Atlanta Hawks: NBA Free Agency, Larry Nance Jr. signs in Cleveland, Myles Turner, two-year journey

Atlanta Hawks: NBA Free Agency, Larry Nance Jr. signs in Cleveland, Myles Turner, two-year journey

On today’s show, the second day of free agency has come and gone. Larry Nance Jr. is not coming back to Atlanta, and many more things are happening in the Hawks landscape right now. We’ll get into all of what’s going on and 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 2014 of the Laugh on Hawks podcast. I am your host Brad Rollman coming to you deep into the night here on a Tuesday evening into Wednesday here at the very beginning of the month of July. And today’s podcast is brought to by the folks at Monarch Money. Take control your finances right now with Monarch Money and use code lockedmbba at monarchmoney.com for half off your first year. I also want to encourage you at the top of the show to make locked on hawks your first listen each and every day. Check us out and subscribe to this podcast anywhere you find your podcast. That includes Apple and Spotify. That also includes YouTube. So, please like this video as you are watching it on that platform. And be sure to tell your friends and your family and your colleagues about this podcast. Of course, it’s been very busy on the show in recent days, including a deep dive last night into the two newest Hawks, the Ke Alexander Walker and Luke Canard. Listen to that show for sure. Prior to that, full draft coverage of the, you know, the big trades, the drafting of of Asa Newell, also the trade for Porzingis. It’s been an exceptionally busy time in Hawksland as we get into July and beyond here. And later on in the show, there is some news to hit on, in particular, Larance Jr. exiting Atlanta. But I actually wanted to begin in a different kind of direction on this show because there wasn’t any like massive earthshattering news for the Hawks on July 1st. So, it’s actually inspired by a mailbag question and it’s kind of looking backward a little bit. It’s taking kind of stock of how far the Hawks have come in a pretty short period of time. Obviously, a lot of people have gotten praise uh sort of put phrase out there for Auntie Cle including myself in the last week or so. The way the Hawks have operated from basically the Porzingis trade until now, it’s been like eight days of uh really fantastic work I think for the Hawks on the whole. But a question came in from Stephen who said the following. I finished listening to the podcast with Tyler Jones almost right as the Hawks were signing Canard and Tequille and I was curious about one thing that you said. Do you really think that the Dejante Murray extension was that important? It listened as if you thought it was a major major factor in what has happened for the Hawks. So the short answer is yes, I do think that. And if you listen to that podcast with Tyler and I, we got into it a little bit but couldn’t go super deep. Even though it was two parts, we had a lot of ground to cover. But almost exactly two years ago, like really pretty much to the day, Deontay Murray signed a four-year extension with the Hawks that basically no one thought he was going to sign. If you’re new to the Hawks or new to the nuances and and all that stuff, I will go back there and we’ll kind of go from there. Um, without going crazy deep into this, he was coming off of a contract with the Spurs when the Hawks traded for him that was actually quite cheap for him. And because of that, the Hawks were actually limited in what they were actually allowed to offer him in an extension. They couldn’t go to the full max. They had a maximum offer, but it wasn’t the max possible for him in the big picture. So, it also made it to where the deal the Hawks could offer Deonte was favorable to the team, but they could also go to Dejonte and basically say, “Hey, we’d love for you to sign this deal and stay here with us, but it’s also the most that we can legally offer you, and we cannot go any higher because we’re not allowed to.” And that is actually an interesting negotiation point even at the time. I cover this a lot two years ago. Like it actually was a very powerful thing for the Hawks. It was four years and 114 million or so. You can go you can go back and look at this now. It’s probably available in written form. No one and I mean no one thought he was going to take that deal because I’m talking about the you know the Hawk side of things, the agent side, the rest of the league. And it was because the assumption was and I think the correct assumption was honestly he was going to be able to get more than that the following summer when he was going to be a free agent after that deal with the Spurs. But ultimately for whatever reason and only he knows why he took the deal and the security that and look I said this at the time as well there is something to be said for for locking in a nine figure hundred plus million dollars of guaranteed money at any point in your life. And that was a big win for him, of course, but for the Hawks, it was actually a massive win. And look, I said at the time even like I was probably lower on Dejante even then than most people were around the Hawks. And I kind of already thought it wasn’t working with Trey. That was the first year. Um, we didn’t know for sure it was over between Trey Deonte in that