After a season that fell short of lofty expectations, the Hawks may be looking to trade away one of their core pieces, Dejounte Murray. What does this mean for the Hawks going forward?
With the Atlanta Hawks coming up against the luxury tax, they may opt to move a player that they used a lot of draft capital last summer.
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report has stated that “whispers abound that Dejounte Murray could be had in the right deal.”
As Pincus states, the Hawks are more likely to trade John Collins but the fact that Murray is available in trades shows this team has no direction.
When the Hawks traded multiple picks for the All-Star, it was thought that the Hawks would have the duo of Murray and Trae Young for the foreseeable future. It was thought they would eventually compete for championships as Young continued to develop.
Why are the Hawks open to trading Dejounte Murray already?
With a front office that is clearly in the middle of a power struggle, Atlanta might not be able to get to that point with the core intact. At the very least, the Hawks will look to get under the luxury tax this summer. That could finally mean the Hawks will trade John Collins this summer. It has been rumored that Young could be the next superstar to request a trade as well.
Things could look very different in Atlanta next season. As for Murray, it is looking very unlikely that he will get extended before he hits free agency due to CBA rules. The max deal he can get would be a five percent raise from his last deal. This means he would lose out on a lot of money and not have a chance at getting a max contract.
On the open market, he can get a lot more even if he does re-sign with Atlanta. Pending injury or him losing skill/talent over the next season, he should get a max contract. He most likely will not be able to get a supermax deal but he will be eligible for a regular max.
The Hawks have only this offseason to decide whether they want to pay heavily in tax money for a core of Young and Murray, otherwise they will be stuck trading core role players for one cent on the dollar. The idea of trading for Murray last offseason was the fact he was a perfect fit for Young and could put them very close to being title contenders.
They still might have needed one more move to put them over the top but after one year of making the Play-In (which was somewhat expected going into the year), it seems like they are open to tearing things down for the right price.