While the Atlanta Hawks chose to let Jonathan Kuminga enter free agency by declining his team option, it was a different story for Buddy Hield who had his contract guaranteed after the pair were acquired from the Golden State Warriors in February.
The decision to guarantee Hield's $9.7 million deal was a surprising one given his lack of impact following the trade, and now the Hawks face a fresh problem after their latest move for Lu Dort on Sunday.
Hawks face fresh Buddy Hield problem after Lu Dort trade
Not only did the Hawks acquire Dort from the Oklahoma City Thunder, but they also landed young guard Ryan Nembhard from the Dallas Mavericks while sending out former number one overall pick Zaccharie Risacher.
It leaves Atlanta with 17 players on their roster, all but one of whom have fully guaranteed contracts. This means they have to make a consolidation trade before the start of next season to bring the roster back to the 15-player maximum, with Hield expected to be included given the end of last season proved he's not part of their rotation plans.
The issue is that even being an expiring contract, getting another team to take Hield's salary without attaching other assets could prove impossible for Atlanta. This is a veteran who while he played a big role in his year and a half with the Warriors, played in just seven of a possible 29 games with the Hawks and was largely out of Quin Snyder's rotation following the trade.
In an ideal world, Hield would be aggregated with other salaries and assets in a consolidation trade that delivers Atlanta a major rotation upgrade. One of the issues though is that the likes of CJ McCollum and Jock Landale -- both of who got slightly inflated one-year deals in free agency -- can't be traded until mid-season, and that therefore doesn't help the roster crunch that needs to take place beforehand.
Hawks may regret not waiving Buddy Hield
Despite having his contract guaranteed nearly a month ago, the Hawks haven't found a Hield trade and nor was he involved in Sunday's deal that brought in Dort and Nembhard. While a Hield move could still very much take place, you have to wonder whether they may end up regretting not simply waiving his contract and taking the $3 million cap hit.
Had Atlanta taken that route, they'd currently have 16 players and would have had the flexibility to simply waive the non-guaranteed contract of Mouhamed Gueye to bring the roster back to 15 without the need of a trade.
Hield's contract decision was always going to cause some debate, and the Warriors are likely to be sitting back thankful they avoided it by moving the 33-year-old months before a choice had to be made.
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