TRADE REACTION: Atlanta Hawks land Kristaps Porzingis in 3-team trade with Celtics, Nets

TRADE REACTION: Atlanta Hawks land Kristaps Porzingis in 3-team trade with Celtics, Nets

on today’s show a true emergency podcast on the day before the draft chris Staps Porzingis is coming to the Atlanta Hawks we’ll get into how this happened what’s going to happen in the future and much more coming up you are Locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the Locked Onet your team every day hello friends welcome to episode 20006 of the Lock on Hawks podcast i am your host Brad Rolling coming to you on a Tuesday evening in true emergency fashion and I want to encourage you at the top of the show as I always do to make Locked on Hawks your first listen each and every day check us out and subscribe to this podcast anywhere you get your podcasts Apple Spotify Overcast we’re also on YouTube so please like this video once again please subscribe and tell your friends about the show and a peak behind the curtain a little bit here i was going to do an episode late tonight no matter what with the latest intel any rumblings and especially lots of NBA draft coverage because the draft is literally 24 hours from right now as I’m recording this podcast but then as the day was transpiring on Tuesday I was getting rumblings as I’ll talk about later on there was some Terrence man buzz throughout the day that there was a little bit of a ripple behind the scenes about Chris Porzingis some reporting from Jake Fischer and Mark Stein about the Hawks being a potential target of Boston and Porzingis and all of those things and then pretty quickly this all happened to where the Hawks now have the mythical seven-footer that everyone’s been asking for for a very long time i say that kind of tongue and cheek but also a really interesting talented theoretical fit the rare player in Porzingis that is the guy who can actually protect the rim as a true center size player and also spread the floor as a high-end shooter for a center everyone wants that kind of player he is that kind of player when he is healthy and that is a big caveat when he is healthy but we’ll get into the angles of the trade in emergency fashion and then I will have a second podcast later on tonight about the draft and the fallout there psa the Hawks still have a 13th pick in the draft that still matters center is no longer was for me it was never a huge priority anyway in the draft but now it’s probably not a huge priority in the draft no matter what we’ll get into all that later on but for now this is going to be a podcast about the trade and the fallout of the trade the deal is as follows from the Hawk side this is what matters this is the Hawks podcast the Hawks are sending out Terrence Man George Niang and the number 22 pick in the draft on Wednesday their second of their first round picks that was the Lakers pick from the Dejonte Murray trade the Hawks are getting Porzingis from Boston and it’s been reported that there is a second round pick coming to Atlanta now I didn’t want to wait only for this i am monitoring my phone as I’m talking to you i have not heard yet that what pick that is there’s a pretty wide range it could be coming from Boston or Brooklyn so that’s a bit of a challenge it’s a three-team deal with Boston and Brooklyn with man going to Brooklyn nang going to Boston and we don’t know what that pick is going to be so generally when a second round pick is thrown into a deal and we don’t have the info on it I would keep my expectations fairly low for that pick but maybe I’ll be surprised we’ll see but in the meantime just know that I’m recording this as fast as I possibly can that’s why I don’t know but it will be a second round pick of some kind coming alongside obviously the headliner of the deal in Porzingis so for me big picture this is kind of a two-fold deal for the Hawks clearly the headliner is adding the best player in the deal by a wide margin in a player in Porzingis who just averaged 19.8 points and seven rebounds per game across two seasons with Boston one of which ended up in a title i know he was kind of hurt for a lot of that playoff run but he was really unlocking them when he was playing two years ago as I said before I’ll say it again now maybe one more time later on he is that very rare big man who can both protect the room defensively and also space the floor on offense overall Porzingis is a very good player i will admit there have been times in his career as I covered not just the Hawks but the whole league writing for dime or writing for fan side or wherever I was writing at the time I’ve been a little lowering at times than some people have been i don’t think he was ever like the star player that people sometimes thought that he might be but he doesn’t have to be that anymore um he’s almost 30 that um I think that that the star upside might be a little bit gone for at this point in time he’ll be 30 in August but he is a very very good player when he is healthy now there is some risk he has a long history of injury issues that is not something you can ignore i think the Hawks certainly will be acknowledging that when they make this deal official and as of right now on Tuesday evening it’s not official yet not been announced it’s It is happening i’ve confirmed it it’s happening but um that’s the big thing here that’s part of why he was available the other big part