NBA insider offers interesting take on Hawks extension candidates Trae Young and Kristaps Porzingis

It feels like the Hawks offseason is all but complete, with only a couple of things left to do — weigh possible extensions for Trae Young and Kristaps Porzingis.

Everyone expects Atlanta to give Trae Young another max contract extension while letting Porzingis play out his expiring deal. But John Hollinger of The Athletic presented a different angle that could be more beneficial to the organization.

“Arguably, the trickier of the two is Porziņģis, whose deal for $31 million expires next summer. He turns 30 in August and hasn’t played more than 66 games in a season since his rookie year.  The good news for Atlanta is that it can do a bit of a trial run before it commits, as Porziņģis is eligible to be extended in-season.”

Allowing Porzingis and Young to play together before extending the former is a pleasant surprise. The Hawks know the injury risk, but they don’t know what the pair will look like on the court. Knowing that before extending Porzingis is extremely valuable.

“There seems to be a solid resolution here that would keep Atlanta’s flexibility: a new deal with 5 percent raises that would keep Porziņģis trade-eligible,” Hollinger continues. “Extending him for two years and $67 million would more or less be in line with his market value without stunting any of Atlanta’s deal-making options.

Beyond that is probably a devil-in-the-details situation. A third-year team option? A partial guarantee on a third year? What if Porziņģis wants a player option in there? But going out two years on Porziņģis would line him up with the end date on Zaccharie Risacher’s rookie contract. It also guarantees that the Hawks wouldn’t have more than a two-year window of expensiveness even if their 2026-27 and 2027-28 cap numbers surge.”

If the Hawks could extend Kristaps Porzingis for two years and less than $70 million total, it would enable them to have a legitimate runway at a playoff run in the short term without sacrificing any long-term flexibility. With Young, Hollinger seems to think there’s a path forward where the Hawks don’t have to give him the max contract.

“I don’t think paying Young his max extension is realistic, especially given his limited trade value at that price (something the Hawks likely found out before they dealt Dejounte Murray two years ago), but the compromise number probably involves that $49 million in 2026-27 salary.

One play might be to have Young opt in to that salary, and then bump up that number to his max of $54.6 million in 2027-28, but only on a two-year extension that has no raise in 2028-29 but contains a player option. (The total would be reported as three years and $155 million.)

That would allow both team and player to pivot to whatever comes next in 2028 after the two-year window I referenced above, and Young could hit the market as a 10-year vet eligible for 35 percent of the max. Going any longer, via an expensive 2029-30 season when Young would be 31, probably isn’t advisable unless it’s with a partial or conditional guarantee and no player option.”

Trae Young has all the power here. I really don’t see the Hawks being able to convince him to take anything less than the max contract he’s in line to sign, but if there’s a world where he does consider something smaller, it would be another sign of the franchise inching closer to the best era in franchise history. It would be a team with young talent, veteran stars on team-friendly deals, and a potential top 5 draft pick in next year’s draft.