Atlanta Hawks mailbag: DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade, Los Angeles Lakers pick, mid-level exception

Atlanta Hawks mailbag: DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade, Los Angeles Lakers pick, mid-level exception

on today’s show it remains pretty quiet around the Atlanta Hawks as July continues but we’ll get into your mailbag questions on a Tuesday night edition of Lon Hawks podcast we’ll get into demard de rosan stuff mid-level exception talk the summer league head coach and much more all that is coming up you are locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day Hello friends welcome to episode 1756 of the L on Hawks podcast I am your host Brad Roland coming to you on a Tuesday evening deep into the night here into Wednesday it is early July still and today’s podcast brought to by the folks at the game time app download the game time app right now create an account and use promo code lock on NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply I also want to encourage you at the top of the podcast make sure your first listen each and every day here at Lon Hawks please go ahead and subscri subscribe to this podcast and uh check us out each and every day first to listen it’s a great place to kind of start your day with the Atlanta Hawks and you can find us on Apple podcasts and Spotify overcast if you are watching on YouTube first of all thank you for being here second of all please like the episode also subscribe on that podcast platform I’d very much appreciate it to help us grow the podcast it has been pretty quiet in Hawks land in recent days of course there was a blockbuster trade only a few days ago so relative quiet compared to some parts of the off season for sure but it’s Tuesday evening July 2nd heading in July 3rd is I’m recording this podcast and nothing has happened since Friday night and I know folks are starting to get itchy with regard to stuff that has to happen on this Hawks roster as a plug I did a show on Sunday night I did a show on Monday night it’s been very busy as it always is in this in this podcast space plus all the jontay Murray coverage all the draft coverage around ree uh subscribe to the podcast for sure and listen to previous episodes but if you’re caught up today’s podcast is most lik going to be a little bit of a shorter episode because I’m kind of in between you’re trying to figure out what’s going on on I want to oversell all that stuff too I have guests lined up but I don’t want to have them on yet Etc but I have some mailbag questions to get to on today’s podcast and a little bit of a shorter episode as a result of that but we’ll just Dive Right In to your mailbag questions by the way if you want to send questions in ever you can go ahead and do that on Twitter SLX um the the show account is loon Hawks I am at BTR Rolland also you can email questions in if you’d like to Lan Hawks atgmailcom and if you want to leave a fstar review on Apple there’s also a place there to leave a leave a question we can get to those as well I won’t get to all of them ever but I I do have a nice stockpile but always looking for more questions especially as the autis continues especially when we get to like August and September when there isn’t much going on around the NBA all right question one comes from Graham who says could the Hawks sign dear D rozan he’s number two behind LeBron on a couple of lists of for agents that I see are still available also what about Zack LaVine so there was a lot of D rozan talk today on Twitter if you were on that platform or if you’re not I’ll tell you there was a lot of D rozan talk I’ll say this there was not a report of of any kind publicly about D rozan and the Hawks it’s more like hypotheticals that people are talking about here’s the thing there are not very many guys who are prominent names who are still free agents and that’s probably a lot of what this is but I got a lot of questions about D Roan couple about him in particular a couple more about players that won’t sign for the mid- level for the Hawks that I talked about on yesterday’s show lots of mid-level talk about free agents and focus on the ones that could be available for the midlevel or below but didn’t name d rozan didn’t name miles Bridges didn’t name LeBron for instance and part of that is that the biggest weapon the Hawks have to realist realistically sign a free agent is the mid-level and no one thinks that the Hawks are going to get someone like d rozen or miles Bridges with the mid-level But to answer the question plainly yes the Hawks could acquire someone like d rozen or D rozan in particular but it would have to be a sign and trade almost certainly because the Hawks don’t have any real pathway that’s logical to cap space it really hard to do that so yes the sign trade would work for the Hawks and the Bulls they’d be hard CA then but the Hawks wouldn’t probably want to want to be harda they wouldn’t mind being harda and the Bulls it seems like are kind of out of the Demar business at this point in