After tons of buzz surrounding the potential trades of both the Hawks' 8th overall and 23rd overall picks in the 2026 NBA Draft... nothing happened.
No Trey Murphy deal, no Jaylen Brown haul, no facilitation of a Giannis deal earlier this week. Instead, the Hawks played it safe in this year's draft, and came out of the first round with two incredibly talented players in Kingston Flemings and Zuby Ejiofor.
While the young tandem are expected to shore up a young core quickly emerging in the East, one dubious item surrounds the team amidst their newest additions - are the Hawks going small after a year where lack of size plagued them again and again?
Quin Snyder's new system direction: small ball
Quin Snyder and Onsi Saleh, the Hawks' Head Coach and GM, have always seen eye to eye on large and small decisions alike during their tenure at the helm of the Hawks. That being said, the decision Onsi and the front office made on draft night couldn't have been easy to stomach for Quin, historically speaking.
It must have taken a really, really tantalizing discussion and perhaps an even more delicious meal to converse over for Onsi Saleh to convince the long-tenured Rudy Gobert system director in Utah - Quin Snyder - to suddenly adjust to a cast bereft of significant rotation players 6'10 or taller.
And yet, here we are - the Hawks just selected Kingston Flemings 8th overall in the 2026 NBA Draft, and Zuby Ejiofor 23rd overall. Standing just 6'2.5 and 6'8.5, respectively, the tandem of fledgling Hawks project to be a significant part of the rotation in the coming years.
It looks as though all signs are pointing towards small ball in Atlanta - and it all begins and ends with the new sturdy pair of centers, Onyeka Okongwu and his heir apparent, Zuby Ejiofor.
Okongwu and Ejiofor's strikingly similar draft profiles
Selected 6th overall in the 2020 NBA Draft, Onyeka Okongwu projected as many things, but a shooter was not one of them.
Okongwu dominated the glass, the interior, and the pick-and-roll game during his one-and-done season with USC, a pattern all too familiar for Zuby Ejiofor. Both players seldom strayed outside of the painted area on offense, as they simply didn't need to - their strength and touch around the rim was all their squad asked of them on offense.
In addition to their non-shooting, both Okongwu and Ejiofor came out of college as stout, athletic, and highly intelligent defenders. Both projected as highly switchable undersized 5s - a coveted characteristic in the modern NBA.
If Ejiofor can follow in Okongwu's footsteps - particularly in the realm of shooting development - Quin Snyder will have no choice but to play an exclusively small-ball rotation, both in the starting five and off the bench.
Outside of Quin Snyder's shift in philosophy, as Onyeka's career wears on, he'll be challenged with a new role himself - becoming a young vet. Okongwu's striking similarities to Ejiofor as a prospect make him the perfect fit to mentor the youngster as he develops in the league.
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