{"id":136059,"date":"2025-04-24T15:48:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T19:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=136059"},"modified":"2025-04-24T15:48:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T19:48:03","slug":"caris-levert-hawks-future-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/24\/caris-levert-hawks-future-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Free Agent Caris LeVert Fit Into The Hawks’ Future Plans?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a disappointing early postseason exit in the Play-In Tournament, the Atlanta Hawks enter the 2025 offseason with many crucial decisions<\/a>. Trae Young<\/a> and Dyson Daniels<\/a> are eligible to sign extensions, and General Manager Onsi Saleh<\/a> must put the franchise in a position to move forward after two straight Play-In exits. One under-the-radar situation focuses on Caris LeVert<\/a>‘s free agency this summer.\u00a0 Atlanta traded for the veteran wing at the trade deadline this winter. LeVert played a bigger role in Atlanta than he did with the Cleveland Cavaliers before the trade. Does this mean the Hawks have plans for him beyond the 2024-25 campaign?<\/p>\n

Does Free Agent Caris LeVert Fit into the Hawks’ Future Plans?<\/h2>\n

LeVert’s Offense was Key Off the Bench<\/h3>\n

LeVert had the ball in his hands in Atlanta a lot more than in Cleveland. One of Darius Garland<\/a> or Donovan Mitchell<\/a> is almost always on the court to handle the rock and initiate offense. In contrast, the Hawks severely lacked point guard depth behind Young. Head Coach Quin Snyder deployed Daniels as the de facto backup point guard for most of the campaign. Kobe Bufkin<\/a> was set to take on this role, but he underwent season-ending shoulder surgery and has only appeared in 27 NBA games in two seasons. Therefore, whenever Young sat on the bench, Atlanta needed LeVert’s shot creation and driving ability to put pressure on opposing defenses.<\/p>\n

LeVert recorded an 18.1% usage rate<\/a> with the Cavaliers, but this number jumped to 21.2% in Atlanta. During his exit interview<\/a>, LeVert talked about the transition from being a “3 and D” guy to a bigger offensive threat midseason.<\/p>\n

“Being asked to play a completely different role…\u00a0 I think in Cleveland I was more like a ‘3 and D’, catch-and-shoot type of guy,” he said. “Here I was playing with the ball a lot more… Just a quick swich like that mid-season.”<\/p>\n

Outside of three-point percentage, LeVert increased his numbers across the board with the Hawks. He operated in a lot of pick-and-roll situations, opening up more ways to score. The 6-foot-6 wing totaled seven 20-point contests<\/a> in 26 games in Atlanta compared to just two in 38 games with the Cavaliers. Despite LeVert’s 14.9 points off the bench, the Hawks struggled mightily without Young to run the show. They registered just a 108.8 offensive rating without their star guard compared to 117.6 with Young on the floor. Those numbers would rank bottom five and top five, respectively, across the 2024-25 regular season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Atlanta Has Money to Spend This Summer<\/h3>\n

Unlike last year, the Hawks have financial flexibility this summer. Clint Capela<\/a>, Larry Nance Jr.<\/a>, and LeVert will all be free agents. In addition, Bogdan Bogdanovi\u0107<\/a> and De’Andre Hunter<\/a>, who were both traded at this year’s deadline, will no longer be on the payroll. Given the Hawks’ offensive struggles without Young, re-signing LeVert for a sixth-man type role makes sense.<\/p>\n

Rookie wing Zaccharie Risacher<\/a> was already ahead of LeVert in the rotation. As of now, LeVert is not preventing any young, promising talent from a bigger role. However, this could change after the 2025 NBA Draft. If the Hawks select young talent on the wing, LeVert’s future in Atlanta could be in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a disappointing early postseason exit in the Play-In Tournament, the Atlanta Hawks enter the 2025 offseason with many crucial decisions. Trae Young and Dyson Daniels are eligible to sign extensions, and General Manager Onsi Saleh must put the franchise in a position to move forward after two straight Play-In exits. One under-the-radar situation focuses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5516,"featured_media":136090,"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],"tags":[49579,1070,1349],"class_list":["post-136059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-2025-offseason","tag-caris-levert","tag-trae-young"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136059","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\/5516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136059"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136091,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136059\/revisions\/136091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}