Winning the NBA Draft lottery provides the Hawks with 3 much-needed options

Option 1: Keep the #1 pick and stick with the same backcourt

Trades are hard to pull off. Especially when the entire league and every NBA front office knows that you are likely looking to sell. There is a world in which Trae Young and Dejounte Murray are both still in Hawks uniforms when the 2024-2025 season begins.

This would be the most boring (and also the worst) option if you are a fan of Atlanta basketball, as it keeps the team in the doldrums of the NBA. The Hawks running back on this same team would probably leave them in the 6th-10th seed range yet again and the same conversations that were had this year would be recycled next season too.

This option probably only makes sense if the Hawks cannot find a suitor for either Young or Murray without losing significant value and if they fall in love with someone like Alex Sarr in the 2024 NBA draft, who makes sense next to the backcourt duo. Sarr is an exciting 6’11” big man who boasts a 7’4” wingspan, while showcasing solid on-ball defense and shot-blocking ability. He’s no Victor Wembanyama, but the B- version of Wemby is still an intriguing prospect.

The problem with this route is that anyone that they draft #1 overall may not even be a day one starter and many of the top-end prospects are redundant with pieces they already have. In this example with Alex Sarr, the Hawks would either be stunting the growth of Sarr by playing Onyeka Okongwu in front of him or be moving off of Okongwu, who they seem to like as a piece of their future.

The Atlanta front office may be content with seeing this out one more year and simply drafting the best prospect available, but that may not sit well with the Hawks fanbase.Despite the “right answer” not being clear in the immediate future, one thing is for certain; the Hawks lucking into the #1 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft sets them up in a much more favorable spot than expected when they began the lottery most likely to select 10th overall.