With the NBA draft only a couple days away, rumors, speculation and general scuttle are nearly at an all-time high, and the Hawks are in the thick of those discussions due to the Top 3 pick they have coming to them on June 21.
A scintillating tidbit was dropped earlier today via Jonathan Givony of ESPN claiming that the Sacramento Kings are not particularly interested in Luka Doncic and are, in fact, much higher on Marvin Bagley III out of Duke – who we recently mocked to the Atlanta Hawks with the 3rd overall pick.
If this report is true, then the Atlanta Hawks would not be able to select Bagley, but it would mean that a far superior prospect would fall to the team at #3 overall. The prospect in question is none other than Luka Doncic, the 19-year-old Slovenian phenom, who has been at the center of attention in this draft – for good reason.
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If the Kings indeed selected Bagley at #2, the Hawks could possibly pull the best prospect in this draft 3rd overall – an incredible achievement that would immediately help to upgrade a roster that finished last in the Eastern Conference in 2017-18.
The Kings have long been known to make wacky draft decisions, perhaps most notably selecting Georgios Papagiannis at #11 in 2016 and then promptly cutting him only one year later. Though Bagley seems to be a far safer prospect than Papa G, taking him over Doncic at #2 overall seems like a very “Kings” thing to do.
For the Hawks, pulling Doncic would be an absolute fantasy for this particular, as a recent plea to Hawks GM Travis Schlenk would indicate.
Doncic has both a high floor and a high ceiling, and he has already proven to be a bona fide winner at extremely high levels of play for Real Madrid in the EuroLeague– though perhaps his competition was lacking the trademark speed and athleticism that NBA players put forth on a night-to-night basis.
Still though, Doncic is the youngest Euroleague MVP in the league’s history, and he also piloted his team to a Finals victory as a 19-year-old. The guy knows how to win, which is something that the lackluster Hawks should embrace with open arms.
Sure, he might come in with a bit of an ego, but if you were the king of European basketball before you hit your 20s, wouldn’t you have a little bit of swagger about you?
Here's that ridiculous 3-pointer Luka Doncic made that was somewhat of a backbreaker for Vitoria as they tried to come back late in the fourth quarter. Doncic leaves Europe with an ACB and Euroleague title in hand. He will leave Spain tomorrow for New York I'm told. https://t.co/YxYpuC1GlH
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 19, 2018
The last time a European prospect was taken in the Top 5 it was Kristaps Porzingis to the New York Knicks, and though he has been hampered by injuries so far in his young career, he has certainly lived up to those lottery-level expectations with some incredible feats of athleticism as well as a smooth shooting touch from outside.
Though Doncic lacks the freakish size and bounce that Porzingis has displayed so far in his career, the basketball IQ and feel of Doncic already looks to be far superior than many current NBA veterans, something that any team could benefit from.
Let’s hope that this scenarios plays out exactly as outlined: Suns take DeAndre Ayton, Kings take Bagley and Doncic falls to #3, where the Hawks select him 3rd overall – setting in motion the first major player on the next great Hawks team.
Next: Probability of Hawks Landing Each Top 8 Pick
We’re here for it, and we’ll be watching the draft with bated breath, hoping to hear the Hawks name followed by “Luka Doncic.”