Atlanta Hawks trade rumors: Mailbag questions with two weeks to the NBA Trade Deadline

Atlanta Hawks trade rumors: Mailbag questions with two weeks to the NBA Trade Deadline

On today’s show there are two weeks remaining between now and the trade deadline across the NBA and there’s plenty to discuss including your mailbag questions the latest news and more and all that is on the way you are locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the locked on podcast

Network your team every Day Hello friends welcome to episode 1638 of the lon Hawks podcast I am your host Brad Roland coming to you on a Thursday evening and today’s podcast is brought to you by the folks at priz piix the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fanty Sports and the place to go

Is prize.com lon MBA and use promo code Lon MBA when you get there for a first deposit match up to $100 also I encourage you at the top of the podcast as I always do on the show to make us your first listen each and every day

Check us out and subscribe to the podcast anywhere you get your podcasts on the audio side places like Spotify Apple overcast Etc and then we’re also on YouTube over on the video side and Today’s Show is mostly going to be your mailbag questions I should at least plug

At the top of the show I did full coverage of the two games in Northern California on Monday and Wednesday both very late night podcasts and including one that dropped you know 12 hours ago something like that at at this point in time so as I’m recording this it’s been

A busy week already the Hawks du also play again tomorrow on Friday so we have a show after that as well but caught of a brid the Gap opportunity here and a lot of mailbag questions and a good time to do it with exactly two weeks until

The deadline arrives across the NBA and because the Hawks are so far involved in all the discussions going around the league jonay Murray as the headliner we’ll get into some trade stuff on this podcast and again your questions first though a little bit of news I waited

Until this was actually out there and available but try young was not selected as an Allstar starter on Thursday evening he was second in the final fan voting so he actually had a pretty good chance coming into the night when it came to being one of the two starting

East guards but fan fan voting is no longer the entire formula it’s only half the formula and he finished in a tie for fourth with Donovan Mitchell among East guards tyres halberton was number one pretty comfortably and then there was a honestly very very close battle if you

Look at the voting results between Trey Damen Lillard Jaylen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell ended up being Lillard who had the edge in fan voting that was why he got a won a tie Breer with Brunson and then Mitchell and young were right there behind him and honestly Tyrus Maxi was

Close too so that two through six was very tight between those guys um and you know Trey certainly would have deserved to be there in a lot of ways he’s he’s top 10 in the NBA in scoring this year he’s number two in the NBA in assist per

Game at almost 11 per game but obviously the lack of Team success is not going to help you and you know For Better or Worse Tre will get to blame for that as the best player on the team it’s not his fault the Hawks are bad this year but

Certainly um it’s not going to ever help you in Allstar voting lnba voting etc etc we’ll see if he makes the team uh as a reminder coaches are the ones actually who vote for the reserve so an entirely different voting block and we’ll see how

That kind of shakes out in the next week or so my only kind of take right now is that it’s not crazy that he’s not starting um would it have been fine if he did start absolutely um I think he’s probably been better than lard this year but Dame certainly up there with

Mitchell and Brunson and Maxi like all deserving guys doesn’t bother me too much the Trey’s not starting but I will say this it will bother me if he’s not on the team overall so that’s another discussion that’s about a week from now we’ll find out that at least in in the

Coming days so um I will probably Express a little bit more outrage if he’s left off the team entirely but for now he was up there in the fan voting he was sixth overall in both media voting and player voting and that was kind of

What pushed him down a little bit so not a huge thing but um that’s what kind of broke this evening before I started recording the podcast and there you have it um and from this point forward basically all mailbag questions till the end of this podcast there’s one that’s

Not necessarily super trade related but I want to touch on this one a little bit at the top so it comes from Cory who says I’m sure you answered this question before somewhere what has to happen to get moay Kobe buffkin Seth Lundy and AJ Griffin on the floor more often before I

Get into this and honestly it’s a question I get all the time right now I will just say this if it was me I’d be playing Kobe buffkin at a bare minimum on a regular basis already I’ve said that before I’ll say it again now I’d be

Doing that now moay is injured that’s why he’s not played and he’s been out for quite some time it’s a back issue that’s a real problem for him in the short term anyway and with that out of the way it’s kind of hard to answer this