time so the asking price could be relatively low for him at the time of this podast I know I said it before but just to make this very very clear there are really only two free agents available who are I would say likely to get more than mid-level in year one and that is D rozan and Miles Bridges I’d be fairly surprised if mbridge was an option for the Hawks I won’t say it’s impossible but I’d be surprised and the question was about D rozan anyway we want to note that yes LeBron is technically available he has not agreed to his contracts but everyone kind of assumes and knows he’s going back to the Lakers so beyond that everybody else is kind of midlevel or lower that’s still available in free agency right now but the Hawks can’t just offer dear whatever he wants they have to actually do a signning trade here they don’t have cat space all that stuff is uh you know CBA important of note the Hawks do have matching salary that could send out to Chicago in the form of capella or hunter or who knows what the Bulls might want but it is at least feasible from that standpoint I’d mentioned this that it would matter a lot to me if I’m the Hawks what a deal looks like because you’re not training for a player who has a contract you are negotiating with d r roen on a contract that you were G to pay him and then you have to go to the Bulls and also do a do a trade so what you don’t want to do this is pretty obvious but what you don’t want to do is pay d rozan a bunch of money that’s probably too much money and then have to trade for it the bull I don’t think it’s going to be a huge asking price because they’re going to probably let him go but they’re going to want something of value whether it’s draft compensation or a young player whatever or whatever or a guy in maybe Hunter that they like who knows um but D rozan is gonna be 35 pretty soon he’s really good that’s worth noting not a young guy by any means and the Hawks have these I will call them self-inflicted Financial constraints where the entire league is kind of roolling their eyes and the Hawks paying the tax ever at this point in time eventually I think that will probably change but who knows when it’s going to be not this year probably so they’re navigating that and that’s why it matters what the money side looks like and one note here is that D rozan does not really have a huge Market that I can see right now in free agency the Bulls are again seemingly out of this when it comes to anything um and then like there are sence trade teams like the Lakers maybe or the Clippers maybe Etc but most of those other teams would be mle or lower so his Market’s a little bit strain which is why the Hawks might even come up here because they’re not like a logical team for dear in some ways but they could buy low of sorts here um there are basketball questions with dear rozan in Atlanta I’m not going to poo poo it but the lack of perimeter shooting for dear might be a challenge in Atlanta you would want more of a bomber in that role especially because the Hawks still have Jaylen Johnson who’s an okay shooter but isn’t a great one and a center who’s not a knockdown guy either so having those three guys together not the best shooting wise also Demar is just an okay Defender um if that he’s not great at all defensively again not awful he has size Etc but something worth noting there I would say also on the other side of things on the posit side he would give them the obvious number two shot creator that they don’t have right now unless jayen steps up in that role and dear is still a Flatout Bucky he’s still a really good player despite being 35 years old pretty soon he’s still very good I know why glad Glenn Willis talked about this a little bit on Twitter today went through some stats and some video on dear and how it might work and how actually I think Glenn made a pretty good case for that the shooting is again a question but I think he can kind of attack seams and all this stuff we’ll do more of a scout if we need to later on but I think it could work with the Hawks and again it would matter a lot to me what the contract might look like what was going out as well whether it’s like if it’s just capella or if it’s just Hunter and a little bit of sweetener then yeah that’s interesting to me if the contract is not absorbant for d roen m because again he is 35 years old Etc so there’s the answer on tomorrow it’s kind of short they could do it it would take a sign and trade and I haven’t heard that it’s gonna happen but certainly haven’t heard it ruled out either so there you go on that as of Tuesday night um quickly on the ve this will be very fast I will get into this more if it comes up in any serious discussion that I’ve had but his contract’s probably not going to be palatable for the Hawks and I’m not saying that for me I’m saying if you look at the Hawks structure long term and again their self-inflicted cap restraints tax restraints it would be very hard for the Hawks two years from now to have Trey LaVine and jayen Johnson plus the rest of a team