With the #8 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Atlanta Hawks would do well to select Brandon Clarke out of Gonzaga. This might be something of a reach, but a recent mock draft from Def Pen Hoops had the Hawks taking Clarke 8th overall, which would be a terrific choice for the team going forward.
Because this draft will be all about finding more building blocks for this team going forward, Clarke makes sense as a supremely high-floor choice who should be able to immediately impact the team going forward.
A supremely gifted vertical athlete, Clarke would make for a formidable pairing alongside John Collins in the frontcourt of the Atlanta Hawks. Though Clarke would likely work best as a roaming four man, his verticality and tremendous defensive instincts should help paper over some of Collins’s less-than-stellar work in the interior.
On defense, Clarke uses his stunning agility and tremendous bounce to produce a bevy of events on the defensive end, while also projecting to be one of the best off-ball help defenders in the 2019 NBA Draft class.
Beyond that, we have previously expressed Clarke to be one of the best at-rim finishers in this draft class, as his 79.7 percent clip at the cup per Bart Torvik would indicate.
Furthermore, Clarke’s all-around brilliance is typified by his statistical profile on KenPom, which shows Clarke was top-15 in the nation in the following categories: Effective field goal percentage (69.2%, 4th), true shooting percentage (69.9%, 5th), offensive rating (134.5, 5th), two-point field goal percentage (70.5%, 9th) and block rate (11.2%, 15th).
Perhaps the fit might not be the best, but perhaps the next player the Atlanta Hawks select could make up for that.