partnership. It was kind of right in the middle of the two seasons. But even with being lower on Dejante at the time, the deal was so favorable for the Hawks that ended up being a big win in a vacuum because of just the flexibility that it offered. Or if you want to use the the word that honestly would use, the optionality that it would offer. Now, if you go back to that point two years ago, a lot has gone very well for the Hawks since then. And a lot of that stems from the choice from Dejante to sign that deal. Now, it’s not all about that. I’ll be the first to say, but if you look at the dominoes, a lot of it falls from that moment in a lot of different ways. And then, of course, they got some help from the New Orleans Pelicans organization twice in my opinion. But it does kind of illustrate how thin the margins are in the NBA sometimes. Like an example right now also is happening in Milwaukee, as we’ll come back to later on in the podcast, building around Giannis and the Dame injury and all that stuff. Also, you know, Indiana just lost Hallebertton in the finals for probably a year. Boston with Tatum’s injury. It’s not always injured, but like kind of just as a reminder like Boston was the top of the world a year ago. They won the title and also had a setup that was great for them for the future. A year later, they’ve traded Porzingis. They traded Drew Holiday. They uh they let Luke Luke Cornet go. They’re probably let al Horford go. Like, it’s a totally different thing based on just one little thing. And that’s what happens in the NBA sometimes. I won’t go through all of it, but to answer the question in more deep dive fashion, like the Hawks had a bad season the following year after Dejonte signed that deal two years ago. The next season was the one that was Dejante’s final season with the Hawks. They won 36 games in disappointing fashion. It was proven once and for all that year that the Trey and DJ partnership was just not going to work and it had to change and be broken up. Trey also got hurt that year. He had the fluke hand injury, his first real injury of his entire life. basically that’s never good that he was actually out, but he also missed a bunch of time at the end of the season and that actually kind of allowed DeJonte to put up a lot of big numbers that maybe helped his trade value in addition to the super nice contract. He played a lot and had a lot of good numbers at the end of the season and the Hawks were, as we all know now, one year ago now, able to trade him to New Orleans in a deal that I absolutely loved even at the time and praised it. Not not everyone did, to be fair. It was not exactly a 100% approval rating, but that deal looks incredible now to get Dyson, Lar Jr., and two first round picks coming back for Murray. And right now, I think if you pull the league, Dyson would have more value than Murray by himself before he even gets to two picks and Larry Nance Jr. So, that obviously went very well. Then that summer, you know, a few weeks before that, they win the lottery and they get Risha. And look, I know Rish is not Cooper Flag. He’s not um even, you know, Zion Buzz. He’s not one of those kind of level guys, Anthony Davis or whatever, but it was still a good break to win the lottery from the 10 spot and get a guy that they would have been able to get at 10 and a guy that they like and that I like and that I think is going to be good for a very long time. Maybe not a superstar, but a good player for a long time. That was a nice break for Atlanta. Then this last season was relatively encouraging if you had the right projections and expectations for what they’re going to be. Basically, they got better despite not really pushing chips in. Dyson had a breakout season. Jaylen had a breakout season until he got hurt. Ona played very well and kind of broke out at the end of the season. They were young. They trey bought in. That’s a big thing as well. And it was a kind of a mild step forward while not ruining anything for the future. Then during the season, they had the ill-advised bogey trade along with three second round picks for Terrence man. That was a move that I hated at the time. It ended up being not very good, but they were able to pivot out of that obviously. And the other one was the Hunter trade, which I talked about a little bit with Tyler as well, but it was very complicated as far as a transaction to explain because he was having the best year of his career. Like Hunter was playing very well, and I laid it out then. Look, a lot of the grading of that deal was never going to be able to be done until we saw what the Hawks were going to do with the flexibility that they created in that trade. I know that it’s hard to kind of think about it that way sometimes, but it wasn’t about the return of the players. Obviously, it helped to get Carce Levert, who’s a good player, helped to get George Niang, but it was much more about getting off of Hunter’s contract for the future and having the flexibility, the optionality to kind of pivot around that. And this happened last night on the show as well. But that move was one that could not be fully graded, but also it kind of led to a lot of different things. A lot of stuff that the Hawks have done in the last few weeks could not have happened in the same way if not for the Hunter trade. So, which is also tied back to Dejante