The Atlanta Hawks are willing to trade Kent Bazemore…for a small ransom they probably aren’t going to get.
From Basketball Insiders’ Steve Kyler:
League sources say the right combination of ending contracts and a first-round pick, even one highly protected might be enough to get Bazemore in trade, especially for a team looking for a scoring punch.
Of all of the players likely to be moved this trade season, Bazemore may be one of the harder players to trade, but if a team were serious about trying to get him, the word is he could be had and for not a lot in return.
Some of this comes off as a little confusing. The Hawks want the right combo of “ending contracts” and a low-value first-rounder, but Bazemore can be had for “not a lot in return?” Which is it? Because it cannot be both.
Including this season, Bazemore has three years and $54.1 million left on his contract. No team is pouncing on that pact this side of 2016 free agency. It is more albatross than not. This isn’t to say Bazemore doesn’t hold value. He does. He’s shooting 36.6 percent from beyond the arc, working fairly hard on defense and has emerged as one of the Hawks’ two-best secondary playmakers, averaging a career high in assists per 36 minutes and dropping some nifty passes off drives. His pick-and-roll initiation needs some work, but he is, for the most part, someone you can depend on to make the right play with the ball in his hands.
Bazemore nevertheless isn’t securing a first-rounder on his own. Not at this price point. If the Hawks take back an unwanted contract, however, they’ll be in business. It doesn’t even need to be a longer deal. In fact, it probably won’t be. Bazemore has two years left on his. The goal should be to get someone who’s either signed over the same span for substantially less or acquire anyone who comes off the books by the end of next season, so they’re technically escaping the final year of Bazemore’s contract, in 2019-20 (player option).
