- Hawks forward Jalen Johnson, who has missed the past three games due to a right ankle sprain, has been upgraded from doubtful to questionable for Friday’s game in Utah, tweets Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. There’s optimism Johnson will be available for that matchup with the Jazz, adds Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).
3:17pm: The Hawks confirmed in a press release (via Twitter) that Bey sustained a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the 2023/24 season. He’ll be undergoing surgery to repair the injury, per the team.
11:49am: A torn left ACL will sideline Hawks forward Saddiq Bey for the rest of the season, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). An MRI conducted this morning revealed the damage.
Bey suffered the injury early in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against New Orleans, according to Lauren Williams of The Journal-Constitution. He collided with Trey Murphy on a fast break, turning his foot as he planted it on the court. Bey pounded his fist before grabbing his leg in pain.
He tried to stay in the game, Williams adds, but limped to the locker room after shooting his free throws.
Bey averaged 13.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game in his first full season with Atlanta after being acquired from Detroit at last year’s deadline. He started 51 of the 63 games he appeared in, shooting 41.6% from the field and 31.6% from three-point range.
Bey, 24, is making $4.5MM this season and was on a path toward being a restricted free agent this summer. He met the “starter criteria” by making his 41st start last month, increasing the value of his qualifying offer from $6,498,258 to $8,486,620. The injury will obviously factor into the Hawks’ QO decision.
Hawks forward Saddiq Bey is no stranger to hard work, transforming himself into a more physical player who’s averaging a career-high 6.5 rebounds per game and is driving to the basket more often, writes Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (subscriber link).
Williams dives into Bey’s regimen and work with trainer Myron Flowers. Bey, who will be a restricted free agent this offseason if he’s extended a qualifying offer, has played a variety of roles for the Hawks.
Bey is averaging 13.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per contest this season. He’s in the final year of his rookie contract, making $4.6MM this season, and recently met the “starter criteria” for potential restricted free agents, so if he’s extended a qualifying offer, it will be worth $8.5MM.
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- The Hawks signed Dylan Windler to a two-way contract on Monday, and he’s already seeing how he can mesh with the team, Williams writes in a separate story. “I mean, even just from the little bits I’ve seen and playing against the Hawks from time to time, seeing Coach Quin’s system, I think it’s a system that I fit right into it,” Windler said. “A lot of threes up, run, good spacing, crash the offensive glass, prioritize next possessions. And so I think it’s a system I good fit really well into.“
- The Wizards fell to Orlando on Wednesday, blowing a 21-point lead en route to a franchise record-tying 16th consecutive loss, The Washington Post’s Ava Wallace observes. “Yeah, we addressed [the streak],” point guard Tyus Jones said. “But six games, 16 games, you don’t want to lose many in a row, ever. Regardless of how many it is. At this point … we’ve got to be more desperate. We’ve got to want it more. We don’t want it enough right now. We’ve got to come out and by any means get a win, and that’s not the attitude we have right now.“
- The Magic, conversely, won their fifth straight game by beating Washington and are in fourth in the Eastern Conference. Josh Robbins of The Athletic explores the job Jamahl Mosley has done in Orlando this season, writing that he should at least be in the conversation for Coach of the Year. Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs, Cole Anthony and Moritz Wagner are key contributors who praise Mosley’s ability. “He has some fire to him,” Wagner said. “Obviously, you need to have that. I think we all trust him. I think he trusts us to respond. He cares a lot. As players, we feel that when your coach cares about you. So, you take to heart what he says.“
New executive vice president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson is making the first addition to his front office, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that the Hornets are hiring Hawks executive Dotun Akinwale Jr. as their new assistant general manager.
Akinwale is currently Atlanta’s vice president of player personnel, having been promoted last summer. One of his responsibilities was managing the team’s pre-draft workout process, tweets Lauren L. Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A native of Maryland, Akinwale played basketball at Thiel College in Pennsylvania before graduating and getting his NBA start as an intern with Orlando. He spent two seasons with the Magic, and over the past nine seasons he has worked his way up the ranks in Atlanta, but now he’ll be heading to Charlotte to work with his former Hawks colleague Peterson.
