Atlanta Hawks' Al Horford (L) and Jeff Teague. (Photo : Getty Images)
The Atlanta Hawks have been swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers and now the future of the team is up in the air.
The NBA rumors are mounting with the roster of the Hawks who have been deemed as a regular season team. With their struggle to dismiss the Charlotte Hornets and now, the eventual sweep, the Hawks may have to blow up this roster.
It's not just the free agents who may leave, even playoffs under contract may not escape the possible purge the team that always fell short when they went up against LeBron James, who's unlikely to leave the East soon.
The experts at ESPN Insider had analyzed which of the current roster could take a hike in the offseason.
Al Horford is a big question mark. The tandem of Horford and Paul Millsap was effective during the regular season but they could not even shake teams like the Hornets. It is likely that Horford will get max offers and the Hawks may have to throw a five-year contract to keep him.
Bradford Doolittle thinks that the Hawks should keep Horford. "Unless you know you can use his salary slot on Kevin Durant, keeping Horford is your best option. Again, he's good enough to be a trade piece if you want to go that direction at a later date."
Steve Ilardi disagrees, as he says the Hawks "should avoid the safer path" this summer as it usually does not bring any monumental change. He warns about the Hawks keeping Horford for too long.
"Since Horford will land on the wrong side of 30 this summer, we would expect his productivity to decline every season of his next contract. Simply put: Teams do not win championships by overpaying their aging stars on lengthy new contracts."
There is also the option to trade Millsap, but that would be more complicated. The likely outcome is that Horford is gone.
The point guard conundrum is another thing the Hawks must solve. This playoffs has made it clear that they are going with Dennis Schroder. Jeff Teague will likely be traded. Hoops Habit had the same conclusion.
"There's no question that Schroder represents the future. He's only 22 years old, while Teague is already 27, and Bud benching Teague in favor of the younger backup suggests a seismic shift that will leave the lay of the point guard spot looking very different soon enough."
Both Horford and Teague were involved in trade rumors at the deadline but the Hawks which they claimed was simply to test their value. However, with their unceremonious exit, the Hawks have reached their ceiling with these two players and they may go downhill from here on in.
Millsap will most likely stay and the Hawks will find a center who could better fit with him than Horford. Kent Bazemore is the other vital cog. With the loss of Demarre Carroll last year, the Hawks will not let their starting small forward walk again.
However, if a team like the Lakers would overpay him, the Hawks may just try to groom a new candidate for the position again. They did it once, they could do it again.
