Wow man what a day to be a hawks fan, is KP the best teammate Trae has had in his career? Probably, and hopefully he will be somewhat healthy next year which will allow us to be a competitive team we deserve to be in next years season. I truly believe that if we draft and use our massive exceptions well this offseason we can be the best team out east. Onsi Saleh has really made me proud here. I think there's a lot more to go through for the hawks but from the Nets and Celtics there generally isn't a whole lot to talk about. So for the final time tonight I will try to have 0 bias in making this grading and let's grade this trade!
Trade Grades Explained: https://fanspo.com/nba/s/general/p/epTyDdsSXUgNRK/my-trade-grade-rankings-explained
Hawks: A-
The joint highest grade of the offseason tying itself with the Rockets trade for Kevin Durant. I think this is a better trade than the Bane trade was for Memphis, this Is because the Hawks are moving in a winning direction as well as giving up a cheap cost for a really talented player filling a large hole in the roster. Having a pick and pop big with championship experience like Kristaps Porzingis to add to a relatively young core is huge for us and i'm extremely excited to see how Trae Young and Porzingis coincide within the Hawks offensive scheme. now Porzingis is on a year contract which is both a positive and a negative for the hawks, if porzingis doesn't play well or has an injury riddled season they can let him walk and clear a 30m hole in the salary of the team as well as that they would only be losing a late first, Xiang and a bad contract in the large scheme of things. Meanwhile, if Porzingis impresses then it will be harder to keep him and more expensive and maybe he takes an offer elsewhere. but again this is a very cheap trade meaning the Hawks are going to have limited downside in this deal no matter what and if he does play well then the Hawks got a very impactful rental which likely mean the Hawks are competitive in a weak east next year. What makes this a similar level of trade as the KD trade is simply this lack of downside as it was such a cheap move capitalising on a Celtics team that had to cut salary to stay under the tax. And while the KD move was still n underpay, he also brings a larger contract and costed them still a lot more while both plugged a similarly needed gap within the roster. And something that will go undercooked by the public of this trade is how the Hawks were able to not use their TPE for Dejounte Murray in this trade which means they have $20+ million to spend on a FA as well as the $15m NTMLE that could be used on a guy like Caris LeVert. This trade could also be used to convince Trae Young of a new contract and perhaps a cheaper one. I think this is a huge success for new Hawks GM Onsi Saleh and his new FO but what's your thoughts.
Celtics: B-
The Celtics had little to no leverage in this deal which meant they wrestled going to have to send KP away for cheap and thats what they did, KP and a second for a second and Niang is extremely cheap and while this is usually a bad thing its key to note the Celtics saved $210m over the two trades they made this offseason and most of that will be from this trade. This was a necessity and I think it's a deal that if I was the Celtics I likely would have done too sine I have my back up against the wall. So I think it deserves the B-, they get under the aprons and their directional movement makes a lot of sense with them likely being uncompetitive. Now this job is not finished they still have more money to cut to be under the tax next year which is pivotal to them being competitive within the 2026/27 season so we should be looking out for Niang being rerouted or Sam Hauser seeing a similar dumping fate we see in this one from KP. I love the fact they are under the aprons though they have done a great job with that while having Anfernee Simons.
Nets: B
The Nets did something they have been expected to do all season and that is collect assets and take bad contracts and they did it and they gave up nothing so who am I to blame them for anything. Well done collecting assets and bad contracts that you had to take to tank next year. and because of that you did exactly what you needed to get a good/great trade ranking. You get a free pick In the first round so well done. Not really much to talk about so I will bring up the glaring problem now with the Nets is that they own 1/6 of the picks in the first round of the upcoming draft so we surely have to expect another bomb of a trade between now and picking time tomorrow night, so I will definitely be keeping twitter open to see any news on what they could be doing to buy into potentially a young talent or maybe a better pick to improve their rebuild. It is key to know that there is a thing called having too many rookies, ideally no more than 3 but there's a good chance we see 4 on this nets team next year but 6 would be outlandish and a bad move for the nets so for their sake, I hope they make a move. But this trade is nothing but Ws for the nets fans out there. Good Job.
A memorable night for all Hawks fans tonight, we finally look to be a scary team in the east. #TrueToAtlanta