Why Hawks should target Spurs' Tre Jones
01/06/2025 04:11 PM
The Atlanta Hawks may have surprised some people with the way they’ve been playing so far this season. They’ve got some quality wins against some good teams, and they even found themselves in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup. Trae Young is obviously a reason for their success, but Jalen Johnson has become a bright spot and a No. 2 option for the team.
Though they may be a huge part of their success, it also means when they’re not on the floor, things go wrong quickly. The Hawks needed a backup point guard, as they’ve been struggling in minutes when Young and Johnson are not on the floor. If they want to, they’re in a position to make a trade, and Tre Jones from the San Antonio Spurs sounds like a viable option according to ESPN’s NBA Insiders.
“The Hawks are in a position where they can stay conservative at the deadline and still find themselves avoiding the play-in. If they do look to tweak their roster, Nance’s $11.2 million expiring contract has the most value,” ESPN wrote. “Before breaking his right hand on Dec. 28, Nance was playing his best basketball, averaging 11.2 points, 7.6 rebounds in the previous five games. One trade that would improve the Hawks’ backcourt depth is flipping Nance for Spurs guard Tre Jones. The Hawks rank 24th in turnovers and have allowed the fourth-most points off turnovers per game.”
Jones would be a nice pickup for the Hawks, but it would also be interesting to see if the Spurs would even trade with them. The Spurs own the Hawks’ 2025 first-round pick, which came from when Dejounte Murray was traded. It’s not certain if they would want to help the Hawks get better, especially if they want a good draft pick next season.
Hawks might search for a backup guard
Coming into the season, the backup guard position was in question after Kobe Bufkin suffered a shoulder injury in practice. He eventually came back and played okay in the backup minutes, but he was then ruled out for the remainder of the year with an injury to the same shoulder.
The Hawks have now been using Vit Krejci as the backup guard, as well as giving Dyson Daniels opportunities to handle the ball while Trae Young is off the floor. The Hawks accumulate a lot of turnovers when Young isn’t on the floor, which means sometimes he has to play more minutes than expected to get the team back organized.
If the Hawks can take the pressure off of Young, it would be in their best interest to try and find a guard that can help when he goes to the bench.
The post Why Hawks should target Spurs’ Tre Jones appeared first on ClutchPoints.
