Hawks free-agency preview, Part 2: Who might return and who won’t?由JabariIverson 发表在翻译团招工部 https://bbs.hupu.com/fyt-store
The Hawks only have eight players under guaranteed contracts for next season, which doesn’t include the possibility of adding a first-round draft pick. Atlanta has seven players who might enter free agency when it begins this offseason.
With the playoffs being the goal for the Hawks next season, general manager Travis Schlenk will have to build the roster with better complementary pieces around the young core than the team had the past few seasons. That likely will lead to more roster overhaul as the Hawks look to build a contender in the Eastern Conference.
Because Atlanta likely won’t be contending for a championship next season, it makes sense for Schlenk to try to sign players this offseason to shorter-term contracts, if possible, to keep as much future flexibility as he can. And because of the $49 million in cap space the Hawks are projected to currently have, Schlenk can offer balloon-type of deals for one or two years.
Schlenk does have decisions to make with the potential free agents the Hawks currently have before we think about what players they might add, and that’s the basis for this story.
In case you missed our first free agency preview, we broke down the mid-20s-and-younger free agents who make sense for the Hawks to target. So let’s predict who might return to the Hawks next season and who might not.
Note: All contract statuses are listed for after the end of this season.
Jeff Teague
Contract status: Unrestricted free agent.
Odds he returns: 50 percent.
Analysis: When Teague, along with Treveon Graham, was acquired from Minnesota for Allen Crabbe, Schlenk said he was planning on using the second half of the season as a dress rehearsal to see if Teague was worthwhile to bring back on a new deal when his contract expired at the end of this season. Teague only played in 25 games before the indefinite suspension of the season came down, and it might not be enough for the Hawks to decide to make him Trae Young’s backup.
“I think Jeff struggled getting comfortable in the role he was in here,” Schlenk said last month. “Even though he came off the bench in Minnesota, he was really still getting 30 minutes a night. Here, depending on matchups and injuries and foul trouble, it could have been 15 minutes or 25 minutes. He even said to me that, ‘I feel like a rookie out here. I’m playing nervous.’ I don’t know if we ever saw the real Jeff Teague. He’s still extremely explosive with the ball and has the ability to be a really good defender. I think he was still trying to feel out the situation. I don’t think we saw what Jeff Teague has left in those 25 games that he was here with us. He’s going to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and obviously backup point guard is going to be a position (of need) for us. And we’ll have that dialogue with he and his agent at the proper time.”
Teague looked like he was starting to get more comfortable in those final few games, and he certainly was an upgrade over what the Hawks were dealing with at backup point guard before his arrival. The Hawks scored 110.5 points per 100 possessions with Teague on the floor — a middle of the road offense — but Atlanta still has to figure out what it wants to do behind Young.
Teague made $19 million this season and won’t ever see a dollar figure that high for the rest of his career, but he still has some value especially if he can be had for a dollar amount around $4-6 million annually for two seasons.
Even if he doesn’t come back, the Hawks essentially got a free look at Teague because there was no cash or draft capital they parted with when they sent Crabbe to Minnesota.
DeAndre’ Bembry
Contract status: Restricted free agent if offered a qualifying offer of $7,811,946.
Odds he returns: Five percent.
Analysis: Bembry’s future with the organization seemed in jeopardy before this season even began as the Hawks drafted two wings who would receive more minutes than him and traded for Crabbe, whose shooting was going to be needed for the team’s second unit (as it turned out, Crabbe’s 3-point shooting nosedived this season). Because of injuries and other roster limitations, Bembry saw significant minutes to start the season, but a few injuries he sustained and the importance of growing the younger players caused his role to decrease.
The problem with Bembry is he’s a combo guard who can’t shoot, and he’s not elite enough defensively to not be a liability on the floor. Even with his playmaking ability with the ball in his hands, Bembry has one of the highest turnover rates for all guards across the league. Bembry has the ability to attack the rim to make up for his lack of shooting, but he only made 58 percent of his attempts, which is below league average for guards.
