Atlanta’s February swing for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield is starting to look less like a coup and more like a reset.
Kuminga’s free agency is over now, and while Atlanta wasn’t the first team tied to him after his team option was declined, Minnesota gained steam over the last couple of weeks as a landing spot. The Wolves couldn’t match the money or the contract length he reportedly wanted, but he’ll get a chance to start for a team that believes it can contend for an NBA championship. That leaves Hield as the only player still around from the original deal that brought Kuminga to Atlanta.
That trade, made before the February deadline, sent Kristaps Porzingis to Golden State in exchange for Kuminga and Hield. At the time, it was the kind of move that made immediate sense on paper: Atlanta moved off a player who couldn’t stay available and brought back a younger wing who might help right away and maybe grow into something more.
Porzingis was productive when he played for the Hawks, but the problem was simple - he barely played. From the start of the season through the deadline, he appeared in only 17 games for Atlanta. Kuminga, by contrast, got 16 regular-season games after the All-Star break, plus six playoff games against the Knicks.
Atlanta president of basketball operations Onsi Saleh laid out the appeal after the trade, saying:
"The rim pressure that he puts on, he's a phenomenal athlete, he's a good rebounder, I think in transition he could be absolutely phenomenal, so and he adds size that you know, the wing position if we ever need to, you know add another defender to guard one of these bigger wings in the league so I'm really excited about Jonathan."
Kuminga delivered a solid statistical run in those 16 regular-season games, averaging 12.3 PPG and 5.3 RPG while shooting 48% from the field and 35% from three. In the Knicks series, he posted 13.7 PPG and 3.3 RPG on 48% shooting and 21% from deep.
The first few games after the trade made it easy to think Atlanta had found the steal of the deadline. Kuminga exploded for 27 points on 9-12 shooting in his debut against the Wizards, then added 17 points and 20 points in his next two outings. After being stuck on the bench in Golden State, he looked like a player Atlanta had unlocked.
But the fit never came with a guarantee. His pairing with Hawks star Jalen Johnson was awkward, and his three-point shooting didn’t always smooth things out. At times, his ball-stopping on offense worked against what Atlanta wanted to do.
That uncertainty carried into the offseason. The Hawks had a few paths with Kuminga: trade him on his expiring salary, pick up his $24.3 million option and keep him or move him later, or decline the option and work out something new. Atlanta choosing to decline the option and let him reach unrestricted free agency was a surprise, though not a shock.
A sign-and-trade could have brought something back, but the return was never likely to be major. That’s part of why the reaction has been so mixed: it’s fair to ask why Atlanta made the deal if it wasn’t planning to keep him, especially with the cheap number Minnesota ended up getting him at.
Still, Porzingis wasn’t healthy enough to be a true long-term answer for Atlanta. He was too unavailable to be an impact piece, and he wasn’t going to be part of the Hawks’ future anyway.
On the other side, Porzingis gave Golden State a useful stretch, playing 15 games and averaging 16.1 PPG and 5.3 RPG while shooting 43.3% from the field and 31.1% from three. He re-signed with the Warriors, and Kuminga is now heading to Minnesota, where he’ll try to take another step.
For now, the trade feels like a wash unless Porzingis puts together a huge season and Kuminga climbs to another level with Minnesota. Golden State still has a difficult road to the playoffs even if Kuminga stays healthy, and Atlanta didn’t expose itself to much risk in the first place.
It wasn’t a trade that changed everything. It wasn’t a disaster, either.
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