Jeff Teague drawing interest from New York Knicks?
By John Buhler
Jeff Teague isn’t having the year he did last season, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t a highly coveted potential trade asset for the Atlanta Hawks.
ESPN’s Ian Begley reported that the New York Knicks are one of a handful of teams that have begun trade discussions about the Atlanta Hawks starting point guard Jeff Teague. Teague was a first-time NBA All-Star in 2014-15 and has spent his entire NBA career with the Atlanta Hawks since leaving Wake Forest after his sophomore year to enter the NBA Draft.
The Knicks are one of several teams who have talked to Atlanta about a trade for point guard Jeff Teague, league sources tell ESPN. (1/2).
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) January 27, 2016
The Knicks don’t have the obvious assets to give the Atlanta Hawks what they want for Jeff Teague, so Begley argues that the Knicks would have to get creative to create an offer intriguing enough to get the Hawks front office to bite.
Trading Teague would essentially mean that backup point guard Dennis Schroder would become the presumed starter. While Schroder could start on a few teams in the NBA in year three, he’s not consistent enough to stand as a starting point guard on a contending team. Teague can at least run the point for a team capable of winning playoff series in the Eastern Conference.
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Atlanta is in third place in the Eastern Conference and leading the Southeast Division entering Wednesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Until last season, the Atlanta Hawks had never won a Southeast Division Title.
With the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers transitioning from David Blatt to Tyronn Lue on the sidelines, the No. 4 seed Chicago Bulls struggling to find consistency under new head coach Fred Hoiberg (another Derrick Rose injury doesn’t help either), and the No. 2 Toronto Raptors very much in win-now mode, it doesn’t make a ton of sense for the Atlanta Hawks to part ways with its starting point guard in a season that they could conceivably get back to the Eastern Conference Finals.
What would Atlanta get in return from the Knicks? Jerian Grant, the guy the Hawks traded away his draft rights to acquire Tim Hardaway, Jr.? Orchestrating a trade with the New York Knicks involving Jeff Teague would almost certainly mean that the Atlanta Hawks are in a way trying to rebuild, but still make the NBA Playoffs.
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If the Atlanta Hawks front office doesn’t feel like pay Jeff Teague $8 million this year and next and truly thinks that they can get more value by making a trade involving their starting point guard, then that’s their prerogative. However, New York doesn’t have the tradable assets to pull off a deal with Atlanta, so the Hawks should wisely say “no thank you” and not send Teague to the Big Apple.