Should Mavs Circle Back to Hawks on Clint Capela Trade?

The Dallas Mavericks are still searching for a veteran starting center, and Atlanta Hawks' Clint Capela might be one of the more realistic trade options.

Dalton Trigg | Jul 2, 2023

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As the Dallas Mavericks continue their search for a veteran starting center, one team they should probably circle back to is the Atlanta Hawks. According to ESPN's Tim MacMahon, the Mavs attempted to trade for Clint Capela around the NBA Draft, but the two sides weren't able to come to any kind of agreement.

"The Mavericks asked for Clint Capela," MacMahon said on an episode of The Hoop Collective. "My understanding is the Hawks asked for the Mavericks to throw in Josh Green or Jaden Hardy, which that's a no-go. Those are young players that the Mavericks really like."

Since then, the Hawks have added a couple of young talents in TyTy Washington Jr. and Usman Garuba in what was basically a salary-dump trade with the Houston Rockets. Now that the Hawks have Washington and Garuba, perhaps they wouldn't be as insistent on the Mavs including Jaden Hardy or Josh Green in a potential deal for Capela.

As good as Capela still is – he averaged 12 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 65.3 percent from the field last season – he's 29 years old, and 22-year-old, up-and-coming Hawks big man Onyeka Okongwu is likely due for a promotion into Atlanta's starting lineup.

It's no secret that the Mavs have been shopping Tim Hardaway Jr. and JaVale McGee in trade talks. With Atlanta getting their two younger pieces from Houston, and Okongwu poised to be the younger replacement for Capela at some point, perhaps a straight-up swap of Hardaway and McGee for Capela could work for both sides.

If not, the Mavs still have several opportunities that could open up in the next week or so, depending on what other trades go down around the league. This is certainly one we'll be keeping our eyes on until then, though.

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Published Jul 2, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.