Rumors started to break yesterday afternoon that the Wizards were receiving interest from a number of teams about Kirk Hinrich, and before the end of the night, a trade had been made official. The Wizards have traded Kirk Hinrich to the Atlanta Hawks for Mike Bibby, Mo Evans, rookie Jordan Crawford and the Hawks' first round pick in the upcoming draft.
Here is a breakdown of the assets the Wizards got in return from the Hawks:
- Mike Bibby is a good three point shooter, but a step down from Kirk Hinrich in all other parts of the game. He has another year left on his contract after this one, much like Hinrich, but at a couple $million fewer a year. As a player, he is a step down.
- Mo Williams is a hard nosed perimeter defender who can hit a three pointer if left open. He isn't a player that will speed up the Wizards re-build by any means, but he is a good teammate and a useful player to have around.
- Jordan Crawford had a lot of hype coming into the draft this year out of Xavier, but he hasn't played very well this year while dealing with injuries. He had a great NCAA Tournament last year, and has potential to be pretty good, but isn't there yet.
- A first round pick which figures to be in the early 20's.
For reaction, we go to Bullets Forever and our very own Mike Prada, who isn't totally broken up about the trade, but not particularly excited about it either.
So in the end, given the option between trading Hinrich to get an additional first-round pick and a marginal prospect or keeping Hinrich, forgetting the marginal prospect and simply buying another pick, I'd choose option B. That's why I'm pretty lukewarm about this one.
I disagree a little bit with Mike only because I don't think keeping Hinrich meant that much to the Wizards. With him, they weren't very competitive at all, and this and next season aren't about competing anyway. So if you can get a pick, and a player who could develop into a rotation player over time without a huge financial commitment, why not? It's not a deal the Wizards had to do, but more so that there isn't a very good reason why they shouldn't. It's not really exciting, but it could be helpful down the line.