The 2022 NBA trade deadline is getting really close -- Thursday at 3 p.m. ET -- and the rumor mill is heating up as a result.
The Atlanta Hawks are one team to keep a close eye on over the next few days. After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals last season, consistent success has been hard to come by for Atlanta during the 2021-22 campaign.
The Hawks enter Monday as the 10th-place team in the Eastern Conference standings, but they only trail sixth place by four games. There's still time for the Hawks to move up a few spots and maybe avoid the play-in tournament.
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Who is Atlanta interested in acquiring at the trade deadline? One player is Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart, according to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic.
Here's what Kirschner wrote about why the Hawks could use a player such as Smart, and what a potential deal between these teams might look like:
"I’ve actually heard some chatter on a Smart-Bogdanović trade framework in the past few days. Whether or not it actually materializes is a different thing. Smart is someone the Hawks have been interested in for quite some time. It’s obvious why when you look at what is needed on this roster: more defense and more players who can create for themselves and others. Smart fills that need.
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"The Hawks could also use another voice in the locker room who is respected and not afraid to hold anyone accountable. They’re kind of missing that right now with this being a mostly quiet roster. It likely would require a bit more than Charlotte’s first-rounder to get this done, but Smart should be one of the main targets the Hawks are after."
Bogdan Bogdanovic is a pretty good player, so if he was involved in any Hawks-Celtics deal, that wouldn't be a bad situation for Boston. The 29-year-old shooting guard is a very good outside shooter and a quality free throw shooter. He's taken a bit of a step back in his 3-point shooting this season, converting on 36 percent of his attempts. But over his five-year career, Bogdanovic has hit on 38.5 percent of these shots.
Bogdanovic is not a rental, either. He's signed for two more seasons with a salary cap hit of $18 million, per Spotrac.
So, while it would benefit the Celtics to add Bogdanovic's shooting and overall offensive game, he's nowhere near Smart as a defender. Smart is an elite perimeter defender capable of excelling against the league's top scorers. He's also a better playmaker than Bogdanovic. Smart's upcoming extension is pretty similar salary-wise to Bogdanovic's current deal. The final two years of Smart's next contract carry a salary cap hit of about $19 million and $21 million in the final two years, respectively, per Spotrac.
The Celtics have won five games in a row and seven of their last 10. Smart has played a key role in this recent success. Defense, as we explained over the weekend, also has been instrumental in this positive run for the Celtics. Smart, along with Robert Williams, sets the tone defensively for the Celtics each night.
Smart has his flaws, especially on offense, but his defense and playmaking are too valuable to move him for a player like Bogdanovic.