A Buddy Hield for Dorian Finney-Smith trade — in a variety of variations — had been simmering on the NBA back burner all summer. It appears it has finally fully cooked.
The Atlanta Hawks have agreed to trade Buddy Hield, Ryan Nembhard and cash to the Charlotte Hornets for Dorian Finney-Smith, a story broken by Shams Charania of ESPN and confirmed by other reports.
The Hawks have been trying to get off Hield’s salary — $9.7 million this season, a $10.1 million player option for next season — all summer, as well as deal with a roster crunch of too many standard contracts. This two-for-one trade, plus the waiving of Devin Carter, solves all of that.
Atlanta also gets to take a flier on Finney-Smith. The 33-year-old played just 37 games last season for the Rockets due to ankle surgery, and put up career-low numbers in the games when he did get on the court (which is why the Rockets spent three second-round picks in a salary dump trade with Charlotte earlier this summer). If he bounces back, this is a plus for the Hawks because every team could use more quality 3&D wings. As for the financial end, Finney-Smith will make $13.3 million this season and has two years, $26.7 million on the books after that, but none of that future salary is guaranteed. If they choose, Atlanta can walk away from Finney-Smith after this season.
Charlotte adds Hield, 33, who played in 51 games last season between Golden State and Atlanta, and averaged 7.6 points per game while shooting 34.9% from 3-point range (the lowest percentage of his career). Charlotte now heads into training camp with a roster crunch of its own and essentially has one spot to give between Hield, Nembhard, Pat Connaughton and Tidjane Salaün. Nembhard, who showed promise as a rookie with Dallas last season, might be the guy to go with because of his future potential.
Don’t be surprised to see another trade from Charlotte to deal with that crunch.
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