Hawks send Usman Garuba, TyTy Washington, Rudy Gay, and second-round pick to Thunder for Patty Mills

After sending John Collins to the Thunder for Rudy Gay, a second-round pick, and “financial flexibility” per general manager Landry Fields in the form of a traded player exception, the Hawks signaled their intention to be busy this offseason on the trade market. With this room underneath the luxury tax line, the Hawks then reportedly acquired Usman Garuba, TyTy Washington Jr., and two second-round picks for the draft rights to Alpha Kaba from the Houston Rockets.

Now, it looks like that second reported trade is being rolled into a different transaction. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN broke the news Saturday of yet another move.

Patty Mills is in the last year of his contract worth around $6.8 million, a figure that is actually north of Gay’s roughly $6.5 million salary. Mills is a 34-year-old, 14-year veteran of the NBA who has remained a solid backup point guard for the majority of his career. The Hawks may see him as a deep option at guard similar to the role that Aaron Holiday played a season ago.

Ultimately, it seems the motivation was to clear roster spots to move towards to the 15-man limit of non-two-way contract players the Hawks can retain going into the season. Atlanta will still have decisions to make on Tyrese Martin, Vit Krejci, and Bruno Fernando, who all have some level of non-guaranteed salary or team option due by the beginning of the regular season.