Hornets co-owner Rick Schnall is familiar with both Peterson and Akinwale, as he was previously a minority owner of the Hawks. Peterson, 35, most recently worked as a Nets executive before being hired to become Charlotte’s top basketball decision-maker.
In an interview on Wednesday, Peterson said the team planned to make some new hires in the front office, which is now coming to fruition.
Speaking to Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report in the latest episode of her podcast (YouTube link), Hawks guard Trae Young said that he’s not bothered by the fact that his name has popped up in trade rumors in the weeks since last month’s deadline.
“Some of the best players ever have been traded,” Young said. “So who am I to be here mad or feeling unwanted or feeling a certain way?”
It’s worth noting that those recent rumors haven’t stemmed from sources within the Hawks, but from rival executives who came away from their pre-deadline conversations with Atlanta believing that the club will explore trading Young this offseason.
It was Dejounte Murray, rather than Young, who was the subject of frequent trade rumors in the days and weeks leading up to the deadline, but the Hawks opted not to make a move involving Murray, whose contract extends a year beyond Young’s and is far less lucrative. Young is owed $89MM over the next two years, with a $49MM player option for 2025/26, while Murray will make $82.6MM over the next three seasons and holds a $31.5MM player option for ’26/27.
Although there’s a sense that it may just be a matter of time before the club breaks up its star backcourt duo, Young told Rooks that he has no desire to leave Atlanta. Asked whether he believes he’ll still be a Hawk next season, he replied, “Hopefully,” before going on to link his NBA home with his decision on where to play college basketball.
“I could have went to Kentucky, I could have went to Kansas, but I chose to be different and went to Oklahoma to try to win a championship,” Young said. “I wanted to go there to win for my hometown, be different.
“They’ve never won a championship in Atlanta. Me getting drafted there felt like it was a match made in heaven. Like, this is something I wanna do. I can defeat the odds here too. So for me, my whole vision was to always be here. My whole goal is to win here. Win championships, bring people here with me and build this championship here and dynasty here.
“But who knows? It’s year six now and who knows? (But) for me, I want that.”
Young is currently on the mend after undergoing surgery to repair a tear of the radial collateral ligament (RCL) in the fifth finger of his left hand. An All-Star this season for the third time in his career, he was averaging 26.4 points and a career-high 10.8 assists this season in 51 games (36.5 MPG) prior to the injury, with a shooting line of .426/.371/.856.
With Young unavailable for the time being, the Hawks continue to battle for a spot in the play-in tournament. Atlanta is currently 10th in the East at 27-34, two games behind the No. 9 Bulls and 2.5 games ahead of the No. 11 Nets.
- The new contracts for Hawks guard Trent Forrest and Spurs forward Dominick Barlow are just rest-of-season, minimum-salary deals, which suggests that those two players just got standard conversions from their two-way contracts rather than negotiating new terms. Forrest will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, while Barlow will be eligible for restricted free agency.
- The two-way deals recently signed by Jeff Dowtin (Sixers), Jacob Gilyard (Nets), Jacob Toppin (Knicks), Ish Wainright (Suns), Quenton Jackson (Pacers), Harry Giles (Lakers), and Dylan Windler (Hawks) are all one-year (rest-of-season) contracts, so those players will be eligible to become restricted free agents this summer.
6:00pm: The deal is now official, according to a release from the team.
5:48pm: Free agent guard/forward Dylan Windler is signing a two-way contract with the Hawks, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The Hawks had an open two-way slot after converting Trent Forrest to a standard deal, so no corresponding move is required.
Windler spent most of the year on a two-way deal with the Lakers before he was waived over the weekend to make room for Harry Giles. He began the year on a two-way contract with the Knicks.
In 11 games this year between the Knicks and Lakers, Windler has averaged 1.3 points. He has been much more productive in the G League, averaging 13.3 points and 8.2 rebounds in 16 games. He turned heads earlier this season by recording a G League single-game record 33 rebounds on Jan. 5.
He’s eligible to be active in 12 of Atlanta’s 22 remaining games this season.