As far as what has to happen um Quint zider has a reputation dating back to Utah it’s not the most friendly guy to young players as far as like playing time is concerned obviously he’s good at developing players but um Utah didn’t really have a ton of like young guys

After the Donovan Rudy emergence they were kind of more of a veteran Laden team the Hawks have some young players and we saw actually Quinn kind of embraced Jaylen Johnson a year ago so it’s not like he’s super anti all young players but rookies in particular have

Not always been high on the pecking order for Quinn dating back to Utah and I would say there’s legitimate Nuance around both buffkin and Griffin at this point I’m not defending the decisions to not play those guys I’m just going to give you some context here for instance

Buffin had a real injury he missed weeks and weeks with that thumb issue and for a rookie guard especially a guy who is you know less than 20 years old when when they drafted him that is very very bad timing and that undoubtedly set him

Back quite a ways when it came to like getting on the floor this year again I’m not saying that’s right but that’s certainly what happened on some level I do understand playing him in the G league and honestly as far as as far as the Rook is concerned like buffkin I

Would prefer if the Hawks and again I’m not saying they have to do this but if the Hawks decide that he’s not going to play a lot in the NBA it is way better for him to go down there and play in college park on a regular basis play 30

Minutes a game or more have the ball in his hands and develop and try to learn the scheme etc etc so I’m fine with that it does make total sense to me but I will say in the last couple of weeks I would have played him with the big Club

A little bit more um especially with Trey missing a few games in recent days um the Hawks playing guys like Patty Mills and Trent Forest on a regular basis like those guys are more veterans that kind of know what to do execution wise but Buck’s just more talented I’d

Like to see them play Kobe a little bit more right now um there are always always concerns with rookies like I’m the I’m the one this kind of always says rookies are bad and that is generally the case especially rookie guards like even Trey who was an excellent player as

A rookie had rookie moments like most rookie guards are not good but with where the Hawks are and that’s been a theme of this podcast probably the next 203 minutes the Hawks are not playing very well right now which is kind of part of the frustration for a lot of

People and I agree with that like if the Hawks are 26 and 18 not playing buff game would not feel as weird but with where they’re on the standings it doesn’t feel great so I get all that and I will say again I think it would have

Been way more likely to play minutes by now if not for the injury and the mistime and it’s kind of hard to quantify how much actually set him back that’s kind of nuance though AJ Griffin situation is a lot less clear a lot more murky because of the personal absence

That he had will probably never know what all went into them him being away from the team for as long as he was it makes it very hard to analyze from the outside and by the way I have asked endlessly people in the organization on record off record all those things about

The situation and um to their credit they’ve not shared a lot about that and they don’t they don’t have to it’s just what kind of what it is what we do know is that he was away from the team for several games he was not playing much

Before that but as soon as he came back he basically has not played at all he’s been totally out of the rotation totally off the radar end of the bench and honestly when he’s gotten into games and I will say it’s garbage time so I don’t

Want to make too much of this but he’s not looked good when he has played I’m not saying that’s indictive everything but certainly he doesn’t look comfortable and they clearly do not think that he’s ready to go right now because he’s not like even On The Fringe

The rotation he was clearly not in it last several weeks so similar to stuff about buffkin I think it might benefit AJ to play some in the g- league or play some on the court in Atlant to see what happens like he did play a lot of

Minutes last year and was actually way better than a typical rookie would be but a lot has changed here and look I could go all day on this and I’m gonna stop on this question for now in a second but the real answer is I don’t

Know what it would actually take I think if the Hawks clear out some roster stuff at the deadline which we’ll talk about more in a second um that could open some playing time up but look look right now the Hawks have played guys who are not exciting players in their places like

They’re playing again Patty they’re playing Trent Forest they’re playing Garrison Matthews who are you know all different skill set kind of players especially Trent as a two-way guy like playing over Kobe looks a little bit strange and I’ll be the first to say I do understand the frustration from fans

On a team that currently as I’m recording this podcast is eight games under 500 to not be playing its last two first round picks essentially at all while they’re playing these non-descript veterans like I get that that is that is frustrating there’s no question about

That and if it was me I would be at least buffkin more Straight Ahead like I would just be playing him AJ there’s at least there’s at least more of a reason to be a little bit less sure with personal absence the way he was kind of

