Hoopinion: ESPN.com: Stein: Testing the Early Trade Winds

[Hawksquawk]

Marc Stein reports the Sacramento Kings offered the Atlanta Hawks Jason Thompson for Jeff Teague:

It wasn't long ago that Thompson, selected with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2008 draft, and Spencer Hawes were being touted as the Kings' frontcourt tandem of the future.

Now?

Thompson is averaging just 15.4 minutes per game off the bench and has been shopped by the Kings, who according to one source with knowledge of the talks offered the 6-11, 250-pounder to Atlanta in a deal featuring young point guard Jeff Teague. The Hawks declined.

I presume the Hawks declined the offer (assuming that "featuring" means that Teague and Thompson were the two best players in the proposed deal) because of the lack of cover this would leave the Hawks at the point rather than any satisfaction in Josh Powell's performance. If you're going to use a horrible defender as your backup power forward, I suspect you'd rather he be a younger player who can score than an offensive black hole.

Another reason the Hawks may have turned the deal down: unlike Powell or the two-headed third-string center monster, they'd have had to pay Jason Thompson's entire salary this season and the next. Bad contracts limit a team's options in lots of ways.

More from the other perspective courtesy of Tom Ziller at Sactown Royalty

View the full article