because Jay’s GNA get a lot of money lavine’s making like 45 million like it’s a Max contract tre’s making a Max contract like it’s hard to do that and not pay the tax so if they change their ways sure and yeah there’s a way to actually do it right now if the Hawks were to send as the salary ballast capella and Hunter that’s actually about what LaVine makes the problem is beyond this year capella is about to expire so you go from having that come off your books when jaylen’s gonna get paid to having 20 extra million on your books compared to what Hunter’s making Etc plus you get the fact that LaVine is quite good when he is healthy but he kind of a Lost season this year and uh he’s not not a great defender to say the least so offensively it would be great um please for itself but we’ll have more on that later but I think with the combination of the contract and the injury I kind of doubt it but I’m not ruling it out either and yeah in a vacuum his offense would have work very well with Trey I think it always would have defensively not so much but anyway we’ll get into that later on if we need to if there’s any Buzz at all I will bring it up again but I think that the D rozan thing’s probably more interesting because D rozan you might be able to get D rozan on a reasonable contract whereas lavine’s contract even if you lik LaVine he is obviously overpaid on his current deal and the league is certainly saying that right now the Bulls been trying to trade LaVine for about a year and a half and they just can’t do it because it’s a bad contract it’s quite long and he throwing the injuries all that stuff so good player but I wouldn’t be uh knocking down the Bulls door to get him on the contract that he has especially as the Hawks and given where they are financially all right we’ll have more coming up in a second when it go when it comes to the Lakers pick I a question about that later on in the show we’ll get into some free agent stuff that the Hawks could have done and didn’t do for instance uh the summer league coach has been named by the Hawks and then uh of course at the end of the podcast a little bit of the what’s coming up next for Atlanta but first and work our partners on today’s podcast Today’s Show is brought to you by game time and game time with an authorized ticket Marketplace of the NBA and Major League Baseball game time is also a fantastic option for basketball tickets baseball tickets Etc and it’s faster and easier with last minute deals Allin prices view stream receipts and the lowest possible price guarantee with game time that makes them a great option across the board make things easy for you as well when you’re trying to buy tickets I’ve been using game time for a long time now it’s coming handy for me at Braves games and Falcons games as well as shows and concerts across Atlanta and the country you save big when buying Last Man tickets to sports concerts comedy theater and much more they have Flash Deals when you can actually save a ton of money and save even more when you choose a section actually let them choose the tickets for you inside that section there’s also an awesome feature that I really enjoy when you actually toggle to show the total upfront with no surprise fees when you get to the check screen at the very end of the process and get a panoramic view of your seats in the app before you buy them you getting the lowest possible price guarantee as well at game time take all of the guest work out of buying tickets with the folks at the game time app download the game time app right now create an account and use promo code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create that account and R that promo code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase with Game Time download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right a question from Roy who says should we feel better as the Hawks about the Lakers pick now the when we did when the Hawks made the Murray trade a few days ago so interesting question here obviously this is very fluid everything right now is very fluid the first answer I gave about D rozan very fluid so listen to this podcast on Wednesday stuff could have changed keep that in mind but as I’m answering the question the answer is probably yes I think it’s a little bit better right now than it was then for a couple of key reasons here number one I already like the value of the pick it’s unprotected in 2025 in a pretty loaded draft it seems like people that I trust who are already more advanced on that class than I am are liking that class quite a bit both for topend talent and for depth and the Hawks were are gonna be rooting against the Lakers all season long that’s just the nature of the Beast both they kind of need the Kings to make the playoffs and the Lakers not to make the playoffs is the two broad rooting interests for the Hawks coming into the year but I think it’s a little bit better now because there was at least a chance of some big splash from LA or even a modest ad like Klay Thompson currently current value