Oklahoma City Thunder Star Jalen Williams Named Offseason Trade Target for Atlanta Hawks

Oklahoma City Thunder star Jalen Williams has been named an offseason trade target for the Atlanta Hawks. 

NBA analyst Dan Favale of Bleacher Report believes the Hawks should pursue a trade for Williams if the Thunder do the unexpected and make the swingman available this summer. 

"File Jalen Williams away under 'Probably not happening, but it never hurts to ask.' The Oklahoma City Thunder's payroll is about to balloon," Favale wrote. "Perhaps the emergence of Ajay Mitchell and the team's success without J-Dub gets executive vice president Sam Presti prioritizing depth and optionality over a three-max-star model.

"Atlanta can check all the possible boxes in a J-Dub shocker. It has plenty of future picks, including No. 8 this June, and can save OKC stacks of cash if it's willing to decline Jonathan Kuminga's team option."

The odds of the Thunder trading Williams are very, very low. However, no one thought the Dallas Mavericks would ever trade Luka Dončić. Nothing can be ruled out in today's NBA anymore after the Los Angeles Lakers acquired Dončić last season.  

Williams will make $41.3 million next season. He doesn't have a no-trade clause in his contract. The All-Star averaged 17.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game for the Thunder this season while shooting 48.4% from the field, 29.9% from beyond the arc and 83.7% from the free-throw line. He's one of the top two-way players in the league. 

Adding Williams to the Hawks' core of Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker would make Quin Snyder's team a legitimate championship contender.   

However, we could see Atlanta stand pat this summer. 

"We are not one player away," Hawks exec Onsi Saleh said. "The best iteration of this team is going to be through development and our players currently getting better. We're really excited about the future and what holds there, from the draft to the flexibility moving forward, all that stuff. We're in a good place, position set up moving forward, and our coaching staff has just been remarkable this year."

If the Thunder lose to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals or make the NBA Finals and lose to the New York Knicks or Cleveland Cavaliers, a blockbuster trade could happen this summer.

After all, Sam Presti is playing chess while everyone else in the NBA is playing checkers.

Williams has career averages of 18.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game in the regular season and 20.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists per contest in the playoffs. He's only 25 years old. 

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