The Atlanta Hawks made headlines on Sunday when they signed CJ McCollum to a one-year contract extension worth $21 million, as reported by Shams Charania of ESPN. The deal keeps the veteran guard, who was acquired as part of last year’s Trae Young deal with the Washington Wizards, with the Hawks for another year.
Now, NBA insider Keith Smith of Spotrac has highlighted an interesting nugget that affects a potential trade of McCollum, if Atlanta were to go in that direction.
“One note (that likely will not matter) on McCollum’s contract being an extension vs a new deal: He’s immediately trade-eligible with no waiting period once he’s signed. A new contract signed in July would have come with a December 15 trade restriction,” reported Smith on X, formerly Twitter.
McCollum had a rough first few games with Atlanta after the trade in January of this year, but quickly turned things around and ended up playing a key role in the Hawks’ late-season surge up the standings, earning them the six seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
When they got there, the Hawks surprisingly went up 2-1 on the New York Knicks, with McCollum hitting clutch buckets down the stretch of Games 2 and 3 to put the NBA world on notice. New York would go on to dominate the rest of the series, but it was Atlanta who took them further than any other team on their run to this year’s NBA title.
It will be interesting to see whether McCollum’s extension will affect the Hawks’ strategy at the upcoming NBA Draft, where they have the number eight pick, courtesy of a previous deal with the New Orleans Pelicans.
The draft is slated to get underway on June 23.
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