Atlanta Hawks 2023 Offseason Thread

[Jamaaliver]

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[jayu70]

13 Guaranteed contracts:
PG: Trae Young, Patty Mills, Kobe Bufkin, 
SG: Dejounte Murray, Bogdan Bogdanovich, Garrison Mathews
SF: DeAndre Hunter, AJ Griffin. Mouhamed Gueye
PF: Jalen Johnson, Saddiq Bey
C - Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu

3 Unguaranteed contracts:
PG: Vit Krejci
SG: Tyrese Martin
SF:
PF:
C - Bruno Fernando

2 Two-Way Contracts:
PG: Trent Forrest
SG: Seth Lundy
SF:
PF:  Miles Norris
C - 

Total Salaries - $157,142,107 (*$8.1 million under the Luxury Tax)

[Jamaaliver]

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Waiving Martin will reduce Atlanta’s roster to 15 players on standard contracts, but the team is reportedly signing Wesley Matthews, so at least one more player will have to be waived or traded before the regular season begins.

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[tbhawksfan1]

I just get the feeling that although they have 100% been reducing payroll and talent, that they are making these crap moves like Mills and Matthews just to give the impression that they are making "win now" moves. SAD

[Geaux_Hawks]

I just get the feeling that although they have 100% been reducing payroll and talent, that they are making these crap moves like Mills and Matthews just to give the impression that they are making "win now" moves. SAD

I think there are other moves they are attempting to make. We've just not seen anything due to the fact that it takes two to tango. Mills and Matthews are just good locker room vets to have. Something we could actually use to maintain a stable locker room.

I don't see Matthews getting a ton of burn, and Mills may see some minutes after both Trae and DJM have ran the point. That's assuming Kobe will be G league bound. I personally think Vit has played himself into getting a shot in the rotation as a backup PG/Point forward. So push come to shove, we just got 2 great locker room guys.

[Jamaaliver]

I just get the feeling that although they have 100% been reducing payroll and talent, that they are making these crap moves like Mills and Matthews just to give the impression that they are making "win now" moves. SAD

I'm not sure anyone thinks that signing a 37-year-old to be our 3rd SG is a 'win now move'.

We needed defense, shooting and a veteran presence in the locker room. He checks all three. At minimum cost.

[Jamaaliver]

Atlanta's Biggest Win and Loss of the 2023 Offseason



Biggest Win: Signing Dejounte Murray to four-year extension

One of the best free agents of the 2024 class is already off the board, with Murray agreeing to a four-year, $114 million extension with the Hawks that includes $6 million in incentives.

This was the most Murray could have signed for by extending off his current $17.7 million salary. A new rule in the CBA allows players to extend for 140 percent of their salary, up from 120 percent, which Atlanta took advantage of.

This is a terrific contract for the cash-conscious Hawks, especially since Murray looked like he was headed for a max deal after making the All-Star Game in 2022. It's a good deal for Murray as well, who locks in a ton of guaranteed money, gets a player option in Year 4 and a 15 percent trade kicker.

Biggest Loss: The John Collins trade return

Trading Collins was inevitable if the Hawks wanted to extend Murray and give new deals to players such as Saddiq Bey and Onyeka Okongwu, both free agents in 2024.

Still, a return of 36-year-old Rudy Gay and a future second-round pick is a far cry from what Atlanta could have gotten for Collins the past few years, especially before he signed his five-year, $125 million deal.

The Hawks did clear salary and create a $25.3 million trade exception, although this still seems like a disappointing end to what was once a promising career for Collins in Atlanta.

Bleacher Report

[Jamaaliver]

Atlanta Hawks Offseason Report Card

The Atlanta Hawks entered this offseason coming off of a second straight first round exit, but this year there is far more optimism after pushing Boston to six games and feeling like there is something to build off of.

This will be Quin Snyder’s first offseason as head coach of the Hawks, after he signed on midseason following the firing of Nate McMillan. After their playoff series, star guard Trae Young expressed his excitement about what Snyder was going to bring the team with a full offseason to install his system, as the Hawks look to avoid the Play-In this coming season. If they’re to do so, they’ll have to see some internal improvement under Snyder, as — as of now — there aren’t any major changes being made to the roster.

Atlanta had a fairly quiet offseason, making one major trade and, otherwise, only making additions via the Draft. Here, we’ll take stock of their summer so far, handing out grades for their Draft, free agency signings and contract extensions, and work on the trade market.

Draft: A-

Spoiler:

The Hawks brought in three players via the Draft, with Kobe Bufkin as their first round selection and then adding Mouhamed Gueye and Seth Lundy in the second round. Bufkin and Gueye signed 4-year rookie deals to join the main roster, while Lundy signed a two-way contract. The Bufkin and Gueye picks were both well received, with our Brad Rowland giving Atlanta an A- for the Bufkin pick, explaining the grade as follows:

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Bufkin is a very strong pick for the Hawks. He checks a lot of boxes on both ends of the floor with shooting guard size and point guard skills. Bufkin has strong basketball feel and he is already a quality defender that could continue to improve as he gets stronger.

Bolstering their point guard rotation and adding another young big made for a solid draft night, as the Hawks did well to seemingly maximize pick value.

Free Agency/Extensions: B

Spoiler:

The Hawks haven’t signed any free agents this summer, which is rather incredible, but this was a team that came into the offseason without any real departures from their rotation. While they’ve been active in the trade market (both in discussions and deals getting done), they were never going to do much when it came to free agency.

