The Atlanta Hawks received some unfortunate news yesterday regarding their rookie center Henri Veesaar . Veesaar tore his ACL in a workout earlier this month and is going to miss the upcoming season. While he was not likely to play a huge role with Atlanta this season, he is going to lose a year of development, and he will be starting behind next season instead of having a full year of development in the G League.
The Hawks have also been in a roster crunch for the past two months, and that got more complicated with Veesaar's injury. After waiving Devin Carter nearly two weeks ago, the Hawks currently stand at 16 players on the roster, with the regular-season limit being 15. It has been unclear how the Hawks plan to solve this roster crunch, and there are not a lot of easy options.
Given that Veesaar is going to be out for the season and he is the lowest-paid player on the roster, could he be on his way out for the year?
Ideally, the Hawks would like to trade either Corey Kispert or Buddy Hield off the team since they are not likely to play any real role on this year's team. However, due to both players' salaries, including Kispert having multiple years left on his contract, that makes them harder to move, though there was reporting earlier this week from NBA insider Jake Fischer that Atlanta has explored sending Buddy Hield to Charlotte for Dorian Finney-Smith , but that would not completely solve the Hawks' roster crunch and would even put the Hawks into the luxury tax, though they could get out of it.
With how complicated it would be to move Hield and Kispert, that left Mouhamed Gueye and Ryan Nembhard as candidates to be waived or traded. Gueye also suffered an injury this summer, though not season -ending, and his contract is non-guaranteed. Nembhard only makes $2.1 million this season, but Atlanta wanted him from the Mavericks, and the fact that they waived Carter seems to indicate that he will be on the roster, although that is not guaranteed.
Which brings us to Veesaar. Veesaar was not the typical second-round pick, as his contract was fully guaranteed for this season and next, and the Hawks clearly like his talent and he fills a need, even if he was not going to play major minutes for the team.
But there is a small chance that he could be waived for the upcoming season to solve this current roster crunch and then be brought back in the offseason.
If the Hawks can't trade Kispert and/or Hield to solve their roster problems, and they would prefer not to waive Gueye, as he is a talented and important player to them, especially on defense, that could lead them to waiving Veesaar, even if it is an unconventional move to waive a player you just drafted.
Could the Hawks come to an agreement with Veesaar that they will waive him and then re-sign him next summer after he gets healthy? It might seem strange, and they have shown no indication that they are considering this, as this is just pure speculation on my part, but it is possible. However, Veesaar may not want to be waived, and if he is, he is under no obligation to come back to Atlanta if there is a spot he would rather be in that would offer him money and maybe a clearer path to playing time. The good thing for Veesaar is that his $1,357,763 salary is guaranteed for the year and his $2,294,370 salary for next season is guaranteed. Atlanta could waive him, carry his salary this year and next year on their books, and then agree to a new deal with him next summer.
With training camp beginning in a week, the Hawks have a complicated problem to solve when it comes to their roster and Veesaar's injury only further muddies that picture.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nba/hawks/onsi as Does Henri Veesaar's Injury Make Him A Potential Roster Crunch Casualty For The Hawks? .
