With the trade deadline still three weeks away, why are these teams doing the deal today?
In the case of Atlanta, at least, the explanation is fairly straightforward. The Hawks took on roughly $1M in salary between now and the rest of the season in order to add a legitimate backup point guard behind Trae Young. Atlanta has been absolutely eviscerated in the minutes Young was off the court this season....
With the Hawks at 9-32 at midseason, one can fairly ask if they’d be better off just taking Ls the rest of the way and improving their lottery odds as much as possible. In this case, two strong counterpoints weigh against. First, the damage has been done: Even if the Hawks play .500 the rest of the way they’ll end up with 29 wins and likely end up with a top-7 pick at worst. Second, there is no pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow. Most evaluators consider the top of this draft class notably weak, with no Anthony Davis-type sure thing waiting for the team that lucks into the top pick at the lottery.
As a result, the Hawks can do the right thing for the development of their multiple young wing players (Reddish, De’Andre Hunter and Kevin Huerter) by pushing them into the right roles with a real point guard on the floor for all 48 minutes.
The other angle here is that it may possibly take the Hawks out of play for deals with their limited cap space. The trade removed nearly half of Atlanta’s $4.7M in room, potentially taking some small salary-dump deals off the table. On the other hand, it’s also possible they could flip Teague for a second-round pick in three weeks – surely they weren’t getting that for Crabbe. Finally, if the Hawks wanted to make another deal, both Teague and Graham can be aggregated since the Hawks were below the cap when they acquired them.
https://theathletic.com/1540467/2020/01/16/hollinger-making-sense-of-the-timing-on-the-jeff-teague-trade?source=shared-article
