Should the Atlanta Hawks have selected Tyrese Haliburton in the 2020 draft

The Atlanta Hawks have made some pretty big moves over the past two seasons. They managed to secure the services of Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari in the 2020 offseason and then made the trade to send Rajon Rondo to the LA Clippers for Lou Williams.

In a recent article by Joseph Zucker of Bleacher Report, he goes into the story of how Tyrese Haliburton requested the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks not to draft him. The reason for this? He saw the backcourts that these teams had in place and wanted to go somewhere he could contribute straight away.

While this can be perceived in a couple of ways, the first school of thought is that why would Haliburton not have wanted to play on a team with a young backcourt. If he was good enough then he could have forced his way into a starting position. Secondly, why is it acceptable for agents to work so as not to get their players selected by a certain team?

Would the Atlanta Hawks have taken Tyrese Haliburton with pick No. 6?

The other side of the equation which needs to be asked is would the Atlanta Hawks be interested in Haliburton? It feels a little presumptuous that an undrafted player would actively not want to be drafted to a team. Are the days gone when a player is just happy to make the NBA in the first place?

Should Haliburton have been picked higher than 12th in the draft? The answer to that is probably, but if his agents are actively trying to get teams not to draft him this may have sent up some red flags for the earlier lottery teams.

The Hawks chose Onyeka Okongwu with the sixth pick and despite the fact that recent re-drafts have him outside the lottery, he is a tremendous fit for this team. Given the number of quality wing players the Hawks had before they signed Bogdanovic, it was unlikely that they would have selected Haliburton, even if he had wanted to come to the franchise.