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