Just a few days before the NBA draft, Shams Charania of ESPN broke a piece of big free agency news. Unrestricted free agent CJ McCollum will reportedly return to the Hawks on a one-year deal:
Jake
L. Fischer of the Stein Line substack and Bleacher Report added a report that the deal has a 7.5% trade kicker:
Since the Hawks acquired McCollum’s full bird rights, the one-year deal gives him an implied no-trade clause.
After being acquired midseason, the veteran guard helped guide the Hawks to a blazing hot finish to their regular season. McCollum averaged 18.9 points per game on 56% true shooting in 41 games with the team in the regular season.
But arguably, he saved his best performances for the postseason, twice hitting last minute buckets to help the Hawks take two games off the champion Knicks.
McCollum will be 35 years old next season, and there’s a chance they add a young perimeter player to the mix with their eighth overall pick this week, so this is a great compromise between retaining a key contributor while remaining focused on the future.