Been treated after that Etc but like for now I’d be playing Kobe and I think I’d be trying AJ if they possibly can and we’ll see if those guys you know get any more any more time in the future but I’ll kind of leave it there for now but

Um long story short uh SN is not going to tell us Quinn does not like to reveal information about the way he’s like kind of thinking about rotation stuff and um for now they’re just going to leaning on the veterans and hopefully you would imagine that changes at some point but

We’ve not seen it just yet at this stage all right we have more Mumbai questions coming up I promise you on all kinds of trade stuff when it comes to you know the landscape and Murray and capella and Hunter etc etc the finances all what’s going to go into what’s going on here

With the Hawks in the next two weeks before we get to that stuff though it work from our sponsors on the podcast today today’s show is brought to you by grammarly I speak from experience when I say that writing can be really hard sometimes when it comes to writing

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Have you seen from Quinn’s coaching philosophy what kinds of players would you be targeting for the Hawks so part of this always is who’s available and Quinn of course inherited the roster that he has right now I’ve always said it doesn’t really like match what you would exactly expect for Quinn that’s

Kind of always the case and they didn’t change lot this summer which was kind of confusing but they also kind of bed on Quinn making changes to like the philosophy stuff which has happened it has not worked all the way at the top level basically on the other side most

Coaches don’t have exactly what they actually would want perfectly it’s kind of hard to do that in the NBA so it’s not an exact science necessarily the Hawks do seem to be building around at least be keen on building around Trey and Jaylen so you have two guys who can

Get Rim pressure you have a plus shooter and Trey and of course an elite passer and an operator In Trey you have this super ver versatile forward in jayen with defensive upside and size in range that leaves you with great optionality which I think is good I think in general

In a vacuum jay1 is a good partner for Trey I think ideally you’d have a center that can shoot it at least a little bit and not like a total non- Center sorry non-shooter like capella currently is now that isn’t like a a deal breaker I

Think Trey is so good at throwing lobs and being engaged with centers like Clint you can run um all what you need to run pick and roll wise with a more traditional guy CL getting up there in age of course but like obviously younger guy ideally but they could do that so

It’s not like a deal breaker but you kind of just need shooting at the other two spots if that’s a non shooter at Center I think jaylen’s going to be an okay shooter maybe even a good one not a great shooter probably in in the future but especially if you have a

Non-shooting center and Jaylen you’re going to want more shooting around those guys at the wing spots ultimately there’s a lot of attention paid to Quinn’s desire to get up a lot of Threes And that makes sense like he’s he has preached that and that is true but he

Also always always always talks about getting Rim pressure and I think that’s um kind of always overlooked in some ways because threes are more of a low hanging for this team dating back to previous regime but the Hawks don’t have a ton of guys who get to the rim right

Now it’s basically Trey and Jaylen that do that Sadi kind of dejonte can get there but he likes to pull up a little bit short of that most of the time Etc I think you also want some defense of course that’s not a huge surprise you’re going to need somebody to defend point

Of attack um at a high level you’re going to need some Wing defense every team in the league wants to Wing defense but certainly that would be the case here and you need Shooters so in the future I think jaylen’s going to have the ball more in his hands which will

Help but I think ideally the Hawks have too many lineups in the last couple of years even with Deonte now where they only have two ball handlers or maybe even one ball handler um you know right now they have Trey DJ and jayen that’s that’s enough ball handling but when one

Of those guys sits on the bench they don’t really have a bench guy I mean bogy could kind of do it a little bit but in general they they haven’t had a ton of like optionality with their offense so this is like a a full podcast

In itself as to like what qu would be looking for but it’s kind of vague on purpose what I’m saying here but I think a lot of it comes down to roster constraints who’s available all that fun stuff and I think General versatility is good defense on the perimeter would be

Very very important Rim pressure would be important and of course having enough shooting because we’ve seen it in the last three years for the Hawks when they don’t have enough shooting things clog and that really hurts them so you know with bogy healthy knock on wood that definitely helps but they might trade

Him in the future all that stuff and uh I’ll leave it there for now speaking of trade stuff I got a lot of questions from uh my guy Chris on Twitter who asked a you know a ton of stuff by the way I know I’ve lost my camera on

