The clock is ticking for the Atlanta Hawks to break up their core roster like Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported. With the trade deadline just a few days away, teams are looking at the Hawks for a potential deal, but so far Atlanta has placed very high price tags on all of their stars. That does not mean a deal cannot get done, but it does mean doing so will not be easy. That has not stopped teams from showing interest.
The latest rumors for the Hawks center around Al Horford. The center is on an expiring contract and will command a max deal in free agency. According to ESPN's Marc Stein, with interest very high in Horford, the potential a deal gets done is a real possibility. Now, Adam Spolan of CBS in Houston is reporting the Hawks, Rockets and Heat are in discussion for a three-team trade involving a slew of players like Horford and Jeff Teague. Take this with a grain of salt, Hawk's fans.
According to Spolane, this blockbuster trade would see Horford and Teague going to Miami. The Hawks would get Dwight Howard. Houston would get Hassan Whiteside, Goran Dragic and Chris Andersen. At some point or another, all of these players have been mentioned in trade talk with the deadline approaching. The chances they are all involved in the same trade seem extremely slim. Spolane did follow up this report by saying a big hold up in the talks center around the Hawks not wanting to give a division opponent two starters to work with for the rest of the year.
Chris Broussard of ESPN.com did report that if traded from Houston, Howard would like to land in Atlanta. That makes sense. The center is an Atlanta native so there is an appeal to get back in front of the hometown crowd. However, Hawks fans will not like the idea of giving up a younger, healthier center in Horford for the over-30, often-injured Howard. With the Hawks having the ability to sign Howard to an extension in the offseason, giving him up now does not make much sense.
It is unclear just how serious Atlanta is about making a trade at the deadline. Boston Celtics team president Danny Ainge told local radio that he did not really believe Atlanta was prepared to make a move which is why the price tags are so high on all of the players. Atlanta understandably wants to be blown away by a trade offer if they are going to ship off an All-Star. That rarely happens at the mid-season deadline.
