Hawks Draft Pick Updates After Final Day of Regular Season

Though the Atlanta Hawks season ended Tuesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers, there was still plenty of intrigue for Atlanta’s potential draft picks on the official final night of the regular season.

Notably, Hawks fans should’ve been scoreboard-watching both the incredible “play-in” game for the Western Conference 8-seed featuring the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves, as well as the Orlando Magic facing off against the Washington Wizards.

In a season where many things went very wrong for the Hawks, including some untimely victories late in the season to push them out of top lottery odds range, fortune smiled on the Hawks franchise on this night: Both the Wolves and Magic won in rather surprising fashion.

The Wolves defeated an extremely fired-up Nuggets team in overtime at home to secure the 8-seed in the Western Conference, which means that the Wolves’ lottery-protected first-round pick will convey to Atlanta this season and should land at either 18 or 19 overall. In a deep draft that’s chock full of talent throughout the entire first round, obtaining the Wolves pick this year is an ideal scenario for a Hawks team looking to upgrade its talent at every position.

Speaking of ideal scenarios, the Orlando Magic, who literally had nothing to play for and could’ve easily tanked their tuchuses off, instead opted to play all 13 active players on their roster at least a few minutes, which spawned a late rally to defeat a listless Wizards team that was led in scoring by Jodie Meeks – not their All-Star guard Bradley Beal.

That Magic win means that Atlanta only tied with the Dallas Mavericks for third-best lottery odds, instead of creating a nightmarish three-way tie with the Mavs and Magic.

For Hawks fans, this could not have worked out any better. Though there was plenty of drama surrounding the outcome of both of these games, the basketball gods decided that Atlanta’s season deserved to be forgiven – as there were far more egregious tanking situations than Atlanta’s.

Perhaps this portends the basketball gods smiling once again upon the Hawks, as the franchise will indeed have a terrific chance to add a transcendent future superstar by picking in the top 4 or 5 of this draft.

Next: Atlanta Hawks Mock Draft 3.0

Though the future is murky, Hawks fans can thank Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns for the 18^th or 19^th pick and Mario Hezonja and Rodney Purvis for better odds at a top-3 pick.