There was one major contract decision for the Hawks to make, and that was whether to give a 4-year, $120 million contract extension to Dejounte Murray (the max they could offer this summer). They did and Murray accepted, as he got the big long-term deal he was seeking without having to be concerned about the free agent market next summer. Given what we saw this year with some free agents getting squeezed, it’s hard to blame him even if he very well could’ve gotten a bigger deal on the open market. For the Hawks, they’re now committed to the Murray-Young backcourt after some rumblings Murray was a part of trade talks early in the summer, but get Murray at a potential discount by locking him up on an extension now rather than waiting another year — and don’t have to worry about the possibility of losing him in free agency after trading so many draft picks to keep him around.

Trades: D+

Spoiler:

After years of trying to move John Collins but balking at the offers from other teams, the Hawks finally sent him to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Rudy Gay and a second round pick. It was far less value than Collins’ production deserves in return in a vacuum, but considering how much is left on his contract (three years, $78 million remaining), how he was coming off the least productive season of his career, and the lack of teams with cap room this summer, there weren’t a lot of options. We have grown accustomed to the Hawks making moves to dodge the tax in recent years, but doing so and selling low is particularly bad and it’d be hard to sell lower on Collins than this summer.


They did do well in taking advantage of the Rockets’ haste to create more room for their pursuit of Brook Lopez by bringing in Usman Garuba and TyTy Washington, who they flipped alongside Gay for Patty Mills in a deal with the Thunder. Mills gives them a veteran guard who can shoot for their bench rotation, but how much he can help them is a question mark as he enters his 15th season in the league and is coming off a season in Brooklyn where he was used sparingly.

There is, of course, a chance the Hawks make another splash in the trade market and change their grade, as there are still rumblings of interest in Pascal Siakam amid their very public efforts to trade De’Andre Hunter. However, for now, they’ve not done particularly well, entirely because of the Collins trade made too late.

Uproxx.com

[jayu70]

Murray and Gueye team up at ZekeEnd.

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[Jamaaliver]

Hope KM is right.

[Jamaaliver]

We may not have a contending roster, but at least we have a clean cap sheet for the time being...

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[Jamaaliver]

One Offseason Wish for Every NBA Team

From Jarrett Allen running lineman drills to Jaylen Brown doing, well, anything with his left hand, these are the workout videos, FIBA World Cup performances, and social media posts we’re looking for this summer



Atlanta Hawks: Toward a More Perfect Floater

There are fewer than a handful of players in the world who can manipulate the trajectory of a basketball with the level of touch that Trae Young has. His floater may one day be considered an all-time-great signature skill, and his fabled deep range from 3, dating back to high school, makes up the core of his heliocentric design. You ever wish those two great tastes were featured together more often?

Trae has been crushing the summer circuit, but nothing would make me more excited for Atlanta’s first full season with coach Quin Snyder than footage of Young casually drilling 3-point teardrops. The beauty of Trae’s floater is its multiplicity: It’s a gamut of possible outcomes disguised as a binary. The dilemma is not just in figuring out whether he’s passing or shooting, but also in discerning how far into Trae’s arcing motion his intention is set. Now imagine Young lofting the ball into the air from behind the 3-point line right out of a Spain pick-and-roll. He’s thrown one-legged, no-look lobs from that far out before:

Spoiler:

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Fine-tune the accuracy, and what’s stopping the best floater in the game from going even deeper?

The Ringer

[Jamaaliver]

Season previews starting to roll in:

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[Jamaaliver]

NBA Teams That Blew It This Offseason

Atlanta Hawks



After winning 43 and 41 games the past two years, the Hawks look like they'll once again finish in the middle of the East after not really doing much this summer.

Dumping John Collins' contract on the Utah Jazz for a 2026 second-round pick was a huge disappointment, even if Collins' role had declined each of the few years. When Trae Young and Dejounte Murray were on the floor with Collins last season, the Hawks had a net rating of plus-3.3. When the two star guards played without Collins, this number fell to minus-7.4, a difference of 10.1-points-per-100-possessions.

The additions Atlanta made were minor. Patty Mills is 35 and Wesley Matthews will turn 37 in October. Rookie Kobe Bufkin could be good in time but shot just 33.3 percent overall and 13.8 percent from three in Summer League at Las Vegas. Asking him to contribute to a playoff team this year may be a stretch.

We don't have clarity on the futures of Onyeka Okongwu or Saddiq Bey yet either, as neither have signed rookie extensions to this point and Clint Capela is still blocking Okongwu's path to a starting job.

The Hawks have to hope that a full training camp with Quin Snyder (who went 10-11 after taking over the job last season) will make a true difference.

For now, there's more questions than answers in Atlanta, a team that still looks like a .500 squad again this year.

Bleacher Report

[Jamaaliver]

Every NBA Team's Final Offseason Grade

Atlanta Hawks

Grade: C-

Key Additions: Wesley Matthews, Patty Mills, Kobe Bufkin (R), Mouhamed Gueye (R), Seth Lundy (R)

Key Subtractions: John Collins, Aaron Holiday

Key Retentions: Dejounte Murray

The Atlanta Hawks don't get credit for the change that should impact their 2023-24 season most: replacing head coach Nate McMillan with Quin Snyder. That move happened with just 23 games remaining in the 2022-23 campaign. Considering Snyder's success with the Utah Jazz, where he compiled a 372-264 record while guiding the team to six straight seasons among the top 10 in point differential, the Hawks are bound to improve on last year's .500 mark.

Other than Dejounte Murray's four-year, $117 million extension, which will look more and more like a bargain as time passes, Atlanta's transactions failed to impress.

John Collins' departure in a trade to the Jazz concluded a drawn-out saga in which the promising forward's value plummeted. In 2019-20, a 22-year-old Collins averaged 21.6 points and 10.1 rebounds while shooting 40.1 percent from deep. Flash forward, and all Atlanta could get from Utah for Collins was Rudy Gay (since waived), a 2026 second-round pick via the Memphis Grizzlies and a $23 million trade exception a notoriously tax-averse organization probably won't even use.

Bleacher Report