The Hawks made moves to get better ahead of Wednesday night’s first round of the NBA draft.
After negotiating a three-team deal with the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets, the Hawks will add veteran center Kristaps Porzingis to their frontcourt.
The trade, which can’t be finalized until July 6, included Terance Mann and this year’s first-round pick (No. 22), going to the Nets, while Georges Niang, as well as a 2031 second-round pick via the Cavaliers, will go to the Celtics.
Tuesday’s trade positions the Hawks as a team that could crack the top six in the Eastern Conference after four consecutive appearances in the NBA’s Play-In Tournament, all while putting up a minimal amount of risk.
In moving on from Mann and Niang, the Hawks acquired Porzingis’ $30 million contract, all while not touching the trade exception created in last season’s Dejounte Murray trade. Plus, the Hawks are $30 million below the luxury-tax line, though general manager Onsi Saleh said he has the authority to dip into the luxury tax.
The Hawks currently have 10 players under contract and are projected to have $159 million in salary. That does not include the salary of the Hawks’ first-round pick in this year’s draft.
But the Hawks still have the flexibility to add another difference-maker to the roster.
Plus, Porzingis is under contract only for next season. So, the Hawks won’t be tied to the 29-year-old long-term, unless they opt to extend him later.
Porzingis, who averaged 19.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists last season with the Celtics, played a key role in Boston’s championship run in 2024. Though Porzingis missed much of the playoffs because of injuries, his return to the Celtics lineup in the first two games of the NBA Finals helped them take the first two games of the series.
The Hawks get a 7-foot-2 center who can space the floor and bolster the size surrounding the team’s All-Star guard, Trae Young. Porzingis also provides the Hawks with plenty of versatility in terms of the lineups they can run.
The Hawks could start Porzingis alongside Young, Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu. In that lineup, Porzingis would play power forward, while Johnson moves to small forward and Okongwu remains as the team’s starting center.
That means that last year’s top overall pick, Zaccharie Risacher, would come off the bench.
Of course, the Hawks could keep Risacher among the starting five and opt to have Porzingis or Okongwu as the sixth man.
Everything, though, remains in flux until the Hawks finalize their roster when they open training camp in October.
A breakdown of where the Hawks stand with their roster:
Under contract
Dominick Barlow (club option)
Kobe Bufkin
Dyson Daniels
Mouhamed Gueye (non-guaranteed)
Jalen Johnson
Vit Krejci (non-guaranteed)
Onyeka Okongwu
Kristaps Porzingis (trade pending)
Zaccharie Risacher
Trae Young
2025 first-round pick
Potential free agent
Caris LeVert
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