{"id":845791,"date":"2026-08-06T16:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845791\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T16:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:34:11","slug":"keaton-wallaces-hawks-exit-was-guaranteed-after-early-summer-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845791\/","title":{"rendered":"Keaton Wallace’s Hawks exit was guaranteed after early summer movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the Hawks’ biggest question marks heading into last season was how exactly the tail end of their nightly rotation would shake out.<\/p>\n

Most of the depth chart was known, but once it got to the ninth-man and on, it became a bit unclear. On opening night against the Toronto Raptors – which ultimately aged as a humiliating home defeat – Head Coach Quin Snyder gave a bold answer to the rotation conundrum.<\/p>\n

Keaton Wallace was Trae Young’s backup point guard. He got the nod, to the surprise of many. Wallace, overall, had a solid rookie season for limited the action he received. It wouldn’t have come as a shock to see him stay on the roster long-term.<\/p>\n

After just how the Hawks began to operate following the season’s conclusion, though, his departure became inevitable. And now it’s official.<\/p>\n

Wallace signed overseas after Hawks brought in several new guards<\/p>\n

After remaining an unrestricted free agent for much of the summer, Wallace ultimately signed a two-year deal<\/a> with Maccabi Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

There’s a chance there was interest around the league in acquiring Wallace’s services on a short-term deal, but there are now few teams with much cap or roster space left. Letting talks stall can be risky.<\/p>\n

Plus, once it was made clear that Atlanta had no intentions of bringing him back on a standard deal, his camp had to get creative.<\/p>\n

The first move that signaled Wallace’s time in Atlanta would be coming to an end was the selection of Kingston Flemings<\/a> with the eighth-overall pick. Of course, Flemings was set to have the upper-hand on Wallace for a shot at nightly minutes.<\/p>\n

Next were the trades for Sacramento’s Devin Carter<\/a> and Dallas’ Ryan Nembhard. Both were on standard deals, and both had more proven NBA-level production than Wallace. He would’ve been fighting quite an uphill battle if he re-signed, especially considering that the Hawks are now two above the roster limit.<\/p>\n

Don’t rule out an NBA comeback for the 27-year-old<\/p>\n

Now more than ever, players have real incentive to take a break<\/a> from the NBA, letting scouts and personnel reconsider their value while they continue playing professional ball.<\/p>\n

The intensity overseas is impressive, and suiting up for Tel Aviv will help Wallace – as well as Jacob Toppin, another former Hawk – remain in NBA shape while awaiting a second look.<\/p>\n

Wallace’s two seasons in Atlanta were solid, and fans should wish him nothing but the best in his new journey.<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the Hawks’ biggest question marks heading into last season was how exactly the tail end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-845791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}