Windler, 27, was the 26th overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. He spent the first three years of his career with the Cavaliers, averaging 3.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in 84 games with the Cavs. Even though two-way players are limited to three or fewer years of service, Windler is eligible for a two-way contract due to the new “Harry Giles rule,” which allows players with four years of service to sign two-way deals if they missed a full season due to injury.
Because of the terms of the rule, Windler is only eligible to sign a one-year two-way deal, which means he’ll be eligible for restricted free agency this offseason. He’ll have the rest of the season to make an impression on the organization and compete for a spot on the standard roster for next season.
- Hawks guard Dejounte Murray has locked in a $500K bonus on top of his base salary this season after making his 125th three-pointer of the season on Saturday, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The bonus had been deemed likely and already counted against Murray’s $18.2MM cap hit because he earning that incentive last season by making 133 threes.
The Hornets signed young forward Aleksej Pokusevski to a two-year contract which is non-guaranteed for the 2024/25 season, according to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto (Twitter link). Charlotte will get a chance to monitor the 7’0″ forward and see if he can live up to his former 17th overall draft selection status.
Pokusevski became the fourth former Thunder player to join the Hornets after the deadline, joining Vasilije Micic, Tre Mann, and Davis Bertans. According to Sam Perley of Hornets.com (Twitter link), those connections are helping him feel comfortable in his new home.
“It feels good,” Pokusevski said. “The guys are great. [Having former OKC teammates here] makes it easier. Vasa, Tre, Bertāns. It feels better that I can talk to the guys that I know and they can explain how things are going here.”
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- Hornets guards Seth Curry (right ankle) and Cody Martin (left ankle) exited the second half of Charlotte’s Friday matchup against the Sixers due to injuries, according to team PR (Twitter link). They will both be evaluated on Saturday.
- Hawks guard Trent Forrest is seeing his hard work pay off after getting his two-way contract converted into a standard deal, writes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Lauren Williams (subscriber link). According to Williams (Twitter links), coach Quin Snyder lauded Forrest’s progression and work ethic. “He’s just he’s been a guy that’s, it’s hard to, have durability and in this league and Trent’s, a guy that’s continuing to work to put himself in a position where he is where he is right now,” Snyder said. “And I say that with full confidence that he’s going to continue to work. And that’s one of the things that we really appreciate about him. Happy for him. I think he he’s earned everything everybody’s given him in this profession.“
- As the Wizards continue to deal with injuries, their bench players are starting to see more opportunities, according to The Washington Post’s Ava Wallace (subscriber link). Eugene Omoruyi, Jules Bernard, Jared Butler, Johnny Davis, Patrick Baldwin Jr., and Justin Champagnie have all received first-quarter minutes as of late. Omoruyi was promoted to a standard deal from his two-way contract on Friday. “Right now, it’s a lot of discovery,” Kyle Kuzma said. “Trying to figure out what a lot of guys do, what they can do, what they can’t do, what they bring to winning basketball.“
12:30pm: The Hawks have officially waived Mills, the team announced in a press release. Forrest’s promotion to the standard roster is also official, the club confirmed in a second release.
Mills, 35, was traded three times last July before winding up in Atlanta. He has appeared in just 19 games this season and hasn’t played since February 7.
In his 15th NBA season, Mills is averaging 2.7 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 10.6 minutes per night, but he’s shooting 38.2% from three-point range, so he could have value for a contending team seeking an experienced shooter.
Assuming Mills is waived by the end of the day on Friday, he will be eligible to appear in the playoffs if he signs with another club by the end of the season. He has a $6.8MM expiring contract, so the Hawks won’t owe him any money beyond this season.
The Hawks will use the open roster spot to convert two-way guard Trent Forrest to a standard NBA contract, Charania tweets. The move will make Forrest eligible to play again — he had already reached his limit of 50 active games as a two-way player, even though he has only appeared in 20 of them, averaging 2.0 points, 1.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 10.5 minutes per night off Atlanta’s bench.
Forrest, 25, is in his second season with Atlanta after signing a two-way deal with the team in the summer of 2022. Prior to that, he spent two years in Utah.
The Hawks now have a full 15-man roster and a two-way opening that can be filled through March 4.