Klay Thompson that was reportedly out there but again as of Tuesday night the Lakers have been pretty quiet at this point now they still could it is still very early I know it doesn’t feel like it for Hawks fans but it’s still very early in the process for a lot of teams um but they’ve done nothing so far other than just keep Max Christie on a four-year deal which I like for them but it’s not going to change your life a ton in this next season for the Lakers by the way they’ve been also linked to Demar D rozan who the Hawks might be I I’m not even sure they’re interested but who I talked about earlier Lakers have been actually had some more reporting around that than the Hawks have so far but so they could still do some stuff for sure but they haven’t yet now the Lakers won 47 games last year which is pretty good but they won exactly one playoff game and they also had a point differential of a 42 win team last year which is like 500ish and that’s with ad and LeBron missing a total of 17 games combined which I think is objectively healthier than you would reasonably project those guys to be over 82 games now it’s not POS it’s not impossible that they would play that many games again but um not likely I don’t think um also their third best player is probably Austin Reeves at this point not exactly a hugely inspiring thing there they have Russell they have ruy hamura Jared bbil Etc not exactly a jam-packed roster Beyond ad and LeBron and also LeBron is a cyborg I will acknowledge that but he’s going to be 40 pretty soon so not a ton of like upward trajectory there at the very least um so a lot can change very clearly here it’s early July but at the moment the Lakers probably project to be like in the playin mix I would say in the west far from a guarantee that they’re actually in the playoffs nor is it a guarantee that they’re gonna be bad but I would say that there’s some upside with that pick it’s unprotected if they get in the play in or miss the playoffs something happens to LeBron that’s not a very good team probably speaking so they finished eighth in the west last year I think some teams that finished ahead of them are different now like the clippers for instance but there te like the teams that were actually behind them like the Kings and the rockets and The Grizzlies even the Spurs who could jump up a lot this year so the West is a gauntlet and that does not mean the Lakers are GNA be bad but there’s not like a great great great team on paper right now in La I would say so it’s only been a few days but I mentioned this before on the Murray trade reaction podcast on Friday night but the Pelicans value the Lakers pick in 25 2.5 more than the 17th pick this year because they had a choice a rare choice to choose one of these two picks they chose to save the one for next year so that’s kind of the good barometer of what the value is better than this year’s 17th pick in the mind of at least one team so the Lakers roster’s not better right now than it was than it was a year ago plus another year of age for LeBron and AD it could all change but as of again Tuesday night I think you feel pretty good about it I think if you’re the Hawks and I think you feel a little bit better about it than you did three or four days ago even if that’s kind of a small sample size all right a question here from Mike who says you mentioned when you were talking about free agents that some guys were off the board that would have been interesting for the Hawks is there a single player that you would have really like for the Hawks that they could have reasonably signed so the reasonably word is doing a lot of work there thank you Mike for that that’s a word that I probably would have used anyway but I’m glad you did I talked about this a little bit on Monday when it comes to like the remaining options for the Hawks and made sure to note that a lot of the guys that were making more than the mid-level they were not going to have like a hugely easy path to along the way so I focused a lot of guys that might have been available for the mle or less on purpose now my joking answer would be Delon Wright who I love unconditionally but we won’t use him as the answer for now so what I’m gonna say is these These are the guys that the Hawks could well that teams signed for the mid-level or less who also changed teams first so uh for example the reason why I’m doing this like Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins went back to OKC on really good deals but they only signed those deals because they had team options in OKC and part of them declining the team option was to give them a new cheap deal so those deals those deals look awesome but there’s a lot of context there they were actually never available to the Hawks for instance um but there are some guys that I would have liked to see the Hawks pursue that change teams this is not an order but DeAnthony mton side from the mid level Chris Paul nji Marshall drik Jones Jr Jaylen Smith Nick Batum who took very very little money from the Clippers uh even Valen