Hawks trade De’Andre Hunter in salary dump, but get value for Bogdan Bogdanovic

LeVert and Hunter are roughly equal as players. Unlike Hunter, LeVert’s contract is set to expire at the end of this season. Hunter is owed $23.3 million next season and $24.9 million in 2026-27. Now the Cavs or some other team will pay him. Mann is a better player than Bogdanovic and will earn a slightly lower salary next season ($15.5 million). Hyland can become a restricted free agent this summer, but the Hawks might try to keep him around if they believe he fills their need for a veteran to backup point guard Trae Young.

The Hawks needed extra first-round draft picks because they still owe the Spurs their pick in 2025 and 2027. The best the Hawks could do Thursday was acquire the rights to Cleveland’s picks in 2026 and 2028, if they are more favorable. Those picks likely will be lower than the Hawks’ picks because the Cavs are constructed to be contenders through 2028. Also, the Jazz get first crack at Cleveland’s 2026 first-round pick as part of a previous trade.

Apparently, that’s the best deal the Hawks could get for Hunter. It seems I overestimated his trade value. Hunter always been a solid defender at the wing positions and, this season, Hunter reinvented himself as sharpshooting bench player. Teams vying for the NBA championship can use a player like Hunter. He’s worth more to the Cavs as a good piece for a title run than he was to the Hawks as a good bench player on a middling team.

Now, the Hawks have more flexibility to add a player who does more for a salary of more than $20 million. With Hunter’s salary off the books for next season, the Hawks have roughly $141 million in guaranteed money committed to eight players next season. After signing their picks from the draft in June, the Hawks will be about $14 million below the projected salary cap and $48 million below the luxury-tax line. They can be players in the free agent and trade markets this summer.

Hunter leaves the Hawks after never living up to his promise as the No. 4 overall pick in the 2019 draft. He’s struggled to stay healthy (300 of 461 possible career games played). He doesn’t rebound much for his size and isn’t a good passer. Hunter showed early flashes of being able to score off the bounce but never really built on that. Instead, he went on to become a very good spot-up shooter and a solid defender.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Hunter is a rotation-quality wing who likely will get another contract once his current one expires. It’s just that more was expected from him after the Hawks traded two first-round picks for the right to select Hunter in the 2019 draft. The Hawks doubled down on Hunter by signing him to a four-year, $95 million contract extension in 2022 even though he’d yet to prove he’s a consistent, good starter.

The Hawks cut their losses by trading Hunter for LeVert and Niang. LeVert can walk this summer. Niang is a very good 3-point shooter, but he’s a poor defender and doesn’t rebound much at all for a frontcourt player. But $8.2 million salary for next season is about right.

At least the Hawks got something for Bogdanovic. Knee injuries have robbed Bogdanovic of his quickness. That showed up most of all on defense for the past two seasons. This year, Bogdanovic is making a career-low 30% of his 3-point attempts. Maybe Bogdanovic still can regain his previous form. Better for the Hawks if the Clippers pay him $16 million next season to find out.

I predicted the Hawks wouldn’t get much for Bogdanovic, and they did. I thought they’d get something better for Hunter than they did. We’ll see what the Hawks do with the money they saved and the draft picks they acquired by dumping him to Cleveland.