Bembry just doesn’t fit what the Hawks need anymore so it’s hard to envision much of a scenario of him coming back next season, especially knowing they want more shooters who can play on the wing.
Skal Labissiere
Contract status: Restricted free agent if offered a qualifying offer of $7,016,541.
Odds he returns: 60 percent.
Analysis: Labissiere was acquired from Portland, along with $2 million, at the trade deadline for a 2024 top-55 protected pick. In other words, the Hawks received Labissiere for free from the Blazers as they were looking to stay under the tax.
He didn’t play at all for Atlanta as he rehabbed from a knee injury, but Labissiere is a player Schlenk has had interest in since he was an assistant general manager for Golden State.
“Skal’s a guy that I actually tried to acquire a couple other times, even back in Golden State,” Schlenk said at Labissiere’s introductory news conference. “He’s got a really good skill set, he can shoot the ball out to the midrange. We’ll continue to work to stretch that out.”
Labissiere was very effective in the midrange for Portland in 33 games this season. He made 54 percent of his midrange attempts, which ranked in the 96th percentile for all big men. He also has been a positive defender in his four years in the league. The main problem he has had has been his inability to stay healthy.
It’s hard envisioning Labissiere receiving his qualifying offer because he’s unlikely to get that kind of money on the open market. The Hawks likely would renounce his rights and sign him with cap space if they do bring him back. My guess is he would get a minimum salary or slightly above it. Because of his potential upside, he’s worth taking a chance on.
Damian Jones
Contract status: Restricted free agent if offered a qualifying offer of $6,915,171.
Odds he returns: Zero percent.
Analysis: The Hawks took a chance on Jones, who hadn’t played much in his three seasons with Golden State due to having torn both of his pectoral muscles and because the depth chart didn’t allow him the opportunity to see much playing time when he was healthy. He only played in 42 games in his three seasons with the Warriors before the Hawks traded for him as part of the Omari Spellman deal.
Schlenk envisioned Jones being a lob threat for Young in the pick-and-roll, which he was, but that’s almost the entire extent of what Jones can offer any NBA team. He made 74 percent of his attempts at the rim, one of the best marks in the league, but he can’t finish anywhere else on the floor and offers no playmaking ability on offense. The Hawks, collectively, were a horror show defensively but were somehow seven points better with him off the floor than they were when he played. The lineup that featured Jones the most: Young, Cam Reddish, De’Andre Hunter, Jabari Parker and Jones had an efficiency differential of negative-26.1 points, which was one of the worst lineups across the NBA.
Because the Hawks had arguably the worst center rotation in the league, Jones had a bigger role than he probably should have had. He ended up starting 27 games this season, which is astounding to think about.
Because the Hawks acquired Clint Capela and Dewayne Dedmon plus have Bruno Fernando and John Collins to also play center minutes if needed, there’s no chance Jones will be back with Atlanta next season.
I’ve been called a Jones hater before, but let me be clear, he’s one of the nicest guys in the league, and I genuinely hope he finds a role for himself elsewhere.
Treveon Graham
Contract status: Unrestricted free agent.
Odds he returns: 10 percent.
Analysis: Graham only played in 22 games for the Hawks, and his time with Atlanta this season is hard to judge because of how sparingly he played. He received more than 10 minutes of action in 12 of the 22 games, with several of those games being blowouts. He didn’t post impactful box score numbers — 3.3 points, 2.2 rebounds, 0.7 assists in 12 minutes per game. He shot 37 percent from the floor and 35 percent from 3, but he only took 37 attempts from the perimeter.
In the final few games before the season went on a hiatus, he actually showed some defensive versatility with guarding wings and forwards and was one of the best Hawks on that end of the floor. The Hawks need more quality defenders on their roster, and Graham likely won’t cost much money to retain if they want to keep him to round out the end of their roster. The problem with keeping Graham is he’s not a big enough threat on offense because of his lack of shooting and playmaking. He can’t get many minutes because opposing teams don’t have to pay much attention to him on offense.
