Report: Atlanta Has Brought in Reed Sheppard, Matas Buzelis, Ron Holland, and Cody Williams For Workouts

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

Mar 15, 2024; Nashville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Reed Sheppard (15) drives down the lane against the Texas A&M Aggies during the second half at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports / Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports

What will the Atlanta Hawks do with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft? That still remains the biggest question to be answered with one week to go before the Draft actually starts.

The three prospects that have been mentioned the most in conversation with the No. 1 pick have been Alex Sarr, Donovan Clingan, and Zaccharie Risacher, with Risacher and Clingan being the most talked about in recent weeks. On Monday, Hawks general manager Landry Fields said that as of then, they are planning to pick at No. 1, but it does seem that the Hawks are keeping their options open (as they should), and in Jonathan Givony's latest mock draft on ESPN, he dropped some interesting notes about some prospects the Hawks have brought in for workouts,

The Hawks have been unable to bring Alex Sarr in for a workout to this point, but the door remains open for that to potentially happen. Clingan appears to be Risacher's main rival at No. 1. His workout -- where he shot the ball extremely well, showed surprisingly good passing ability operating out of short rolls and was impressive both in film study and in interviews -- helped his draft standing and makes him as possible sleeper selection here, as we've discussed for several weeks.

The status of Atlanta's Trae Young is the big question hovering over the franchise. One option that has been widely discussed among teams is the possibility of the Hawks reacquiring their unprotected 2025 first-round pick from San Antonio (perhaps in a swap for the No. 4 pick), which would give the team far more flexibility for rebuilding. That would currently be difficult to fathom, with their next three draft picks (2025, 2026 swap rights and 2027) owned by the Spurs.

The Hawks worked out Reed Sheppard last week and Clingan before that, two attractive options at No. 4 should they elect to slide back. Atlanta also brought in Matas Buzelis, Cody Williams and Ron Holland for workouts."

It seems as though Atlanta is doing their due diligence just in case they decide to move back. The most popular tradeback has been them going to No. 4 and either getting the No. 8 pick or one of their future 1st round picks back. It seems unlikely (not impossible) that the Hawks would take any of those four players at No. 1 and it does indicate they are exploring this possibility.

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 still don't know that the Hawks would take Sheppard if they keep Trae Young, due to that being a small backcourt in terms of size, but the other players that were mentioned would make sense if they went back to No. 4.

I would still not close the door on them picking Sarr, though it does appear that it is getting to be more of a long shot by the day. He could still be brought in for a workout or Atlanta could have met him in private.

On yesterday's episode of NBA Today, Givony shed some light on what is happening this week in Atlanta:

"What are the Atlanta Hawks going to do at No. 1? They are going to workout Zaccharie Risacher tomorrow, that is the first time that any NBA team will get a look at him live in their building. They worked out Donovan Clingan and they loved what they saw, Quin Snyder put him through a detailed film session, he shot the ball really well, he had a great interview, he showed some ability out of short rolls and so they have a tough decision there. The question is do they slide back possibly to 4 with San Antonio? The Spurs own their pick next year, unprotected, can you get the best of both worlds, slide down to 4 and get Donovan Clingan or Risacher and get your pick back ?"

Risacher and Clingan have been the two most talked about prospects in the last couple of weeks after Sarr was the early favorite to go No. 1 right after the lottery. While Sarr has become the least talked about of the three prospects, Hawks general manager Landry Fieldsshared his thoughts on Sarr on Monday during his pre-draft media availability:

"He is a good player, projected to go pretty high from what I have heard. He has a lot of tools that you would want at the NBA level."

While Sarr is talked as being a high-level player on the defensive end of the floor, there are a lot of questions about his offensive game. Fields was asked about that and what he thought about Sarr's potential progression on that end:

"I think with Sarr and the other guys, you are going to see some areas that they have to grow in. So for a guy that we bring in, we are going to think very highly of"

Fields was also asked about the possibility of trading back and getting multiple picks versus staying at No. 1 and here is what he had to say:

"Yeah, so we as a group have looked at a ton of different scenarios, keep the pick, trade back in the draft, and all of the things that you are talking about and where we are right now is that we will pick No. 1, but yeah I don't think it would be wise for us to not go over those scenarios, but there have been a ton that we have gone over and we will continuously go over those as well."

When asked if he was committed to using the No. 1 pick, here was Fields answer:

"Today, we are planning on picking at No. 1"

It seems like everything is on the table for the Hawks and a lot can change in the next week. Fields also talked about how locked in the Hawks board is right now and what it would take for a player to jump another and get to No. 1:

"I would say that a week ago, it was wider than it is now, the board is definetly shaping up and tiering itself out. In order to be No. 1, it has to be a guy that we see as a great fit for us, not just for the next day, but for the future as well."

Fields mentioned that they are going to bring in more prospects for workouts this week as well. It is going to be an interesting week or so for Fields and the rest of the front office as they try and sort out what they want to do with the No. 1 pick.