ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Hawks addressed their lack of depth at center by acquiring Jock Landale from the Utah Jazz for cash considerations, a person with knowledge of the move said Wednesday night.
Landale was traded to Atlanta one day after being part of an eight-player trade, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because Wednesday's trade had not yet received the required league approval.
On Tuesday, the Memphis Grizzlies traded Landale, Jaren Jackson Jr., John Konchar and Vince Williams Jr. to Utah in exchange for Georges Niang, Kyle Anderson, Walter Clayton Jr. and Taylor Hendricks. The deal also included three first-round picks for Memphis.
Landale, 30, averaged 11.3 points and 6.5 rebounds in 45 games, including 25 starts, for Memphis.
Landale, a native of Australia, is in his fifth NBA season. He made his NBA debut with San Antonio in the 2021-22 season and has also played for Phoenix and Houston. He hadn't started more than four games in any season before assuming a more prominent role with Memphis this season.
The 6-foot-11 Landale will add needed inside depth for Atlanta. Veteran Kristaps Porzingis has been unavailable much of the season due to illness and injuries, and N'Faly Dante is out for the season with an injury.
The Hawks traded Porzingis to Golden State on Wednesday night in exchange for forward Jonathan Kuminga and guard Buddy Hield. It has been a busy trade season for Atlanta, which dealt All-Star guard Trae Young to Washington for a package including guard CJ McCollum on Jan. 7.
The addition of Landale was Atlanta's second trade of the week leading up to Thursday's NBA trade deadline. On Sunday, the Hawks traded forward Vit Krejci to Portland in exchange for injured center Duop Reath and second-round draft picks in 2027 and 2030.
Reath, who hasn’t played since Jan. 18, underwent surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right foot last week and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
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Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) shoots against Memphis Grizzlies center Jock Landale (31) and forward Jaylen Wells, right, in the first half of an NBA basketball game Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)
New Orleans Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears (0) drives to the basket against Memphis Grizzlies center Jock Landale (31) and guard Vince Williams Jr. (5) in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Avery Sikes)
ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia General Assembly ended its annual session early Friday without a plan for new equipment to overhaul the state's voting system by a July deadline, plunging into doubt the future of elections in the political battleground.
The lawmakers' failure to offer a solution after months of debate raises uncertainty about how Georgians will vote in November and leaves confusion that could end in the courts or a special legislative session.
“They’ve abdicated their responsibility,” Democratic state Rep. Saira Draper said of inaction by Republicans who control the legislature.
Currently, voters make their choices on Dominion Voting machines, which then print ballots with a QR code that scanners read to tally votes. Those machines have been repeatedly targeted by President Donald Trump following his 2020 election loss, and Trump’s Georgia supporters responded by enacting a law in 2024 that bans using barcodes to count votes.
But state law still requires counties to use the machines. No money has been allocated to reprogram them, and lawmakers failed to agree on a replacement.
“We’ll have an unresolvable statutory conflict come July 1,” said House Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Victor Anderson, a Cornelia Republican who backed a proposal to keep using the machines in 2026 that Senate Republicans declined to consider.
House Republicans and Democrats backed Anderson's plan, which would have required that Georgia choose a voting process that didn't use QR codes by 2028. Election officials preferred that solution.
“The Senate has shown that they’re not responsible actors,” Draper said. She added that Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Trump-endorsed Republican running for governor, seemed more interested in keeping Trump's backing than “doing right by Georgia voters.”
A spokesperson for Jones didn't immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday.
Joseph Kirk, Bartow County election supervisor and president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, said he’ll look to the secretary of state for guidance and assumes a judge will rule to instruct election officials how to proceed.
“This is uncharted territory,” he said.
Robert Sinners, a spokesperson for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is also running for governor, said officials are “ready to follow the law and follow the Constitution.”
Republican House Speaker Jon Burns told reporters that his chamber was seeking to minimize changes this year.
“You can’t change horses in the middle of the stream,” Burns said.
Burns said he would meet with Gov. Brian Kemp and “take his temperature" on the possibility of a special session. A spokesperson for Kemp didn't answer questions about what the outgoing Republican governor would do.
Anderson said without action, the state could be required to use hand-marked and hand-counted paper ballots in November.
Election officials say switching to a new system within just a few months, as advocated by some Republicans, would be nearly impossible.
“They made no way for this to happen except putting a deadline on it," Cherokee County elections director Anne Dover said of the switch away from barcodes. Dover said one problem under some plans is that a very large number of ballots would have to be printed.
Lawmakers seemed more concerned about scoring political points than making practical plans, Paulding County Election Supervisor Deidre Holden said.
“If anyone is resilient and can get the job done, it’s all of us election officials, but the legislators need to work with us, and they need to understand what we do before they go making laws that are basically unachievable for us,” Holden said.
Supporters of hand-marked paper ballots say voters are more likely to trust in an accurate count if they can see what gets read by the scanner.
Right-wing election activists lobbied lawmakers for an immediate switch to hand-marked paper ballots, but the House turned away from a Senate proposal to do so.
Anderson said he wasn’t sure if a special session could escape those political crosswinds, but said Georgia lawmakers must fix the problem.
“This is a legislative problem,” Anderson said. “It’s a legislative solution that has to happen.”
FILE - Voting machines are seen at the Bartow County Election office, Jan. 25, 2024, in Cartersville, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
