Danilo Gallinari is no longer an Atlanta Hawks player. As reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the blue was included in an exchange along with three top picks in the draft (that of Charlotte protected in 2023 and two of Atlanta in 2025 and 2027, both without protections) and a possibility of exchange of choice in 2026 with the San Antonio Spurs to get to All-Star Dejounte Murray, who then becomes Trae Young’s new backcourt partner in Georgia. More than for technical reasons, Gallinari was used mainly for salary reasons: his contract for the 2022-23 season is indeed only partially guaranteed and the Spurs can cut it saving a good part of the 21 million dollars foreseen by his agreement, thus allowing him to return to the free agent market and find a new team. It is therefore not certain that Gallinari will play in Texas next seasonalso because the Spurs – by giving up their best player in Murray – have worsened their team in order to give themselves further chances in terms of Draft, especially in 2023 given the possible arrival of the French phenomenon Victor Wembanyama. A scenario that, however, fits badly with Gallinari’s ambitions, who at 34 would like to gamble his chances to win the NBA title with a contender.
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The exchange on the side of the Atlanta Hawks
Dejounte Murray was an All-Star last season, establishing himself as one of the league’s most improved players in his sixth year in the NBA. Nonetheless he is still only 25 years old and is under contract until 2024 for a sum that does not exceed 17 million dollarsan extremely favorable deal for the teams that have it – and the reason why Atlanta decided to bet so strongly on him, giving three first choices to the Draft (two of which are unprotectedwhich happens very rarely except for absolute superstars of the league) and an exchange of choice in 2026 (therefore the Spurs will have the right to choose in place of Atlanta if their choice is in a more favorable position, giving theirs in exchange), effectively giving up control of their picks for the three-year period 2025-2026-2027. However, a very high price for a player of excellent level but not of the highest profilesupporting him with Trae Young who will have to make up for the shortcomings in terms of defense and play away from the ball.
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