Ranking the last 10 Atlanta Hawks first-round picks
By Nate Friesen
8. Omari Spellman
Honestly, Omari Spellman was a pretty decent pick for the Hawks considering he was the last pick in the first round. In his lone season with the Hawks Spellman averaged 5.9 points and 4.2 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per game. And while he split his time between the G-League and the NBA, his 46 NBA appearances were enough to entice the Golden State Warriors to trade for him.
Similar to Adreian Payne, Omari Spellman had an impressive college career that culminated with him being apart of the NCAA champion Villanova Wildcats in 2018. Spellman was an integral part of that title team on both ends of the floor averaging 10.9 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 0.7 steals per game that season per Basketball-Reference.
In the trade sending Spellman to the Warriors, the Hawks received Damian Jones and a 2026 second-round pick. It could certainly be worse than that. Jones is a legitimate rotation player in this league and can play solid backup center minutes for this Hawks team.
Spellman was then later traded to the Timberwolves in the D’Angelo Russell trade and has been in and out of the G-League for them as well. Now I personally think Spellman will be a solid rotation player in the NBA one day, it may just take him a few years to figure it out.