NBA Trade news: Spurs ideal landing spot for Al Horford, claims report
The Atlanta Hawks have the league buzzing with NBA trade rumours after the team made their All-Star big man available in the market.
Al Horford, one of two Hawks superstars available via trade this season, is up for grabs as revealed by Adrian Wojnarowski on The Vertical Podcast.
“One team that I think is really at a crossroads talking to teams is the Atlanta Hawks,” Wojnarowski said. “Al Horford is a free agent this summer. They’re not sure he’s going to stay, whether they’re going to keep him. There’s a chance this Atlanta team pushes the reset button here at some point.”
Horford is on the final year of his five-year $60 million deal with the Hawks, and there is a growing sense within the organisation that the 29-year-old power forward would try exploring free agency this summer, with the NBA’s massive deal set to kick in, reports Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. With Horford’s future with the Hawks uncertain, Atlanta may have to consider trading the big man instead of letting him go in free agency for nothing. One ideal landing spot for Horford would be the San Antonio Spurs.
According to Jon Shames of Hoops Habit, the Spurs should trade for Horford as the eight-year NBA veteran is “100 percent San Antonio Spurs material.” West noted that the 6-foot-10 forward’s pick-and-roll game would sit well in San Antonio, alongside LaMarcus Aldridge, who has been struggling to put up numbers for the Spurs. Horford would give Tim Duncan a much-needed rest and would slide Aldridge back to his comfort zone of playing the “left baseline and crashing the offensive glass.”
The only problem for the Spurs in acquiring Horford is that they do not have the pieces to orchestrate a trade with the Hawks. But adding a third team like the Milwaukee Bucks could do the trick, as noted by Shames.
In this trade scenario, the Bucks, who are desperate for a veteran leader, would get Boris Diaw and Matt Bonner from the Spurs, while Atlanta gets OJ Mayo’s expiring contract and San Antonio’s youngsters in Kyle Anderson and Jonathan Simmons.
San Antonio are not really the type of team to go hard in the trading season, especially as they have one of the best records in the league. But after a lopsided defeat in the hands of the Golden State Warriors, the Spurs may consider an upgrade.
