This year is going to be a big one for the Atlanta Hawks. After the Dejounte Murray trade, Atlanta will look a lot different this season. Murray is gone and Trae Young is the undisputed voice of the team. The Hawks have a number of young players that they will look to develop, including Jalen Johnson, Zaccharie Risacher, Onyeka Okongwu, and Dyson Daniels. In addition to the young players, the Hawks also have veterans like Bogdan Bogdanovic and Clint Capela and I think there is a chance that the Hawks can surprise the league and compete for a top-six playoff spot.
Not everyone in the league has that level of optimism. Young has a huge contract, and Bleacher Report analyst Eric Pincus think The Hawks might regret this contract:
“When Young led Atlanta to the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals after a four-year playoff drought, the Hawks invested heavily in him and the roster around him.
With his selection to the All-NBA Third Team in 2021-22, his rookie-level contract extension increased to 30% of the salary cap instead of the usual 25%.
Since then, the franchise has not won a playoff series, missing the 2023-24 playoffs. The Hawks tried to pair Dejounte Murray with Young as a second-prime point guard, but it didn’t work out (Murray was sent to the New Orleans Pelicans this summer).
While his talent is undeniable, few teams are interested in an expensive, small (6’1″, 160 lbs) point guard who doesn’t defend and needs the ball in his hands to be effective.
The trade market has been said to be cold on Young in recent years. Atlanta is doing its best to put a winning product around him with diminishing returns.
Potential Regret Level: 7/10
While it feels like the discussion around Young revolves around why the Hawks can’t win with him, I don’t think they’re focusing enough on what the Hawks did this offseason to build a team around him. While there are unknowns with guys like Daniels and Risacher, there’s also considerable upside with them.
On the latest episode of the Lowe Post podcast, NBA analysts Zach Lowe and Kevin Pelton discussed the most intriguing players heading into the season and Pelton named Daniels as one to watch:
“I think the ideal version of Daniels would be a great fit for Atlanta, next to Trae Young. He gives them size in the backcourt and he’s great on defense if he can shoot and that’s the big question mark. He hasn’t really progressed, he was still at 31 percent last season. He’s worked with maybe the best at this point, the shooting doctor in the league and Fred Vinson with the Pelicans staff. The fact that they’re not convinced he can play with shooters is a little concerning to me and I think it’s interesting because guys that get traded on their rookie deals are valued, like they’re not cheap buys, but he was hypothetically with the pick they got, some of the value in exchange for Dejounte Murray. I don’t think the track record on those guys is that great.”
Aaron Nesmith is someone who you could say has been successful in that area in Indiana. Nickeil Alexander-Walker finally took a little while. But the last guy who was traded before the final year of a rookie contract and really made a splash on his next team, I think, was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and that’s obviously a pipe dream. We’re not talking about that with Dyson Daniels. Whereas you can look at RJ Hampton when he was in the Aaron Gordon trade, Romeo Langford, in the Derrick White trade, Cam Reddish getting a first-round pick, Dennis Smith Jr., Landry Shamet. They don’t usually do very well when the other team trades you early in your career, and it’s probably because they know something the rest of the league doesn’t. I’m curious to see how that plays out with Dyson Daniels.
I think this is a big season for Young, but I think he’s in a position to succeed and lead the team. As long as Young is the primary creator on offense, the Hawks should have a top-tier offense in the NBA, but it’s the other end of the floor that has given them problems. The addition of Dyson Daniels via the Dejounte Murray trade, the selection of Risacher, and the hope that Johnson, Okongwu, Clint Capela, and De’Andre Hunter can continue to play above-average defense. If the Hawks can improve on that end, then I think they could be a surprise team in 2024-25.