The dust has settled for the Atlanta Hawks following the club’s two biggest tasks of the Summer.
About a week ago, the NBA Draft commenced after the Alex Sarr saga, a drama-filled stretch in which he essentially made it known he didn’t want to be in Atlanta. Landry Fields ended up picking Zaccharie Risacher and quickly turned his focus to the biggest domino of the offseason.
As an inexperienced GM, Fields was tasked with the No. 1 overall pick and choosing between two All-Stars to build around. The Hawks had to trade one of Trae Young or Dejounte Murray.
Even the most pessimistic fans couldn’t have predicted how poorly the tandem worked out. When Young and Murray were on the court together, the Hawks were a terrible basketball team; the advanced metrics back it up as well as the eye test.
Both are great individual players, who are capable of leading a good roster to the postseason, but the simple fact is the Hawks couldn’t run it back. Landry Fields ended up striking a deal to send Murray to New Orleans in exchange for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr., E.J. Liddell, 2025 first-round pick (via Lakers), and 2027 first-round pick (least favorable of Milwaukee/New Orleans).
The Hawks may tweak the roster in the form of a veteran minimum deal or another trade, like Clint Capela or De’Andre Hunter, but the team is about set. So, let’s take a look at the Hawks cap sheet.
Total Cap Allocations: $189,853,230 / 20th
Cap Space: $-49,265,230 / 11th
1st Apron Space: $17,869,202
2nd Apron Space: $28,668,202
The club is already over the salary cap in 2024-2025, but in a soft/flex cap league, this isn’t abnormal. The figures to look at, which dictate roster flexibility, are the tax as well as the first and second aprons.
The Hawks could go into the luxury tax, but this is an ownership group that has done everything in their power to void paying the tax. The Hawks have regularly sought luxury tax redistribution money from the tax-paying teams by getting under the tax line, so I certainly wouldn’t expect that to change all of a sudden.
The Hawks could use the mid-level exception to sign a free agent, but that’s a pipe dream.
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Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire
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