At the NBA trade deadline, the Hawks tried to obtain a top-tier player such as the Pacers’ Paul George or the Bulls’ Jimmy Butler. They came up empty.
According to Hawks coach and president of basketball operations Mike Budenholzer, the team was not close to such an acquisition.
The Hawks were in trade discussions right up until the 3 p.m. deadline Thursday with “lots of big deals” being discussed, with George and Butler as targets to some extent, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Budenholzer was asked Friday whether the Hawks were close to a deal with a big-name player.
“No, I wouldn’t categorize anything as something close,” Budenholzer said. “But I would say unequivocally we were as aggressive as we could be, as active as we could be. When you do your work and your research and you think there might be a possibility, whether it be for some of the bigger names, we feel like we’ve collected a great group of draft picks where we could be aggressive and put ourselves in that game — including other moves and other opportunities.
“I think (general manager) Wes Wilcox and his group did a great job. Tony Ressler, as an owner, wants us to be aggressive and put ourselves in a position to be as good as we can be.”
The Hawks’ deadline moves ended up being the acquisition of Ersan Ilyasova from the 76ers for Tiago Splitter and a heavily protected second-round pick from the Suns for Mike Scott and other considerations.
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