and all that other stuff. That brings us to now, which I’ve already chronicled a lot over the last week and a half, so forgive me. But again, the Parzing deal does not happen without the Hunter deal. They had the expiring money with Miang to send to Boston that actually Boston wanted that expiring money to cut salary. They had the expiring with um you know, also everything else as far as the financial bandwidth to be able to add in Porzingis, not go deep into the tax because they already had gotten off of Hunter’s contract. That was big. And the same thing could be said for Alexander Walker in that deal. Yes, they lost Levert, which has to be noted. That’s a loss that matters, but I think Alexander Walker is an upgrade on Levert. And he’s also four years younger than Levert. And they were also able to get Canard because in part, again, they had the flexibility of not having Hunter Deal on the books for next season at $25 million. That stuff all matters. So, one more thing here. They were also able to go back to New Orleans and make a home run trade on draft night to move down only 10 picks, acquire a potential top five pick in next year’s draft, and then restock the cover. So, fast forward to now two years ago, it would have been absolutely unthinkable that the Hawks would now be in this good of a shape for the draft only. before you even get to the roster, just say, “Hey, can the Hawks be in a good positive spot for only draft assets without trading Trey Young basically?” And the answer was unlikely. But hey, now they’ve done it. That is 100% the case. Now, keep in mind, they overpay for Dejante in the first place. They they gave up a lot in that trade. And the downside scenarios were pretty ugly, honestly, with all the picks going to San Antonio and where they were and the swaps and Wem going there and all that. But they have now a first this year that they just used on a new. Even after making the two trades, they still have a first to spend. They used it. They have two firsts next year, including that super high upside pick from Milwaukee or New Orleans. They have a first in 27 from New Orleans or Milwaukee as well. They have an extra first in in 28. And then they have their own picks as normal from 29 to 32. So the Hawks are now in a clearly positive position in the draft in a way they definitely were not two years ago. So again, I’m not trying to say it all stems from Dejante two years ago, but if you start the clock at the day Murray signed his extension two years ago and then look forward and how the way that they kind of have dug themselves out of the original sin basically of that trade for Dejante. He extends, they able to trade him, etc., etc., etc. And the uh look, will they how good will they be this year? Is a topic we’ll be talking about all summer long. uh they’ve got they’ve drawn a lot of praise in the last couple of days for like hey this is a real like homec court advantage level team in the east and by the way I agree with that at this point in time they got to prove it they haven’t done with with this group but all all that said organizationally for the present and and especially the future the future is so much brighter now because of a lot of what happened in the last two years so it’s kind of a different open segment I would normally do on the podcast but I I got the question I was like you know what it really has been a kind of journey over two years to kind of get from where they were which is a you know, uneven point two years ago to now with a clean cap sheet, positive picks, a young roster that’s talented. Again, no bad picks, still have Trey on the team, you have star power, you have really good players, upandcomers. It’s a pretty good spot to be in if you’re the Hawks, and a pretty exciting time if you ask me. All right, there’s news to get to, as I will touch in a second, with Larry Nance Jr., as well as some Miles Turner fallout that actually has to do with the Hawks and a look ahead to what else is to come in free agency. All is coming up in just one moment. Tish is brought to you by Monarch Money. Do you ever wish that managing money felt just a little bit easier? Well, with Monarch Money, it absolutely can. Whether you are growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch Money puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. And at Monarch Money is more than just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts, your investments, and your spending all in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth, which is of course very important. Having financial tools all in one place actually makes things easier and more convenient. So, there’s actually no wasting time jug juggling multiple apps across the board. And if you’re anything like me, honestly, you might have a ton of subscriptions piled up from the past and money can help clean that up as well in a hurry and have your everything be just right at the fingertips and be so so convenient and easy to use. Take control of your finances right now with MonarchMoney and use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year with MonarchMoney. One more time, the place to go is monarchmoney.com. The code is locked on NBA for half off your first year. All right, and the Hawks did have some news on Tuesday. nothing that was quite the same uh volume level of attention and