Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[Smitty]

SMITTY: "Could you do a full reset and offer Davis, Gafford, Naji for Expirings, Risacher, Okongwu, CLE FRP?"

It's an interesting exercise. That ends with ATL paying tax and is a 4-for-3 (problematic). Tweaking it to solve both of those would be hard, but a bigger issue would be what it does to ATL's future payroll. It almost certainly lands them well over the tax line, and that's a deal-killer. That also assumes they simply let McCollum walk, rather than try to keep him or swap him in a SNT.

I hear your concern and don't disagree entirely. I've read up some on the tax issue with Atlanta. Most seem to think that Onsi and the ownership group would pay tax for a contender, which they would consider themselves in this hypothetical. The ones that don't need to be paying tax are the Mavs. Plus, there are ways to help alleviate that from Hawks side next year. If they get Dybantsa for example, you now have Naji's expiring to move for air at a bare minimum. Or you do something with Kispert. Anyway, the Hawks and any money problem for next year is the GM's job to execute at the direction of the ownership group.

Edit: I did some rough math and this hypothetical would put the Hawks at ~$199.2M with 14 roster spots next year, with the projected tax line at ~$201M. *No McCollum*