Atlanta Hawks: 3 takeaways from the 2018 offseason
1. The Hawks’ future is already here
The biggest offseason goal for the Atlanta Hawks was retooling their backcourt, specifically at the point guard position. Dennis Schroder wasn’t shy about wanting to leave Atlanta last year and the Hawks finally made that a reality.
But a lot of pieces needed to fall into place first before the trade could happen. The Hawks made a surprising splash in the 2018 NBA Draft by passing on Luka Doncic and taking Trae Young. While this move will be debated all season and has its positives and negatives, the Hawks made sure they invested in a quick replacement in the event they would find a suitor for Schroder.
Atlanta then brought in a mentor for Young thanks to a trade with the Brooklyn Nets for Jeremy Lin. Lin will provide depth and leadership to a very young team and should help Trae Young adapt to the NBA.
Young is already an exciting player, as he showed in Summer League, and he’ll make fans quickly forget about Schroder.
The Hawks drafted Kevin Huerter and Omari Spellman in the first round as well, but Trae Young will be the main attraction for Atlanta to put more people in the seats of the Phillips Arena.
Next. 2018 NBA free agency tracker - Grades for every deal so far. dark
The Hawks had a lot of cap space entering the offseason and they should gain a lot of that room back again when Carmelo Anthony officially clears waivers, allowing them to be players in free agency again next summer. They also have the potential of three first round draft picks again in 2019. All in all, the future is already here for the Atlanta Hawks.