The Atlanta Hawks had an extremely busy 2019 NBA Draft. With their numerous trades throughout the day, how did they grade out this year?
While the Toronto Raptors are celebrating the first championship for a Canadian basketball team and the Los Angeles Lakers are working on building the next super-team in the NBA, general manager Travis Schlenk and the Atlanta Hawks are quietly accelerating their rebuilding plans.
After smoothly trading back from No. 3 to No. 5 in the 2018 NBA Draft, Schlenk outdid last year’s draft performance and made even more moves in this year’s draft.
At the end of the 2018-19 season, the Hawks owned five picks in the draft and were actively searching out trades once the draft lottery gave them picks No. 8 and 10. Fast forward to early June, and the Hawks managed to add pick No. 17 (and Allen Crabbe) from the Brooklyn Nets.
With six picks in the draft, and all within the top-45, Schlenk made it known that he was planning to tinker with all the assets he had accumulated, including future picks. He did not disappoint, starting with selling draft picks for cash and even more future picks.
It all started with the Miami Heat as the Hawks shipped off pick No. 44 (which turned into Bol Bol and was sent to the Denver Nuggets) for a 2024 second round pick and cash considerations. Then the Golden State Warriors came calling for pick No. 41 (which turned into Eric Paschall), so the Hawks moved that pick for another 2024 second-rounder and even more cash considerations.
The Hawks made two more trades during the actual draft as well, with the big one including the swap of the No. 4 and No. 8 picks with the Pelicans.
Atlanta gave up picks at 8, 17, 35 and the 2020 first-rounder from the Cleveland Cavaliers to get up to No. 4, allowing them to still keep pick No. 10. Schlenk accumulated yet another future second round pick in this trade, as well as No. 57 and the unfavorable contract of Solomon Hill.
Then, late in the night, the Hawks traded No. 57 (Jordan Bone) and two of their stack of future second round picks over to the Philadelphia 76ers for No. 34 (Bruno Fernando).
Through it all, the Hawks went from five draft picks to three (for the second year in a row) and added to their already young core.
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But before we get excited about the potential of this team, let’s take a look at some grades for each of the Atlanta Hawks’ 2019 NBA Draft picks.