Atlanta Hawks 2015 Draft Thread

[Hawk Eye]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/cvivlamoreajc/status/610546596107952129[/tweet]

[bisonblu]

Hawks Draft Board

Trey Lyles 6'10, SF - would take miracle, but freaky intriguing...Rashaun Lewis?
Myles Turner, 6'11, PF/C - Length, shooting upgrades Muscala/Antic.
Jerian Grant, 6'4, PG - NBA ready, makes either Teague/Shroder expendable.

Just say NO...

Kaminsky - too weak
Dekker - cant shoot
Portis - under-developed

[atlantabbq99]

I'm really hoping that the Hawks make a trade with the Knicks or Kings on draft day, that is my number one wish, but as of right now, if the Hawks stay at 15, my draft board from most to least favorite is...

1. Stanley Johnson
2. Myles Turner
3. Devin Booker

But who knows if any of those guys will fall to the Hawks at 15? That is why i'm starting to get more comfortable with guys like ...

Bobby Portis
Frank Kaminsky
Kelly Oubre
Sam Dekker

Portis has really grown on me for the past few weeks. Good length, good shot, SEC player of the year. If you look at the Spurs bigs that play along side of Duncan or the post players that the Spurs draft, they really don't get super athletic bigs. The Spurs usually get highly skilled and high IQ bigs. Portis has a good shot, who knows what his IQ is, but it could be good.

[atlantabbq99]

I wanted to talk about the 2nd round and i think that their are more 2nd round prospects to be excited about this year than last year. Here is my list of players i hope the Hawks get in the 2nd round....

Larry Nance
Michael Frazier
Anthony Brown
Dez Wells
Pat Connaughton

Frazier, Brown, Wells, and Connaughton are 3-D SG/SF. All four guys are very athletic with a good NBA body and all four guys are great shooters

Larry Nance is a multi skilled PF/SF. His game, size, and frame reminds me of Mike Scott or Chandler Parson coming out of college. Nance is also a great athlete and a confident and good 3pt shooter.

I think i favor Brown and Frazier more than the other guys, but not by much, and also, you really don't know if 4 of those guys will still be available to the Hawks a pick #50 and #59. So if the Hawks can walk away with one of those five guys, then i would be happy.

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[PandaKidd]

http://www.peachtreehoops.com/2015/6/17/8791959/2015-nba-mock-draft-kelly-oubre-atlanta-hawks-draftexpress

1 Mock Draft has us looking at Wiggins replacement from Kansas..........

[Rip2137]

I think we will be draft and stashing a second round pick. Without demure and Carroll, that only leaves 5 roster spots unless we can move Mack and/or Scott. I don't see us using two of those spots on rookies.

[Jamaaliver]

I think we will be draft and stashing a second round pick. Without demure and Carroll, that only leaves 5 roster spots unless we can move Mack and/or Scott. I don't see us using two of those spots on rookies.

Agreed. We're approaching the point of having more draftees than roster spots. I'd be very okay with combining some of these assets in attempt to acquire quality young players over just a high volume of second & late first round draftees.

Also, hope Ressler invests in a D-League team. The Louisville, KY area is wide open and the perfect market for a minor league sports team.

A quick 1 hour flight from ATL, it'd be a perfect training ground for young prospects to learn the Hawks system and be evaluated before coming to the big league team.

Hope our first round pick turns out better than our last one...

[Goudelock]

http://www.peachtreehoops.com/2015/6/17/8791959/2015-nba-mock-draft-kelly-oubre-atlanta-hawks-draftexpress

1 Mock Draft has us looking at Wiggins replacement from Kansas..........

I'd be happy with that pick. Might as well swing for the fences.

[atlantabbq99]

I think we will be draft and stashing a second round pick. Without demure and Carroll, that only leaves 5 roster spots unless we can move Mack and/or Scott. I don't see us using two of those spots on rookies.

You are just stating the obvious. Besides Scott, the Hawks have been stashing 2nd round picks for year.

Its pretty obvious that both 2nd round picks are going to do the same thing Lamar Patterson did.

You still want to get a quality guy to develop his talents.

[PandaKidd]

Im interested in seeing what happens with Patterson/Tavares in the next few months

[Jamaaliver]

Found a couple of interesting nuggets about how the Hawks evaluate potential draftees/signees:

We do our best to separate the draft from free agency...Our focus in every draft is to identify the best player who fits us. There is the long-standing debate over drafting the best player versus drafting for a position of need...We’ve become comfortable with being guided by what we call our draft objective, which remains the same every year, we want to draft a guy who fits within our culture, fits [Bud's] culture and his system and can add to and become a piece of our core.

We do that regardless of position and focus more on the character traits and the skill more than anything else.

And:

...we are trying to identify the best player over the duration of their career. We all deal with this — evaluating the 19-year-old with the 22-year-old. We call this, internally, the developmental arc — from your pre-prime of 19 to 25 and your prime of 25 to 30 or 32 and then your post-prime of 32 to the end of your career.

Doing our best to line up the 19-year-old with the 22-year-old is a challenge. One of the good things about our team is if we draft someone at No. 15 we are likely in the position where we can focus on their development and put them in the program and give them the appropriate time to get acclimated to the NBA. If you draft an older player, they are probably closer. If you draft a younger player, they might not be as close.

This really illuminates how the Hawks view acquiring players based on age and potential. Last summer we drafted a player at 23 who we immediately lost faith in. We, potentially, are in play to commit long-term to a pair of 30 year olds in Millsap and Demarre.

