The Atlanta Hawks had a tremendous 2014-15 regular season and it was going to be hard for them to recreate that magic in 2015-16. In the offseason they lost DeMarre Carroll while they chose to retain Paul Millsap so they came into the season missing a big part of their team from last year. Yet at the midway point of the season, the Hawks are sitting third in the Eastern Conference with a 27-19 record.
Apparently, that might not be good enough for Atlanta and their future is dependent on what Al Horford does this summer with his upcoming free agency. Horford has downplayed it and has refused to talk about it, which could mean the Hawks are coming close to panic mode when it comes to what happens with the roster.
One possible move for the Hawks is to move one of their point guards in Dennis Schroder or Jeff Teague.
Following from Chris Mannix of Yahoo! Sports.
Hawks had been soliciting offers for Teague or Dennis Schroder, per rival execs. Though recently they have focused more on Teague.
— Chris Mannix (@ChrisMannixYS) January 27, 2016
ESPN’s Ian Begley says that the Knicks are a team who has contacted the Hawks about Jeff Teague.
The Knicks are one of several teams who have talked to Atlanta about a trade for point guard Jeff Teague, league sources tell ESPN. (1/2).
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) January 27, 2016
Knicks have limited assets, may have to get creative to land Teague. Yahoo! earlier reported ATL was listening to offers on the PG (2/2)
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) January 27, 2016
Dennis Schroder and Jeff Teague can both be free agents in the summer of 2017 with Schroder as a restricted free agent. Jeff is vastly underpaid right now making $8 million on his current deal with Atlanta and with the way the NBA salaries are going up, he and Schroder both should get ready to get paid.
The conundrum the Hawks face now is who goes and who stays? Teague and Schroder both do things very well as they both are great passers, pretty solid scorers who can get to the rim and both score over 16 points per game per 100 possessions for their careers but Teague is the better overall player while Schroder is the younger talent.
Dennis already made it known over the summer that he would look at other options if things with the Hawks didn’t work out so that might entice Atlanta to make a move for him but on the other hand, do they really want to be the team to give Teague a big contract when he’d be the third option on a team as he approaches his thirties?
