Two ASU Alumni, Two Very Different NBA Situations
The NBA offseason has been anything but quiet for Arizona State's alumni — and the week of Sept. 11–17 brought the sharpest contrast yet between a player on the rise and one fighting for a roster spot.
Devin Carter's fragile foothold just got shakier.
The Atlanta Hawks waived Carter as the organization finally moved to resolve a roster crunch that had been building for months. The logjam traces back to a three-team trade Atlanta completed two months ago that brought in both Luguentz Dort — himself an ASU product — and Ryan Nembhard, leaving the Hawks rostering 17 players well beyond their legal limit. Carter was the one who didn't survive the math.
What makes the move worth watching isn't just Carter's fate in isolation — it's the context. The Hawks didn't waive him for performance reasons tied to some clear-cut demotion narrative; they waived him because somebody had to go, and Carter drew the short straw in a crunch created by bigger moves. That's a brutal but important distinction for any team that might consider picking him up. According to Sports Illustrated, Atlanta had been carrying 17 players for the duration since the blockbuster deal, and clearing Carter was the first domino in what's expected to be a broader roster reshuffling.
Whether Carter latches on elsewhere — via waivers, a two-way deal, or the G League — remains the open question. His NBA future isn't closed, but the runway just got shorter.
The trade that displaced Carter also elevated a fellow Sun Devil.
Luguentz Dort's move to Atlanta in that same three-team deal is a notable subplot for ASU fans tracking their alumni. Dort is now anchoring a Hawks backcourt alongside younger pieces, and his presence was directly tied to the roster math that pushed Carter out. It's a zero-sum situation with two Arizona State names on opposite ends of it.
Meanwhile, James Harden is giving Cleveland something it hasn't seen in years.
Far from the roster chaos in Atlanta, James Harden is quietly rewriting what the Cavaliers look like as a contender. A Sports Illustrated breakdown this week focused on what Harden is bringing to Cleveland that's genuinely new — not just volume scoring or playmaking in the abstract, but something the franchise has been missing. The piece stops short of crowning anything this early, but the framing is clear: Harden's presence changes the Cavaliers' offensive identity in ways that extend beyond his individual numbers.
For ASU fans, Harden remains the program's most prominent NBA name, and his continued relevance at this stage of his career is its own kind of story.
The bottom line for Sun Devil nation: The week produced real stakes. Carter's waiver is the headline, but Dort's arrival in Atlanta and Harden's evolving role in Cleveland are the threads worth pulling as the 2026–27 season approaches. ASU's NBA footprint remains active — it's just more complicated than it was seven days ago.
AI-generated summary