YouTube briefly hopefully that will come back in a second I’m working on that now as we’re talking but um anyway Chris asked a bunch of questions but I’ll pick one of them out here and basically it’s are they even trying to trade bogy at this point couldn’t he be used to

Assemble the war chest of picks that they are looking for um also John Nelson asked if the Hawks could get a hder likee return for bogie at this point in time but I would say that is plausible to me that they can get a herik return

For bogie um I’m not sure they’re trying to trade bogy at this point but he is very available if that makes sense like I’ve heard the guys the Hawks are making more active calls on are of course Murray’s been in the mix a lot but Hunter and capella those are kind of the

Three that are the most involved in like outgoing Hawks kind of Pursuits I think they like bogie and they should he makes a lot of sense and also he’s on a really good contract it’s descending he’s an excellent offensive player and uh you good good culture guy around all that

Stuff on the other hand if they’re looking at all to make a kind of retooling effort with a step back this year and I for the future Bo he’s getting older that makes sense and if you can get a real price for him I would at least think about it now that would

Make you worse like a lot of the deals that we’ve talked about around the Hawks like I think they could make a deal for capella where it wouldn’t kill them because they have a like it would hurt them I I’ll be the first to say I think trading Clint for basically

Nothing would not help the Hawks in the short term but it would help the Hawks long term I think bogy would hurt the Hawks flat out like in any any construction um that I could reasonably see that would make them worse because his offense is really valuable but if

You can get if you can get a real pick let should say for bogy like an actual first to John’s Point um they could do that and I think that’s plausible and I would certainly understand them doing that I think it would be protected as John kind of alluded to that that’s kind

Of The Herder package was a protected first round pick Bogie’s older but it’s a cheap contract and he’s a really good player Team friendly deal um Team option at the end really helps that deal as well so we’re two weeks away um it wouldn’t surprise me if they moved bogey

But at last check it was more of like taking calls than making them kind of the way I put that he’s available like a lot of guys are but he’s not like the guy they’re trying to move speaking of which Mr Meo asks we know about Murray

Capella and Hunter but who else could the Hawks tray between now and the deadline that’s about bogy a second ago obviously he’s in he’s on that list the other guys I would Circle are in particular are AJ Griffin and sadique Bay so there’s been some reporting out

There a little bit in Rumble not nothing huge but the teams are at least calling on AJ Griffin I’ve heard the same um as I talked about earlier with him not playing it’s hard to know the dynamic all the way around right now with AJ and

The Hawks but it would not surprise me if the Hawks just decided to kind of move on and get a fresh start for all parties um I’ll say this people ask me because kind of like what his value is it’s not that high right now because

He’s not playing and that’s I think they could probably get something for him it’s not going to be a total giveaway situation but like you’re not going to get the equivalent of what you paid for him quote unquote in using a mid first round pick for him that isn’t coming

Back I don’t think in a vacuum but he might he might need a fresh start I’m not sure um they’ll get some calls on him and it wouldn’t stun me if they moved on at this point in time ba is interesting because they traded a lot of

Stuff to get him you know 5 second round picks a year ago um he’s one of their top seven or eight guys he plays in every game right now without Hunter he’s starting playing a lot of minutes and he should but he’ll be a free agent this

Summer it’s restricted so they can match on him if they want to but they would prefer kind of you know not to overpay obviously if but if they are not planning to pay him or match on him or prefer to keep him around they should certainly look at the market now that’s

Only only they can answer that um and it really kind of always depends or most of the time defends depends on what the market is like sadik the reporting was and I heard the same thing that they him and his agent they wanted a lot of money in an extension and the

Hawks didn’t pay that that was a good decision I think I I think s s will have a market this summer but it won’t be for huge money and it shouldn’t be I think I’ve said this before but I think sadik is best suited to be like a seventh man

On a good team which is not a bad player but I think that he is not a starter and on a good team and shouldn’t be paid like one so that’s kind of where we are at this point time with sadik’s weaknesses Etc um they can match any

Offer if they want to but if they’re not keen on keeping sadik with where with where they are financially they should explore what the market is I don’t know if they’re going to but that was a guy I would also Circle um which is essentially you know again from what I

Understand they are at least less likely to trade guys like AJ and sadique than they are of the Murray capella Hunter group that are even more available but I’ll say this again like I said it a few times in the last couple weeks everyone is available that’s been reported I have

