The Atlanta Hawks have been busy this offseason, as the team pulled off a trade with the Utah Jazz that finally saw the John Collins era come to an end in exchange for Rudy Gay and a future second-round pick. Not long after that, there was yet another trade, this time with the Houston Rockets that got them a pair of young players (TyTy Washington and Usman Garuba) along with a pair of second-round picks in exchange for the draft rights to Alpha Kaba.
Now, all of those players are going somewhere else. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Atlanta is taking the trio of Gay, Garuba, and Washington and sending them to Oklahoma City for Patty Mills, whom the Thunder acquired from the Rockets, which got him from the Brooklyn Nets in a deal earlier in the offseason. To sweeten the pot and help the Thunder in their apparent quest to have every draft pick in the league, the Hawks are throwing in a future second.
The Atlanta Hawks are trading TyTy Washington, Usman Garuba, Rudy Gay and a second-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Patty Mills, sources tell ESPN. Hawks save $4.5M in the deal.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 8, 2023
It’s unclear how the Thunder plan to deal with the NBA’s most bloated roster, as the team has 21 players after this deal. If they were to stay, Washington and Garuba are both buy-low talents, while Gay brings a veteran presence to have around the team’s young core. As for the Hawks, Mills is a useful veteran guard who — if he sticks around — should serve as a backup to Trae Young and the recently extended Dejounte Murray.