look there’s been a lot of things that have happened in the last couple of months that have kind of changed things in the Eastern Conference one of them is Jason Tatum tearing his Achilles and that injury led to Boston being in cost cutting mode even more than they might have been before they’ve already traded Drew Holiday now they traded Porzingis he was much more available for a deal like this than he would have been if they had Tatum available but for Boston this is not a Boston podcast but they wanted to cut money that was the biggest thing here and they were able to do that they got Porzingis off their books and all they had to bring in was George Niang and George Niang is not making nearly what Porzingis is making so that’s very interesting as far as the money stuff is concerned they’re going to save a ton of money but there was a mystery illness this year for Porzingis he came back but was like very clearly not well and when I say mystery there actually is a mystery we don’t know and he doesn’t know what his injury was he actually sent a social media post out earlier today that actually found after the trade where he was expressing he’s been feeling good he’s ready to play with the national team this summer that’s all good that’s a good sign but it’s just worth keeping in mind that one of the reasons why the price is what it is is that Borzingis is not the most durable player that is the one risk of this deal if there is any risk but look he potentially locks a ton for the Hawks the upside of the Hawks is so much higher right now than it was 24 hours ago that matters a lot even if the some of the downside risk of the of these uh sort of you know being able to be out there durability is uh part of this now as far as how they got here I shared a screenshot on Twitter tonight of a text that I sent to someone earlier on i I took out their information just showed the one text I sent and basically was saying that I was hearing that Terrence man was being kind of shopped around the league and from what I understand especially now like that was the case um not not about Terrence but as I’ve said literally yesterday on the show I said this the only contract on the Hawks books that was in my mind anywhere near being underwater or negative was Terrence B he’s owed $15.5 million for three more seasons and he’s not a bad player he’s actually a good player he’s a vacation player but if you pull the league that was a negative value contract which is why the Hawks were uh trying to you know get off that contract from what I heard now I actually know from people that I talked to from two different teams today doesn’t really matter now but they actually had direct talks about man in the last couple days so this is not just a Boston thing with man the Hawks were trying to get off Terrence Man that’s pretty clear now this was the biggest swing deal that I heard of a lot of the other ones were like more practical like maybe man and a second round pick or something like that this is a bigger swing but you know it was clear they were trying to get off man and three-year contract now by the way there was a combo to be had at some point about how much I did not like that trade in February the bogey trade everyone focused on the Hunter trade back then and I got why but I said that night you know four months ago that I didn’t like the bogey man trade i did not understand why they sent what they sent three picks to get man for bogey and unfortunately the Hawks basically paid for man on the way in and then paid to get off man on the way out that’s not great but it did work out reasonably well here in that they were able to use that salary matching to make this deal happen so that’s where we’re going to go next the Hawks are sending out the the 22nd pick in this deal that is the big asset that they are sending out for Porzingis so if you want to think about it as 22 for Porzingis it’s not exactly that but it’s kind of that um I think Nang is like a neutral value on that deal maybe actually slightly positive it’s an expiring contract he’s a pretty good player it’s a modest deal like $8 million um but man is there for the money and man’s a negative contract so basically what happened here in my opinion the Hawks were sending the sec the 22nd pick in the draft to both entice to get Porzingis but also to get off of man it’s like 50/50 in there like you’re paying to get off man and also paying to get Porzingis uh this doesn’t matter now but basically what I would say is if Porzingis made exactly what the trade exception the Hawks have is which is $25 million um and they traded a first round pick just for Porzingis i actually would like that less than I do this i like it more because you’re also getting off of man’s contract it’s it’s there’s a dual incentive here and that’s where I’ll leave it for now um Porzingis is making $30.7 million on an expiring deal only one year left for Porzingis and it’s this coming season it’s about to happen when he is healthy big when big if whatever you want to say that he is definitely worth that contract when he is healthy now he’s probably worth more than that honestly when he’s healthy he’s probably a $35 million player $30 million player he’s really good when he’s healthy the problem is that of course boss is trying to save money and you can’t assume health with Porzingis so if you want to take the deal into account they were not