Heard the exact same thing other than Trey and Jaylen there are always tears of availability I’ve said that before but like I don’t think that they are super interested or excited to trade guys like aong wo or buffkin I think those guys would be number three and

Number four in some order and least likely to be traded after Trey and Jaylen like it could happen but they’re not looking to do that um then there’s guys who like they’re more eager to trade like your capellas your Hunters they like bogie they would trade bogie I

Think sadique and AJ are kind of in that mix somewhere and that’s kind of all of your core pieces you know I just referenced basically all of them you know the guys at the end of the bench your Garrison Matthews your Brut fernandos um those guys could be traded

At any moment for salary fill or whatever but like they’re not going to be traded for huge positive value so as far as like the top 10 guys are concerned they’re all available on some level other than Trey and Jaylen and that’s kind of where we where I’ll leave

It for now but um everybody should be at least on the board and that’s been the feeling that I’m getting behind the scenes as well all right we’ll have more from your B questions in a second but first they wor from our sponsors on the show today’s show is brought to you by

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Says how much does money matter with what the Haw going to be doing with trades or are we going to have to hear the same thing about Tony not paying the tax yet again um I got a question as well from Chris D about why none of the

Exceptions have been used so far for the Hawks it’s all kind of the same lens I’m sure I have new listeners and I think I’ve been pretty much the loudest and most assistant person in the actual Atlanta media Market trying to go after the Hawks about avoiding the tax

Ownership and kind of you know the cost cutting and making the team worse basically to stay under the tax in recent days um I won’t go through it all again but they basically glaringly avoided the attacks on purpose in the last couple of years the Kevin Herr was

Money Motivated the John Collins treay was entirely about money basically um they were high-profile and obvious they also have a lot of other examples that were like more subtle to avoid money um you know cost cutting trades and not using roster spots and not using exceptions they’ve done that for a few

Years it’s not like this one’s not tax savings but they’ve also sold draft picks in the past when the only reason to do that is actually money related so um as Chris notes in his question the Hawks did not use their mid-level exception this year as well um if you

Want to be super generous and not care about the Hawks avoiding the tax because some people just don’t care about that and that’s to each their own I guess the Haw are about 9 million under the tax right now so if they wanted to stay under they could have signed a player

That was a real non-minimum player and for a team that quite obviously has had lots of depth issues this year another guy that would have been like a solid eighth ninth man would have been very helpful for this team and they didn’t actually do that they also have a trade

Exception for Collins they could still used that so we’ll see on that but they’ve not used it just yet and to answer the question there is every reason to believe the Hawks are going to be keeping a very close eye on finances and that’s a notable factor in any trade

They consider now some of that is that that’s the nature of the NBA you know every team on some level has to manage the cap and the trade rules it’s not like baseball where you could just trade whatever you want to MoneyWise so you don’t have to plan your financial books

Long term for basketball reasons but there’s still something different with actually ducking the tax every year on purpose and making your team worse to do it because there are ways to keep teams under of the tax or making small moves but like the Hawks have done it with

Like some of their top seven players they’ve just kind of cut guys for money and that doesn’t I think we’ve seen that long term that just making your team a little bit worse for money savings each and every year isn’t going to work anyway uh I’ll do the short version on

How much it will impact the this deadline now because look right now the Hawks are up against the tax for next year without doing anything which is really scary for a team that’s this bad at the moment um or at least not very good at the moment to be charitable um a

Quick primer here they have almost 160 in terms of million dollars guaranteed money for next year most of that is is on their real guys Trey DJ capella Hunter Bogi and aong Wu is about 143 for six guys then you have the rookie contracts Jaylen AJ uh Kobe lkin Mohamad

Gay about 15 million between those guys too so um they’re already $16 million over the cap line with 10 guys on the roster so I get questions all the time about like cat space cat space is something that I would not worry about the Hawks are way over the cap right now

And it’s hard to get under under the cap for any on rear Rison it’s really the tax that you’re looking for and they’re basically up against the tax right now I will do the short version and just say if they were to sign sadique Bay even to

A bargain contract they’ll be in the tax with nothing else so I don’t think especially if you throw in if the Hawks also might have two first two first round picks which is a good thing to have if the king’s pick comes but that actually has a real cap hole that that

