NBA rumors: Raptors declined Pascal Siakam offer from Hawks

According to an NBA insider, the Raptors rejected a Pascal Siakam trade offer from the Hawks. Will Atlanta make a better offer for the All-NBA player?

According to Shams Charania, the Hawks made a trade offer for Pascal Siakam “centered around De’Andre Hunter, AJ Griffin, and draft compensation“. The report does not state what kind of draft capital the Hawks offered up, but a deal will most likely require multiple first-round picks.

Atlanta is a bit limited in tradeable draft compensation. The Hawks can only offer first-round picks from the end of the decade due to a trade they made with the Spurs and the Stepien rule.

Will the Atlanta Hawks keep pushing for a Pascal Siakam trade?

The Toronto Raptors are in a very bad spot after losing Fred VanVleet in the offseason. While the whole plan in the first place was probably a bad idea, Toronto was looking to compete this year after trading their first-round pick at last season’s trade deadline.

The Raptors are now starting Dennis Schroder as a point guard. Schroder isn’t a bad point guard by any means but he is most likely not a player who can start on a playoff-worthy team. Based on the current outlook of the team, the Raptors might be cautious before offering Pascal Siakam a contract worth 30 percent of the salary cap.

Despite not requesting a trade, the Raptors have been seemingly entertaining trades at the very least during the off-season. The Hawks who are oddly enough in a more complicated spot than the Raptors have been a team interested in Siakam for a while now.

The Hawks have a host of issues that were not addressed this offseason. Rather than address those issues, the only major move that they made was getting rid of John Collins to get under the luxury tax. 

Trading for Siakam will most likely not be good for the Hawks. Yes, in the short run having a starting lineup of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, Saddiq Bey/Jalen Johnson (assuming the package that the Hawks offered gets the deal done), Pascal Siakam and Clint Capela would be fearsome. Still, the Hawks would have no depth.

The problem that would be worse for the Hawks is the fact that the team would have three max players. With the luxury tax having steep penalties for teams over it, it would not be easy for the Hawks to keep this core going long-term. Additionally, Atlanta has had its own problems with going over the luxury tax in recent years even before the new CBA made it wise for NBA teams to stay under the tax.