chunes at a different world where the Hawks had some different Center options um also guys who stay with their own teams who might have been Gable Kelly UB Royce O’Neal Goa Bazi Max Christie Gary Harris this’s goes on and on um so those are kind of the names in this universe not a ton of sexy guys I totally get that but um if the Hawks had used part of the ml or the whole thing I would have wanted like I’ve always loved Melton for instance he would have been very high on my list no matter what it would have been a little bit lower because of the addition of Daniels plus buffkin some of his talent some of his talents are kind of overlapping but I still would have liked to sign melon he’s a really good player um I’d also say Naji Marshall is a personal favorite of mine um Jones Jr Christie although christe’s restricted so he probably wasn’t gonna get out of La I would say and then I would also acknowledge Batum like it’s a different archetype he’s older but if age and Circumstance going back to LA didn’t matter he would have gotten a lot more than he did I think going back to LA and he would have been high on my list for a short term Edition because Batum would have helped the Hawks a lot he was really good last year in Philly but there you go um so anyway I would probably say my two options in the end of guys who could have been getable for the mid level or less I would have said Melton or Marshall as my pick Melton if you want another guard Marshall if you want another Wing um yeah I would understand if someone said Derk Jones Jr or Kelly UB for their different talents Jon Jer as a Defender UB is better offensively you would say uh I really like gooi a lot but the Hawks can’t realistically spend more money on Center until they do something else like thei would have been high on my list they already have three centers it’s kind of not doable in the moment and then like there are other guys that I’d still like to see the Hawks pursue which I talked about a lot yesterday on the show but yeah I would say Milton or Marshall is who I would pick out to sign if the Hawks could have done that just in a vacuum right now and again I’ll say this again from yesterday um the Hawks are quite unlikely to use the non- tax param mid level because they have to cut money elsewhere in a trade to go ahead and use that my guy Keith Smith and spot trk tweeted this out today the Hawks currently only have because they’re actually if they use the exception they’d be in the tax right now which I’m not projecting at all in fact I’m gonna say the Hawks are not gonna pay the tax but if they did that they have the couple small exceptions by annual the mini midlevel but the non- taxpayer would require the Hawks saving some money elsewhere and then spending it not impossible but unlikely at this point in time I would say so I’d be looking a little bit lower I named guys again yesterday on on the show I w’t I won’t that that again now but there are guys who could help the Hawks not in a you know emergency podcast kind of way but in a supporting role kind of way potentially but I I still think that trades might be a better Avenue we will see in the coming days U before we get out of here on a shortened podcast the Hawks seemingly have their their summer league coach for this year it’s been reported by Lauren Williams of the AJC who I trust implicitly on this kind of stuff uh Lauren reported it’s Ronald nored coaching the summer league team for the Hawks it’s always an assistant generally speaking for the Hawks and they kind of rotate last year was Antonio Lang who was the who was the summer league head coach um usually the rest of the staff is assistant as well they kind of rotate give guys experience Etc noret is pretty young by assistant standards but he’s very highly regarded he came in a year ago he played if you’re old like me you remember him playing college basketball at Butler for Brad Stevens he was on the staff for the Nets at one point in time the Celtics at one point in time he’s a good coach that everybody seems to like so that’s I guy I’ll be talking to a lot in a couple of weeks out in Las Vegas as far as the roster is concerned people keep asking about that I’m trying to hold the summer league stuff till a little bit closer to summer league but the Hawks have not announced their roster we do know some guys that are gonna be there Ray jurich buffkin moay um yeah there’s others Dylan Windler for instance but Seth Lund’s hurt keep that in mind um we’ll see who else they add there was a couple of names that’s been out there but I will have summer league preview content I promise but we’re going to hold that hold that for a little longer because the Hawks are not going to announce their roster until at least the end of the week I heard maybe even this weekend they don’t travel to Vegas till next week so not going to be in a huge hurry on that front and then the last thing before we get out of here is basically people asking as you might expect kind of what now for the Hawks which I’m basically answering on