NBA teams
John Hollinger 12y

Soaring stock in Atlanta

NBA, Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Utah Jazz

We knew when the Atlanta Hawks hired Danny Ferry as their general manager that it would mark a wholesale change in the way this franchise did business, but nobody expected the change to be this drastic, this fast.

With two landmark moves in a period of hours Monday that wiped nearly $90 million off the payroll, the Hawks went from a franchise that considered losing in the second round of the playoffs to be the pinnacle of human achievement to being one that could matter -- I mean really, truly matter -- for the first time since Dominique Wilkins was making nightly highlight films.

For those who just crawled out from under a rock, the Hawks first sent Joe Johnson to Brooklyn for the expiring contracts of Jordan Farmar, Johan Petro, Jordan Williams, Anthony Morrow and DeShawn Stevenson (who will have a non-guaranteed multiyear deal, per sign-and-trade rule requirements, but is effectively an expiring contract). The Hawks then traded Marvin Williams to Utah for the expiring contract of Devin Harris. Farmar will be bought out for $1.5 million, Harris might be rerouted someplace else and Petro will be given Pape Sy's former jersey just to see whether anyone can tell the difference.

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