Alex Len kept checking his phone from the moment he woke up on Feb. 5 in Minnesota. His eyes would dart to the top of his screen, and his heart rate increased each time a new notification popped up. In the early morning hours that day, the Hawks traded Evan Turner and Brooklyn’s first-round pick, which they owned in a package that brought back Houston center Clint Capela.



The Hawks now had four centers on the roster. Capela was added to be the team’s future starting center, Bruno Fernando was going to be given time to develop, and Damian Jones and Len were free agents this summer. Len knew from the moment he saw the Capela trade that Feb. 5 might be his final day with the Hawks.



Len wasn’t playing that night in Minnesota as he recovered from a right hip flexor strain, so when the locker room opened to the media 75 minutes prior to the game, he was still on his phone checking for updates.



He wasn’t confident that he was going...