With very little top talent in our farm system in what the Hawks call the 'pre-prime' phase, I'd be very okay focusing on youth and development with this pick. Might be our last high draftee for a while.

I'd rather miss on a young kid with a high ceiling over missing on another kid in his mid-twenties with little chance of improving.

[Ball4life32]

Hawks Draft Board

Trey Lyles 6'10, SF - would take miracle, but freaky intriguing...Rashaun Lewis?
Myles Turner, 6'11, PF/C - Length, shooting upgrades Muscala/Antic.
Jerian Grant, 6'4, PG - NBA ready, makes either Teague/Shroder expendable.

Just say NO...

Kaminsky - too weak
Dekker - cant shoot
Portis - under-developed

What do you mean by Portis under-developed? We desperately need a big off the bench and I think he could make an immediate impact as a rookie as well as still having good upside being only 20. He is intriguing at 15 for sure.

[PandaKidd]

I think if you are honest with yourself, we are not drafting a starter or rotation player at all this year, it will be another pick that goes somewhere else and develops.

Unless we move up in the draft, which I dont see happening.

I suspect the team will look to improve via FA and resigning the core pieces. I have a VERY bad feeling that the GSW win will only solidify the feeling that our system can win, and we will further neglect the bigs we need to be competitive.

[td00]

Agree with Panda is how we're probably looking in this draft. The problem is we're not solid inside should Sap leave, or he or Al have lingering injuries which we have seen the past 2 years.
I think we gotta go big unless our top choice(s) are off the board. I like what BisonBlu has listed and I agree with his weak options.
Since we're not working out anyone inside the lottery, we might not have a chance at any of those projected ahead of us.

Portis reminds me of Payne & Muscala, and the Wisconsin guys aren't defending anyone IMO.

[Jamaaliver]

What the pundits say our team needs are:

Sports Illustrated

Atlanta Hawks

Team needs: Shot-creator, wing depth, rebounding
Picks: 15, 50, 59
2014-15 results: 60-22, lost in conference finals

The East’s only 60-win team crumbled in the conference finals, as injuries and the postseason’s slow pace combined to sabotage Atlanta’s exciting attack. A humbling sweep at the hands of the Cavaliers revealed or confirmed numerous areas that need improvement. The Hawks would welcome another backcourt-initiator to complement All-Star point guard Jeff Teague and they need another defensive-minded presence in their group of wings. A frontcourt that ranked No. 27 in rebound rate could also use a dirty-working type when bigger teams try to pound Atlanta out of its preferred spread look.

NBADRAFT.net

Atlanta Hawks
Needs: LeBron Stopper, Beat Player Available
Picks: 15, 50, 59

I don't know if you noticed, but Atlanta was a pretty darn good team this past season. They've got a good blend of talent as Al Horford and Paul Millsap man the posts, Jeff Teague runs the offense, Kyle Korver makes just about every jumpshot he takes, and DeMarre Carroll is a shut down defender. They finished the regular season with more wins than any team other than the Warriors...In terms of how to improve the team from the outside, it's basically going to amount to who is the best player available.

This is a team that doesn't have a lot of glaring weaknesses, so they can go in any number of directions. That makes it hard to predict just what they'll do come draft night.

[Yungsta404]

sports illustrated mirrors my exact thoughts on what we need. We have too many complimentary and opportunistic scorers and not enough initiators and playmakers on the perimeter and we lack 2 way players overall. our need of a rebounding big has been beaten to death over the past number of years.

Nbadraft.net put together some of the laziest analysis I have seen of our team. I doubt whoever wrote that watched more than a few games of us.

[FCNATL85]

I personally like a player like Booker if still there or even better Montrezl harell, who could help replace sap down the road and simply help the team with energy, rebounding and physicality off the bench.
If we go with Harell at pf/sf, I would be very intrigued by Graham from VCU as a strong guard who could make the team considering that he is a senior with solid stats the past 2 years 16 pts, 7 + rbds, 38% from 3and good post up skills at 6'61/2 and 225.Both Harell and Graham would be NBA ready from a physical and mental stand point. Would not be surprised if ATL packages 50-59 to get Graham early.

[atlantabbq99]

I personally like a player like Booker if still there or even better Montrezl harell, who could help replace sap down the road and simply help the team with energy, rebounding and physicality off the bench.
If we go with Harell at pf/sf, I would be very intrigued by Graham from VCU as a strong guard who could make the team considering that he is a senior with solid stats the past 2 years 16 pts, 7 + rbds, 38% from 3and good post up skills at 6'61/2 and 225.Both Harell and Graham would be NBA ready from a physical and mental stand point. Would not be surprised if ATL packages 50-59 to get Graham early.

If the Nets missed the playoffs, the Hawks might have gotten the 10th pick. At #10 i think the Hawks should be deciding between Turner, Booker, and Stanley Johnson. But at #15, i think the Hawks will be deciding between Portis or Dekker, but if one of the three, Turner, Booker, or Stanley falls to #15, i think we can all feel lucky. I want Booker but if he is gone and Stanley is some how still available, then i would still feel lucky

[Jamaaliver]

Apparently, Portis is ranked as [one of] the single best offensive rebounders in this draft. That would be certainly be a helpful trait that could make up for any lost offense from Millsap leaving or simply not being on the floor.

Though, one major flaw in Bud's system is that it is difficult to offensive rebound when our bigs are so often camped out at the three-point line.

[MaceCase]

The "flaw" in both Bud's and Pop's (even Doc Rivers') systems is that they don't value offensive rebounding period, not because they have guys rotating on the perimeter.