Costs money Etc so not to go long here but the thing I am pretty confident in is between now and the end of July the Hawks are going to change something and probably get cheaper when they do it so U whether it’s the Murray deal if that happens whether it’s moving off from

Capella for a very little salary maybe it’s moving Hunter maybe it’s moving bogey whatever else they’re G to get cheaper I believe in one of these transactions and they’re going to change something we’ll come back to one more question at the end of the podcast about like this deadline but this is extending

Out let’s just say again like the end of July August I will be shocked especially with where they are right now on the standings maybe if they got hot this year that will change but um if the Hawks pay the tax EXT I’ll be very surprised and right now with their

Current roster they’re kind of up against it so that means that you will probably see some cost cutting if I had to project again it’s not a guarantee I’m using the word probably not definitely but that’d be that’d be my projection they’re going to save some money somewhere whether it be to

Jettison capella or jettison Hunter which is by the way defensible basketball-wise those deals are not great deals so that would be understandable but you would hope that they prioritize basketball over finances and we’ll see in the future if they actually do that uh question from sebas

Question who says for you is it worth it to be getting into the playoffs this year if the Hawks are in the play or would you rather bot them out and try for a better draft pick tough to answer I’ll say that especially on January 25th

There’s a Nuance there if it was as simple as the question indicates like if if the question basically is would you rather be the 10 seed or bottom out I think I’d rather be bottoming out now that’s not a vacuum in general right now right now they’re they’re the 10 seed

And Dallas is a good example from last year Dallas though actively tanked to keep their pick they actually owed their pick and that’s why they did that not not just because they wanted to get a higher draft pick they actually just wanted to keep that pick overall and

That got a lot of attention but ended up quing what working for them the Hawks could miss the play in this year very easily they’re CAU them on the frge of it right now and missed the playoffs and they’d be in the lottery if they did

That um there is a ceiling though this year on like how much quote unquote tanking would even help you because the teams at the bottom of the League this year are so bad there are five teams that John Hollinger has t taken a call in the four five that the Hawks no

Matter what they did if they could shut down everybody right now and just say sent Trey home for the rest of the season they’re not going to do this by the way but if they if they did they still wouldn’t be able to get below those five teams that’s how bad those

Teams are so there’s a ceiling on that as far as like the people that are calling for tanking I wouldn’t necessarily Advocate that but there are benefits as well to making the playoffs like I’m not trying to be the guy who dismisses any of that like it’s good to

Have experience in reps against high up competition I think the Hawks actually did learn things from the Series last year against Boston of course they lost it Miami Miami the year before that like there are teaching moments there are valuable experiences to making the playoffs I’m not dismissing that but if

The question basically is again be the nine or 10 seed and I would say the best case scenario at that point time is a first round loss to a team like Boston or a team like Milwaukee or Philly or whatever um that’s not a great thing to

Be like Stuck in the Middle that’s kind of where the Hawks have been that’s not a great place to be in general um but the thing that’s notable here is that the Hawks don’t have their own pick again after this year for the next three after that and that’s kind of why this

Comes up even more often so it’s not cut and dry in any direction I think we’re GNA have to learn more and more about like what the deadline plan is and look man in general I would love to know the actual answer for the organizational priority right now because it’s a

Question I get all the time for people around the league that I talk to it’s like what are the Hawk’s trying to do big picture and like it’s unfortunate but depending on who you ask around the team you get a different answer um are they trying to win now they’re playing

Like they’re trying to win now as far as like their roster deployment they’re trying to win games but um you not playing rookies Etc but also they’re the 10 seed in the East um there’s been some reporting that their Hawks might be ready to kind of retool and maybe sell

And get a little bit worse willingly this year which I would think is reasonable they’re not going to buy I don’t think but um you know is it like more of a status quo even in a Murray trade like I’ve intentionally not done a ton of Murray talk on this podcast it’s

So much around right now but in a Murray trade there are different Pathways like one of them is more of a future-based draft pick approach and then the other one is like more of like a retool the roster and keep trying to win approach and like I don’t know which one that’s

