News - Atlanta Hawks - Bulldog63
Goodbye to 2 franchise icons
It is a bittersweet evening in Hawksland today, as the 2 longest-tenured players still with the team have packed their bags for greener pastures, as the Hawks traded Coby White and Isaish Stewart aka Beef Stew to the Lakers, along with the corpse of Gabe Vincent. In return, they receive 2 3&D players in Donte Divincenzo and Toumani Camara, along with the (potentially gambled away) contract of Terry Rozier. The deal itself saw fellow GMs split in their opinion, some viewing the value as even and some preferring the Lakers end to varying extents, so let's examine what led us to this course of action.
1) Defense
As with the last article, the Hawks have a terrible defense, without a truly standout on-ball defender. They gain that in Toumani Camara, who while undersized as a power forward, should still fare well defensively if nothing else as he instantly becomes the hawks best overall defender. Divincenzo is also an average-to- plus perimeter defender while also being a good shooter. Coby white, while a strong offensive force, is a seive defensively, and Stewart's go-to skill, his blocking, was redundant with 2 other prime shot-blockers on the roster. It was a clear shift towards a more well-balanced makeup.
2) Contracts
Coby white's impending free agency was a source of slight concern for the hawks, not because of any risk of leaving (he won't) but because of the numbers. White's fellow NBA player Josh Giddey commanded 30M per year this past offseason as a restricted free agent in a tough market, it's not unreasonable to think White may get at least that much. With the plethora of scoring guards on the roster already, Atlanta felt the money would be better spent in deficient areas than leaning even heavier into offense. Meanwhile, Divincenzo is on an MLE level contract for this season and next, making him solid value for his money, while Camara will be locked in for about 20M a year for 4 years after this. So there is a degree of certainty and dollar value the Hawks have gained from this deal, something they felt was worth the sacrifice of taking on rozier's contract for the year and providing the Lakers crucial pieces for a playoff run.
3) Lack of downside and 4) Urgency to improve
In the end, no picks of meaningful value left the hawks, and they did not cede any kind of large age gap in the players they acquired, so while there may have been a better deal on the table had they had more patience or played hardball, it was clear the current team was not cutting it. With the team off to a lackluster start and not owning their own pick, this deal strikes a balance between trying to improve and not recklessly trading the farm for an ill-advised push. And if it doesn't work out and the team is just doomed for the season, the odds are at least somewhat reasonable they could move one or both closer to the deadline.
With all of that being said, White and Stewart will be dearly missed by this franchise and its fans. They gave everything they had through some utterly terrible years and a greenhorn GM, and now they are rewarded by going to a winning Lakers team to try and win a title. Payton Pritchard now remains the last player remaining from the prior regime, time will tell if that remains the case through this season or if the Hawks have another move in them.
As for the team as a whole, the projected starting five will be:
Immanuel Quickley
Donte Divincenzo
Desmond Bane
Toumani Camara
Donovan Clingan/Alex Sarr
There is still a good amount of shooting in that five, and they should hopefully be a bit more stout defensively with 2 plus on-ball defenders in the lineup now. There is still work to be done, but all in all the Hawks see this as a low risk lateral move at worst.
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