The Hawks are accommodating another minor salary dump, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that the Trail Blazers are sending big man Skal Labissiere and cash to Atlanta. The Hawks will also receive $1.9M in cash from Portland to take Labissiere off its hands, John Hollinger of The Athletic tweets.
The Blazers will receive token consideration from Atlanta to legally execute the deal, likely a top-55 protected second round pick, Hollinger adds.
Atlanta opened up two roster spots this week. The Hawks shipped out Alex Len and Jabari Parker to Sacramento while agreeing to reacquire center Dewayne Dedmon and also waived Nene after acquiring the veteran big man from Houston as part of a four-team deal.
Labissiere has appeared in 33 games with Portland this season, averaging 5.8 PPG and 5.1 RPG in 17.2 MPG. He hasn’t played since Dec. 28 due to a left knee articular cartilage lesion, but the Hawks plan to keep the 23-year-old power forward, according to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The deal will shave $3.8M off Portland’s luxury tax bill, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets. The tax bill is now down to $5.9M while also opening up a roster spot, Marks adds.
The Hawks agreed to a similar acquisition with the Clippers on Tuesday involving guard Derrick Walton Jr. Atlanta essentially rented out cap space to execute these types of moves before making the Dedmon trade official.
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