The Atlanta Hawks gained traction over the last month as one of the teams most likely to make moves -- and big ones -- before the NBA trade deadline. Jeff Teague has been rumored to be available for weeks, and in the past 10 days, Al Horford popped up as being on the block given his upcoming free agent status.
However, multiple reports had indicated that the Hawks' asking price for both players was astronomical, and early Thursday word surfaced that the Hawks were shutting things down and prepared to keep their team intact through the end of the year.
Sources: Atlanta's expressing its intentions to rivals that Hawks plan to keep team intact at deadline, holding onto Horford and key guards.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) February 18, 2016
Teams monitoring Atlanta have started to hear: Jeff Teague is off the table. Hawks never been all in on moving their starting point guard.
— Chris Mannix (@ChrisMannixYS) February 18, 2016
So the Hawks kicked the tires to see if they had the ability to make a big move, but instead, couldn't get the kind of monster return they were looking for. They'll keep together a team that won 60-plus games last season, and try and figure out a plan involving Horford in free agency later.
The Hawks still have to sort out what to do long-term with Teague and backup Dennis Schröder, but for now, it appears the Hawks are looking toward continuity. There's time before the deadline for that to change, but it may have just been that the Hawks could not deal with the risks involved with massive changes.
