A salary dump trade isn’t going to be the highlight of the Atlanta Hawks’ offseason, but it will mark the start of it. All signs point to the Hawks preparing to make more moves to continue to improve their roster, and earlier today The Morning Shift explained why they believe the Collins trade was just the first domino to fall.
“The endgame is something else, there’s something else in mind, we just don’t know what that is yet.” Mike Johnson said. ESPN Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski’s latest report on the John Collins trade backs up Mike’s sentiments as well.
“The Hawks are expected to continue to be in a deal-making mode this offseason and ownership has given GM Landry Fields the OK to move into the luxury tax should it be necessary to improve the roster, sources said.” Wojnarowski said in a tweet yesterday shortly after he broke the initial news of the Collins trade.
However, Woj isn’t the only person suggesting the Hawks are still in “deal-making mode”. Host of the Locked On Hawks podcast, Brad Rowland, joined The Morning Shift earlier today and told them that Landry Fields and the rest of Atlanta’s front office are still “active” on the phones.
“One of the reasons to make this deal now is that you can be more versatile with your roster, and if the opportunity presents itself I think they’ve been making calls and they’re not going to stop making calls in the next couple of weeks so they’ll be pretty active.”
If you look at Hawks current roster post Collins trade there’s no doubt the Hawks could stand pat with what they have and put either Saddiq Bey or Jalen Johnson at that starting power forward spot.
However, with an all-star backcourt in Trae Young and Dejounte, two guys who are also in their primes, the Hawks should be looking to capitalize and build on the talent they already have, and it looks like moving John Collins to get salary cap flexibility was the first step in doing just that.