Atlanta Hawks make key free agent move with forward Vit Krejci

Today was an important deadline for the Atlanta Hawks for several reasons. One of them concerned emerging forward Vit Krejci and whether or not to make him a two-way qualifying offer. The Hawks made the easy decision to extend a two-way qualifying offer to Krejci according to Lauren Williams of the AJC, making him now a restricted free agent. Atlanta can now match any offer another team presents to Krejci.

This was a pretty easy decision for the Hawks considering how good Krejci was towards the end of the season. Due to the injuries the Hawks were dealing with across the team, Krejci was forced to play a lot down the stretch, including starting a few games. He played in 22 games last season, including 14 starts and averaged 6.1 PPG, 2.4 RPG, and 2.5 APG. He shot 49% from the field, including 41% from three. At 6’8 195 LBS, Krejci has emerged as a wing with size and shooting that the Hawks lacked. His best performance came in the Hawks’ huge comeback against the Boston Celtics, a game in which he scored 16 points, including 13 points in one quarter. He was 4-7 from three that night.

What could Krejci’s role be on this team? The Hawks have gotten bigger and better on the wing and offensively in the early parts of the offseason. They selected Zaccharie Risacher with the first overall pick and just acquired Dyson Daniels in the Dejounte Murray trade. De’Andre Hunter is also on the team. Krejci is young and showed potential last season, but that was also in a very small sample size. There’s no clear path for him to play a lot of minutes this season, but that could change. I think the Hawks made the right choice today in offering him an offer.

The Hawks made some big decisions today with their free agents. They didn’t make a qualifying offer to Saddiq Bey, making him an unrestricted free agent, and they picked up the $2.2 million team option for Garrison Matthews, bringing him back for another season . Krejci