A look at where the Hawks stand in free agency

The first two days of NBA free agency have come and gone. The Hawks though, have remained quiet after some big moves in the days leading to Sunday’s beginning of free agency.

Last week, the Hawks drafted Zaccharie Risacher, who they hope will be their wing of the future. They also dealt Dejounte Murray to the Pelicans and got a trove of players and draft picks in return. They tendered qualifying offers to Seth Lundy and Vit Krejci, opening the door to continue negotiations.

The Hawks also decided not to tender a qualifying offer to Saddiq Bey, which opened the door for him to become an unrestricted free agent. Though they did not look to extend him using restricted free agency, which would have allowed them to match an offer, they continue to negotiate with Bey in the hopes of reaching another deal.

So far, the Hawks’ biggest splash has been the deal that sent Murray to the Pelicans, ending his backcourt partnership with Trae Young. They received a young guard in Dyson Daniels, as well as front-court depth in Larry Nance Jr. and EJ Liddell.

While it didn’t necessarily allow them to free cap space this season, it gave them the chance to gain some depth and spread that salary across multiple players. It also gave them a little more cap flexibility for the future with Nance on an expiring contract.

The team needs to decide if it will guarantee Bruno Fernando’s $2.8 million contract for next season. With Nance, the Hawks would have four centers under contract.

Starting center Clint Capela, who has one year remaining on his contract, and Onyeka Okongwu already play most of the minutes, making it difficult to justify having four centers, even when accounting for potential injuries.

Here’s a look at the Hawks roster:

PG: Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Kobe Bufkin

SG: Bogdan Bogdanovic, Garrison Mathews, Nikola Djurisic*

SF: De’Andre Hunter, Zaccharie Risacher*

PF: Jalen Johnson, Mo Gueye, EJ Liddell

C: Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu, Larry Nance, Bruno Fernando*

* have not signed contracts

The Hawks also have yet to sign this year’s draft picks to contracts, and they can sign Risacher for as much as 120% and as little as 80% of the rookie scale. His salary, as well as Fernando’s, counts toward the cap as of now.

They plan to evaluate all of their options with second-round pick Nikola Djurisic, and they could end up signing him to a two-way contract since it does not count toward the salary cap.

On Sunday, the NBA announced that it set this year’s salary cap at $140.588 million, with the tax level for the 2024‑25 season set at $170.814 million.

The new collective bargaining agreement accounted for three different mid-level exceptions, depending on a team’s salary level. The non-taxpayer mid-level for the 2024-25 season is $12.822 million, the taxpayer mid-level is $5.168 million, and the mid-level for a team with room under the salary cap is $7.983 million.

The Hawks currently have at least $166 million committed and would not be able to use the full mid-level exception without making some salary cuts. Should they want to sign free agents, they would need to find new deals to make moves or prepare to pay the luxury tax.

They’ve often made moves to duck the tax in the past couple of years, and time will tell if they follow the same pattern.

Credit: AP

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