I wanted to get this done before the draft and we are only two days away now I think this is the perfect time to overview how the Hawks likely will/should. I will be addressing this with no bias a general overview of thoughts I’ve heard from other fans with informed opinions as well as people looking from an outside view of the hawks. This post is put into 6 sections over two parts representing the different stages of the offseason.
Part 1:
Section 1: Rationalising the end of the last season and the team performance, overview of the roster make up
Section 2: Trade options
Section 3: Draft picks
Part 2:
Section 4: Extensions and resigning
Section 5: Free Agent options
Section 6: Goals for the next season
Today we are doing part 1… The Post season analysis and Pre draft process as we also discuss some interesting trade opportunities
So lets begin…
Section 1:
The Hawks entered last season in a developmental mindset, an injury riddled 23/24 season put the hawks in the lottery for the first time in a few years and lucked out somehow receiving pick 1 and picking Zaccharie Risacher and a second round pick up Nikola Djurisic, moving on from Dejounte Murray saw them pick up two new draft picks one in the upcoming draft and a 2027 first as well as receiving young defensive guard Dyson Daniels ad veteran Larry Nance Jr. Jalen Johnson had broke out last season and adding the two new young players in Dyson and Zaccharie positioned the Hawks to be in a competitive mode without picks but prioritising development. Luckily for the hawks we saw breakout seasons from Dyson Daniels, De’Andre Hunter and, late in the season, Onyeka Okongwu. Jalen Johnson continued to improve although a mid season labrum tear ended his season abruptly. The Hawks draft pick Zaccharie Risacher had a slow season but after pairing Onyeka Okongwu with him in the starting lineup he broke out having multiple 30 point games and shooting extremely high 3PT% over the 2025 calendar year. Overall the Hawks succeeded on their goals, they saw development form their young player and attempted to capitalise on the improving asset in De’Andre Hunter although in an underwhelming and disappointing fashion for all fans. When healthy the Hawks were very competitive, competing for playoff spots but the Johnson injury saw them drop off ending the season 8th with 40 wins making the Play in which they lost.
A continued Theme for the hawks has been a strong offence and a poor defence, to no ones surprise the reason usually for that is Trae Young who runs the offence to a high level and helps the team play with a fast pace and helped generate the second best shot looks in the league. However the team has no creation behind that as well as a lack of play finishing having a below average rate of finishing their shots. Jalen Johnson took up a lot of the creating volume at the start of the season when it wasn’t Trae Young, and then Dyson Daniels is a very able secondary creator for the starting group. The late season Addition of Caris LeVert helps with self creation and adding people who can go get themselves a bucket to take some pressure off of Trae. Another weakness of the team was general front court depth, losing both Larry nance Jr and Jalen Johnson late season and the Clint Capela showed weaknesses in the depth of the team, now usually you don’t lose three guys so important to the roster at the same time but this hawks team has grown to become injury prone, added on to that Clint Capela and Larry Nance Jr are going to be FAs next year.
So with some deduction from what we saw last offseason and looking in retrospect of the recent playing season we can deduce positionally and stylistically what the Hawks could targeting what would make sense for the next season.
Likely the additions would have to build on the teams growing culture of a lot of transition play and high pace offence. We have also seen the Hawks prefer longer players in the recent drafts and generally playing longer players around are Young who is short would make sense.
Ok so now we understand what the Hawks Front office is building as a style of the roster what do the hawks need? General depth in the roster seems to be a need, the team was injury riddled and we saw lot of use of the two way contracts this season in many positions, I think we should be focusing on the bigs looking at centers and forwards will be important. Defence is still the growing need for the team and should probably continue to be the theme of the offseason for the hawks, while offensively there is a variety in needs being play finishing and creation.
