The NCAA is bursting at the seams with unreal freshman talent this season.
Just this last week, performances such as Razorback Darius Acuff's 31-2-7 on 10/15 shooting, AJ Dybantsa's 36-5-7 on 14/20, Tounde Yessoufou's 37-6-3 on 12/19, Keaton Wagler's 34-1-7 on 12/23, and Mikel Brown Jr.'s 45-9-2 on 14/23 have left NBA scouts scrambling for answers as to how to rank these incredible scorers.
Add to this mix the elite-level talents of Cam Boozer, Darryn Peterson, Caleb Wilson, Kingston Flemings, and Nate Ament, and you have yourself an absolutely loaded core of star-level NBA talent.
It isn't just the scoring abilities of these youngsters, though; they're doing it all on the court. The creme de la creme of this unreal class has already established themselves as all-time level all-around talents, ranking among Zion Williamson, Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg, and more in BPM, a metric that is one of the most successful at measuring comprehensive player ability and a cornerstone of draft evaluations.
With how tantalizing these talents are, the Hawks are poised to capitalize in gargantuan fashion this summer, boasting the better of the Milwaukee Bucks' (9th-best odds at present) and New Orleans Pelicans' (3rd-best odds at present) first round picks.
The current and projected odds of the Hawks' superpick
Currently, it is statistically impossible for the Hawks to select any later than 7th overall in the 2026 NBA Draft.
In a typical draft class, picking 7th overall isn't anything to write home about. Often, this is home to either high-floor, low-ceiling prospects that will fill in a rotation, or low-floor, high-ceiling talents that could just as easily be out of the league in a handful of years as they could develop into an All-Star level player.
Given how deep the 2026 draft class is, this isn't the case; even picking as late as 10th overall offers franchise-altering talent that could immediately change the Hawks' multi-year outlook.
The best-case scenario for Atlanta, first overall, will happen 18.5% of the time. Even greater, the Hawks have a 72.3% chance of a top-4 pick. These odds are simply unprecedented in recent history, with high-lottery odds being capped at 14% for first overall and 52.1% chance at top-4 for any singular pick.
Atlanta has as big a shot at striking gold as ever this summer. From there, it's all in the hands of their scouts to determine which fabulous prospect best suits them.