Finding the three best Atlanta Hawks that were drafted by another team.
Last week we looked at three players the Atlanta Hawks drafted who had better careers on other teams. Luckily, there weren’t too many examples of that, as the Hawks have mostly used homegrown talent throughout their franchise’s history.
Here we’ll be finding some opposites of that, looking for the best Atlanta Hawks of all-time to be drafted by another team.
We’re not going to count draft-night trades, ruling out a handful of players including Dominique Wilkins, Trae Young, and Cliff Hagan. These are players who played at least a short bit on other teams before coming to star in Atlanta.
These are the 3 best Atlanta Hawks that were drafted by another team:
#3 – Paul Millsap
If Paul Millsap spent more time in Atlanta, he’d probably be in the top-ten of the team’s all-time players. The 2006 second-round pick of the Utah Jazz spent just four years with the Hawks, making four All-Star teams and nearly navigating the Hawks to the Finals.
Millsap spent seven years in Utah, putting up solid numbers in his final three. He left in the 2013 off-season to join Al Horford in the Atlanta frontcourt, creating one of the best duos in Hawks history.
Working as their defensive anchor, Millsap averaged 17.4 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 46 percent from the field in his four Hawks seasons.
The biggest change to his game after leaving the Jazz was his three-point shot. He shot a total of 113 threes during his time in Utah, making just 27 percent of those. As a first-year Hawk, he shot 212, making 35 percent.
He became the ideal stretch-four prototype, giving the Hawks a deadly five-out lineup whenever he and Horford shared the court.
In his final year in Atlanta, Millsap still was putting up solid numbers, but the talent around him was rapidly diminishing. With the Hawks ready to rebuild, they had to let the four-time All-Star walk in free agency to Denver.
# 2 – Dikembe Mutombo
While Millsap left Atlanta to join the Nuggets, Dikembe Mutombo left Denver to join the Hawks. The Nuggets let Mutombo walk in 1996, just five years after the team selected him fourth overall.
Atlanta was able to scoop the future Hall-of-Famer up in free agency, and the 7’2 center spent his prime in the ATL.
Mutombo and Steve Smith helped form the team back into a real playoff threat for the first time since Dominique Wilkins left, winning 56 games in his first year.
Mostly known for his shot-blocking, Mutombo also led the league in rebounds per game in two seasons while in Atlanta and is the Hawks’ all-time leader in defensive rating. Two of his four Defensive Player of the Year awards were won as a Hawk.
Mutombo made the All-Star team in each of his years with the team (minus 1999, when there was no All-Star weekend thanks to a lock-out), averaging a double-double in his five years with the team.
Just like Millsap, the Hawks’ roster began getting really young around the time Mutombo was set to leave, and the team traded him to the 76ers in 2001, with Mutombo being Allen Iverson‘s right-hand man during their Finals run.
# 1 – Joe Johnson
After showing much promise behind Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire in Phoenix, Joe Johnson was a very highly sought after restricted free agent in 2005. Johnson asked to leave the desert to achieve a bigger role for himself, with the Suns agreeing to a sign-and-trade with Atlanta.
The Hawks gave up Boris Diaw and two future first-round picks, which ended up being a solid deal. Johnson put up huge stats as the centerpiece of the Hawks’ offense early on, averaging 25.0 points per game in his second year with the team, making his first All-Star appearance.
He was one piece of a young Atlanta Hawks trio that also included an emerging Josh Smith and third-overall pick Al Horford.
Johnson continued to be an elite offensive threat as the team saw more success, with Johnson earning his ‘Iso Joe’ moniker thanks to his old-school ability to blow-past opponents in isolation.
He spent a total of seven years in Atlanta, making the All-Star Game in all but his first. He made an All-NBA Team in 2010, finishing 12th in MVP voting as well.
That ended up being his peak, however, with the guard slowly regressing from there. The team sent him to Brooklyn in 2012, where he helped the Nets make some noise in the playoffs.
Johnson is sixth all-time in Hawks history in points, eighth in offensive win shares, sixth in assists, and second in three-pointers made.
Who is your favorite Atlanta Hawks player not drafted by the team?