It's Weird To Feel So Good About The Hawks

Atlanta traded the player they took No. 1 overall two summers ago this summer, and yet, the vibes couldn't be higher at State Farm Arena.

Over the last four seasons, the No. 1 overall pick has won the NBA Rookie of the Year award three times. This past season, it was Cooper Flagg. Two seasons before that, it was Victor Wembanyama. Before that, it was Paolo Banchero. The season before last, though, it was Stephon Castle. Zaccharie Risacher, drafted by the Atlanta Hawks No. 1 overall in the same draft as the former UConn star, did not win the award, obviously, and, after a very disappointing sophomore season in the NBA, was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in a three-team deal with Oklahoma City this summer that also landed the Hawks his replacement, Lu Dort. The Hawks jumped ship on their No. 1 overall pick from the 2024 NBA Draft after just two seasons.

And that was that.

With Risacher now in Dallas, he is the first No. 1 overall pick to be on team No. 2 in his NBA career since DeAndre Ayton, who continues to bounce around the Association, now with the Washington Wizards. The former Arizona big went No. 1 overall all the way back in 2018. Since then, Zion Williamson, Anthony Edwards, Cade Cunningham, Banchero, and Wenbamyama all remain with the teams that drafted them No. 1 overall, each making a galactic amount of money while still being their team’s best player. For the Hawks to be so unlucky given that kind of run on hits at No. 1 overall in the NBA Draft is pretty brutal.

Except that it’s not.

Not really.

Atlanta was the only playoff team to beat the NBA champion New York Knicks twice this postseason. Forward Jalen Johnson had a breakout season for the Hawks and made his first All-Star team. He made third-team All-NBA. He averaged 23 ppg, 10 rebounds rpg, and 8 apg on a Hawks team that won their most regular-season games since the 2015-16 season. The Hawks’ overall record has improved each year under head coach Quin Snyder, going from 36 wins to 40 wins to 46 wins this past season. With the additions of guys like Dort and Aaron Wiggins this summer, along with retaining important veterans like CJ McCollum and Jock Landale, it would not be all that surprising if Atlanta pushes for fifty-plus wins next season.

Trading your former No. 1 overall pick after just two seasons should be the kind of thing that demoralizes a fanbase. Instead, Atlanta Hawks basketball is in the best shape it’s been in over a decade, dating back to the peak of the Mike Budenholzer era. The Hawks finished last season 12th in Net Rtg. The team had a top-10 Def Rtg and just added a superb wing defender in the aforementioned Dort this offseason. With Dyson Daniels and Dort hounding opposing wings, guards and bigs, the Hawks’ defense should be elite once again next season for Snyder’s club. That would be a pretty important development for Atlanta, as the top-3 teams in Def Rtg last season, Oklahoma City, Detroit and San Antonio, each also happened to be the only teams that won 60 or more games in the regular season last year.

The Hawks added another exciting lottery pick, Houston guard Kingston Flemings, who gets to learn behind McCollum until he’s ready to take the reins this season or next. The Hawks also added two more bigs in the 2026 NBA Draft, including one in the second round who most NBA Draft evaluators had as a first-round talent. Hawks president of basketball operations Onsi Saleh has done an excellent job of adding quality veterans like Dort and Wiggins, retaining quality veterans like McCollum and Landale while also continuing to infuse Atlanta’s young core, which includes Johnson, Daniels and Okongwu, with more young talent like Flemings, Zuby Ejiofor, and Henri Veesaar.

Last summer, the addition of Nickeil Alexander-Walker proved to be Saleh’s best move. He won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award. The season before that, Daniels won the award. (For a Hawk to win this award next season and complete the three-peat, Okongwu would be Atlanta’s best bet.) Alexander-Walker is the perfect kind of complementary guard to play alongside a veteran high-usage guy like McCollum or a rookie, low-usage guy like Flemings. For the latter, Alexander-Walker’s shooting, particularly in the corner, could prove to be huge for Flemings, as the former shot 48 percent from that spot this past season. Dort could provide similar versatility defensively that Alexander-Walker provided Atlanta offensively last season. The big question is what Atlanta looks like offensively, particularly in the halfcourt, with Dort and Daniels on the floor at the same time. The good news, particularly in the regular season, is that Snyder will be able to stagger the dynamic defensive duo early and often.

Atlanta is a team on the rise. Each year under Snyder, the team has gotten better, gotten deeper. They have a great lead front office executive and a great head coach. Sure, the Eastern Conference is loaded this season, but Atlanta is somewhere in that crowded group that could finish anywhere from the third-best record in the conference to the tenth. Atlanta suddenly has the contracts, draft assets, and projected cap space to go big-game hunting next summer. Johnson could go from earning third-team All-NBA honors to second-team All-NBA honors next season. Flemings could look like a future star lead guard out of the gate. Daniels could regain his confidence from deep.

There are all sorts of possibilities for the Hawks next season and beyond. Sure, the team was incredibly unlucky in the 2024 NBA Draft. It’s a bummer it didn’t work out with Risacher. All the team has done since then, though, is get better each year and is now on the best path they’ve been on in over a decade.