The Hawks have enough young players and future draft picks to facilitate a Ben Simmons trade, Chris Kirschner of The Athletic writes in a mailbag column. He uses the Timberwolves as an example of a team that wants Simmons, but might not have the assets to make an offer that would interest the Sixers. Kirschner suggests Cam Reddish could be appealing in that scenario, with Atlanta getting something of value for helping the deal get done.
The Hawks looked into trading Reddish around draft time, but sources tell Kirschner that no deal was ever imminent. There’s a decent chance Reddish will eventually be moved, Kirschner adds, but there’s no urgency to deal him right away. Injuries limited Reddish to 26 games last season, but he averaged 12.8 PPG when he returned for the playoff series with the Bucks.
There’s more on the Hawks, all from Kirschner:
- Atlanta didn’t receive any legitimate sign-and-trade offers for John Collins before re-signing him for five years at $125 million. Kirschner suggests that the Hawks might have been bidding against themselves by giving Collins that much, but they’re still happy to keep an important part of their starting lineup.
- The Hawks are talking to Kevin Huerter about an extension, but Kirschner doesn’t expect anything to be resolved until closer to the start of the season. He believes it’s likely that Atlanta will decide to let Huerter become a restricted free agent, just like it did with Collins, and hope to work out a new contract next summer.
- Reddish and De’Andre Hunter will both be eligible for rookie-scale extensions next offseason, which will affect the Hawks’ other financial decisions. Kirschner sees Hunter as an ideal backcourt partner for Trae Young, if he can recover from his second meniscus surgery, so he figures to be the Hawks’ priority. Danilo Gallinari has only a $5 million guarantee for 2022-23 in the final year of his contract, so Kirschner expects him to be on the trade market at some point.
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