NBA Draft 2024: Atlanta Hawks Number 1 pick rumors and analysis with one week to go (Part 1)

NBA Draft 2024: Atlanta Hawks Number 1 pick rumors and analysis with one week to go (Part 1)

on today’s show I am joined by Ricky odonald of SB Nation for part one of a two-part conversation about the NBA draft and before we get to Ricky the latest Intel from the ESPN mock draft what’s kind of bit out there in The Ether about the Hawks and the number one pick and all that is coming up right now you are locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day Hello friends welcome to episode 1742 of the loton Hawks podcast I am your host Brad Rolland coming to you on a Wednesday in fact it is juneth and one week until the NBA draft today’s podcast SPS with the folks at FanDuel Sportsbook right now new customers get $200 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet and the place to go is fanduel.com locked on to get started right now I also want to encourage you at the top of the podcast to make us your first listen each and every day here at lock Hawks please go ahead and subscribe to the show on Apple Spotify overcast as well as on YouTube on the video side and again we are seven days away from the NBA draft a lot is going on I am recording this uh first segment late morning on Wednesday it is actually part one of two I have Ricky odonald coming on in a second to talk about all things NBA draft and we did discuss a lot of things actually recorded this late night on Tuesday the rest of this podcast but I was already going to do an intro of some kind before I brought Ricky in and then Jonathan Gabon and Jeremy woo of ESPN released a new mock draft that was full of some Intel on Wednesday morning and uh naturally as as usually happens I got a lot lots of questions from Hawks fans when that came out so we’re g to start with that and do the first segment on that alone and then again Ricky will be coming in for part one of two in a moment but a lot to get to here again this is ESPN it’s actually ESPN plus that’s behind the pay wall I will try not to give it all away for that standpoint but um early in the piece that was released on Wednesday morning the combination of gon and woo wrote that the Hawks quote seem to be honing in on either Zachary shash or Donovan cing end quote now that caused a bit of a stir as you might imagine because Alex sar’s name is not in that sentence it could be an elaborate smoke screen but I have heard Rumblings in the last couple of days that at least some people do not expect SAR to be the pick at number one now again some people I have not heard definitively or anything like that or anything close to that that SAR won’t be pick and number one overall and my guard is always up this time of year Silly Season targeted leaks Etc but from with what I had already heard and then gavoni and woo writing this I took some note and I do think that the perception that alexar is like the leader in the clubhouse for the Hawks um some I know some fans have is not necessarily what’s been out there in the actual Intel Cycles in recent days from there uh they mocked Reay at number one which is not surprising because gavon has had ree at number one on his own board for quite some time uh he did acknowledge that the consensus is the Hawks has not made a final decision just yet and by the way as a good time to plug this now I talked to Sam bini on the show on Monday of the Athletics Sam is fantastic we talked about all things draft but he was echoing that um there’s still a lot of uncertainty there then Landry Fields talked to the media on Monday afternoon I did a show about that on Tuesday same sentiment it’s still very much wide open at this point in time but gavone did write that quote many teams say their Intel indicates ret is the fav at number one end quote now that’s many teams that’s not the Hawks note the wording there I don’t always want to parse this stuff word for word but um this is kind of the same thing as like that old the old rival executive say thing that means that it’s not from the Hawks that means it’s from other teams keep that in mind that means less to me re is gonna work out today as I’m recording this on Wednesday in Atlanta that will be his first workout for any team so far of course he played deep into the uh into the summer actually with his team overseas and they had he was at the overseas camp and he’s now come to America but he’s not talking with any other team no surprise there this actually came up yesterday on the show as well and some of the buzz about s not working out for the Hawks and gavon reported that also that does not mean that SAR will not work out for the Hawks or that the Hawks couldn’t just take him anyway without a workout but I’ve heard this and now kind of been more confirmed by gavon that he has not worked out so far for Atlanta and that is a data point kind of no matter where you want to spin that cavon also said on TV on Tuesday and again in this mock that Donan King was fantastic in his workout with the Hawks that’s been out there for a while I’ve heard the same he is one of those guy you know one of the things again I’ve probably said this three times now but that I’m quite sure about is that the Hawks like Donan clim now again how much they like him what that actually means more Up For Debate but I do believe from what I have heard what I’ve been told that the Hawks like cling in and I think he did well in the workout from all of what I have heard uh the last thing that I will touch on here before I bring in Ricky and kind of talk about more of this stuff of course is the trade down aspect of all of this if you’ve been listening to the show for a while you will have heard me and and various guests say that it’s definitely on the radar I think more pointedly with samini on the show Monday we talked a lot about trade down scenarios and Hawks fans don’t always love that and I totally get it but I’m trying to be practical and realistic that trade down scenarios are on the table I mean that they’re definitely going to trade down but certainly it should