Landry Fields says Hawks likely to keep first overall pick and make selection

Hawks general manager Landry Fields said the team would stick with it and use the first pick. Fields met with reporters Monday before the draft. He gave an update on the team’s situation and how the prospect review process has been going.

Fields declined to provide the number of players the Hawks have hosted for practice. According to a report from HoopsHype, 15 players visited the Hawks, including Zaccharie Risacher and Donovan Clingan. Center Alexandre Sarr, whom analysts consider the first favorite to become No. 1 overall, has not yet worked out.

“I would say a week ago it was wider than it is today,” Fields said Monday. “The board of directors is definitely in the process of structuring itself, of hierarchizing itself. So to be No. 1, the guy we see is a perfect fit for us, not only for the next day, but also for the future.

Of the players the team has trained so far, Fields said a few different guys have blown them away. But the team has focused on a common thread in the prospects it has recruited and will continue to review. The Hawks front office has tried to define the traits that are important to them and used them as a guide in their evaluations.

“They’re just really good guys (and) good people in this draft and that doesn’t mean it’s always like that,” Fields said. “But it’s been really nice to see especially the guys who should all be at the top and the guys that we’ve hosted. Taking them to dinner and talking with him, whether it’s in Chicago here in the building, on Zoom or wherever, I mean, like we have so many different mediums to do that and just to get to know them more and more outside of the information that you gather around them.

Even though the Hawks focused on evaluating prospects, they remained flexible and fielded phone calls regarding the pick. Of course, Fields didn’t provide details about the nature of the calls, but said the phones were ringing.

“I had a little bit of time off (Sunday) because it was Father’s Day,” Fields said. “But most of the time it rings continuously and we also make outgoing calls, just to see what the rest of the landscape looks like. »

With nine days until the draft, the Hawks currently have no second-round picks. This pick will go to Portland as part of the deal that allowed them to acquire Saddiq Bey last February. They are also missing their 2025 and 2027 first-round picks and also owe the Spurs a 2026 first-round pick swap as part of the Dejounte Murray trade.

So, with few draft assets attached to the Hawks in upcoming drafts, the Hawks could look to get the most out of this year’s draft. Fields, however, has confidence in the work the Hawks have done not only in the last five weeks since the draft lottery landed the surprise No. 1 pick, as they have scouted prospects in the last four to five years.

“This process has been really fun and challenging,” he said. “And our group did a wonderful job.” Not just recently, but this goes back to when a lot of these selected players were in high school and not just as seniors, but as juniors. So it’s really cool to see their evolution and the journey they’ve taken and the positions they’ve put themselves in.

This work alleviated any pressure Fields might have personally to make the right choice.

“You avoid pressure by doing your job,” he said. “If you do all the right work beforehand and you get to the decision point, you make the decision and you live with it. And part of living with that is trying to improve player -what a small gain for next time.

“So I think when you have that, for me personally, because it ties into that previous question, when you have that perspective and that paradigm that comes to mind. This really alleviates the problem, because it’s almost like a “can’t lose” type deal. Although I understand that there are no results with certainty. But if there was an evolution, and even if you were successful too, you would do the same process.