This article is part of our NBA Waiver Wire series.
If the rumors are to be believed - which is never a sure thing this time of year - the Atlanta Hawks are actively shopping starting point guard Jeff Teague. Moving Teague makes some sense, I suppose, if the Hawks are ready to hand the starting job to a younger/cheaper option in Dennis Schroder; Teague makes $8 million this season and next, while Schroder's salary is $1.7 million this year and $2.7 million in 2016-17.
Of course, a couple of weeks ago, Schroder was basically out of the rotation, replaced by Shelvin Mack, which casts the whole "this is a natural progression at the point guard spot" idea into doubt.
So is there more to the story? Some - including NBA news ninja Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! - have suggested that the Hawks could be starting a rebuild, and that Al Horford (and his expiring contract) could be on the move as well. I don't buy it; Atlanta is in good shape for a three or four-seed in the playoffs. There's no urgency to start a rebuild. I suppose they'd be willing to talk about anyone on their roster if, say, the Celtics came calling with their massive stockpile of first-round picks. But there's no urgency for the Celtics to do that right now either. Boston's right in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff race, and even with Horford they'd be hard-pressed to get past Cleveland and on to the Finals.
At this point, the fantasy
If the rumors are to be believed - which is never a sure thing this time of year - the Atlanta Hawks are actively shopping starting point guard Jeff Teague. Moving Teague makes some sense, I suppose, if the Hawks are ready to hand the starting job to a younger/cheaper option in Dennis Schroder; Teague makes $8 million this season and next, while Schroder's salary is $1.7 million this year and $2.7 million in 2016-17.
Of course, a couple of weeks ago, Schroder was basically out of the rotation, replaced by Shelvin Mack, which casts the whole "this is a natural progression at the point guard spot" idea into doubt.
So is there more to the story? Some - including NBA news ninja Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! - have suggested that the Hawks could be starting a rebuild, and that Al Horford (and his expiring contract) could be on the move as well. I don't buy it; Atlanta is in good shape for a three or four-seed in the playoffs. There's no urgency to start a rebuild. I suppose they'd be willing to talk about anyone on their roster if, say, the Celtics came calling with their massive stockpile of first-round picks. But there's no urgency for the Celtics to do that right now either. Boston's right in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff race, and even with Horford they'd be hard-pressed to get past Cleveland and on to the Finals.
At this point, the fantasy move would be to buy Schroder, who is 31 percent owned in Yahoo. Hold Teague (96 percent), who almost certainly maintains his value if he is moved. Don't make any moves in anticipation of a Horford trade that probably won't happen.
Another name that keeps coming up in the rumor mill is Cleveland's Kevin Love. The Cavaliers' inability to take advantage of Love's unique skill-set is probably one of the reasons that David Blatt is collecting unemployment, but that might not be totally fair. That unique skill-set itself may be the issue.
As ESPN's Zach Lowe points out, the "point forward that doesn't defend well" has become a lot less valuable in today's small-ball NBA. Lowe was referring specifically to Blake Griffin, who is falling out of favor in Los Angeles for a variety of reasons. He also mentions David Lee, who couldn't crack Golden State's rotation last year and can't get any run for the Celtics this year. Isn't Love that same sort of player?
Or maybe the issue is a simple issue of fit. As Jacob Rosen pointed out via Twitter, the numbers seem to indicate that Love and Kyrie Irving aren't an ideal combination.
I don't think the Cavs will move Love. But Blatt's ouster looked desperate, and desperate teams can be unpredictable.
(Seems fair to suggest that the Cavs would love a mulligan on the deal that brought Love to Ohio and sent Andrew Wiggins to Minnesota.)
Picks for the Week:
(All percentages are from Yahoo, standard caveats apply.)
Monta Ellis (90 percent) - Playing really well since having a procedure to drain fluid from one of his knees.
Jrue Holiday (85 percent) - Getting a significant lift in productivity due to Tyreke Evans' knee injury. Holiday has had 20 shot attempts in each of his last two games, and is doing very well in the assist column as well.
Langston Galloway (26 percent) - Jose Calderon has played about as well as one could reasonably expect, but he's fighting a groin injury and could miss a few games. That will give second-year pro Galloway an opportunity to run with the first team more often; it wouldn't be shocking if he held on to the job.
Bobby Portis (12 percent) - Sounds like Joakim Noah (shoulder) will be out of the mix for quite a while, which should open up significant playing time for Portis and Taj Gibson, even if the Bulls don't make a trade involving a frontcourt player.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (11 percent) - Back in record time from what was supposed to be a season-ending shoulder injury. He'll reportedly make his season debut on Friday.
Nick Young (9 percent) - Young had been more or less dropped from the rotation, but right now he's just about the only healthy guard on the Lakers' roster. He's played roughly 28 minutes per game in his last two outings.
Donatas Motiejunas (2 percent) - He'll play for the D-League Rio Grande Valley Vipers on Saturday as he works his way back from injury. These D-League rehab stints are usually very short, so take this as an indication that Motiejunas should be back in Houston next week.
E'Twaun Moore (0 percent) - after Thursday's game both Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose made public statements endorsing Moore as a starter. (That may be an indictment of Tony Snell more than anything else, but Moore could be useable in deep leagues.)