every show right now because we’re kind in that holding pattern Zone where I’m going a little bit shorter on purpose they W you know at some point I think I’m gonna get spoiled by a transaction but here we are um a quick checklist if you missed anything previously they got V CR negotiations are ongoing sad Bay could come back still that’s that’s been a topic of sorts in recent days jayen Johnson extension negotiations are probably happening still right now and obviously the trade stuff is a little bit more high-profile I still think that a bunch of guys are available in trade headlined by the centers I would say all three of the centers wouldn’t St me if any of them got traded in the coming days including a Kong Wu although we’ll see um Hunter is obviously quite available I think basically still everyone is available to some degree with the exception of jayen and reeeer ship I don’t think tra gonna get traded but there you go same with buffkin who I think I know they like and gay who I know they like but no one’s Untouchable other than I would say Jaylen Ree and yeah if there were real rumors I’d be talking about them but honestly you can go to your favorite rumor site your favorite Insider like it’s been quite quiet around the Hawks publicly like I’ve heard some things but I it’s not like reportable information it’s kind of like second thirdhand stuff that I’m not comfortable repeating so yeah it’s it’s quite on that front a lot of League business got done on Sunday and Monday the stuff that has has kind of still to come isn’t quite as obvious even be on the Hawks there like some stalemates Happening Now trade stuff’s a little bit longer it takes a little B longer also team start to like kind of disperse for a day or two around ju around July 4th in some cases so there’s not a huge rush I know everybody wants transactions me included it’d be easier to program the show if I knew what was going to happen when but stuff will happen in the coming days I think obviously V’s going to have to get done one way or the other um I still the one of the centers will be traded Etc so stay tuned I’ll have full coverage um if we don’t get any any more transactions between between now and the end of the week we’ll start talking about some summer league stuff big picture I actually have more to do on the rookies I’m kind of pivoted away from ret and jurich even but especially R because of all the Murray stuff but obviously the number one overall picks on this is on this team so there’s plenty to talk about there um I’ll have guests on the podcast so stay tuned the hwks could sign by the way as a reminder before we get out of here for agency they could sign officially guys on July 6 they can agree to contracts now for the minimum or by annual the mid the mini mid level Etc so like if they have if there’s a guy they want they can get him they also have two-way spots available they did Issue two-way qualifying offers to Lundy and Tov but you have three spots now and they don’t have currently none of them are filled with contracts um I think that Seth’s probably going to be on one if I had to guess right now but he might be on the minimum wouldn’t stun me um V I think will be on a minimum contract or something more than that but uh they got spots there that they can use for summer league or not summer league keep it open flexibility wise etc etc so I’ll stop rambling now on a Tuesday night into Wednesday so hopefully you get something out of this podcast if news breaks I will do my best to jump in and talk about it in the coming days I’m probably gonna take the fourth off for around the fourth off unless there’s a move because I don’t know what’s going on there but I uh my promise to you unless unless I’m flying to Vegas which will definitely happen uh coming up this coming weekend but until then I’m in town and I’ll be I will be respond as fast as I can if the Hawks make a transaction follow me on Twitter if you want more information in real time at BTR Rolland follow the show on Twitter SLX lockon Hawks also follow my written work on the Hawks and the Braves at patreon.com btrr I really appreciate everyone listening the show today please subscribe to the lck on Hawks podcast anywhere you might find podcasts Apple Spotify overcast we’re also on YouTube and if you’re watching still at this point thank you for being here please like the show please subscribe on YouTube and then uh more thing here check out our sponsors at the folks at the game time app they are awesome to us as well and I really do use Game Time quite a bit including uh for trips and things like that so stay tuned we’ll have more coming up later on this week and we’ll see you all next time

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts episode No. 1756 of the Locked on Hawks podcast. The show breaks down the latest buzz around the Atlanta Hawks, taking questions on DeMar DeRozan, the Los Angeles Lakers, the 2025 NBA Draft, mid-level exception misses, Ronald Nored, and much more.

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