The Atlanta Hawks are having a pretty terrible season. They’re 7-27 right now and are the worst team in the NBA by record.
Just how bad are things? They last won a game on December 8th — it’s almost been a calendar month since then. It gets worse. Three of their seven wins came within the first two weeks of the season. On November 5th after beating the Spurs they were 3-3. They’re 4-24 since.
Their shining light of hope has been Trae Young, who is just one of two players in NBA history to average at least 28 points and eight assists while shooting 36 percent from three.
The other was James Harden two seasons ago when he won MVP. They’ve got a special one in Atlanta. Yet, that hasn’t translated to anything more than a wasted season.
The Hawks know that and they want to fix it. Apparently, they believe the solution might be trading for Andre Drummond. The Pistons and Hawks are in trade talks centered around their All-Star center, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Detroit and Atlanta have been engaged in talks on a trade centered on Andre Drummond, league sources tell ESPN. No deal imminent, but Detroit is talking to Hawks and several other teams on Drummond, sources said.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 3, 2020
A trade isn’t imminent, but Drummond would certainly fill a huge void for the Hawks at that position. But, at this point in the season, they should turn away. The Hawks don’t need Andre Drummond right now.
The Hawks are in “The Process” right now
No, they aren’t going through an overt Sam Hinkie tank job — they actually planned on competing this year, which is why a move like this is even in the cards.
But reality is reality. And the Hawks’ current reality is that they’re far and away the worst team in the NBA right now at 20 games under .500. If they kept playing at the pace they are currently, they’d be guaranteed no worse than a top five pick in next year’s draft.
The Hawks are right on pace with where they’re supposed to be. They found a transcendent talent in his second year with Trae Young and John Collins meshes well with him.
The rest of their roster is stacked with players that are either passed their prime or have no idea what they’re doing. There’s not much in between. They aren’t built to win at all.
Drummond isn’t going to change that — especially not this year. They’re already 20 games under .500. If they fight their way back to being the sixth worst team in the NBA instead of the worst team in the NBA, they’d be putting themselves in a much worse position.
The timeline for Drummond just doesn’t add up
Part of why the Hawks are in such a good position despite their record is that they don’t have big money committed to the bulk of the roster moving forward, and they have an extremely young and talented core.
Trae Young is just 21 years old. John Collins is only 22 years old. Whatever pick they’ll get next season will be between 19 and 21 years old — most likely on the younger side. There’s no reason to insert a 26-year-old Andre Drummond into that picture quite yet.
Drummond is searching for his third NBA contract and, with the numbers he’s putting up this season, it’ll probably be a max deal. If the Hawks traded for him, they’d be looking at dishing out a 5-year, $190 million deal.
The Hawks could pay him that. As it stands, they only have $33,369,003 in committed cap space for next season and that number shrinks every year after. They’ve got the cap flexibility next year.
But after that, it’s time for Collins to get paid. Then, after that, it’s time for Young to get paid. Next thing you know, you’re capped out with a team that might be winning 48 games or so for the next five years depending on what’s around them. That’s not a great place to be in.
The Hawks need to just chill. Losing sucks — we get it. But putting a rush job on a rebuild typically isn’t the wisest. You could end up like the Mavericks this year after the Porzingis deal and be pretty fun. But you could also end up like the Timberwolves after the Jimmy Butler deal and be completely miserable.
It’s best to just keep playing the cards you’ve been dealt instead of trying to fix the hand. If they want Drummond that bad, they can pick him up in free agency on a cheaper deal. But giving up assets for a contract that’ll be massive in a few months isn’t where it’s at.
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