean towards no), but the Hawks should be one of the top defensive units in the NBA.

Loser: Corey Kispert

Kispert was already looking at a very small role on the team next season, if he even had one at all, but with the Hawks adding another capable wing player to their roster, as well as the trade for Aaron Wiggins earlier this offseason, Kispert will probably have little to no playing time on the Hawks, if he is even still on the roster.

Kispert was mostly a negative on the floor after coming over from the Wizards and his role has gotten even smaller after the Hawks traded for Dort.

Winner: Hawks depth

The Hawks depth was a big issue for them in the later part of the season, even when they were winning games and made the playoffs.

Whether Dort starts or not, the Hawks have a far more capable bench unit to help their starting lineup.

If Atlanta's starting lineup remains unchanged, they will have Dort, Wiggins, Kingston Flemings, Jock Landale, Asa Newell, Zuby Ejiofor, and Ryan Nembhard behind them, which is deeper than what they had to end the season.

Potential Loser: Kingston Flemings

This is hypothetical and has more to do with the acquisition of Nembhard than it does with Dort.

Before this trade, it was pretty easy to assume, especially after his strong Summer League performance, that Flemings was going to be the backup point guard. There is at least some doubt now because of the addition of Nembhard. Atlanta head coach Quin Snyder has been resistant to trusting rookies and given how Nembhard played to end the year, it is not unreasonable that he is the backup point guard to start the season.

I still lean towards Flemings earning that role, given how much the Hawks have invested in him going forward and Nembhard is not a veteran. Yes, he played well to end the season, but he is a 5'11 guard who was playing on a tanking team.

This is something to keep an eye on as training camp and the preseason get closer though.

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