The Atlanta Hawks and Brooklyn Nets caused a buzz on social media late Thursday night with the trade of Jeremy Lin from the Nets to the Hawks.
This move now gives the team 3 starting point guards on the roster. Is this the precursor of an impending deal to move incumbent starting PG Dennis Schröder?
The Atlanta Hawks traded Isaia Cordinier, a SG drafted in the 2md round of the 2016 NBA Draft, In exchange, the Atlanta Hawks receive PG Jeremy Lin, a 2025 2nd round pick, and the right to swap picks with the Nets in 2023. At this time it’s unclear rather that pick swap applies to round 1 or round 2.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report the trade:
Brooklyn has traded Jeremy Lin to the Hawks, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 13, 2018
Jeremy Lin is a 6’3 200 lb Point Guard from Harvard University. He is 29 years old and is an 8 year NBA veteran. He’s battled injuries since signing a 3 year 33 million dollar deal with the Nets 2 off-seasons ago. He’s only appeared in only 37 games the past 2 seasons, starting 34 of those contests. He was productive when healthy averaging over 14 points and 5 assists, while draining over 37% of his triples.
His stats can be viewed below:
| Pos | G | MP | FGA | FG% | 3PA | 3P% | 2P% | eFG% | FTA | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PG | 36 | 24.5 | 11.1 | .438 | 4.3 | .372 | .480 | .510 | 3.9 | .816 | 3.8 | 5.1 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 14.5 |
| PG | 1 | 25.0 | 12.0 | .417 | 2.0 | .500 | .400 | .458 | 7.0 | 1.000 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 18.0 |
| 406 | 26.6 | 9.4 | .433 | 2.8 | .350 | .467 | .484 | 3.6 | .805 | 2.9 | 4.5 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 12.0 | |
| 37 | 24.5 | 11.1 | .437 | 4.3 | .373 | .476 | .508 | 4.0 | .824 | 3.6 | 5.1 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 14.6 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/13/2018.
Jeremy Lin is set to count 12.5 million dollars against the Atlanta Hawks salary cap number for the upcoming season. He is in the last year of his contract. The Hawks now have just under 9 million dollars in cap space with 13 players on guaranteed contracts. They could create an additional 2.8 million were they to waive players Jaylen Morris and Antonius Cleveland, who are on non guaranteed deals. This move also gets the Hawks to the NBA Salary cap floor, in which every team must spend 90% of the cap.
Bobby Marks gave the rundown of the Hawks cap space in this tweet:
Taking in the $12.5M expiring contract of Jeremy Lin now has the Hawks with $8.9M in room and 13 guaranteed contracts. Lin has a 10% trade bonus valued at $1.25M that Brooklyn would be responsible for if the guard does not waive it. The cap hit would... https://t.co/CHri7fxyaR
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) July 13, 2018
NBA.com’s David Aldridge reported that the Atlanta Hawks plan to keep Lin and also speculated that this deal could mean that The Hawks are close to trading Dennis Schröder. It’s been widely known that Dennis Schröder has been on the trade block for weeks. Our Kit Anderson documents the Hawks’ efforts to move Schröder here.
Mr. Aldridge’s tweet about the Atlanta Hawks keeping Lin:
Meanwhile, told the Hawks plan to keep @JLin7, acquired from BKN tonight (@wojespn first). With @TheTraeYoung in the mix as well, you’d have to think Atlanta is in range to deal incumbent point @DennisMike93, around whom trade rumors have been flying for weeks.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) July 13, 2018
Shortly after it was announced that the Brooklyn Nets had traded G Isaiah Whitehead to the Denver Nuggets for F Kenneth Faried, F Durell Arthur, and a top 12 protected 2019 1st Round Pick and a future 2nd round pick. SI’s Khadrice Rollins wrote about the trades in this article. The fact that Atlanta had the means to make such a deal to pick up the extra 1st from Denver, yet chose to acquire Lin opening the space for Brooklyn to do so, furthers speculation than Lin was wanted to replace Schröder. Lin also has a tie to Atlanta Hawks’ General Manager Travis Schlenk.
He played his rookie season for The Golden State Warriors in the 2010-11 season in which Schlenk was a front office executive for the team. This adds fuel to the speculation that Lin was brought in to mentor Trae Young. Lin is familiar with dealing with major hype as Linsanity swept the nation in 2012 when Jeremy was a member of the New York Knicks, so he should be able to impart on wisdom to Young in that department.
Lin bring an additional bonus to the Atlanta Hawks as he has a major Asian fan base that supports whatever team he’s playing for. This should help further increase team attendance and merchandise sales. Lin a PG by trade, offers versatility with the ability to play SG in small lineups. He and Young would certainly be an exciting PG duo.
Next: Trae Young Headed to Atlanta
Is Dennis Schröder on the way out? The tea leaves are certainly pointing to the fact that a Dennis Schröder trade is on the horizon. Where do you think he will end up? Stay tuned to ATL All Day for the latest updates on the Atlanta Hawks Offseason, and all of your favorite Atlanta Sports Teams.