{"id":120996,"date":"2025-01-30T15:14:43","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T20:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=120996"},"modified":"2025-01-30T15:14:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T20:14:43","slug":"hawks-willing-discuss-jusuf-nurkic-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/30\/hawks-willing-discuss-jusuf-nurkic-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks Among Teams Willing To Discuss Suns Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

While there’s been a focus on the Phoenix Suns’ pursuit of Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler<\/a>, the title-hopeful hasn’t slowed their efforts to trade center Jusuf Nurkic. Because of Nurkic’s seemingly low trade value, there wasn’t expected to be much traction on a deal. However, \u201cthe Suns have been talking to teams throughout the league<\/a> about trading 7-footer Jusuf Nurkic<\/a>, with the Atlanta Hawks being one of those teams,\u201d per The Arizona Republic\u2019s Duane Rankin.<\/p>\n

Hawks Among Teams Willing To Discuss Jusuf Nurkic Trade<\/h2>\n

It makes sense that they’re among teams willing to talk turkey with Phoenix. The Hawks have a $25.3 million trade exception that allows them to absorb Nurkic’s salary in full, it In fact, unless they were to trade Bogdan Bogdanovic<\/a> to the Suns, they likely wouldn’t be able to acquire the big man because the Suns are above the second apron. The problem with that, at least from Phoenix’s standpoint, is that Atlanta has little reason to make that move.<\/p>\n

Bogdanovic is in the midst of a down season, in part because he’s been in and out of the lineup with injuries. Yet, the Hawks value him on and off the floor. De’Andre Hunter<\/a> has usurped him as the team’s sixth man. Yet, Bogdanovic’s guard skills and experience are useful for a team that doesn’t want to be overreliant<\/a> on Trae Young<\/a>. At his best, the Serbian sharpshooter is a potent scorer who offers playmaking at the offensive and defensive end.<\/p>\n

That being said, Atlanta may have found a trade partner for Clint Capela<\/a>. That’s fortunate, as if they were to acquire Nurkic without moving Capela, they would have one too many starting-caliber centers. It simply would be risky from a chemistry standpoint, no matter how professional the players are.<\/p>\n

Is There A Bigger Plan?<\/h3>\n

Whether it could transform into a separate deal<\/a> involving Butler, one that brings them Bradley Beal<\/a>, remains to be seen. Utilizing the Hawks’ trade exception would allow Phoenix to get under the second apron and aggregate salary in another deal. Atlanta’s decision to take on the skilled but flawed Nurkic could be the first step in a bigger plan.<\/p>\n

To this point, the Suns aren’t known to have discussed the three-time All-Star waiving his no-trade clause. In terms of locale, Atlanta is a thriving and popular metropolitan city with warm weather. It could be a place where he and his family feel comfortable moving. However, though the Hawks have an All-NBA-caliber player in Young, they aren’t regarded as a title-contender. This could, obviously, make them less attractive to Beal.<\/p>\n

Still, Young and Beal have the same goal. As competitive as any player, they want to win a championship. In terms of the intangibles, it might be a perfect match.<\/p>\n

On the court, there would be questions about their size and defense. Nonetheless, both players have taken more pride in the less glamorous aspects of the game. With multiple wings capable of playing high-level defense, particularly Dyson Daniels, the team could still put together a solid perimeter defense.<\/p>\n

All of this is speculative of course. It’s possible the Hawks simply want to add Nurkic, a more versatile center than Capela. With scoring and playmaking potential, Atlanta would likely be more difficult to guard. Capela is generally a better defender than Nurkic but with Onyeka Okongwu<\/a> now starting, the big man could have more success against second units.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While there’s been a focus on the Phoenix Suns’ pursuit of Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler, the title-hopeful hasn’t slowed their efforts to trade center Jusuf Nurkic. Because of Nurkic’s seemingly low trade value, there wasn’t expected to be much traction on a deal. However, \u201cthe Suns have been talking to teams throughout the league […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":121027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1608,62,28,4721],"tags":[311,346,135,4774],"class_list":["post-120996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-suns","category-trade-rumors","tag-bradley-beal","tag-clint-capela","tag-jusuf-nurkic","tag-rumors"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121028,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120996\/revisions\/121028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}