Jeff Teague has signed an offer sheet with the Milwaukee Bucks. This leaves the Atlanta Hawks with two choices. They can match the offer – $32 million over four seasons – and keep Teague, or do nothing and let him walk with no compensation.

Teague is a pretty good point guard but not nearly an All-Star. At $8 million per season, Teague would take a chunk out of the Hawks’ precious cap space but wouldn’t destroy it. The four years would be more problematic, but not many free agents are apt to accept two-year deals, as happened with new Hawks Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll.

There’s also this: The Hawks do need a point guard. Draftee Dennis Schoeder is 19 and hasn't played outside Europe, which means he's probably not ready. Teague isn’t perfect, but neither is Brandon Jennings, who's two years younger and more gifted than Teague but whose excesses are why Milwaukee went shopping in the first place.

It has been suggested that the Hawks could let Lou Williams play point guard, but that’s unrealistic. Williams is a scorer. Would the Hawks build a roster around the concept of sharing only to have their main ballhandler's first instinct be to shoot it?

That the Hawks were willing to let Teague listen to offers tells us that the new administration – general manager Danny Ferry and coach Mike Budenholzer – doesn’t regard him as the absolute answer. Then again, Mike Woodson barely played Teague after Rick Sund made him the Hawks’ Round 1 pick in 2009, and Woodson’s successor Larry Drew, who now coaches Milwaukee, didn’t really give Teague a chance until Kirk Hinrich got hurt in the 2011 postseason.

If the Hawks want to bet on talent, they’ll let Teague leave and make a pitch for Jennings. Given that the Hawks essentially swapped Josh Smith, who’s much the bigger talent, for Millsap, betting on raw ability mightn’t be as important to Ferry as to other GMs. Teague remaining a Hawk under these circumstances couldn’t be called a match made in heaven, but a match would make sense, at least to me.

As we know, I've been wrong on occasion. I fully expect to be wrong on this.

Today's print column via myajc.com: For now, the Hawks' focus is on better chemistry.

Further reading: Yesterday's post off the Millsap press conference.

From Saturday: Josh Smith to the Pistons -- what it means for the Hawks.

Saturday's print column via myajc.com: With Dwight Howard gone, should the Hawks have tanked?

Friday's blog post: With Dwight Howard gone, the Hawks turn to ... Millsap?