Atlanta Hawks trade Lou Williams and Lucas Nogueira for John Salmons
Today on Twitter, news broke that the Atlanta Hawks have traded Lou Williams and Lucas Nogueira to the Toronto Raptors for John Salmons:
Toronto has traded John Salmons to Atlanta for Lou Williams and Bebe Nugiera, source tells Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2014
According to Wojnarowski, who broke the news with the tweet above, the Hawks could use this deal to continue clearing space for a potential future move:
Move clears cap space for Hawks, who could waive Salmons and his partial guarantee for season.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2014
Salmons has a valuable contract, because his $7M is a team option for 2014-'14 season. He gives Hawks further ability to clear space.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2014
This move comes as a fairly big surprise because Nogueira was just last year’s first round selection. However, he was always thought of as a long-term project and if Danny Ferry is confident that a move can be made soon to make the team a real competitor sooner, this makes a ton of sense. In addition, this move makes the Hawks recent draft selection of 7-3 Walter Tavares make a lot more sense as well.
In addition to getting Salmons and his contract, Chris Vivlamore recently broke that the Hawks also got a future second-round pick while confirming the trade:
Hawks trade in works: Lou Williams and rights to Lucas Nogueira for John Salmons and second-round pick. #ATLHawks
— Chris Vivlamore (@CVivlamoreAJC) June 30, 2014
Regardless, this move opens up many different possibilities for the Hawks this offseason, as our very own Brad Rowland notes on Twitter:
The Hawks have a comical amount of cap space after this. I have so many thoughts.
— Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) June 30, 2014