His value for teams across the league would be much higher than what it is now if he could end up becoming an average or even close-to-average level shooter because he’s a fine defender. But if not, he’s nothing more than a player who can spot-fill gaps.
Vince Carter
Contract status: Unrestricted free agent.
Odds he returns: Zero percent.
Analysis: Carter was included in this list because he technically is a free agent this offseason, but he already has expressed that this is his final season in the NBA. His 22 seasons in the league are a record.
Even if Carter wanted to come back, it’s hard projecting him on the Hawks — or any other team for that matter — because his production fell off mightily from last season to this season.
Brandon Goodwin
Contract status: $1,701,593 fully guaranteed if on the roster after Aug. 1.
Odds he returns: 80 percent.
Analysis: The Hawks need to figure out their backup point guard situation next season, but Goodwin likely won’t find himself as the No. 2 option behind Young. That doesn’t mean he’s not deserving of a spot on the roster — and because of his minimum contract — he almost certainly will be on the team as the Hawks likely will keep three point guards.
Goodwin signed with the Hawks last offseason as a two-way player who split his time with the College Park Skyhawks at the beginning of the season. He played sparingly in the first few games he saw the floor with Atlanta, and there really wasn’t anything to take away from his performances as he normally played in garbage time. His first true impact performance was a late December game in Orlando. Young missed that game, but Goodwin came off the bench and scored 21 points in 22 minutes in a win. He was a fixture in the rotation for most of the season after that, although his role diminished after the team acquired Teague.
For a team that lacked energy several games this season, one thing that was certain was you couldn’t associate Goodwin with that description. He plays like he has something to prove every single time he gets on the floor, and it shows. He’s a tough and willing on-ball defender, even despite his lack of size (he’s shorter than Young). But he doesn’t offer much as far as offensive efficiency goes. He shot below 50 percent from 2-point range and below 30 percent from 3.
But Goodwin is a serviceable third point guard who’s loved by the locker room and coaches, and he’s definitely deserving of being an end-of-bench player for the Hawks next season.
The Hawks only have eight players under guaranteed contracts for next season, which doesn’t include the possibility of adding a first-round draft pick. Atlanta has seven players who might enter free agency when it begins this offseason.
With the playoffs being the goal for the Hawks next season, general manager Travis Schlenk will have to build the roster with better complementary pieces around the young core than the team had the past few seasons. That likely will lead to more roster overhaul as the Hawks look to build a contender in the Eastern Conference.
Because Atlanta likely won’t be contending for a championship next season, it makes sense for Schlenk to try to sign players this offseason to shorter-term contracts, if possible, to keep as much future flexibility as he can. And because of the $49 million in cap space the Hawks are projected to currently have, Schlenk can offer balloon-type of deals for one or two years.
Schlenk does have decisions to make with the potential free agents the Hawks currently have before we think about what players they might add, and that’s the basis for this story.
In case you missed our first free agency preview, we broke down the mid-20s-and-younger free agents who make sense for the Hawks to target. So let’s predict who might return to the Hawks next season and who might not.
Note: All contract statuses are listed for after the end of this season.
Jeff Teague
Contract status: Unrestricted free agent.
Odds he returns: 50 percent.
Analysis: When Teague, along with Treveon Graham, was acquired from Minnesota for Allen Crabbe, Schlenk said he was planning on using the second half of the season as a dress rehearsal to see if Teague was worthwhile to bring back on a new deal when his contract expired at the end of this season. Teague only played in 25 games before the indefinite suspension of the season came down, and it might not be enough for the Hawks to decide to make him Trae Young’s backup.
