The Atlanta Hawks have some tough decisions to make after their surprise win in Sunday’s NBA Draft Lottery.
The Hawks earned the No. 1 overall pick in the lottery this year despite having just a three percent chance of doing so. Nine other NBA teams had better odds for the No. 1 pick, but Atlanta managed to leapfrog them all to land the top selection.
THE ATLANTA HAWKS HAVE THE #1 PICK IN THE 2024 NBA DRAFT pic.twitter.com/Q1IZWS2jTP
— KingCharge (@KingCharge) May 12, 2024
Speaking with reporters afterwards, Hawks GM Landry Fields was asked whether the team would consider trading away the No. 1 pick.
“Not even our focus right now,” replied Fields. “This is a point in time where the opportunity that’s before us is an excellent opportunity, and it puts us in position [to succeed].”
That is a good way of playing both sides for Fields. The Hawks are in a particularly interesting situation as well since there is no real generational talent in this year’s draft class and since they are also a team with two max stars (Trae Young and Dejounte Murray) in the primes of their careers.
Of course, Atlanta could potentially break up the Young-Murray partnership this offseason (with one looking more likely than the other to be traded). But the team will still have to take a long, hard look in the mirror in the coming months and decide which timeline they want to pursue — an immediate improvement to their current low-ceiling core or a full-on rebuild.