spotlight as Alexander Walker or even Canard honestly. But the Hawks had someone actually leave the organization on Tuesday. Again, none of this is officially announced, but this is happening. Larry Ness Jr. is going back to Cleveland. I will not pretend to know what Larry is thinking, but the entire time, honestly, I thought the single biggest threat to the Hawks, barring someone like just spending a bunch of money, if all the money was the same or close to it, the biggest threat to the Hawks was the Cavs with Lance Jr. The reason for that is the following. He was born in Akran. He grew up in Ohio. His dad was a star player for the Cavs back when I was very young. He he already played there once in his career. Um, and more importantly, even potentially than that, it’s a meaningful role on a team that is currently projected as the Eastern Conference betting favorite at FanDuel. So, the Cavs have Evan Mobley and Jared Allen, but not much else as far as bigs. Like, he’s their third big pretty clearly right now. And he projects to play some there. And again, that’s a good team. He gave a quote to Mark Spears of the of Anscape that says, quote, “I’m just happy to be able to give all I have to help my hometown team challenge for a title.” End quote. So obviously no no press conference yet from Larry. We don’t know all of his thoughts, but this is a blow to Atlanta. It’s nothing it’s not catastrophic. It’s not disastrous. I thought he was the most likely person for the Hawks to sign with for that kind of third center fifth big role that they have available on their roster, but um it isn’t one that I thought was like guaranteed to happen. And obviously, you know, Cleveland presents a pretty good opportunity for him to kind of go home again and have a chance to win. So no hard feelings. I’ve really enjoyed covering Larry. Honestly, I think he’s uh one of the more beloved guys in the league. Um but he’s obviously heading back to Cleveland. So, with that said, where does that lead the Hawks is a question I got a lot today, which makes a lot of sense. The way that I would put it is I think that it would be good and wise if they can to add another player who can play some center. Now, the Hawks do have two starting level centers, which is a spot that very few teams can say. The Hawks have two of the top 25 centers in the league probably on their roster. And that’s a good place to be. Obviously, Porzingis and Aongu. One of them has pretty massive injury risk in Porzingis. That’s been covered. I’ll cover it even more. His upsides really high. He also is not. He also has well chronicled durability issues. So, from there, the other thing is they have two more options on their roster who could probably play some center in a pinch at least. And right now, that’s Moay and Asa Newell. Uh both of those guys are very young and both of those guys are probably better suited to the four than the five right now. Now they are combo bigs but they’re so they they can play some five but for instance Mo I know for a fact having talked to the Hawks for years now about Mo um they always have viewed him and that maybe they’ll change but they’ve always viewed him as a coaching staff as a front office as primarily a four a primarily a four and you’ve seen that last year at the end of the year they finally broke the glass and played up some at the five but it was almost out of desperation because they had no other options. This is again with Nance out and Capella out and they kind of just had to try it and it went fine. I think Mo can play. I like Moay, but I think he’s mostly like a four and a half. He’s like he’s kind of a four on defense and a five on offense. It’s kind of an interesting pairing. Uh Newell is also kind of a tweener. And I don’t mean that in a negative way, but I don’t think you probably want him necessarily anchoring your defense at the five on a team that’s trying to win as a 19-year-old rookie. That’s not a shot at him. It’s just where they are. So, they had two guys that can certainly play there, but I think, you know, if if it came down to it, opening day was tomorrow. This is the roster. You’d obviously probably play 48 minutes with either Porzingis or a Kong Wu at center, but there will be nights. There 100% will be nights when they don’t have both those guys available. That’s going to happen. Porzingis is not exactly capable of playing 82 games. A Kongu will probably play less than 82 games as well. So, I think right now it’s not dire, but it’s something that I’d like to see them add to and bolster because again, it’s a bigger thing for me because of Porzingis. If they had a more durable second center, it would be a less of a priority, but because we kind of almost know that Porzingis will not be playing more than 65 70 games at the absolute most, it is a bigger priority for me. But again, it’s not like totally dire. So, who’s available? a lot of guys still like again I’m recording this late on Tuesday night into Wednesday. This could all change. Um you know I I don’t think that Al Horford’s going to come to Atlanta but he is available and I would certainly call Al and say hey Al would love to have you. He’ll almost certainly say no but there you go. You got Mo Vagner who’s actually currently rehabing an injury. Um much more of an offensive player but a good backup center. Uh Chris Buchet is like a combo