Just now: The Hawks ‘felt they were close’ to a deal with the Raptors for star forward

December 8, 2023 Sports Gist Basketball, NBA 0

The Hawks ‘felt they were close’ to a deal with the Raptors for star forward

Over the summer, the Atlanta Hawks thought they were close to a deal with the Toronto Raptors to acquire Pascal Siakam.

It’s unknown how close the Toronto Raptors got to a trade, but it’s apparent that conversations between Toronto and Atlanta over the summer almost resulted in a deal, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania on TSN’s Overdrive.

“Atlanta felt like they were close and that they had a pretty good package for Pascal Siakam last summer in July and there were some pretty intense conversations back and forth,” he went on to say.

The deal reportedly centered around De’Andre Hunter, AJ Griffin, and draft pick compensation, per Charania. It’s yet to be reported exactly what that draft pick compensation entailed.

Atlanta is expected to still be interested in Siakam if he does become available ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline. They’re believed to be one of multiple teams including the Indiana Pacers who have inquired about Siakam’s availability.

“We’ll see as we get close over the next several months but I think whether it’s Pascal Siakam (or) OG Anunoby, those are the names that are going to continue to be mentioned,” Charnia said.

Siakam had also been connected to a deal involving Dejounte Murray over the summer before Murray inked an extension to stay in Atlanta. Murray is currently ineligible to be traded but will be movable before the trade deadline.

Atlanta has two first-round picks this year, but only one that can be traded, along with tradeable first-round picks in either 2029 or 2030. The Hawks’ 2023 first-round pick Kobe Bufkin was also a player Toronto considered selecting ahead of the draft.

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Amid lowly night against Atlanta, Jacque Vaughn still preaches growth for Cam Thomas

Coach JV pats Cam Thomas’ shoulder as rough night against the Hawks serves as a stepping stone for growth.

The Brooklyn Nets’ 114 – 113 close escape against the Atlanta Hawks offered a gunning shootout once again between two high-powered offensive teams, but the matchup enticingly excluded the sparkling blitz of Cam Thomas.

Thomas, who has been the Nets’ leading scorer, didn’t find himself taking the ball more or even finishing the game in crunch time. The 22-year-old got locked down by the Hawks’ defensive schemes as he was limited with a season-low six points on 3-of-10 shooting. He also found difficulties protecting the ball by registering five critical errors upon being swarmed by the stifling defense of Dejounte Murray.

This has to be an absolute nightmare game for Thomas as he played 27 minutes and went passively cold which contrasted his usual blazing offensive persona. As such, head coach Jacque Vaughn still saw a blessing in disguise on this bumpy night that the promising guard experienced.

For Vaughn, the rough performance due to what Atlanta demonstrated needs to be both a motivation and a wake-up call nonetheless for Thomas.

It only showed that opponents are finally paying attention to his talent and triggering offensive bursts. But on the other hand, it also has to humble him and expand his reach by contributing to other departments of the game besides scoring.

For him to achieve his desired successful player for himself, Thomas indeed needs this kind of poor display to continue nourishing his still young and growing career. And the fact that Vaughn notified him that basketball doesn’t only revolve around scoring, the promising guard can only take a look back at what he recently said about other parts of his game he wishes to improve further.

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