With over 30 games in the books and about a month to the NBA trade deadline, talks around the association are starting to heat as teams begin to realize where they fall in the pecking order.
For the Hawks, it has not been a promising first few months of the season. After being about league average for the last two seasons, they’ve fallen well below that early on, winning just 14 of their first 33 games. There have been talks about a major shakeup when it comes to the player personnel for years now, but the Hawks have opted for tweaks rather than wholesale changes. The only major addition they’ve made has been Dejounte Murray, who very well could be out the door after signing an extension with the Hawks this past offseason.
“The premier point guard on the market before the Feb. 8 trade deadline may be Atlanta’s Dejounte Murray, a former All-Star whom the Hawks have made widely available, according to league sources, two years after trading three first-round picks to acquire Murray from San Antonio,” writes Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports.
The Dejounte Murray fit in Atlanta hasn’t worked out like the Hawks had hoped, but he’s still performing like a borderline All-Star and shooting a career-best 38.3% on a career-high 6.2 attempts from three-point land this season. There will be no shortage of suitors, and it does feel as if the best move would be for the Hawks to move on. The team is under .500 since he arrived in Atlanta, and simply put, there are much better marriages out there for Trae Young.
Murray, however, could just be the tipping point.
“The Hawks are certainly open for business, with plenty of long-term deals to be moved,” says Fischer. “Of late, Atlanta has informed numerous teams the only untouchable players on the Hawks’ roster are Young and rising third-year forward Jalen Johnson, sources said”
This is a long overdue moment for the Hawks, and it appears they are finally willing to admit this current core just isn’t going to get it done. The only two players that should be considered untouchable are Young and Johnson.
While competing teams will call on Young, there likely won’t be an answer. He still has three more years remaining on his contract and has proven capable of leading a team deep into the playoffs. There’s plenty of time for the Hawks to strip it down and build it back up to compete before Young tests free agency, especially when they appear to already have another building block in Jalen Johnson.
Much of the NBA world may not be too familiar with Johnson yet, but it won’t be long before some are calling for him to be an All-Star. In his first season with significant minutes, he’s averaging over 15 points a game on nearly 60% shooting from the field and a 41.5% mark from behind the arc. Johnson looks like a budding star, and with Trae Young, they could have something special. Unfortunately, they’ll have to do the difficult thing first and tear this thing down.
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Photographer: Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire
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