big type, but someone who actually blocks some shots, shoots some threes. Um kind of another tweener, but another body in the front court. A guy that I’d like to be uh pointing out is Jock Landale, who is a Australian national team guy, played with the Rockets last couple years. A quality backup center, currently on a weird contract situation. He has a guarantee date that was pushed back to July 7th with the Rockets. But the Rockets, if you didn’t notice already, have three centers already. They have Shenun, Adams, and Clinkapella. So, they don’t really have a use for Lando. Maybe they’ll trade him, but if they cut him, if I am the Hawks, I am calling him immediately. He also plays with Dyson internationally. Maybe have Dyson recruit him a little bit. That’s just a name to throw out there. It’s kind of a sleeper right now. Um, Precious Chichua would be an interesting name. I’ve not always loved him, but I think defensively he’s very versatile and useful at the center spot. He can play the way that Kongu does, kind of more versatilely and more flexibly on defense. Um, other names, Jackson Hayes, Thomas Bryant, Charles Bassie, old pal Alex Lynn. That’s kind of like the tier of guys you’re looking at right now. And for the most part, the Hawks probably can only offer the minimum would be my guess. It would surprise me if they want if they went above too much above that. So even people were joking about this today, but it’s also true. They can go overseas. Like Bruno Fernando is an old pal. He’s playing overseas right now. Would it shock me if they sign him? No. Eddie Tavvaris actually is a even further back Hawks reference, but he’s actually been one of the best players in Europe for a while. Worth a call. That kind of stuff. So, later in the podcast, I’ll come back to the other areas that the Hawks might target in free agency, but because we’re talking about Larry and the fallout there, uh the list is not like spotless. I’m not telling you I’m excited about all those names, but they have um some I would like to see the Hawks, just wrapping this up, sign somebody that could play some of the five. And we’ll see if they we’ll see if they do that. and uh TBD on all that. Elsewhere, this is less of a huge news thing, but it’s kind of relevant to the Hawks right now, and that is that uh the big shock of the day on July 1st in the NBA was Miles Turner signing with the Bucks. That was not on the on the radar for literally anyone. Uh and the that’s one thing that’s shocking. The other one is how they actually got the space to do that because they didn’t have cash space. They ended up stretching Damen Lord’s contract, a massive deal over two years. It’s now a fiveyear stretch for more than $100 million of completely dead money. When you stretch someone, there’s nothing you can do. It’s on your books no matter what. So, it’s a crazy move by Milwaukee. Not expected. It’s a desperation move to probably, you know, try to keep Yiannis happy and compete more. They are better obviously now there. So, look, my the reason I’m bringing this up now is because this is not a Bucks podcast. It has a direct effect on the Hawks in that they have now, of course, acquired that pick from New Orleans. That’s next year in the draft and it’s the better of Milwaukee and New Orleans. So, the Hawks are rooting against Milwaukee and New Orleans all year. Obviously, it only takes one. Hopefully, one of those teams is bad enough to be in the lottery and jump up. Um, I made a comment today on social media about the Bucks and Turner and all I said was basically that it was not a positive thing for the Hawks that he went to the Bucks and people thought I was like freaking out about that and I wasn’t at all. I think it was misinterpreted. I don’t think it’s great for the Hawks because Atlanta is again rooting against both New Orleans and Milwaukee for the draft. But Science Turner does not make Milwaukee awesome by any means. It does make them better than they were yesterday. For example, we already knew that Lillard was going to be out for the season probably. So, that was already baked in. Brook Lopez was already leaving Milwaukee as I tweeted it. So, he kind of replaces Brook Lopez. Um, you know, I’m actually not a huge Turner fan. Like, I think he’s a good player. I’m probably a little bit lower on him than some are, but he’s a good fit with Giannis, for example. You can shoot, space the floor, all that. I will wait for any grand proclamations on the Bucks or the Pacers, honestly, because the Pacers, of course, impacted here and they’re an Eastern Conference foe of the Hawks. They’re worse today than they were yesterday. All that matters to the Hawks. But all I would say is all in all, it isn’t ideal for Atlanta that Milwaukee is seemingly improved and trying to win at a high level this year. It’s still very weird what’s going on there. But look, quite honestly, I’ve always thought that as long as Giannis was not going to get traded, which is I think still the projection right now as I’m talking to you, that the Pelicans are worse than the Bucks. So, you want to have two chances. One reason why that pick is so appetizing is that there are two options for that pick to jump up in the lottery. But the Pelicans are, I think, projected pretty solidly to be worse than the Pelicans. Um, sorry, the Bucks right now. So, as long as Jiannis