Atlanta Hawks remain aggressive in Luol Deng pursuit

Even after adding wing depth by agreeing to a deal with Thabo Sefolosha several days ago, the Atlanta Hawks appear to be one of the biggest (current) bidders for free agent forward Luol Deng.

Mark Stein of ESPN tweeted yesterday that the Hawks were pressing for the former Cavalier:

From Deng’s poing of view, the obvious decision would seem to be to wait. Half the league is courting LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, and since only two (or one…) teams will actually end up with them, many other teams would emerge as legitimate potential destinations for Deng. And one or more of those teams will probably be able to make a better offer than the Hawks have or will.

Obviously, I have no knowledge on the deals that Atlanta is offering Deng and his agent, but when you look around the league and see the cap space that some of these other teams have, it seems like a pretty safe bet.

If the Hawks somehow do land Deng before many of the big pieces start to fall, it would be a huge shock to me. If Deng is eventually with Atlanta though, Danny Ferry will have surely taken care of the wing-depth issue that was the teams biggest weakness. With strong defensive wing players already on the squad (DeMarre Carroll and the aforementioned Sefolosha) adding Deng to the fold would definitely erase last year’s issue of having both Kyle Korver and Carroll resting on the bench.

Stay tuned, we’ll be following this story–in addition to any other Hawks rumors that come up–throughout the offseason. Be sure to follow us on Twitter (@ATLBeatBlog) as well for more information and analysis.