NBA Free Agency 2017: Atlanta Hawks reportedly displayed interest in Marreese Speights

In a tweet on Sunday afternoon, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that the Atlanta Hawks were in discussion to bring Marreese Speights into the fold, but negotiations fell apart late in the process:

Wojnarowski indicates that the Hawks were deep into negotiations with Speights, who is coming off a relatively successful season with the Los Angeles Clippers in which he shot 37.2 percent from beyond the three-point line on more total attempts than the rest of his career combined. Speights was a key member of the Clippers bench unit that played incredibly (and, as it turned out, unsustainably) well in the first month or two of the 2016-17 season. He signed on last summer in Los Angeles and opted out of a second year at about $2.1 million, so odds are that he was looking for more than that from the Hawks.

Speights would have brought another backup big man into the rotation to play either position as the Hawks continue to look to build their depth in this area. Ersan Ilyasova, John Collins, Mike Muscala, Dewayne Dedmon, Diamond Stone and Miles Plumlee are the big men remaining on the roster at this point after the exodus of Dwight Howard and Paul Millsap left both starting spots in question. Speights wouldn’t have filled either of those spots but would have brought a different element off the bench as an outsider shooter and scorer to boost the bench offense.

The Hawks can still re-open negotiations with him, but it seems as though their interest has expired at this point. Perhaps he was asking for too much money, too many years, or perhaps they have another target in mind—only time will tell.