This season for the Hawks has not played out exactly the way they expected when the season began. They have been playing better as of late, though, and that has left the front office feeling flexible ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.
With two-thirds of the season behind them, the Hawks sit one game below .500 after losing three of their five games on the road. They have gone 8-7 over their past 15 games, which has shown some signs of growth following the shift in the front office.
Hawks general manager Landry Fields told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday that they’re seeing the good firstfruits of their new operating system.
“This new operating system, where the communication, the setting expectations with players, and clearly defining what it is that we’re looking for, and then to their credit them responding to that and showing a difference in games is all really positive,” Fields said in a phone interview.
Though the Hawks’ record over the past month and a half has given them an indication of where they are heading into Thursday, that does not mean a deal is not imminent.
“We’re weighing all of our options,” Fields said. “If there’s something that makes sense for our group, we’re going to do that.”
As of now, the Hawks have several players on their roster who could be attractive to other teams. John Collins has continued to feature prominently in trade rumors, while several teams reportedly have inquired about Bogdan Bogdanovic.
When asked specifically about Bogdanovic, Fields said that the sharpshooter is valuable to the Hawks.
“Bogi’s valuable to us, and his elite skill of shooting is valuable to us,” Fields said. “And it’s not just something that we noticed, other teams notice that, too. So of course, they make calls, and they’re trying to upgrade their own shooting and where they’re at. And Bogi is a good player, and so that’s something where, yeah, there’s teams that call all the time, but we placed a lot of value on Bogi.”
Bogdanovic is a career 38% shooter on 3-point shots, and through 30 games this season, he has made 37.7% of his 3-point attempts. In the past five games alone, he has made 44.1% of his tries on 6.8 attempts per game.
In addition to that, Bogdanovic’s contract is friendlier to teams looking to make a quick upgrade to their roster. Bogdanovic could become an unrestricted free agent as early as this summer, should he decide to opt out of his $18 million player option.
While the 30-year-old wing has proved how valuable he is to the Hawks as their best shooter, like the rest of his teammates, he is not untouchable.
“As far as anybody (being) untouchable, it’s like, you never say never, right?” Fields said. “As you know, obviously, some guys, or you know, all guys have value, add value all over the place. So you’re always weighing that. But it’s a fluid market today, right now, and we’ll see what gets done before the deadline.”
Other teams have begun shifting their chips toward the center of the table.
On Sunday, the Mavericks sent Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2029 first-round pick and two second-rounders in 2027 and 2029 to the Nets for Kyrie Irving, as well as Markieff Morris.
While that may not have totally shifted things for the Hawks, it still caused ripple effects throughout the NBA. Fields said that the Hawks looked at what could make sense on their end in the attempt to acquire Irving. As the Hawks move forward, Fields reiterated that they don’t feel any pressure to make any deals.
“I would reiterate that we have implemented more expectations, more collaboration, communicating in ways that we haven’t done before,” he said. “And we’re seeing really good firstfruits of that. And so over time, we hope that’s going to produce more and more for our group. And we feel confident in that.”
The Hawks know, though, that if they want to improve their roster before the postseason, now is the time to do so.
“It’s tough to say, do we make a splash (or) do we stand pat right now, you know, both options are on the table because we feel good about where we’re at,” Fields said. “We’re seeing the progress, but we also know that this is a time for us to continue to add to our group.”
About the Author
