A look at a few players that are not expected to be drafted in the lottery in the 2019 NBA Draft, but who the Atlanta Hawks could upend draft boards with if they took them at #10 overall.
The Atlanta Hawks would have two nearly consecutive picks in the 2019 NBA Draft at #8 and #10, with only the Washington Wizards’ pick at #9 interrupting the flow of the board for the team.
While, of course, the ultimate prize would’ve been Zion Williamson with the #1 overall pick, the basketball (and ping-pong ball) gods were unkind to the Hawks earlier this month, and the team dropped three spots with their own pick in the draft. Hey, at least we still got the Mavs pick!
We’ve previously explored a few different mock drafts in which the Hawks stick to conventional wisdom and nab players such as De’Andre Hunter, Jarrett Culver, Jaxson Hayes and Brandon Clarke, but this 2019 NBA Draft is extremely interesting because there are a multitude of opinions surrounding the various players in this draft.
Conventional wisdom is that this draft is ridiculously shallow, but according to Atlanta Hawks General Manager Travis Schlenk, the 2019 class is actually fairly deep:
Travis Schlenk yesterday on 92.9 FM:
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) May 22, 2019
"I think that this is a deep draft. Last year's draft I thought was top heavy. There were five or six guys that we really liked. This year maybe you don't have the clear delineation of five or six guys (cont.)"
If that’s what Schlenk thinks, then perhaps the Atlanta Hawks will shock the world by taking a player that is not regarded as a lottery pick with the #10th overall pick in the draft.
Let’s take a look at a few players that fit that description, starting with…