Revised 7/4/2023
After laying dormant for the first 21 hours of the NBA’s Free Agency period, the Atlanta Hawks completed their second move of the 2023 off-season on Saturday afternoon. Trading the rights to Alpha Kabba (60th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft) to the Houston Rockets in exchange for TyTy Washington (29th pick in the 2022 NBA Draft), Usman Garuba (23rd pick in the 2021 NBA Draft), two future second round picks (Minnesota’s in 2025 and Houston’s in 2028) and $1.1 million in cash per Lauren Williams of the AJC. The Rockets used the cap-space and open roster spots created in the deal to sign Jock Landale, Dillon Brooks and Jeff Green shortly after this trade went through.
From a value standpoint, this appears to be an absolute swindle for the Hawks, who swapped the rights to a 26 year-old who has yet to play an NBA game, for two talented 21 year-olds and some additional draft capital. While both Washington and Garuba have yet to impress in the NBA, they both showed enough promise in their amateur careers to be drafted in the first-round of the past two drafts, and their youth, upside, and team-friendly deals instantly make them far more valuable assets than the draft rights to Kaba, who averaged 9 points and 7 rebounds in the ABA League last season and is unlikely to appear on the NBA radar anytime soon. Even if neither of these players pan out for the Hawks, they also received two second-round picks in the trade, which will likely be more valuable in future trade talks than Kaba’sdraft rights.
However, the one-sidedness of the trade begs the question: If this was truly such a good deal, was there really no other team that could beat this meager offer from Atlanta? Unless the Hawks were the only team Houston talked to about this deal, it is reasonable to assume that the general consensusaround the league was that the flexibility that two open roster spots provided them as they navigated the second day of free agency was more valuable to them than acquiring Washington and Garuba – and their respective $2.3 million and $2.5 million salaries for the upcoming season. That, and the fact that the Rockets had to include two second-round picks in the deal likely makes me slightly skeptical that either player will have much of an impact for the Hawks next season, though as I said earlier, they are both still 21 years-old and are by no means finished products*.
*See here (Washington) and here (Garuba) to get a better understanding of their games.
Looking at Atlanta’s cap-sheet after the trade, they currently have 14 players on guaranteed contracts for next season and are comfortably ($10.5 million) beneath the luxury tax line of $165,000,000. NBA teams are only allowed to carry 15 players on their rosters once the regular season begins, and while they are allowed to have as many as 20 players on the roster during the off-season, their options to fill out their final roster spot ahead of opening night at the moment (barring a trade) are as follows. They could guarantee one of the non-guaranteed contracts of Bruno Fernando, Tyrese Martin, or Vit Krejci. They could sign one of their second-round draft picks in Seth Lundy and Mohammed Gueye (or an undrafted player who balls out in Summer League) to a full-time deal rather than a two-way contract. Finally, they could use some or all oftheir Mid-Level Exception ($12.4 million) to sign a free agent and bolster their rotation for the upcoming season with a veteran player, although it’s worth noting that the free-agent market has significantly shrunk since this deal went down on Saturday*, and the team has not been linked to a single free agent since the negotiating period began.
*List of available free agents here.
While this was certainly a good value move for the Hawks, the roster as it stands is probably worse than last year’s team as they have yet to truly replace the production of John Collins, who was traded to Utah on June 26th, and will mostly be missed on the defensive side of the floor. It will be interesting to see whether the team has any additional moves up their sleeve as the off-season unfolds, or if they are soley banking on internal improvement and a full off-season under a new head coach to sway the team’s fortunes after two consecutive mediocre seasons.
Below is the Hawks 2023-24 depth chart (as it stands).
Hawks 23-24 Depth Chart as of 7/3
*Non-Guaranteed Contracts
PG: Trae Young, TyTy Washington
SG: Dejounte Murray, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Kobe Bufkin, Garrison Matthews, Tyrese Martin
SF: De’Andre Hunter, AJ Griffin
PF: Saddiq Bey, Jalen Johnson, Rudy Gay, Vit Krejci
C: Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu, Usman Garuba, Bruno Fernando
Stay tuned to HawksFanTV for the latest Atlanta Hawks news and coverage during the 2023 off-season!
