Atlanta Hawks Shouldn't Lose Any Sleep Over Pero Antic Going to Europe

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It looks like the Atlanta Hawks will be without the services of Pero Antic for the upcoming NBA season. Antic was a free agent, so it was far from certain that he would return anyway. This just seems to be the clincher as he is signing with a Turkey-based club.

It’s probably the best move for all involved. The Hawks would have had a hard time justifying putting Antic on next year’s roster. He was just a 30 percent 3-point shooter this season, and he adds little else to a team if he isn’t knocking down threes. He was a pretty bad defensive player, and he wasn’t so great in the rebounding department either. He did seem to be a bit of a fan favorite in Atlanta though, but that’s about it.

This allows the Hawks to move forward with their offseason plans of bringing in an actual big for the bench in the 2015-16 NBA season. The Hawks were one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA a year ago. Antic was a pretty big reason for that considering he was the first big off the bench in most cases. I imagine this will be one of the first things they look at after they figure out the DeMarre Carroll and Paul Millsap situations.

This is going to be one of the bigger offseasons in the history of this franchise. It’s started with the addition with Tim Hardaway Jr., and Antic has departed. Sure, the first two moves have been pretty small thus far, but they are just laying the groundwork for what’s to come. The Hawks can’t afford to strike out in free agency, or they’ll risk losing all of the goodwill and momentum they gained with the fanbase this season.

They are aware of this, and I doubt they’ll come away empty-handed when all is said and done.

Johnathan Neumann is the Atlanta Hawks Beat Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JJ_Neumann, or add him to your network on Google

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