One of the biggest trades so far this NBA offseason occurred on Friday night, when the Atlanta Hawks sent Dejounte Murray to New Orleans in exchange for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance and two top picks. round. It was an inevitable decision the Hawks had to make between Murray and Trae Young and the Hawks management seemingly made their decision.
With the moves the Hawks have made this week, they are building a better roster around Young, something they haven’t done to this point in his career or at least since reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021. The Hawks gained valuable draft picks in 2025 and 2027 that they didn’t have and added one of the best young defenders in the NBA in Daniels, a perfect complement to Young in the backcourt. Atlanta selected Zaccharie Risacher with the number one pick in the NBA Draft, further showing their plan to add defense and size this offseason. It appears the Hawks have a plan for their roster and aren’t done adding pieces just yet.
What they shouldn’t do, however, is rush back in and try to make another big trade. That’s what they did when they signed Dejounte Murray in the summer of 2022 and they can’t risk doing it again. Atlanta made two crucial mistakes that summer and 1) they rushed in and thought they were closer to contending than they actually were and 2) they signed the wrong player in Murray. Murray is a good player on his own, but he wasn’t a good fit next to Young and the Hawks paid too much for him.
Yesterday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Utah Jazz are listening to trade offers for All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen.
REPORT: The Jazz are willing to listen to trade offers for Lauri Markkanen, according to @wojespn. pic.twitter.com/w0i0mGezJr
— Basketball Legion (@LegionHoops) June 29, 2024
This summer, there have been no reports linking the Hawks to Markkanen, but he has already been mentioned as a possible trade target. In December, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports had this to say about a potential Markkanen trade and mentioned Atlanta:
“Lauri Markkanen has emerged as an intriguing, if unlikely, candidate heading into the February buzzer. The Jazz had plans to continue competing in the Western Conference after Markkanen emerged as an All-Star in his first season in Salt Lake City, league sources told Yahoo Sports, and while Utah was reaching out to Portland to acquire Damian Lillard and then Jrue Holiday before this season was over, moving on from Markkanen would mark a major change in direction from trying to add an All-NBA-caliber point guard to run Utah’s offense alongside Markkanen’s versatile skill set.
But Markkanen’s status has already generated and will continue to generate a lot of buzz around the league if Utah continues to field inquiries from rivals. It would be bad form for the front office to not at least understand what it would take to land Markkanen. League personnel believe three teams in particular value the Finnish forward at this early stage of trade talks. Two of those apparent suitors — Sacramento and Atlanta — make sense, considering the Kings’ and Hawks’ respective approaches to Siakam. The third team league personnel continue to mention to keep an eye on for a potential Markkanen approach is Oklahoma City, suddenly second in the West with a trove of first-round picks.
The consensus has been that Utah might not trade Markkanen unless they receive a massive offer and that tends to be the type of deals Danny Ainge makes. Markkanen is entering the final year of his contract and is expected to get a massive contract extension. If Utah doesn’t want to give him that contract, they could try to move him to get the right deal. He could be the best player on the trade market and it has been a notable turnaround in Markkanen’s career. After being a solid but not great player with the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers, Markkanen has been an All-Star with the Jazz. This season, the 7’0 forward averaged 23.2 points per game and 8.2 RPG while shooting 48% from the field and 40% from three. He is one of the best offensive players in the game and it would be easy to see why teams would want him.
While I think Markkanen is a better fit for the Hawks than Murray, Atlanta would have to overpay for him and use the rest of their assets to get him. It would likely cost the Hawks the Lakers pick they acquired in 2025, the 2027 pick they acquired in the trade from New Orleans, and their own picks from 2028 onwards. Atlanta would be making the same mistake they made two summers ago when they traded for Murray. Markkanen is a good player, but he’s not going to turn the Hawks into Finals contenders overnight. If the Hawks were to acquire him, they would still be behind Boston and New York in the Eastern Conference and depending on what Philadelphia and Milwaukee do, they could be behind them. Markkanen gives them size and shooting, but his defense is not his strong suit. He’d certainly be a prolific offensive player alongside Trae Young, but the only way massive trades like this work is if you’re a Finals contender and I don’t see Markkanen doing that.
Last place in the Eastern Conference reaches a point where Atlanta should be a play-in team with its current roster and could even be a top-six team if things go the right way. This is a better roster around Young and all the pieces fit together better, just like the conference finals team in 2021. I’m not saying this team will do it, but the team structure makes more sense than the last two seasons. There are still moves the Hawks can make this offseason, including potential deals for Clint Capela, Larry Nance and possibly De’Andre Hunter. The Hawks should continue to add the right pieces to their team, but making an outsized offer for Lauri Markkanen shouldn’t be one of those moves. Atlanta should be patient and continue building its roster, which it has done this offseason. It looks like Atlanta finally has a plan to build a roster around Young and they shouldn’t step on the accelerator again too soon.