going to be able to trade him for three picks or whatever like they were not going to get more than a pick like this for Bzingus because of the expiring contract the the amount of money he makes and the durability issues but again the Hawks are getting kind of a two for one here by getting off of man and adding Porzingis and one more time the Hawks did not use the trade exception i’ll come back to that later on in the podcast they did not use that so they still have it keep that in mind there was some misunderstanding there um so overall I’ll just say this overall I really like this move now I am not always the pom pom waiver if you remember back in February I didn’t I really really did not like the man bokei trade i was okay with the hunter trade i didn’t love it this deal was better than those deals this is like a B+ A minus kind of trade for me it is It isn’t an A+ for me because of the durability issues there is some risk to it you’re giving up a first round pick it’s real value that you traded to make this deal happen and the downside is that he gets hurt and doesn’t help you at all and you kind of lit a pick on fire but it wasn’t the fifth pick it’s the 22nd pick that does matter too but I think that Porzingis when he is going to be available hopefully a lot is going to really help the team he’ll be good he unlocks a lot of things the shooting the defense crucially he can play with a Wu that was kind of the white whale in backup center or talk center talk recently is that ideally if you were going to pay up for a high level center you’d get a guy that we to play with or without a Congu porzingis can do that that’s a theory of this trade i’m not saying you start those guys together or that you have to play them together a ton but if you want something they can play eight or 10 minutes a game together i fully believe that because shooting and a Kong Woo’s versatility defensively on the perimeter his shooting has improved that is now a real option to kind of go big and you know bludgeon teams with size that’s actually a really good look there and um you know even when they’re not playing together it’s silly razor for the Hawks he’s a really good player i like Niang i really do i like Terrence man i’ve heard nothing but good things about him i’ve had a good time covering those guys recent days but I think it’s a good deal for the Hawks they add the best talent by far in this trade and they do it crucially without overpaying a ton and without taking an unnecessary long-term risk if this blows up on you if he gets hurt or he’s still sick or whatever happens the downside is not that low and that’s another reason why I really like this deal and again the upside is considerably high they have more work to do i promise you they have a lot more work to do to this roster they’re now actually a little bit less deep than they were a few minutes ago because they went two for one here and they already had death problems we’ll get into all that more but I want to say one more time the ceiling is really much higher now than it was before i like the deal a lot for the Hawks and uh I think you got to be pretty pleased with the first transaction of the aisle era as a general manager of Atlanta so I mentioned before they have more work to do we’ll get to that and much more after a word from our partners t is brought to you by Monarch Money we’ve all done this in the past I’m sure but at times I looked at my bank account wonder where actually all my money happens to go between dining out and online shopping and entertainment it’s easy to lose track sometime that’s where Monarch Money comes in for you monarch Money is your personal CFO giving you full visibility control of your finances and at Monarch Money they’re not just a budgeting app it’s a complete financial command center you can actually track all of your accounts your investments and your spending in one place you can stop just managing your money and start building wealth instead when I started using Monarch I was actually spending a ton of money on little things like food or whatever else in my life just one example but now I budget smarter and I save more all the time with Monarch Money instead of juggling multiple apps you can actually use Monarch to 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future years because Roszingis could still be here but he’s not signed beyond this season maybe there’ll be an extension talk i don’t know what’s going to happen there i would probably lean to know on that but we’ll see um they say future money but they take on more money now so Pzingus is like 3.7 million man is 15.5 for this year and two more and then Niang makes about 8.2 they’re adding about 7 million in salary they do lose the cap hold which is like three plus million dollars for the for the 22nd pick which matters um they have 11 players under contract right now on their books if you include the 13th pick Verachche who’s non-g guaranteed who they’re who they’re going to keep and then Don Barlo is a team option they they could certainly cut Don but they have to replace him with somebody anyway who makes the same amount of money so it’s kind of the same thing they’re roughly at about $159 million right now the tax line is roughly 188 so they got like $29 million under the tax line that’s a very rough figure keep that in mind but they still have a lot of work to do as a reminder that figure I