Atlanta Hawks to trade or waive John Salmons by midnight
By Josh Hill
The Atlanta Hawks acquired John Salmons as part of a trade with the Toronto Raptors earlier this offseason but they won’t be hanging onto him very long. The Hawks have been expected to waive Salmons since the end of June and the deadline for them to do so is tonight.
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Salmons won’t be waived without some effort first, as the Hawks are going to try and trade him first but have the waiver wire as a backup plan.
According to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Hawks will make a decision one way or the other on John Salmons tonight and plan on waiving him if they can’t find a last minute trade partner for him.
"The Hawks will waive John Salmons Thursday, according to a person familiar with the situation.The Hawks intended to waive Salmons, a move that now must be made before 11:59 p.m. Thursday. The teams agreed to a waiver deadline extension of July 10 in the deal. Salmons, who is due $7 million this season, will receive a $1 million buyout."
The Hawks are targeting Luol Deng on the open market and want to free up as much cap space as they can to make that move happen. It’s possible that they might find the cash with Salmons on the roster, but they don’t need him and cutting loose his $7 million salary for this season is going to be a nice cushion in the salary cap.