Analyst believes Hawks should keep No. 1 overall pick and not trade him

What will the Hawks do with the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft?

This is going to be one of the biggest questions in the NBA over the next few weeks and even though this draft isn’t as acclaimed as some previous ones, it’s still a fascinating decision ahead of Atlanta, who has plenty of other important decisions. to do this offseason.

With less than three weeks until the start of the draft, what exactly Atlanta does is still up for debate. The only thing that seems even somewhat certain is that they’re going to take one of Alex Sarr, Donovan Clingan, or Zaccharie Risacher with the No. 1 pick when they’re officially on the clock. ESPN’s Jonothan Givony and Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman had the Hawks select Risacher with the No. 1 pick in their latest mock, while Sam Vecenie of The Athletic had the Hawks select Sarr with the No. 1 pick. There has also been talk that the Hawks also like UConn center Donovan Clingan.

Will the Hawks remain No. 1 to take the player of their choice? In a recent article, Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report says the Hawks should keep the pick and draft who they want and not trade the pick:

“The Hawks should absolutely treat their lottery luck like the jackpot it was. This franchise sorely needs more top-notch talent to break out of the rut it has faced since reaching the Finals of the 2021 conference: two playoff trips, no series wins three seasons.

Even if there isn’t an obviously transcendent mega-talent at the top of this draft, this class will produce some stars. And Atlanta has the proverbial pick of the scope as the only organization guaranteed to have the player in the top spot on their big board.

Now the Hawks still have to decide who that player is. It looks like it will come down to swingman Zaccharie Risacher or bouncy big man Alex Sarr, but this could be one of those years where the No. 1 pick isn’t known until it’s actually announced.

As long as this player is announced for Atlanta, the Hawks should think they did the right thing. »

Decision: project

I think this assessment is correct. Atlanta shouldn’t look to trade this pick for a veteran player, but an interesting scenario would be if they wanted to trade up and still get the player they wanted at No. 1.

There has been talk about the Hawks possibly trading the pick and whether the San Antonio Spurs are willing to move up. San Antonio may want to speed up the timeline with Victor Wembanyama and may want to get a better player than they could get at No. 4. A popular trade idea has been for the Spurs to send their two first-round picks in that frame . draft of the year (4 and 8) for the No. 1 pick, but would a different trade be better for the Hawks?

The Spurs hold other picks that could be more valuable to Atlanta. When the Hawks traded for Dejounte Murray two summers ago, they sent their 2025 pick (unprotected), a swap of 2026 picks and his 2027 pick (unprotected) for Murray. Atlanta might consider trading Murray this summer and the results haven’t been what they had hoped for when the deal was initially made. If the Spurs want to move up to No. 1 to pair Wembanyama with Alex Sarr or Zaccharie Risacher, would they be willing to part with one of the picks Atlanta gave them in the Murray trade?

It’s an exchange that was discussed in a recent episode of the Game Theory podcast with Sam Vecenie of The Athletic and Bryce Simon. Instead of the Spurs giving up #4 and #8 to move up to #1, they proposed a trade that sent the #4 pick and Atlanta’s 2025 pick to the Hawks and the Spurs get the pick #1. in this year’s draft.

Here’s what Vecenie had to say about the swap idea they proposed on the pod:

“My idea was kind of…everyone had this idea, oh, the Hawks want to get their draft picks back, maybe they’ll move Trae Young to the San Antonio Spurs. What if we just do No. 1 for No. 4, then add in the Hawks 2025 first rounder, which probably won’t be a top ten pick, right, or it could be, it very well could be one. top ten pick, but it won’t be a top ten pick In all likelihood, a very high end pick in the next draft will probably be worse than #8 next year, I guess that will allow. for the Hawks to get one of their picks back for next year, which is very important considering how good this draft looks, I don’t know if I would do that if I was in San Antonio, I would probably keep. No. 4 at the end of the day, but what I will say is this: When I asked around, there was no one who could find a deal for the No. 1 overall pick. »

While this is just speculation at this point, it is an interesting business concept and one that could be more attractive to Atlanta. I think if they made this move, it could indicate that they prefer UConn center Donovan Clingan as the best player in the draft over Alex Sarr or Zaccahrie Risacher. The Spurs would take one of those players, the Wizards would take either Risacher or Sarr (the one San Antonio doesn’t select), then Houston would take a player like Reed Sheppard with the No. 3 pick, leaving the Hawks with Clingan. It’s a gamble though and if Atlanta thinks Clingan is the best player on their roster, they need to be absolutely sure to put him at #4. The Rockets could take him at No. 3 or trade the pick to a team like Memphis that could covet Clingan. Maybe the Hawks manage to land someone other than Sarr, Risacher or Clingan, although that doesn’t appear to be the case at this point in the process, as those are the three players most frequently linked to the Hawks.

I think Atlanta should keep the pick and draft Sarr, but I also think Clingan is a very good prospect. If the Hawks think they could move Clingan at No. 4 and get their own pick back in 2025, that should be explored. Ultimately, the Hawks front office needs to make sure they get the best player in this draft and make the right decision. The next few weeks are going to be exciting.