just told you has zero dollars for Caris Lebert who they do want to keep and they honestly quite a bit need right now unless they add somebody else doesn’t include him at all they still have multiple ways to get better they had the trade exception they didn’t use it here so if they want to use it up to $25 million they can do that it could be a $17 million player whatever they can that’s still an option that they can use um people were misunderstanding that Porzingis just makes too much money he didn’t fit in that exception so they still have it brooklyn got involved all that stuff and again man’s going to Brooklyn Nang to Boston um they had the trade exception they still have the mid-level exception as well if they wanted to sign a free agent to a player the trade exception is just a trade you can it has to be a trade the mid-level can be a free agent sign that’s a possibility and then also again they have the bird rights on Caris Levert so they have plenty of flexibility they do still have interest in Caris Levert i’ve been saying for a while that I project him to resign not definitely that’s the most likely outcome I think but we’ll see but they have less depth they went two for one here obviously you do the deal every time as far as upside is concerned but just to put it plainly they currently have one backup wing on the roster it’s beat cr they have starters they have Dyson they have Zack even Jaylen was more of a four but still they but they only have one count them one backup point right now now if it’s if they add Levert that is now two but they had man who is a durable player who can play a lot of minutes for you not on the roster anymore so that’s a that’s now a genuine need area is backup wing they have to have someone like that if not two honestly and also they do have a shooting question now Porzingis really helps the shooting when he’s available but losing Nang who’s really durable as well was their best shooter last year that’s a question mark and backup power forward at the moment is quite literally Mo and only Mo they have Don Barlo on the team option you got Jaylen can play there obviously was going to start there um but and Okongu might play a little bit of four with Porzingis maybe but they have to add somebody at the forward line so roster needs you still have Sebaka point guard uncertainty you got Buffkin on the team but backup point guard is still uncertain backup wing is uncertain and if they don’t bring back Levert it becomes a giant red light flashing and then backup power forward is just Mo and Mo isn’t the most durable guy in the world and you want to have other options there so depthwise they don’t have a ton of it they have the starting five whether it includes Porzingis or a Kungwu and then they have the other one of those guys and then you got you know Verachche who can play for you and V you know after that it gets pretty shallow you’ve got Kobe Buffkin and you know they got work to do 13th pick as I’ll get into even more later on tonight you can’t pick on a rookie to play great big minutes for you they might have to play that guy some they do have again they have ways to improve the roster add to the roster whether it be bringing LeVert back using the mid-level using the minimum exception using the ban by annual exception they have stuff but they do have a lot more work to do i’ll leave it there we’ll get into that much more often in the next few days last thing before I sign off and I promise I will get to the draft on episode two later on tonight that was uh that’s now been shaken up as well obviously the 13th pick so what are they getting out of Porzingis just quickly here if you don’t follow the whole league only follow the Hawks Porzingis is a pretty famous player but you know sevenfooter can shoot it and when I say when I say can shoot it can really shoot it for even especially for a center but really for anybody a 39% three-point shooter the last two years in Boston career-l like 37% a real shooter not not just a center shooter like an actual big-time shooter he’s improved his scoring inside the ark a lot in Boston the last couple years not like a dominant post scorer i know that people are going to see how tall he is and he’s 7’2 73 and assume you know inside no it’s not he’s not a great inside scoreer he can do that more than he used to be able to but that’s not really his game he’s a floor spacer first on offense good free throw shooter all those things um also played in a system in Boston that was obviously like fine-tuned and got to the line less there than he was before you know rebounding wise actually he’s pretty below average for a center to be sure he’ll be helped by Jaylen i would imagine Jaylen is a great power forward rebounder that really helps uh keep that in mind on Porzingis um there’s kind of a stylistic question not a bad thing but like he tends to kind of have trouble playing fast he’s a very big lumbering man and I think the Hawks like to play really fast that’ll be an adjustment for him I think um I think defensively he isn’t great but he isn’t bad i think um he’s never been great i think he took a little bit of a step back last year maybe because of the health like you don’t want to assume that but he’s done a good job the metrics kind of like him in this modern era of defense um he’s not a bad defender like he’s got obviously just the length itself the size really helps again