2024 NBA Draft: Analyst Believes Hawks Should Keep No.1 Overall Pick and Not Trade It

What will the Hawks do with the No. 1 Overall Pick in the 2024 NBA Draft?

Who will the Hawks select with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft? / NBA.com

What are the Hawks going to do with the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft?

That is going to be one of the biggest questions in the NBA over the next few weeks and while this draft does not come as highly acclaimed as some previously, it is still a fascinating decision in front of Atlanta, who has plenty of other important decisions to make this offseason.

With less than three weeks to go until the draft begins, what exactly Atlanta does is still up for debate. The only thing that feels even a little certain is that they are going to be taking one of either Alex Sarr, Donovan Clingan, or Zaccharie Risacher with the No. 1 pick when they are officially on the clock. ESPN's Jonothan Givony and Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman had the Hawks selecting Risacher with the No. 1 pick in their latest mock, while Sam Vecenie at The Athletic had the Hawks selecting Sarr with the No. 1 pick. There has also been chatter about the Hawks liking UConn center Donovan Clingan as well.

Will the Hawks stay at No. 1 to take the player of their choice? In a recent article, Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley says the Hawks should keep the pick and draft who they want and not trade the pick:

"The Hawks should absolutely treat their lottery luck like the jackpot prize it was. This franchise has badly needed more blue-chip talent to get out of the rut it's faced ever since reaching the 2021 conference finals—two playoff trips, zero series wins over three seasons.

Even if there isn't an obviously transcendent mega-talent atop this draft, this class will produce some stars. And Atlanta has the proverbial pick of the litter as the only organization guaranteed to get the player holding the top spot on its big board.

Now, the Hawks still have to decide who that player is. It feels like this will come down to swingman Zaccharie Risacher or bouncy big man Alex Sarr, but this could be one of those years where the No. 1 pick isn't known until it's actually announced.

As long as that player is being announced for Atlanta, though, the Hawks should feel they did the right thing."

Decision: Draft

I think this assessment is correct. Atlanta should not look to trade this pick for a veteran player, but an interesting scenario would be if they wanted to trade down and still get the player they wanted at No.1.

There has been chatter about the Hawks possibly trading the pick and chatter about the San Antonio Spurs wanting to move up. San Antonio might want to speed up the timeline with Victor Wembanyama and might want to get a better player than what they could get at No. 4. A popular trade idea has been for the Spurs to send both of their first-round picks in this year's draft (4 and 8) for the No. 1 pick, but would a different trade be better for the Hawks?

The Spurs hold other picks that might be more valuable to Atlanta. When the Hawks traded for Dejounte Murray two summers ago, they sent their 2025 pick (unprotected), a 2026 pick swap, and its 2027 (unprotected) pick for Murray. Atlanta might be looking to trade Murray this summer and the results have not been what they had hoped for when they initially made the deal. If the Spurs want to move up to No. 1 to pair Wembanyama with either Alex Sarr or Zaccharie Risacher, would they be willing to part with with one of the picks Atlanta gave them in the Murray trade?

That was a trade that was brought up on a recent episode of the Game Theory Podcast with Sam Vecenie of The Athletic and Bryce Simon. Instead of the Spurs giving up No. 4 and No. 8 to move up to No. 1, they came up with a trade that sent the No. 4 pick and Atlanta's 2025 pick to the Hawks and the Spurs get the No. 1 pick in this year's draft.

Here is what Vecenie had to say about the trade idea that they proposed on the pod:

"What my idea was instead... everybody has come up with this idea of, oh the Hawks want their draft picks back, maybe they will move Trae Young to the San Antonio Spurs. What if we just do No. 1 for No. 4 and then throw in the Hawks 2025 first rounder, which is probably not going to be a top-ten pick, right, or it could be, it could very well be a top-ten pick, but it is not going to be a super high-end pick in all likelihood in this coming draft. It is probably going to be worse than No. 8 next year I would guess. It lets the Hawks get one of their picks back for next year which is all important given how good that draft looks. I don't know if I would do this if I was San Antonio, I would probably just keep No. 4 at the end of the day, but what I will say is this: When I asked around, there was nobody that could come up with a deal for the No. 1 overall pick."

While this is all just speculation right now, this is an interesting trade concept and one that might be more appealing to Atlanta. I think if they made this move, it might signal that they prefer UConn center Donovan Clingan as the top player in the draft over Alex Sarr or Zaccahrie Risacher. The Spurs would come up for one of those players, the Wizards take either Risacher or Sarr (whoever San Antonio does not draft), and then Houston takes a player like Reed Sheppard with the No. 3 pick, leaving the Hawks with Clingan. It is a gamble though and if Atlanta does think Clingan is the top player on their board, they have to be absolutely sure they get him at No. 4. The Rockets could take him at No. 3 or trade the pick to a team like Memphis who might covet Clingan. Maybe the Hawks are fine getting someone other than one of Sarr, Risacher, or Clingan, though that does not seem to be the case at this point of the process, as those have been the three players linked to the Hawks the most frequently.

I think Atlanta should keep the pick and draft Sarr, but I also think Clingan is a really good prospect. If the Hawks think they could get Clingan at No. 4 and get their own 2025 pick back, that should be explored. At the end of the day, the Hawks front office needs to make sure they get the top player in this draft and make the right decision. The next few weeks are going to be intriguing.