Isaiah Taylor waived by Atlanta Hawks ahead of delayed guarantee date

Earlier in the 2018 offseason, the Atlanta Hawks made the decision to part ways with Tyler Cavanaugh, four days before a significant portion of his 2018-19 salary was set to guarantee. This week, the Hawks also faced a similar decision with Isaiah Taylor and it centered on $300,000 of his scheduled $1.54 million salary for the 2018-19 campaign.

Prior actually making the final choice, though, the team came to an agreement with the young point guard to push the guarantee date back from June 22 to June 30.

Now, though, it appears that Taylor will be hitting the market, as the Hawks elected to waive him ahead of the guarantee date.

Update: The Hawks have now announced the decision to waive Taylor.

Taylor, who turns 24 on July 11, performed reasonably well in reserve duty last season, appearing in 67 games (nine starts) and averaging 6.6 points and 3.1 assists per game. He brings athleticism and theoretical upside to the table but, with a jump shot that continues to be a question mark, Atlanta seemingly decided that the roster and salary cap flexibility was more important than sending $300,000 Taylor’s way at this juncture.

It should be noted that the Hawks could conceivably bring Taylor back into the fold under a new contract in the near future (though he isn’t on the Summer League roster) and that wouldn’t be an overwhelming surprise. After all, only Trae Young and Dennis Schröder are currently under contract at point guard and the team would potentially want to add another option (even with two-way guard Jaylen Adams available) between now and October. For now, though, Taylor will hit the market and it will be interesting to see what he commands.

Stay tuned.