Hawks waive Devin Carter, but roster crunch isn’t over

The Hawks made one cut. They still need another.

Atlanta waived former lottery pick Devin Carter on Friday, reducing its roster to 16 players, one above the regular-season limit.

Carter was acquired from the Kings earlier this summer along with a 2033 second-round pick. The Hawks didn’t send anything back, making the deal a fairly basic salary dump from Sacramento’s perspective.

Because Carter’s $5.16 million salary is guaranteed, Atlanta doesn’t create any immediate cap relief by waiving him. The Hawks will remain about $3.8 million below the luxury-tax line, as Jackson Caudell of Hawks On SI noted.

Still, they added a future draft pick for taking on the money. That was the point.

Now comes the more interesting decision. Corey Kispert, Buddy Hield, Mouhamed Gueye and Ryan Nembhard appear to be the primary candidates for the final roster move, as Caudell wrote. Kispert and Hield carry larger guaranteed salaries, so moving either likely would require a trade.

Gueye has a non-guaranteed contract and could miss time because of injury, making him the simplest player to waive. Nembhard is inexpensive and offers point guard depth behind a backcourt that otherwise includes several combo guards and wings.

Carter’s role was never particularly clear after Atlanta added Luguentz Dort and Nembhard. So his departure makes basketball sense, even if paying more than $5 million to make him disappear looks a little unusual.

Then again, the Hawks received a second-round pick for their trouble. In today’s NBA, teams are increasingly willing to rent out their payroll one transaction at a time.