Section 2:
Ok so to split this into two parts there are targets and there are traceable assets on the roster, I think we should start by talking about the assets within the roster. Trae Young would be a great place to start, Onsi Saleh recently said that the Hawks was locked in with Trae and that seemed to be the direction of the Hawks in recent times, if I was to guess demand is likely not too high and the value Trae has on the Hawks would be higher than a package, I expect him to stay around. We will probably be presuming that Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson and Zaccharie Risacher will be untouchable unless we are bringing in a big swing like Giannis Antetokounmpo who could be available although unlikely.
Terrance Mann and Georges Niang have sizeable contracts which could allow for some matchmaking, I think Terrance Mann makes the most sense since he is a pretty questionable fit with the offensive system of the roster while Niang is someone Quinn Snyder really likes and has played in his system previously, he’s a very nice guy to have in the locker room
Really the only other assets that feel like they might be traded will be the two picks in this years drafts and future picks, one of the likely trades that we are seeing becoming more and more reported is a trade up into the top half of the lottery to target stronger talent.
Ok so thats a quick trade overview on our own assets with a couple mentions of some interesting targets for us in a few years, now I want to mention two players I’m interested in bringing in with trades:
Cody Martin
Herb Jones
Two very different players in talent, Cody Martin could be someone we could get for cheap using Terrance Mann’s contract and potentially some second rounders which could really fit the type of player we could use as a depth piece, a pretty good defensive talent who knows the NBA through out and be a vet for the roster. Herb jones is a much better player who is an All defensive 1st team talent, New Orleans may feel like getting assets this offseason for him to help rebuild or with the threat of having to pay him soon so spending some picks on him would be a great fit and to me a great use of resources, key to know that there is very little information on the availability of Herb Jones this offseason so I may be somewhat speculating but ideally if he was available he would make a lot of sense for the roster.
I am also someone who would love a previously mentioned trade up for someone, specifically I would appreciate a Khaman Maluach in this draft who has talents at center that really work within how the Hawks play, He Is a lob threat for Trae and a great screener and there’s a lot more interesting uses in his play we will bring up in the next section.
Section 3:
In this section I will mention names the Hawks could draft and my thoughts on their fit and each player.
Trade up?:
Khaman Maluach is a 7’2 center from Duke (Hawks love drafting Duke players) who is the best screener in the draft and is relatively new to basketball, he knows where to be offensively and has shooting upside I would love to see tapped in to as a prospect, he worked off of Cooper Flagg last season who has a similar offensive play as Jalen Johnson and that brings a lot of interest to me, I think there’s a tonne of upside if he is just a rim player with Trae young and be a Mark Williams esque guy or a Rudy Gobert and then if we see him knock down threes to a more confident rate this is a perfect modern big who fits in Trae Youngs offensive play and this system.
Trade into the top 5? In a latest Yahoo mock draft Kevin O’Connor mentioned how the Hawks are aggressively calling for top 5 picks which is interesting since the rumoured Khaman Maluach would likely be someone selected outside the top 5 leaving rumour of Ace Bailey, Tre Johnson and VJ Edgecombe to take their place. I will say I don’t think a top 5pick makes much sense unless we are getting one of the top 2 players which we are probably not so I’m not sure if this ever happens but an interesting idea becoming more common.
Pick 13?
