The Atlanta Hawks have spent the offseason building something that doesn’t always grab headlines but can matter a whole lot when the games start counting: flexibility.
Since late June, Atlanta has stayed active on the trade front and kept reshaping its roster in a deliberate way. The first move came just before July, when the Hawks landed Devin Carter and Aaron Wiggins for basically pennies on the dollar. Not long after, Kingston Flemings, Zuby Ejiofor and Henri Veesaar signed their rookie deals, and that forced Atlanta to get a little creative with the way it handled its cap.
Then came the bigger jolt on July 19th. In a three-team deal, the Hawks brought in guard Lu Dort and Ryan Nembhard while sending Zaccharie Risacher to the Dallas Mavericks. Atlanta also declined Jonathan Kuminga’s team option, which made him an unrestricted free agent.
All of that movement, along with the new CJ McCollum and Jock Landale deals, has left the Hawks with a cap sheet that looks unusually balanced. No player on the roster is making more than 20% of the total salary cap, and that gives Atlanta a kind of roster versatility a lot of Eastern Conference teams simply don’t have.
That matters because plenty of Atlanta’s peers in the East are tied up by massive contracts for their top stars. Those deals can eat away at the room a front office has to work with, and recent championship teams have shown that balance and continuity often win out over a setup that puts too much of the cap in one place.
The New York Knicks, for instance, just won their first championship in 53 years largely in-part due to Jalen Brunson taking a $113 million pay cut to enable the front office to acquire pieces that complimented Mike Brown's system.
Even the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were paying a hefty price for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander when they won the 2025 NBA Championship, still kept continuity by building their roster almost solely through the NBA Draft.
Atlanta seems to be leaning into that same kind of formula. The Hawks still look like one of the more competitive teams in the East, even without a consensus superstar, and they now have the kind of structure that could let someone emerge into that role.
Whether Jalen Johnson takes another leap, or Kingston Flemings hits the ground running, or even another player entirely, there will be opportunities for everyone to eat in Atlanta this upcoming season, and it will be exciting to see who's able to capitalize.
At the very least, the Hawks have put themselves in a position that a lot of teams would love to have. Recent history has already pointed to what tends to work, and this season will show whether Atlanta really got ahead of the curve on how an NBA roster should be built.
In Other News...
Hawks Hold The Key In Jonathan Kuminga Trade Drama
Jonathan Kumingas trade market has been moving for a while, and the Hawks still sit in a pivotal spot as the Lakers work through a sign-and-trade path to get him. Clevelands attention on other players has only added another layer to the pursuit, potentially clearing more space for Los Angeles to push ahead, while the overall talks have reportedly continued to gain momentum. From Atlantas side, this is one of those situations where the framework matters just as much as the player name attached to it.
The key wrinkle is still approval, and that leaves the Hawks with real influence over how this whole thing looks when it finally comes together. There is optimism a deal could come soon, but until Atlanta signs off, the structure remains the hinge point for a transaction that has already drawn in multiple teams and could reshape the market around Kuminga. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Could See A Jonathan Kuminga Decision Very Differently
A hypothetical Jonathan Kuminga move has been framed as the kind of deal that could look very different from Atlantas side than it does on paper for Minnesota. The pitch centers on the Hawks weighing a younger, high-upside piece against the kind of roster balance and cap flexibility that often shapes offseason decisions, with the broader conversation focused on how each team would try to fit its next move into a longer-term plan.
For Atlanta, the appeal would not just be about adding help in the present, but about deciding whether a swing on Kuminga matches the way the roster is being built. The unanswered question is how the Hawks would value the return package against that upside, and whether a transaction built around player fit and future assets would be enough to make them take a different view of the same opportunity. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Suddenly Hold The Leverage In Jonathan Kuminga Bidding
Minnesotas reported interest in Jonathan Kuminga only adds another layer to what has become a crowded free-agent chase, with the Lakers and Cavaliers also in the mix. The Timberwolves make some basketball sense here, since their need for a versatile forward lines up with what Kuminga brings, but they are not operating with a lot of flexibility on the back end of any deal.
For the Hawks, the key detail is leverage. Any path for Minnesota to land Kuminga appears to run through Atlanta in a sign-and-trade, and that gives the Hawks a say in how this pursuit unfolds. The Lakers are still viewed as the most aggressive suitor, but the moving parts around Atlantas involvement are a reminder that this race is far from simple. [Read more 🡒]