How the Hawks are Equipped to Upgrade the Roster - 2026 Offseason Preview

On the Hawks' upcoming offseason, their upcoming draft pick, potential contracts of CJ McCollum and Jonathan Kuminga, roster needs, and why they'll maintain future cap flexibility in pursuit of them.

The Hawks are one of the best examples this decade of how quickly a team can turn things around. They went from having a poor outlook to one that should be sustainable in the present while still giving them a bright future. They have a lot of cap flexibility, several high draft picks, and talented young players to look forward to. That doesn’t even account for their lottery luck, which hasn’t helped them.

Last year’s team was expected to go far. It didn’t pan out, so they made several moves to prepare for the future while also changing their style. The results put them back in the playoff picture, where many expected them before the season started. They also continued to get significant improvements across the roster, particularly from Jalen Johnson, Onyeka Okongwu, Dyson Daniels, and Most Improved Player winner Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

The Hawks are now entering the third year of their retool with one of the more optimistic foundations in the league. They have plenty of resources to add upgrades across the roster and solidify their depth. They also have the means to push their chips in for someone who could raise their ceiling. The patient organization will likely proceed with caution by prioritizing cap flexibility and seeking foundational players in the draft.

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Salary cap situation and draft assets

The Hawks are entering the offseason with 12 players under contract, including the 8th and 23rd overall picks in the 2026 NBA Draft. They total a combined $163.9 million in salaries, leaving them well below the $200.5 million luxury tax line. That is likely the threshold they won’t exceed this season.

The Hawks will have plenty of roster-building resources and tax flexibility to make multiple significant additions. The biggest decision they’ll need to make is whether they want to use cap space or operate as an over-the-cap team. Their current payroll is structured for them to choose either path.

To access cap space, the Hawks would need to make several sacrifices. They’d need to decline Jonathan Kuminga’s team option and waive Buddy Hield, who has a partially guaranteed salary. They’d also need to renounce the cap holds to all their free agents. That would include Kuminga, assuming they declined his option, and C.J. McCollum, which would eliminate their Bird rights.

The Hawks currently project to create a maximum of just over $30 million in cap space if they do everything mentioned above. That would be enough to make a competitive offer for most of the best free agents. They’d also have the $9.3 million room mid-level exception afterward to sign or trade for another player making up to that amount.

If the Hawks go down the cap space path, they might as well take it a step further. They can create maximum cap space if they trade Corey Kispert or Zaccharie Risacher without taking back any salary. That would give them just over $41.25 million in cap space, which is the lowest-tier maximum salary worth 25 percent of the salary cap for players with 0-6 years of service.

This would be an aggressive path that puts them in play for a top unrestricted free agent like Austin Reaves. They could make him a competitive offer starting at or near the maximum. They could also make such an offer sheet to a top restricted free agent like Jalen Duren, but if he’s attainable, they’re more likely to get a deal done through a sign-and-trade.

The cap space path seems unlikely for multiple reasons. The first is that they wouldn’t be able to retain their top free agents. The Hawks may also feel the team isn’t far enough ahead in its timeline to make such a significant payroll commitment. Even if they believed adding one of these top free agents could elevate them to title contender status, it seems unlikely that those players are attainable. We could find out if they’re available at all before the start of free agency since teams can verbally agree to contracts with their own free agents after the Finals end.

With that said, the Hawks seem far more likely to operate as an over-the-cap team below the $209.1 million first apron. Teams in that payroll range can use the expanded trade exception to take in more salary than they send out in trades, use the $15 million mid-level exception and $5.5 million bi-annual exception, and access all their trade exceptions, including one worth $11 million they created from trading Luke Kennard.

The Hawks could also sign and trade for free agents, which is a more realistic pathway to get a top free agent than cap space. They could create outgoing salary by sending out their own free agents, provided the player signs a three-year deal with no options. Only the first year would need to be guaranteed.

A trade of some sort seems to be the most likely path to making a meaningful change to the roster. It would be surprising if the Hawks didn’t make multiple trades, considering they made 10 last season. As an example of how the expanded trade exception works, they’d need to send out $31.1 million to acquire a player earning the $41.25 million maximum salary. It’s similar to how they acquired Kristaps Porzingis last season.