is in Milwaukee, New Orleans is your best bet. But you’re still rooting against New Orleans and Milwaukee. So, any additions to the Bucks, not ideal for the Hawks. All right. In a second, I will look at what’s next for the Hawks when it comes to who’s available on the market, what they might be looking for in free agency and more in just one moment. So, at the end of the show on Monday evening and Tuesday, which was the Alexander Walker and Canard reaction episode, I briefly said kind of what the situation was for the Hawks when it comes to their roster. I won’t go through the entire thing again, but basically, they have a very, very clear top seven. They have seven starters basically for me. It’s Trey, it’s Tyson, it’s Alexander Walker. Those are the three guards. You have Risha Johnson as the forwards. You have a Kong Woo and Porzingis. That’s seven guys who are like totally acceptable or better starters in the league. Not just rotation players, starters. Then you have Lucard who’s a clear rotation player. That’s your eighth guy. Then you have VCR. You have Moay that’s nine and 10 probably in some order. And then you have Buffkin and Newell as the young guys. That’s what I said last night. I stand by that. Now, um, they still have some needs and they also have to fill out the roster. There’s been this back and forth that I’ve seen about how the Hawks might just be done now. Like, no, they they can’t they literally can’t be done now. It’s not possible. They have to have 14 guys on the roster at least. That means two more signings. I believe and so does everybody else that I talked to that is likely the Hawks are going to stay under the tax. So, they have $7.5 million roughly right now under the tax line. they can sign three minimum players for the three roster spots that are open if they want to. Or if they want to leave one open, they can go a little higher on one of the spots and then sign another one for for the minimum and then still be under. So if there’s a guy that would sign for the Hawks for four and a half million that won’t sign for the minimum, they can do that. They could go four and a half million on a guy, sign a minimum for the other one, and then leave a spot open. There’s some flexibility there, but generally speaking, they can’t pay big money probably for anybody that’s available unless they want to go into the tax, which is I’m not saying they won’t do it, but it’s not the assumption is they won’t at this point in time. So, I discussed already the bigs earlier in this podcast about like the potential kind of quote Larry Dun replacements, the you know, third, center, fifth big kind of players to add. There are two more two more like role archetypes that the Hawks could certainly use some help with right now. Uh one of them is like a someone who could play the three of the four like a bigger bigger wing forward type that could particularly play defense. I would say that is a priority for me and the other one is a backup point guard type which I think is less urgent. But anyway, as far as the backup wings and forwards, not a huge group of guys that you probably know a ton about. I tweeted about these about two of them today. Jabari Walker from Portland is a guy I like quite a bit and air Coffee who’s a little bit of a smaller one. Walker’s like more of a 34. Coffey’s more of a 23, but both guys have pretty good size. They’re nice boow candidates, could be cheap, reasonable rotation players, guys that I like. Also, I would say Cody Martin is a name that I would throw out there as a potential addition. Uh Tory Craig is an older guy, but certainly can defend and is a little bit bigger, more physical. Uh Lamar Stevens, former Penn State player, like certainly a good defender, good athlete. Again, nothing great there, but just some names to monitor that are at least somewhat available on the market as of Tuesday night into Wednesday. And again, not for any like in a perfect world, those guys don’t play for you or maybe they do a little bit, but right now behind Rish and Jaylen, they don’t really have a lot of physicality. I think Alexander Walker and Dyson can both play the three defensively, but they are not the biggest guys. So like if you’re facing the guy like let’s just say for example Orlando. Orlando’s got Paulo and France. Yes I think Alexander Walker and Dyson could guard either one of those guys but they’re not as big as those guys. If you want to have some more options against bigger forwards I think another guy that could defend those guys would be helpful. Rish I think we’ll get there. He’s still pretty slight at this point in time. So one more body there would be helpful. Backup point guard is the other one that I’ve been talking about a lot the last couple days especially last night. And there is a debate happening right now that I actually understand all sides of honestly about whether the Hawks absolutely have to sign another point guard and I kind of go back and forth. For me, it isn’t an absolute have to because of multiple factors. For one thing, they have a lot of ball handlers. Now, nobody that I would say is incredible beyond Trey, but they have four or five guys who have played point guard in the NBA on their team right now beyond Trey. uh in no order. Dyson, who played point guard a lot last season on the Hawks. Nikil Alexander Walker was a point