Anthony Davis The trade market seemed pretty quiet immediately after Nico Harrison was fired. A strong December appears to have woken up some fans. In the nine games he completed this month, Davis averaged more than 23 points and nearly 13 rebounds while showcasing his standard defensive skills and helping the team. Mavericks sneak back into the Western Conference Play-In Tournament picture.
A number of teams, including Golden State Warriorsreportedly considered fighting Davis, but Atlanta Hawksin accordance with Mark Stein“seems to be Davis's most determined admirer at the moment.” There is a fairly simple path to a trade if Atlanta wants to make it happen. The Hawks can provide a significant portion of the needed salary given Kristaps Porzingis' expiring contract. They have a recent No. 1 overall pick. Zakkari Risaker with which, according to Stein, they are willing to trade in the right package.
Their project owes a debt to San Antonio Spurs — accumulated in Dejaunte Murray trading is now much less daunting than it seemed at the time. Aside from their seemingly untouchable first round pick. Pelicans The Hawks are also expected to receive a mid-first round pick this June thanks to the trade rights they received from Cleveland Cavaliers last year De'Andre Hunter deal with. They owe San Antonio a first-round pick next year, but thanks to Murray's subsequent trade to New Orleans, they have a better pick. The Hawks will get the smaller of the Pelicans and BucksA first-round draft pick in 2027, assuming they both don't finish in the top four. After 2027, the Hawks will control all of their first-round picks. They are free and clear to trade draft capital if they want, and based on Stein's reporting, they appear to be keen enough on Davis to consider it.
But there is another obstacle: money. Davis is owed a significant amount of money, more than $58 million for next season, even without a possible contract extension. Reporting showed that Trae Young won't be included in a potential Davis deal, meaning his $49 million player option would have to factor into any potential salary projections for 2026-27. Combined, that's about $107 million. The Hawks owe another $85 million or so to their core players. Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Mr. Okongwu And Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Add in a first-round pick from New Orleans, and the Hawks are already flirting with $200 million in salaries allocated to seven players.
This is notable because next season's projected luxury tax level is just under $202 million. The Hawks haven't paid a luxury tax since 2011 – before this ownership group and the initial punitive tax changes made in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, not to mention the tougher changes that followed in the 2023 version. Combine those six players and a high first-round pick, and the Hawks become a tax lock and will likely have to veer into apron territory to create the depth needed to compete for a championship. Perhaps this group of owners will be willing to pay tax for this group. We simply have no direct evidence that they will do so.
Stein's report acknowledges this reality but hints at a possible solution: trading Young before he can exercise that option this summer. “There is a growing belief throughout the league that the Hawks are more willing to sell him than ever,” Stein wrote. Of course, this brings up an issue that we've been covering all season with players like Ja Morant And LaMelo Ball: There is apparently There is less appetite than ever around the league for trading significant assets for guards with poor defensive skills who don't consistently make their threes.
Young missed most of this season due to injury. He was a disappointment when he played, posting some of the worst numbers of his career while providing less value as a playmaker as the Hawks handed most of his ball-handling responsibilities to his younger teammates. Atlanta wants Davis because it has played well without Young. With him, the Hawks are 2-8 this season. The question here is that if the Hawks don't want to pay Young, why would anyone else?
You are looking for a very specific team. The concept that the Hawks would presumably be moving towards by bringing in Davis and sending Young would be to rely entirely on size and defense. This model is becoming increasingly popular as the heliocentric pick-and-rolls of the last decade begin to fall out of fashion. Such players may still have their place, but as “floor raisers” rather than “ceiling raisers.” Young's shortcomings as a defender and forward off the ball are so obvious that teams trying to win a championship probably don't want him. But teams trying to win 40 or 45 games? Well, that's his specialty. The Hawks are on a five-year run in which they have won no less than 36 games and no more than 43 (or, if you adjust the 2020-21 season to an 82-game pace, 47). So the goal here is to find a team that, for one reason or another, wants to be in that range and has expiring salaries to send to Atlanta to secure its new, Davis-centric salary.
Clippers make a lot of sense in this regard. They have expiring contracts John CollinsBogdan Bogdanovich and Brook Lopez. They also have a desperate need to maintain a semblance of respectability. They are ready to hand over Thunder They are a high lottery pick this year and owe their next three first-round picks to Oklahoma City and Philadelphia. This is a team that wants to become a recruiting force. Handing over future rival stars is not the best way to do it. Young could be a bridge. Connect it with Ivica Zubac both the guard group and the Clippers could be competitive for a few years while they wait for the draft picks they are due and plan for their actual future.
Kings They can usually be counted on to do something reckless, and permanent places to play will be a significant improvement for them. They've already been linked to Morant. Perhaps they will consider Young a suitable candidate. De'Aaron Fox replacement a year after their ill-fated Zach LaVine trade. They don't have expiring contracts, but there are ways to fix that. The easiest option is to trade Domantas Sabonis elsewhere and ensure that only expiring money was returned to them, which they could then pass on to Young.
That's not a lot of takers, but that's where the market for point guards is today. In truth, the right basketball decision – at least in the short term – would probably be to keep Young alongside Davis early on. They are an easy fit as a top-tier pick-and-roll defender and one of the best on-ball threats in the world. NBA story. Perhaps playing together will boost Young's rating enough to force him to withdraw this summer. At worst, his contract will only last one year. No one is asking the Hawks to pay a penalty for repetition. Keep the team together for a year and a half. Pay one big tax bill. Reassess the situation from there.
Some teams are more comfortable wading into these financial waters than others. This Hawks ownership group never paid taxes, but they never had a roster worthy of it either. Perhaps the version of these Hawks with Young and Davis is good enough to justify it. Or maybe the whole concept of acquiring Davis is to refocus the roster away from Young, leaning entirely on all the size, defense and athleticism they've accumulated, even if it means sacrificing offense. Stein's reporting seems to hint that this is the idea. Why else would you be tied to one All-Star while being ready to move another. This is not like all-in, but like shuffling the deck. Davis is certainly available to the Hawks. The question here is whether they can make the money work around him, either by giving up money for Young or trading him to keep the rest of the roster intact.
