The Atlanta Hawks have built a strong looking young core through the years via the NBA Draft, but some tough decisions are about to come their way. Recently, the Hawks extended the contracts of Trae Young, John Collins, Clint Capela and Kevin Huerter, spending a total of $500M on these four players long-term.
With Danilo Gallinari making a total of $41M through the 2022-23 season and Bogdan Bogdanovic making a total of $36M through the 2023-24 season, should he opt into his $18M player option for the final year of his contract, Atlanta is very thin on moves that they can make make to better their roster.
They are basically locked into what they have right now and while they did just make the Eastern Conference Finals last season, the Atlanta Hawks are just 15-18 this season and have struggled to find consistency.
Injuries to key contributors like De’Andre Hunter, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Cam Reddish and others during the season have definitely contributed to this team’s struggles, but off-the-court, this front-office is going to have to make some kind of a move either at the trade deadline or in the offseason because they cannot afford to keep what they have.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Teams Inquiring About Cam Reddish Trade — What Hawks Would Want
Technically, they could move forward with what they have, but the Hawks have never been a team that has been willing to pay a ton of money in taxes. Being just $1.8M under the tax line for this season and projected to be paying over $150M in total payroll next season, we should expect to see some big changes to this roster, starting with some of their young talents.
The Hawks do not need to worry about retaining Trae Young, John Collins and Kevin Huerter long-term, but they may be forced to choose between keeping either De’Andre Hunter or Cam Reddish.
Both Hunter (4th overall) and Reddish (10th overall) were selected in the Top-10 of the 2019 NBA Draft and both are still under contract on their rookie deals through the 2022-23 season. However, with the Hawks committed to so much money through the years, they are going to have a hard time keeping just one of these guys on a long-term deal, yet alone both of them!
De’Andre Hunter has been injury-prone early on in his career, as he has played in just 56.4% of the Hawks’ regular season games since being drafted, but he is definitely the better two-way threat on the wing out of him and Cam Reddish.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Teams Inquiring About Cam Reddish Trade — What Hawks Would Want
On the other side of things though, Reddish has played in more games than Hunter and is starting to put things together on the offensive-end of the floor in his third season. Over his last eight games, Cam Reddish has stepped up with his team dealing with various players in health protocols and has averaged 16.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and has shot 42.2% from the floor, 41.2% from three-point range.
Reddish has scored at least 33 points in two of his last four games and recorded a career-high 8 made three-pointers against the Chicago Bulls on December 27.
The decision to keep Cam Reddish or De’Andre Hunter is definitely one that is going to be extremely difficult for the Atlanta Hawks to make. Their cap situation is one of the worst in the league in terms of having no available funds moving forward, which is why the Hawks could look to move some veterans instead in order to keep their young core together.
Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari are making a combined $77.9M through next season and if Atlanta was to move one or both of them in trades, they could free up enough cap space to be able to retain both Hunter and Reddish without exceeding the tax line.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Teams Inquiring About Cam Reddish Trade — What Hawks Would Want
Cam Reddish was rumored to be available in trade talks ahead of the 2021 NBA Draft this past offseason and he has been drawing interest again this season, but Reddish has been playing so well as of late.
Trading away Reddish when he is having a career-year and is one of the Hawks’ best offensive talents could definitely return a lot of value to Atlanta, but at the same time, this could ruin their chances of making it back to the playoffs.
If the playoffs started today, the Hawks would not be participating and they would be getting ready to draft in the lottery after being one of the last two teams standing in the Eastern Conference a season ago.
Given all the talented teams in the East this season, there is no room for error, which is why trading Cam Reddish would be foolish for the Hawks at this point.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Teams Inquiring About Cam Reddish Trade — What Hawks Would Want
Down the line, this is still a move that we could see happen in favor of the team keeping De’Andre Hunter long-term, but it definitely makes a lot more sense to keep their young core and look to trade both Bogdanovic and Gallinari.