“I think Jeff struggled getting comfortable in the role he was in here,” Schlenk said last month. “Even though he came off the bench in Minnesota, he was really still getting 30 minutes a night. Here, depending on matchups and injuries and foul trouble, it could have been 15 minutes or 25 minutes. He even said to me that, ‘I feel like a rookie out here. I’m playing nervous.’ I don’t know if we ever saw the real Jeff Teague. He’s still extremely explosive with the ball and has the ability to be a really good defender. I think he was still trying to feel out the situation. I don’t think we saw what Jeff Teague has left in those 25 games that he was here with us. He’s going to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and obviously backup point guard is going to be a position (of need) for us. And we’ll have that dialogue with he and his agent at the proper time.”
Teague looked like he was starting to get more comfortable in those final few games, and he certainly was an upgrade over what the Hawks were dealing with at backup point guard before his arrival. The Hawks scored 110.5 points per 100 possessions with Teague on the floor — a middle of the road offense — but Atlanta still has to figure out what it wants to do behind Young.
Teague made $19 million this season and won’t ever see a dollar figure that high for the rest of his career, but he still has some value especially if he can be had for a dollar amount around $4-6 million annually for two seasons.
Even if he doesn’t come back, the Hawks essentially got a free look at Teague because there was no cash or draft capital they parted with when they sent Crabbe to Minnesota.
DeAndre’ Bembry
Contract status: Restricted free agent if offered a qualifying offer of $7,811,946.
Odds he returns: Five percent.
Analysis: Bembry’s future with the organization seemed in jeopardy before this season even began as the Hawks drafted two wings who would receive more minutes than him and traded for Crabbe, whose shooting was going to be needed for the team’s second unit (as it turned out, Crabbe’s 3-point shooting nosedived this season). Because of injuries and other roster limitations, Bembry saw significant minutes to start the season, but a few injuries he sustained and the importance of growing the younger players caused his role to decrease.
The problem with Bembry is he’s a combo guard who can’t shoot, and he’s not elite enough defensively to not be a liability on the floor. Even with his playmaking ability with the ball in his hands, Bembry has one of the highest turnover rates for all guards across the league. Bembry has the ability to attack the rim to make up for his lack of shooting, but he only made 58 percent of his attempts, which is below league average for guards.
Bembry just doesn’t fit what the Hawks need anymore so it’s hard to envision much of a scenario of him coming back next season, especially knowing they want more shooters who can play on the wing.
Skal Labissiere
Contract status: Restricted free agent if offered a qualifying offer of $7,016,541.
Odds he returns: 60 percent.
Analysis: Labissiere was acquired from Portland, along with $2 million, at the trade deadline for a 2024 top-55 protected pick. In other words, the Hawks received Labissiere for free from the Blazers as they were looking to stay under the tax.
He didn’t play at all for Atlanta as he rehabbed from a knee injury, but Labissiere is a player Schlenk has had interest in since he was an assistant general manager for Golden State.
“Skal’s a guy that I actually tried to acquire a couple other times, even back in Golden State,” Schlenk said at Labissiere’s introductory news conference. “He’s got a really good skill set, he can shoot the ball out to the midrange. We’ll continue to work to stretch that out.”
Labissiere was very effective in the midrange for Portland in 33 games this season. He made 54 percent of his midrange attempts, which ranked in the 96th percentile for all big men. He also has been a positive defender in his four years in the league. The main problem he has had has been his inability to stay healthy.
It’s hard envisioning Labissiere receiving his qualifying offer because he’s unlikely to get that kind of money on the open market. The Hawks likely would renounce his rights and sign him with cap space if they do bring him back. My guess is he would get a minimum salary or slightly above it. Because of his potential upside, he’s worth taking a chance on.
Damian Jones
Contract status: Restricted free agent if offered a qualifying offer of $6,915,171.
Odds he returns: Zero percent.
Analysis: The Hawks took a chance on Jones, who hadn’t played much in his three seasons with Golden State due to having torn both of his pectoral muscles and because the depth chart didn’t allow him the opportunity to see much playing time when he was healthy. He only played in 42 games in his three seasons with the Warriors before the Hawks traded for him as part of the Omari Spellman deal.
