NBA 2025 Offseason Check-In: Atlanta Hawks

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2025 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Atlanta Hawks.

Free agent signings

• Nickeil Alexander-Walker: Four years, $60,647,200. Fourth-year player option. Trade kicker (7.5%). Signed using Bird rights and acquired via sign-and-trade from Timberwolves.
• Luke Kennard: One year, $11,000,000. Signed using non-taxpayer mid-level exception.

Trades

• Acquired the draft rights to Asa Newell (No. 23 pick) and either the Pelicans’ or Bucks’ 2026 first-round pick (whichever is more favorable) from the Pelicans in exchange for the draft rights to Derik Queen (No. 13 pick).
• Acquired David Roddy (two-way; from Rockets), the right to swap their own 2031 second-round pick for the Rockets’ 2031 second-round pick (56-60 protected; from Rockets), and cash ($85,300; from Rockets) in a seven-team trade in exchange for Clint Capela (sign-and-trade; to Rockets) and Daeqwon Plowden (two-way; to Suns).
  • Note: Roddy was subsequently waived.
• Acquired Nickeil Alexander-Walker (sign-and-trade) from the Timberwolves in exchange for the Cavaliers’ 2027 second-round pick and cash ($1.5MM).
• Acquired Kristaps Porzingis (from Celtics) and a 2026 second-round pick (from Celtics) in a three-team trade in exchange for Terance Mann (to Nets), Georges Niang (to Celtics), the draft rights to Drake Powell (No. 22 pick; to Nets), and the Cavaliers’ 2031 second-round pick (to Celtics).

Draft picks

• 1-23: Asa Newell
  • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $16,240,653).

Two-way signings

• Eli Ndiaye
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).
• Jacob Toppin
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee.
• Keaton Wallace
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).

Departed/unsigned free agents

• Clint Capela (Rockets)
• Caris LeVert (Pistons)
• Garrison Mathews (unsigned)
• Larry Nance Jr. (Cavaliers)

Other moves

• Signed 2024 second-round pick Nikola Djurisic to a three-year, $5,949,688 contract. Second year non-guaranteed. Third-year team option. Signed using second round pick exception.

Salary cap situation

• Operating over the cap ($154.6MM) and below the luxury tax line ($187.9MM).
• Carrying approximately $182.3MM in salary.
• Hard-capped at $195,945,000.
• Portion of non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($3,104,000) available.
• Full bi-annual exception ($5,134,000) available.
• Three traded player exceptions available (largest worth $13,101,561).

The offseason so far

After the Hawks lost Jalen Johnson to a season-ending shoulder injury in January and traded away veteran role players like De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic a couple weeks later, it looked like they might be ready to throw in the towel on the 2024/25 season. But led by Trae Young, new starting center Onyeka Okongwu, Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Dyson Daniels, and rapidly improving No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher, Atlanta went 17-14 after the trade deadline, earning a play-in berth.

The Hawks failed to clinch a playoff spot in the play-in tournament, but given what their young core showed in the second half, it came as no surprise that the front office – headed by newly promoted general manager Onsi Saleh, who replaced Landry Fields – took an aggressive approach to upgrading its roster this offseason.

The Hawks entered the summer with the 13th and 22nd overall picks in the draft, but ultimately used neither of them, trading the No. 22 pick to Brooklyn as part of a three-team trade for Kristaps Porzingis and moving down from No. 13 to No. 23 to select Asa Newell while acquiring an unprotected 2026 first-rounder in the process.

The Porzingis trade will have the greater on-court impact for Atlanta in 2025/26, with the former Celtics forward/center set to complement Okongwu in the frontcourt and help make up for the departures of big men Clint Capela and Larry Nance Jr. But the Hawks’ new-look front office might’ve received more kudos for its other draft-pick deal, which saw the team move down 10 spots this year and net the more favorable of the Bucks’ and Pelicans’ 2026 first-round picks.

While that 2026 first-rounder doesn’t look quite as tantalizing now as it did back in June when a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade seemed more viable, it could still end up being an extremely valuable asset, given that the Pelicans are coming off a 21-win season and have several key players still recovering from major injuries. The 2024 offseason trade between the two teams that centered around Daniels and Dejounte Murray has turned into a big win for the Hawks, who now have a chance to reap the rewards of a deal with New Orleans for a second consecutive year.