Going to be if it even happens but yeah there’s questions they have to answer and only Tony russler and Quin Snider and landre Fields and Kyle corver know the answers and they might be arguing about that right now we don’t know and there’s two weeks left so we’ll see all

Right uh last question for today by the way that last question could be a whole podcast but I’m not going to do that right now um Earl says How likely are the Hawks to do something something something something and all C by the way before the deadline

And what would be the case for not doing anything if you were the Hawks um I’ll L the second part first the main argument for not doing something is simply that there’s nothing available to them that they think is favorable to do now to be very clear I would personally be

Actively pursuing some major shakeups to the roster if it was me if I was in charge that’s what I’d be doing and I’m betting I would have a lower bar for Returns on some guys than some people would but fundamentally the argument against making a trade is always going

To be that the right deal is not there for you it’s not it’s kind of impossible to know on the outside what’s out there and what’s offered to the Hawks Etc even with Intel like you’re never going to be on 100% of the stuff in the room so How

Likely are they to make a trade I think it is more likely than not so 51% or higher that the Hawks will make a transaction of significance in the next two weeks now for me that means trading someone on on the roster that is in the

Top 10 of trade guys so like I think trading AJ would qualify for this trading B would qualify for this trading Hunter capella etc those will all be significant it doesn’t have to be Murray doesn’t have to be capella whatever but I think they are more likely than not

Going to trade someone who I describe as a as a real key piece of the roster right now so individually I don’t know if anybody is super high on the list as as far as percentage wise I think Murray just for the record my percentage on likelihood of Murray

Traded Murray being traded I should say is a little bit lower now than it was a week or two ago I think um I’m leaning towards them being traded still but with a little bit less conviction than I had a few months ago uh sorry a few weeks

Ago I should say um they’ll be looking to way for ways to move capella or Hunter that’s going to keep happening they’re gonna be listening hard on other guys ba bogy Griffin Etc so we’ll see but to answer plainly I do think that I’ll be doing an emergency podcast at

Some point between now and the deadline it might be actually right at the deadline we’ll see not a guarantee by any means but to answer that last question last I think that is more likely than not that the Hawks will make a move of some kind and we’ll see what

That move actually is in the next two weeks before we get out of here real quick the Hawks do play again on Friday um both teams on three game losing streaks as Dallas arrives um injury report Wise by the way Trey is questionable as he tries to exit the

Concussion protocol that’s a good sign but TBD whether he actually plays on Friday capella is also questionable with a calf contusion Bruno is questionable as well so in a world where the Hawks don’t have capella or Bruno that would be uh kind of challenging because Hawks only have one

Center in that scenario I think by the way somebody ask this question if that were to happen capella BR didn’t play I think you would see a Kong wo as much as possible he has foul trouble issues and can’t play every minute and when he’s off the floor you would probably have to

See point Sorry Center Jaylen because there’s nobody else so that would be a little bit of a challenge against a team in Dallas that has some real size but hopefully capella or Bruno or both can play in the game on Friday Also West Matthews was upgraded to questionable

After missing the last nine games so he might return in this one Hunter still out gay is still out gra still out Dallas has some injury stuff as well um Kyrie’s questionable notably there so no betting odds just yet on that game but uh a fascinating one it’s NBA quote

Unquote rivalry week um not really a huge rivalry between the Hawks and RADS right now but you know there’s obviously the trade Luka connection that’s kind of what’s out there but anyway I’ll have a full breakdown of that game as always after the game on Friday I’ll be in the

Building for that one so stay tuned Please Subscribe rate and the podcast as always as well tell a friend about the show I would very much appreciate all of your support and thank you for listening to a rambling podcast I’m sure but I always appreciate your questions send

Them to me all the time on social media as well as lockon Hawks atgmailcom if you want those answered hopefully I will get to a bunch of them in the coming days and one more time thank you for listening to the podcast Please Subscribe Apple Spotify YouTube Etc and

Please spread the word about the podcast patreon.com BTR Rolland as well thanks for listening I really do appreciate it and we’ll see you after the game on Friday

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland, DIME on UPROXX) hosts episode No. 1638 of the Locked on Hawks podcast. The show examines the Atlanta Hawks with two weeks left until the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline, including mailbag questions on Atlanta’s young players, trade rumors on Dejounte Murray, supporting pieces that could be moved, the financial landscape, and much more.

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