rebounding wise kind of shaky not an elite rim protector but a good enough one not a concern for me which is really nice to add a guy who can shoot and not be a bad defender that’s a really good thing and look to me he isn’t going to play huge minutes and when I say by that like I have I say this point all the time including over the weekend with Tower Jones on the podcast most teams have two centers that play in the 20s as far as minutes are concerned if you have an an elite guy a Jokic Shenun Sabonis there are guys that play 34 minutes a game most teams don’t do that and the Hawks I think given Porzingis’s age and durability you’re going to see what he kind of did in Boston or maybe even less he averaged about 28 minutes a game this year in Boston similarly they had Al Horford now Al Horford and Aong were a little bit different but similar in some ways they had Luke Cornet as well you know I could see a scenario and again this is super early without any announcements or anything from Quinn where they play a little bit together every game eight minutes whatever it’s going to be six minutes and then split the rest of the minutes at center when he’s healthy and that gets them both into that like 28 minute a game range again I have no interest in in talking about who’s going to start on June 24th that’s not a big deal to me at all but they can both play they can play together and Porzingis on this team does not need to be relied on to play huge huge minutes because the Kong Woo is really good as a second center for sure so 1 A one B however you want to put that really really good player and they fit together that is massive to both manage the workload of Borzingis and also just maximize what you are going to get out of him when he’s healthy so one more time I really like this deal i really do you’re not paying a premium for him you’re adding a very very good player you’re doing it without big-time long-term risk because it’s only a one-year deal you’re willing some of that honestly it’s that optionality word that was funny that Anie was sharing on Monday if you listen to my podcast or any other content from the press conference this is part of that they had optionality they had matching salary they had picks to trade flexibility optionality how you going to put that this is that in action this is what Anie said in action you have optionality i mentioned this literally 24 hours ago about how they don’t really have any bad contracts and the and the one they do is man’s and it wasn’t some terrible deal it’s not an albatross deal and they were able to get off of that package it with George and get a really really good high upside player for a relatively good price so I mentioned it a lot i poke fun at it the optionality thing but that really was what happened here they added optionality um and look there’s a scenario where Porzingis is just not healthy and that’s frustrating to everybody i do think they’re going to need a third center whether it’s Larry Nance or someone like that like Porzingis is health you can’t go into the season with Don Barlo your third center in my opinion you have to add somebody else but again you’ll take the risk because he’s he is that good when he’s playing but the ceiling if he can play like 60 games is really worth it like he’s a really good player fill out the rest of the roster and uh I think Hawks fans should be excited about this addition all right one more time the plan was for me to run down a lot of draft stuff on this podcast i’m still going to do that on a second episode later on i need some time to reshuffle some of my thoughts on that with only one pick now and with a center in place already and it’s a lot of things have changed my framing the mock drafts will all have changed i was going to do a mock draft roundup that’s kind of outdated now so I’m going to reset in a few hours I’ll have I’ll have more if there’s more news more rumblings more rumors I’ll I’ll touch on that but I want to get this as fast this to you as fast as humanly possible so here it is thank you for listening to the podcast please subscribe if you are new to the podcast finding the show for the first time i appreciate you being here we cover the Hawks every day of the year on the show literally every day of the year just passed 2,000 episodes been doing this for a long time i’m in the building talking to people i was at a press conference yesterday the GM of the Hawks i will be plugged in i’ll be in Vegas for summer league i’ll be at the draft stuff tomorrow night at Safearm Arena we’re covering the team i’ve been covering the team for a long time hop on board subscribe tell your friends follow us on Twitterxonhawks follow me there Roland follow my blue sky at BT Roland i’m also on my nonpodcast work about the Hawks is at patreon.combtand all right everybody one more time please subscribe to the podcast i appreciate you listening and we’ll see you all next time

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts Episode 2006 of the Locked on Hawks podcast, reacting to the Atlanta Hawks trading for Kristaps Porzingis. Topics include the overall value of the three-team deal that sent Terance Mann and the No. 22 pick to Brooklyn and Georges Niang to Boston, how Porzingis can help Atlanta, Porzingis’ lengthy injury history, the state of the Hawks roster after the trade, and much more.

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