An NBA scout who had previously questioned the Hawks’ long-term outlook with Trae Young as the focal point told Ken Sugiura of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he appreciated the organization’s decisiveness leading up to the trade deadline, noting that the team “picked a path.”
Atlanta reshaped its roster by sending Young to Washington in exchange for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, then followed with four additional trades that brought in Jonathan Kuminga, Buddy Hield, Gabe Vincent, and Jock Landale, along with three future second-round selections.
“I think they’re going all in on chemistry over absolute talent,” the scout told Sugiura. “Trae was a better player than what they had, but not necessarily a winning player. … You either have to go all in and build around Trae or you’ve got to go all in with the young guys and start to build it together, and it looks like they’ve done that. They’ve made sure that almost everyone they’ve brought in has been a shooting piece, except for Kuminga.”
In addition to creating added salary-cap flexibility, taking a chance on former lottery pick Kuminga, and collecting extra draft assets, the Hawks have positioned themselves to continue upgrading the roster moving forward.
That process is expected to begin with Atlanta’s valuable 2026 first-round pick, which will be the more favorable selection between the Bucks’ and Pelicans’ picks.
The scout added that the franchise appears well positioned for “long-term growth” and noted that several areas of the roster could still be addressed during the offseason.
“You could argue that they could upgrade at center over (Onyeka) Okongwu or they could keep it as is and try to get an upgrade over (Zaccharie) Risacher, with, like, a big, long defensive three-and-D (wing) that kind of makes sense for their group,” the scout said. “But I think they could go either direction there. And they’ll have to rebuild a little bit of the bench in the offseason.”