Porzingis should be an upgrade on Capela and Nance up front as long as he’s healthy, but the Hawks had a handful of other holes to fill this offseason, as they lost three key reserves. Terance Mann and Georges Niang were sent out in the Porzingis deal, while Caris LeVert signed with Detroit as a free agent.

With plenty of spending flexibility below the luxury tax line to operate, the Hawks addressed those holes by adding a pair of veterans for mid-level type deals. Veteran sharpshooter Luke Kennard was signed to a one-year, $11MM contract using Atlanta’s actual mid-level exception, while three-and-D guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker was acquired via sign-and-trade using a trade exception created as a result of last year’s Murray deal.

All of the newcomers look like great fits. Despite Daniels’ excellence, the Hawks ranked just 18th last season in defensive rating, so adding a rim protector like Porzingis and another talented point-of-attack weapon like Alexander-Walker should put the club in position to improve that ranking in 2025/26.

Atlanta was also in the middle of the pack in terms of three-point attempts (15th) and three-point percentage (18th), making it a logical move to sign one of the NBA’s very best three-point shooters. Kennard hasn’t made fewer than 43.3% of his outside attempts in any of the past five seasons and should get his fair share of open looks with Young, the NBA’s reigning assist leader, setting him up.

The Hawks’ level of success in 2025/26 will ultimately come down to what they get from Young and their growing young core, including Risacher, Daniels, Okongwu, and a healthy Johnson. But they did well this summer to get role players who should nicely complement those long-term building blocks.

Up next

The Hawks are technically only carrying 13 players on standard contracts at the moment and are operating about $5.5MM below the luxury tax line. That gives them enough room to bring in two more players on minimum-salary contracts to carry a full 15-man roster into the season without becoming a taxpayer.

Whether they go that route or leave their 15th spot open remains to be seen, but they’ll at least have to add a 14th man. It seems like former Magic wing Caleb Houstan will probably be that player, but the two sides have yet to officially finalize the one-year deal they reportedly agreed to on July 17.

Assuming that contract eventually gets signed and it’s fully (or at least mostly) guaranteed, count on Houstan opening the season on the roster. But if the agreement falls through or if Houstan gets a non-guaranteed deal, that 14th spot will be more wide open.

Reports in the wake of June’s draft indicated that undrafted rookie Lamont Butler would be signing a two-way contract with Atlanta, but the Hawks have since signed three different players to two-way deals. There’s still plenty of time between now and opening night for the club to make changes to its two-way slots, but it looks at this point that if Butler comes to camp, it would be on an Exhibit 10 contract rather than a two-way. We’ll have to wait for more clarity on that subject.

Besides filling out the back of their roster, the Hawks have some bigger-picture decisions to make regarding contract extensions for key players before the season begins. Daniels, for instance, is eligible for a rookie scale extension and would reach restricted free agency in 2026 if he doesn’t sign a new contract in 2025.

When Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report projected rookie scale extensions in May, he estimated a four-year, $94MM deal for Daniels. I think his next contract will probably come in higher than that, given how defensive aces like Jaden McDaniels (five years, $131MM) and Jalen Suggs (five years, $150MM) got paid on their extensions in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Still, the Hawks are probably taking notice of how RFA negotiations are playing out this summer and wondering if they can convince Daniels to accept something a little more team-friendly than those McDaniels and Suggs contracts this fall.

In addition to Daniels, Young and Porzingis are also eligible to sign contract extensions. Unlike Daniels, those two veterans will remain extension-eligible all season long if they don’t work out new deals before opening night.

Still, recent reporting has suggested there’s nothing doing between Young and the Hawks at the moment, and there have been no indications that the team is seriously exploring an extension with Porzingis either. I’ll be curious to see whether Atlanta is willing to go all the way into next offseason without extending either player or whether the team shows more urgency to get something done this fall or even during the season.

It’s worth noting that Porzingis’ maximum extension for now would be about $116MM over three years, whereas he could get up to $192.7MM over four years as of January 7, six months after the trade. But I don’t think the Hawks would go as high as the former number, let alone the latter, so that’s probably a moot point.

As for Young, his maximum-salary extension right now is worth about $222.4MM over four years. He could qualify for a five-year, $335MM contract if he makes an All-NBA team in 2025/26, but again, I’m not sure Atlanta is willing to go up to his current max, let alone to that higher number, so it might just further complicate their contract talks if Young earns super-max eligibility.