Schlenk envisioned Jones being a lob threat for Young in the pick-and-roll, which he was, but that’s almost the entire extent of what Jones can offer any NBA team. He made 74 percent of his attempts at the rim, one of the best marks in the league, but he can’t finish anywhere else on the floor and offers no playmaking ability on offense. The Hawks, collectively, were a horror show defensively but were somehow seven points better with him off the floor than they were when he played. The lineup that featured Jones the most: Young, Cam Reddish, De’Andre Hunter, Jabari Parker and Jones had an efficiency differential of negative-26.1 points, which was one of the worst lineups across the NBA.
Because the Hawks had arguably the worst center rotation in the league, Jones had a bigger role than he probably should have had. He ended up starting 27 games this season, which is astounding to think about.
Because the Hawks acquired Clint Capela and Dewayne Dedmon plus have Bruno Fernando and John Collins to also play center minutes if needed, there’s no chance Jones will be back with Atlanta next season.
I’ve been called a Jones hater before, but let me be clear, he’s one of the nicest guys in the league, and I genuinely hope he finds a role for himself elsewhere.
Treveon Graham
Contract status: Unrestricted free agent.
Odds he returns: 10 percent.
Analysis: Graham only played in 22 games for the Hawks, and his time with Atlanta this season is hard to judge because of how sparingly he played. He received more than 10 minutes of action in 12 of the 22 games, with several of those games being blowouts. He didn’t post impactful box score numbers — 3.3 points, 2.2 rebounds, 0.7 assists in 12 minutes per game. He shot 37 percent from the floor and 35 percent from 3, but he only took 37 attempts from the perimeter.
In the final few games before the season went on a hiatus, he actually showed some defensive versatility with guarding wings and forwards and was one of the best Hawks on that end of the floor. The Hawks need more quality defenders on their roster, and Graham likely won’t cost much money to retain if they want to keep him to round out the end of their roster. The problem with keeping Graham is he’s not a big enough threat on offense because of his lack of shooting and playmaking. He can’t get many minutes because opposing teams don’t have to pay much attention to him on offense.
His value for teams across the league would be much higher than what it is now if he could end up becoming an average or even close-to-average level shooter because he’s a fine defender. But if not, he’s nothing more than a player who can spot-fill gaps.
Vince Carter
Contract status: Unrestricted free agent.
Odds he returns: Zero percent.
Analysis: Carter was included in this list because he technically is a free agent this offseason, but he already has expressed that this is his final season in the NBA. His 22 seasons in the league are a record.
Even if Carter wanted to come back, it’s hard projecting him on the Hawks — or any other team for that matter — because his production fell off mightily from last season to this season.
Brandon Goodwin
Contract status: $1,701,593 fully guaranteed if on the roster after Aug. 1.
Odds he returns: 80 percent.
Analysis: The Hawks need to figure out their backup point guard situation next season, but Goodwin likely won’t find himself as the No. 2 option behind Young. That doesn’t mean he’s not deserving of a spot on the roster — and because of his minimum contract — he almost certainly will be on the team as the Hawks likely will keep three point guards.
Goodwin signed with the Hawks last offseason as a two-way player who split his time with the College Park Skyhawks at the beginning of the season. He played sparingly in the first few games he saw the floor with Atlanta, and there really wasn’t anything to take away from his performances as he normally played in garbage time. His first true impact performance was a late December game in Orlando. Young missed that game, but Goodwin came off the bench and scored 21 points in 22 minutes in a win. He was a fixture in the rotation for most of the season after that, although his role diminished after the team acquired Teague.
For a team that lacked energy several games this season, one thing that was certain was you couldn’t associate Goodwin with that description. He plays like he has something to prove every single time he gets on the floor, and it shows. He’s a tough and willing on-ball defender, even despite his lack of size (he’s shorter than Young). But he doesn’t offer much as far as offensive efficiency goes. He shot below 50 percent from 2-point range and below 30 percent from 3.
But Goodwin is a serviceable third point guard who’s loved by the locker room and coaches, and he’s definitely deserving of being an end-of-bench player for the Hawks next season.
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