I would like to start with a few guys We see getting mocked to the hawks around 13 or maybe not the hawks but in that area, Carter Bryant is someone I quite like in this region, a 3&D Forward/Wing who knew his role in college and has a lot to like about his game, has limited creation upside but is someone who adds defence and play finishing we need. Though he did this on a very low volume and still isn’t very polished in all areas of the game he needs to be impactful on day 1. Collin Murray Boyles is someone a lot of Hawks fans would love to see be picked and I understand why, he is a very good defensive prospect who has great touch and was able to create buckets for himself in college and on face value thats great for us. In my personal opinion he should not be looked at since he doesn’t fit the offensive system and I think will end up finding himself limited playing alongside Trae while him being undersized is a big issue. Derik Queen Is a smooth big with a neat handle and touch and a very interesting playmaking big who has his turnover troubles but has great vision. I think there’s a lot of polishing do with Queen for him to reach his potential and a lot to love and a high ceiling if he can do it, I do also think Queen is not the answer for the hawks since he is a poor defender at the rim with a lack of focus, he also isn’t very tall and doesn’t space the floor to a good level yet while his offensive skills are interesting there’s a lot of questions on wether him and Trae can coincide in an offence which I agree with. Noa Essengue is a French Forward with amazing defensive versatility, and aggressive rim runner, especially in transition, and has a lot of length to put at the 4. Essengue has a lot of potential as a prospect where he can be impactful on both ends of the court as an off ball mover who generates free throws and drive effectively. I personally am a big fan of Essengue but there’s a lot to grow on with a weak shot as of now but there’s a lot of potential of growth and some volume of him making these recently while he may not fully be ready for the NBA. Cedric Coward Is an older prospect but a long 3&D wing player who can play off ball and has the ability to attack with the ball as well as being a very able defensive player. He did have a big injury last year and has very little experience in D1 but his skillset is too good to ignore this high. Kasparas Jakucionas Is a tall Guard who showed a lot of promise as a playmaker with great vision and the able to make tough shots night in night out, he does have a lot of poor qualities with poor handle under pressure and his defence being questionable most of the time which keeps me away from him as a prospect for us. Jase Richardson Is a short combo guard who shined at Michigan state with impressive shotmaking abilities, IQ to film in where needed and find open shots and active defensively. This IQ quality is just so rare in prospects where he just has great decision making and problem solving on the court. However he is not a great passer and him being so short basically makes it impossible for him to play alongside Trae Young in rotations. Joan Beringer is a athletic raw center who has a lo of abilities as a rim runner that could be very interesting to put alongside Trae Young, but the guy is not going to be ready for years and he is very much a project id o not think the Hawks should be investing in this offseason, it is actually crazy to me this is a mocked draft pick but blame Givoney and KOC.
Pick 22 is a very hard pick to talk about where a lot of player picked at 13 could be there at 22 and a lot of guys at 22 could be picked higher and generally I don’t think this is a good pick to talk about. But there is one guys who is in this range that I think is such. Good prospect I would want him at 13 before all of those guys. Rasheer Fleming is a 6’9 3&D Big who is a versatile defender who can help rim protect and close out on defence, although a lot to clean up, who knocks down the 3 at 39% and is a great cutter and off ball player. His length, defence and off ball offence is s interesting to me that I am very high on his ability to help winning basketball in the NBA plus he has a strong ability fill in to roles and find success on each side of the court. Another guy that I find very interesting is Maxime Raynaud who is a 7 footer who is a fluid mover and handler of the ball and has the ability to knock down threes at a strong rate, his rim protection is not ready at all but he Is an interesting talent who definitely has a role that make sense within the NBA. A lot of people like Egor Demin who is a 6’9 Guard/Wing who has a lot of interesting ball handling talents and is a talented passer. But he is a very poor shotmaker and his defence isn’t anything interesting. Asa Newell is a Georgia native who is an athletic rim runner who can play the 5 or the 4, where thats a good or a bad thing is up too you with how much of a tweener he is. He can shoot the ball at some level and put the ball on the floor to some level. His defence is good but might not be good enough for the NBA level as of today and he can still be stronger. Thomas Sorber is a 6’10 enter who is an elite rim protector, he makes sense in that way to fill the needs of the hawks defence and has a very interesting passing ability on offence and feel for the game. But he is not very athletic and gets stuck as an offensive player when attacking drop coverage with current poor shooting questionable touch.
My personal opinion is the Hawks should be looking at Khaman Maluach as a trade up, Carter Bryant, Noa Essengue, Thomas Sorber, Rasheer Fleming, Maxime Raynaud and Asa Newell.
Part 2 comes out post draft so we can look in retrospect and we can rethink the next steps in Free agency after this.