I Called the Hawks Trades the Best Moves in Franchise History. The Receipts Are In.

Two days ago I told you the Trae trade would be remembered as the best move in Hawks history. SI, Yahoo, and ESPN spent the last month catching up.

Receipts.

ClutchPoints gave the Hawks a B- on the Trae deal in January. The Ringer warned about "temptation." A month later, ESPN's Kevin Pelton called the Kuminga swap merely "understandable." Real brave stuff. Now SI's Jackson Caudell is regrading the Kuminga swap an A and calling it "the most lopsided deadline trade." Yahoo is writing love letters to the starting five. The narrative flipped and I'm standing exactly where I was two months ago.

Let's talk about the full haul.

Kuminga dropped 27 points on 75% shooting in his Hawks debut. The first three games were historic — 21.3 PPG with a +59 plus-minus, the best opening stretch for any Hawks player in the play-by-play era. Has he settled since then? Yeah. He's averaging around 12 points overall with the Hawks, including a 1-for-9 stinker against his old team Saturday. I'm not hiding that. But here's what matters: even the modest version of Kuminga is a 23-year-old wing on a team option. Porzingis played 17 games as a Hawk. Seventeen. The trade was a steal in February and it's a steal now.

And then there's Landale.

This is the part where I need everyone to sit down. The Hawks acquired Jock Landale from Utah for cash considerations. Cash. Not a first-rounder. Not a swap. Cash. Landale was already in the middle of a career year in Memphis — 11.3 points, 6.5 boards, 38% from three in 45 games — and Utah flipped him to Atlanta for pocket change after the Jaren Jackson deal. In 11 games as a Hawk he's shooting 53% from the field and 44% from deep, spacing the floor in ways Okongwu and Capela never could. SI called it a home run. ClutchPoints gave it an A+. When the best criticism of a trade is "they got lucky," that's not criticism. That's cope.

19-10 since the Trae trade date. The starting five of Daniels, NAW, McCollum, Johnson, and Okongwu is 8-0, outscoring opponents by 140 points with the best net rating of any lineup in the NBA. The defense — the same defense that was bottom-10 for the entire Trae era — has been sixth in the league since the trade at 110.2 points per 100 possessions.

Onsi Saleh watched this franchise give up three first-round picks for Dejounte Murray and said never again. No overpays. No panic. Kuminga for an injured center. Landale for cash. McCollum for a franchise player who made them worse. Every move looks better today than it did the day it happened.

Simone wrote the eulogy for the Trae era. I'm writing the celebration for what replaced it.

I'm 89% sure this front office just pulled off the best three-trade stretch in Hawks history. The graders are correcting their homework. I already turned mine in.

Bookmark set. Receipts delivered.