guard his career, has played point guard plenty. Luke Canard is a comfortable ball handler, initiator, played point guard last year in Memphis at times with with Desmond Bane. That’s a guy who can handle the ball a decent amount. Very done it as well. Much more of a non-point guard, but like more of a ball mover, but certainly can play the role. And then Buffkin is probably the closest thing to a natural quoteunquote point guard of that group. That’s five guys who’ve all played the position to some degree. Then you throw in Jaylen Johnson, who isn’t a point forward, but he can initiate actions. So if Trey’s off the court, if you’re playing three of those six guys together, you have enough ball handling, I think. Now, I do also think if you could add another point guard that you like, I would probably do it for the insurance. Something happens to Trey or whatever, you want to have a little bit more insurance. And similar to what I just did with with the wings and the forwards, here are some names in no order. Um, if they’re available still by the time you listen to this podcast on Wednesday, especially D Wood Whitty is one, a veteran, bigger guy, could play a little bit of point guard, initiate some offense. Ryan Rollins, who was, I would say, surprisingly had the qualifying offer pulled by Milwaukee. A young guy, but certainly a talented guy. Uh, my old friend Don Wright has to be on this list. Obviously, I love Don. Always will. campaign. Cole Anthony might be bought out and could be available. Jared Butler I’ve always liked. He is now available on uh in free agency. Monty Morris is a very typical like boring in a good way backup point guard. Loser guy. Jeff Dton. Jordan Mclofflin. I’ve always liked uh Delano Bon is not really a point guard size player. He’s like actually like 68 69. But if they want to go with another guy who’s actually kind of long and lanky and can play defense and also run point guard, he could do that. And then honestly, they could just sign Katon Wallace. Um, I am probably a little bit lower based on my mentions than some Hawks fans are on Katon Wallace, but Katon was a totally acceptable like 15th man level player last year. If he’d sign a two-way, and by the way, he’s a two-way qualifying offer free agent right now. If he’d signed that tender on a two-way, you’d love that. That would be awesome. Um, you also have Lamont Butler. Similarly situation, smaller guy, point guard. I discussed this excessively earlier this week, so I won’t do the whole thing out, but all the two-way slots for the Hawks are very fluid. I actually wrote a post at patreon.com/bt Roland about this on Tuesday, but there’s a lot of uncertainty with the two-ways. And if Kean wants to sign one of them, for me, that’s an instant yes if I’m Hawks. So, there are options, even guys. And by the way, the list that I just gave on both the forwards and the point guards is not like a comprehensive list. There were guys I’m sure I didn’t list that might be on the radar. Guys from overseas, guys who might get cut next couple days. Um it’s it’s a fluid situation. Once the initial title wave of moves happen, which has now happened in the last two days, it often slows down quite a bit. It’s July 4th holiday coming up. It might get into kind of, you know, being in neutral now on the market. But we’ll see. But what we do know is the Hawks have to sign at least I shouldn’t say sign acquire at least two players either by trade or by signing between now and opening night. You got to carry 14 and then three two ways up to three and they should they should carry all three. It would be dumb not to. So a lot of moving parts but a good top 12 that I like. At this point in time at some point in the next week or two we’ll probably do a bigger picture like how good are the Hawks discussion. That’s definitely relevant right now. I’m holding off on that for a little bit more clarity on what the rest of the league looks like. But um the answer is I’m pretty encouraged at this point in time. And also I have hopefully guests lined up to talk about Porzingis, Alexander Walker, hopefully some post-draft stuff, some summer league stuff. I’m heading out to Las Vegas in only a few days now. We’re getting close. So please stay tuned for all of that. Hopefully it was a interesting kind of first segment today looking back at the last two years and kind of where the Hawks were and where they are now and where they’ve kind of come from. And that was a uh a nice little look back. But I enjoyed that. Hopefully you did as well. Please subscribe to the LTON Hawks podcast anywhere you find your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Follow the show on ex Twitter at LTONHawks. Follow me there at BT Roland. I’m also on Blue Sky BT Roland and please follow my nonpodcast work about the Hawks. It is at patreon.com/bt Roland. All right, everybody. Enjoy your Tuesday evening into Wednesday. We’ll see you all later on this week.

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts Episode 2014 of the Locked on Hawks podcast. Topics include a look back at a two-year journey for the Atlanta Hawks that began in an unlikely place, Larry Nance Jr.’s decision to join the Cleveland Cavaliers, Myles Turner’s impact on Atlanta’s draft future, the state of the free agent market, and much more.

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