The Atlanta Hawks are entering a potentially pivotal summer in 2025. On the bright side, Atlanta's young core seems to be firmly in place, with Trae Young as the most established player and a bevy of talented options around him. That includes Jalen Johnson, who was making a clear leap before a season-ending injury in 2024-25, and Dyson Daniels, who won the NBA Most Improved Player award after a fantastic breakout campaign.
Then, the Hawks have No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher poised to take the next step and, very quietly, former lottery pick Onyeka Okongwu exploded down the stretch of the campaign.
Still, the Hawks do need more to compete at the absolute highest levels of the Eastern Conference. That reality often leaves fans dreaming of "big swing" trades for established stars, with the most popular case of that at present centering on Giannis Antetokounmpo. There are ways to continue building without an all-in move, however, and that is especially the case given that Atlanta has two first round picks in 2025 to go along with a decent amount of roster and salary cap flexibility.
The Atlanta Hawks have a massive trade exception at their disposal
With it now established that the Hawks have multiple avenues to explore this summer, one sneaky mechanism to add to the roster is a very large trade exception established when the team sent Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans. Without going into the granular details, the Hawks have the ability to take back a salary up to $25.26 million in a trade without having to match salary under traditional NBA trade rules. This provision expires on July 7, but if the Hawks could identify a player making more than the mid-level exception (around $15 million) and less than the trade exception, Atlanta could entice another team, perhaps using draft capital, without worrying about sending high-dollar players back.
As one would imagine, the list of players making $15-25 million is vast and mixed. Some players, like Mikal Bridges, Aaron Gordon, and Ivica Zubac, are very unlikely to be traded by their incumbent teams. Some players, like Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Jusuf Nurkić are not exactly screaming values on their current contracts (to put it kindly). However, there is an intriguing middle ground with players that the Hawks should at least monitor or inquire about in the coming weeks.
Perhaps the best example is Brooklyn Nets forward Cameron Johnson. The 29-year-old is certainly not a star, but he is an established, high-level player that would fit essentially anywhere, including Atlanta. Johnson is coming off a 2024-25 season in which he averaged 18.8 points per game for a mismatched Nets team but, more importantly, he is a career 39.2 percent 3-point shooter who has connected on 40.2 percent of his long-range attempts over the last four seasons combined.
Moreover, Johnson is set to make $20.5 million for the 2025-26 season, and he has another season of team control in 2026-27 in which he'll make just over $22 million. That is a (very) modest salary for a starting-caliber forward in a league in which the salary cap is rising, and Johnson will make less than 14 percent of the projected cap in both seasons. Beyond the box-score numbers, Johnson has clearly positive offensive impact, as advanced numbers like EPM and RAPTOR highly value his contributions as the best player on Brooklyn's roster last season.
That isn't to say that Johnson is the only option for this pursuit, as he is very clearly not. After all, he is a relatively uninspiring defender (albeit a reasonable one), and Brooklyn has been rumored to ask for the moon for Johnson, as recently as the 2025 trade deadline in February. There are also myriad starting-caliber players in a similar salary range, even if the fit perhaps isn't as clean. Still, this is a situation in which the Hawks could at least consider pursuing a player who would immediately provide the knock-down shooter the roster needs without taking too much off the table.
The majority of trade exceptions go unused, and that certainly might happen here with the Hawks and the $25.3 million weapon they possess until early July. It is also worth keeping in mind that the mid-level exception can also be a trade exception, meaning that Atlanta could trade for a player in that slot, rather than simply signing a free agent. All in all, the Hawks seem to be in "buy" mode this summer and, if nothing else, they have another arrow to fire if they choose to do so.