Atlanta Hawks: Don’t Expect Immediate Help From Draft
Hawks assistant GM Dave Pendergraft watched dozens of college prospects throughout the season. When it ended, he was “excited” about the possibilities for the team’s No. 24 overall draft pick, figuring the Hawks would have several good prospects to choose from during the June 24 draft.
But then Pendergraft scrutinized Synergy Sports video and data, evaluated prospects’ workouts and interviews and took note of their physical measurements.
“Now, as things start to dwindle down, I’m really not so sure about that,” Pendergraft said today.
Pendergraft was fresh back from pre-draft workouts for 42 less-heralded prospects in Minneapolis this week. Of those players, Pendergraft said “a handful” were first-round material. With the Hawks picking near the bottom of the first round, those workouts plus the 23 prospects they plan to bring in between now and the draft are more important than the Chicago camp for top prospects (which have become less useful, anyway, with most players opting not to work out).
Pendergraft ranks the top five prospects, in order, as Kentucky’s John Wall, Ohio State’s Evan Turner, Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins, Georgia Tech’s Derrick Favor and Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson. He said one or two of those players will face a steep learning curve but that all should be good players by the end of the season.
After those five, he said the draft becomes “very, very hard to predict” but he thinks teams can find rotation players as low as No. 20 in the order, depending on their needs. “If that player is a worker, by the All-Star break they will be giving you some minutes,” he said.
The talent drops off after those top 15 or 20. So unless the Hawks move up in the order, Pendergraft doesn’t expect this draft to be deep enough for the Hawks to find a player who’s ready to contribute now.
“I think we will get a piece,” he said. “I don’t think we will necessarily get a rotational piece. We can get a player who after some seasoning can stay in the NBA for a while, that can make a career out of it. If we can keep our roster intact I don’t see a lot of playing time. It will be a situation where we take advantage of our D-League affiliate.”
“Unfortunately, the big bodies that fall to us will be more in the project range,” Pendergraft said. “You have to look at NBA free agents [at center] and say they probably are a better way to go. But if we are going to pick a skill, a need, we need one more shooter.”
Is this draft deep with shooters?
“No,” Pendergraft said. “That’s the [freakin'] problem. There are bunch of guards but not a lot of shooters. There are some good players but they can’t make shots. And the better shooters can’t play a lick of defense.”
The next important evaluation period for the Hawks is another pre-draft camp in New Jersey Jan. 9-11. The Hawks will start bringing in prospects for workouts on Jan. 13 and continue to do so up until Jan. 22.
“Coming into this thing I thought there would be maybe six or seven guys there at [No. 24],” Pendergraft said. “Now that’s shrunk a little bit to maybe three or four. But you never know. The good thing is it’s not going to make or break us because we’ve got good players coming back.”
If Rick Sund, Dave Pendergraft, and our scouts have 20/20 vision they should be able to find us a gem with the 24th pick. The same goes for any of our draft picks. I won't be surprised if our management takes the easy way out and just goes Internationally with our picks, so they can keep them overseas, and not have to worry about paying them during the upcoming season.
