The Atlanta Hawks have some tough decisions to make after their surprise win in Sunday’s NBA Draft Lottery.
The Hawks earned the No. 1 overall pick in the lottery this year despite having just a three percent chance of doing so. Nine other NBA teams had better odds for the No. 1 pick, but Atlanta managed to leapfrog them all to land the top selection.
Speaking with reporters afterward, Hawks GM Landry Fields was asked whether the team would consider trading away the No. 1 pick.
“Not even our focus right now,” replied Fields. “This is a point in time where the opportunity that’s before us is an excellent opportunity, and it puts us in position [to succeed].”
That is a good way of playing both sides for Fields. The Hawks are in a particularly interesting situation as there is no supposed generational talent in this year’s draft class and they currently have two max stars (Trae Young and Dejounte Murray) in the primes of their careers.
Of course, Atlanta could potentially break up the Young-Murray partnership this offseason (with one looking more likely than the other to be traded). But the team will still have to take a long, hard look in the mirror in the coming months and decide which timeline it wants to pursue — an immediate improvement to its current low-ceiling core or a full-on rebuild?
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