Atlanta Hawks boast plenty of options to add to core with two top-10 picks

With a pair of top-10 picks in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Atlanta Hawks have a plethora of options to fill out their roster with moves on draft night.

The short period in between the conclusion of the NBA Finals and the “official” start of free agency will have the NBA landscape focusing on the 2019 NBA Draft. This has been labelled a two- or three-star class with plenty of role players available after that, most of which have a couple strengths and holes in their game. Surprisingly, this plays into the Atlanta Hawks‘ hands.

The Hawks boast the No. 8 and 10 picks in this year’s draft, with the latter spot being part of the Trae Young–Luka Doncic trade with the Dallas Mavericks that went down during the 2018 NBA Draft. Dropping in the draft order is never ideal, but  two picks in the top 10 for a roster that outperformed expectations towards the end of the season led by Young, John Collins and fellow 2018 draftee Kevin Huerter is a strong fallback plan — especially with Atlanta having three-fifths of its future starting five locked down with defined roles.

The roles aspect is vital for team construction, as well as situation and infrastructure — something the Hawks have with head coach Lloyd Pierce and Travis Schlenk. Atlanta has given Young the keys to the offense with him running high pick-and-rolls with Collins as shooters like Huerter spot up around the perimeter.

The high pick-and-roll has become a staple of NBA teams and the range Trae possesses puts defenses in a bind. Damian Lillard ran it to varying degrees of success this postseason and has the same range as Trae. Other teams run it to give their athletic point guard a head of steam or a switch onto a lesser defender, but either way it’s been utilized throughout the entire NBA.

Trae Young fills this role as a pick-and-roll ball-handler that poses a threat to pull up from 30 feet with ease and pass coming downhill, but has a ways to go in terms of being efficient as a pick-and-roll ball handler. He ran a pick-and-roll on 45.6 percent of his possessions, but was in the 46.8 percentile in terms of success and efficiency.

Having an explosive roll man in John Collins helps immensely, who was in the 79.6 percentile as a roll man and scored 1.25 points per possession in which he was a pick-and-roll man. These two should continue to build on this chemistry, especially considering Trae’s better play over the second half. Collins showing improvements from year one to two bodes well for his development too.

Collins averaged nearly a double-double in his sophomore season and can do more than be a simple rim-runner offensively. He scored 19.8 points per game, shooting 56.0 percent from the field while grabbing 9.8 rebounds a game.

Where he took a step forward that will certainly unlock more to his game and the Hawks offense as a whole is his catch-and-shoot ability. Collins only shot 0.6 catch-and-shoot 3-pointers per game in 2017-18. This year, that rate increased to 2.5 per game, which he converted at a 35.3 percent.

An even better sign for his shooting growth is his 49.1 percentage on corners 3s and his 76.3 free throw percentage. Yes, he shot only 53 corner 3s all season, but that number is still significant for his game to grow.

The best to way to maximize the space for Young and Collins to operate their two-man game is to space the floor with shooters, such as Kevin Huerter. Like Collins, he can do more than his spot-up role with some creating ability of his own, but maintaining his 38.5 3-point percentage on 4.7 3-pointers per game moving forward will open up this offense as long as they stay together and healthy.

This doesn’t include young players like DeAndre’ Bembry, who has one of my favorite games in the NBA, or Omari Spellman, who shot decently from deep and can play either frontcourt slot. This front office has done a great job in a short time finding pieces that all mesh together, and now with a pair of top-10 picks in their back pocket, have the ability to do add talent however they please to fill their needs of shooting, defense and rim protection.

If they stay at their current spots of picks No. 8 and 10, serviceable role players will fall to them. Cam Reddish is a 6’8” wing who has shooting potential despite a disappointing season at Duke, which included a 33.3 percent on 3-pointers. He may be there at No. 8.

At Duke, he wasn’t a player who handled the ball much because Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett rightfully had the ball in their hands. That will likely be the scenario wherever he lands in the pros, but adjusting to not having the ball as frequently as you used to have it takes time.

De’Andre Hunter, an ideal 3-and-D player that would help the Hawks defensive needs as well as improve their floor-spacing, would be a pipe dream to fall to them, but the teams ahead of them, like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns and Chicago Bulls have much bigger holes, such as point guard (sans Cleveland), to take a limited wing in the top seven picks.

If either of those wings fall to the Hawks at No. 8, they can address their big man conundrum at 10. John Collins can log time at the 5, but is not a natural rim protector, and with a player like Trae Young, who will undoubtedly get hunted on defense, having a legit interior force is a necessity.

The pair of big men that should be there at 10 are Jaxson Hayes and Bol Bol. Hayes, from the University of Texas, is raw, but is extremely athletic and would fit the profile of another rim-running big with the ability to protect the rim. Like all young big men outside of Jaren Jackson Jr., it will take time for him to adapt to anchor a defense and call out screens, switches, anticipate passing lanes and challenge shots without fouling, but the potential is there.

The other will be determined solely on medical results. Bol Bol is a YouTube must-watch. Watching the 7’2” son of NBA player Manute Bol handle the rock in transition, take pull-up 3s and be active defensively is pretty amazing. But a stress fracture in his left foot that caused him to miss most of his lone season at the University of Oregon has caused plenty of fluctuation with his draft status, and big men with foot issues are worrisome — especially at 19 years old.

If the medicals return clean, getting Bol at No. 10 would be ideal for the Hawks, especially considering his crazy stat line of 21.0 points. 9.6 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and 0.8 steals per game, including a 52.0 3-point percentage on 2.8 attempts per game in his nine games at Oregon.

He can play off-ball, and can operate as a floor-spacer or a rim-runner, which can keep Collins with Young in their two-man game. Bol also inherited the shot-blocking gene from pops, and has the quickness to stay with some guards on the perimeter.

An athletic wing and rim-protecting big would give the Hawks five players with clear roles. But if they aren’t pleased with who’s there for them at No. 8 or No. 10, teams may be interested in trading up with them. The Boston Celtics own picks at No. 14 and 20 in the draft and could look to package both of those to move up.

The last time a team owned two top-10 picks was the 2017 NBA Draft, when the Sacramento Kings had picks No. 5 and 10. They found a trading partner in the Portland Trail Blazers, who, like Boston, had two picks in the top 20 but zeroed in on a player that was there in Zach Collins.

We’ll see if a similar situation happens this time around between the Hawks and Celtics. It also helps that Atlanta has shown in the three previous drafts an ability to find talent in the bottom half of the first round, with Collins and Huerter both being selected 19th overall and Bembry going 21st in their respective drafts.

The last option is to get aggressive and move up in the draft. Maybe the Hawks are locked in on Hunter or Jarrett Culver or whoever they may want in the top five or six, don’t like the big man prospects at 10 and dangle their two first round picks to Cleveland, who has roster holes everywhere, to slide up to No. 5.

Regardless of which route the Atlanta Hawks go on draft night, they are in position to add two solid players, trade down and add potentially three, or trade up and grab one of the non-Zion WIlliamson and Ja Morant tier talents. The Hawks hold a lot of power in the top-10 in this draft, and how they utilize these assets to fill out the roles around their young core will be one of the more compelling storylines in the 2019 NBA Draft.