not surprise anyone if the Hawks trade down so it’s not really new information but Kavon did float the idea the Hawks could trade down from one to four with San Antonio and get a pick of their own back potentially as the sweetener to go ahead and do that ironically I talked to Ricky last night Tuesday night on this show and we recorded that before the mock came out and we talked about that later on in the podcast so when you hear that just know that I talked about that even before it was reported um I do think that the Hawks again think not know but think that kingan is the guy that the Hawks would like to get in a trade down scenario from what I can glean but you can’t realistic Bally have a trade down scenario and only have one option that you want you have to be prepared for the the realities or the potentials that someone like Memphis or Portland or whoever trades up ahead of you and takes kingan from under your nose so with that in mind gavon reported they worked out Reed Shepard up Kentucky through a trade down lens and he kind of emphasized it was not necessarily for number one overall but more of a trade down I actually heard that through the Great Vine uh in the last few days but he actually also added they’ve worked out monis Bellis Ron Holland and Cody Williams now Williams is the guy that I have the lowest personally among that group and I would not be super interested in him in the top five six seven picks but he certainly is a lottery Talent so um those are those guys will all be in the trade down range um Landrew Fields was of course koi about how many guys they have worked out or at least considered at the top of the draft he wouldn’t release that information but if you’re scoring at home just what with what gavon has reported they’re they will already worked out reset today and kingan that’s two Reed Shepard is three Maus Bellis is four Ron Holland is five Cody Williams is six and that’s before you get to anyone that has not been reported which definitely happens sometimes so that’s a wide net that’s something that Landry’s been talking about for a while I’ve seem some confusion and some questions about why they’re working out this many players what I would say is there’s no reason not to bring in as many Lottery level guys as possible there is no downside to seeing more players especially if and I believe this is true trading down is at least an option that’s on the board last year if they had the number one pick you could have probably stopped with one workout and it it would have been Wy that have been it there was no real reason to kind of work out more guys this year number one there’s no consistence number one and also if you were to move down you have to be able to draft six seven eight guys because you could you know at least evaluate that many guys so if it was me and I was planning or at least thinking about trading down I’d work out all these guys plus death Castle obviously want to get Alexa in the mix but I would have a wide net as well even guys like you know don’t connect like I would not say that I’m going to draft those guys but you got to be ready and I think the Hawks probably are just kind of doing that at this point in time so we’ll have more on this obviously there is still a week to go I will at some point kind of in Solo fashion touch on my final board and my final thoughts probably the day or at least the morning of the draft I do have some guests lined up that I won’t spoil Beyond Ricky I’m hoping to have at least two more guests maybe three more guests I don’t want to overpromise under deliver but we’re doing lots and lots of episodes right now I think we did six last week this is going to be four this week already as of Wednesday so I’m not shying away from it there’s a lot going on here um but for now I would stress not to overreact to Intel or assume that everything that is written even by good credible sources like Theon who knows a lot of stuff is gonna happen this is silly season it’s smok screen season and uh I would recommend parsing kind of seeing what the way things are written I’ll do some of that on the show as well but not to just jump off a cliff and think every single thing that’s reported is going to happen it’s notable for sure that gavone kind of flat out reported that they are at least from what he is hearing again I’m going to quote it correctly quotes seem to be honing in on either Reay or kingan that doesn’t mean that it’s definite but that’s notable for sure from a prominent source and we’ll get into all that and more coming up later on in this week and into next week okay before we get to Ricky and again this is part one of two so stay tuned for part two at the end of this conversation before that comes though and we be back after this break but first work with my friends at eBay Today’s Show is brought to you by eBay motors and passion drive and Patience are the formula winning championships and it’s also what keeps your ride or die alive even Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and also leveled up to Peak Performance whether it’s superchargers you’re looking for or roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights really anything you’re looking for in the car and automobile space whether you’re in speed power or style even M hasat you covered across the board over we have over 122 million parts for your r or die and you will always find exactly what you’re looking for with eBay motors and with eBay guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride the first time every time or your money’s coming back to you because with eBay Motors you are burning rubber of course but you are not burning cash with all the parts that you need the price that you’re looking for it is easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring come that win that you are seeking keep your ride or die alive right now at ebaymotors.com one more time the place to go is ebaymotors.com eBay guarantee F customers eligible items only exclusions apply I’m joined Now by Ricky odonnell of s Nation Fame Ricky how are you I’m good Brad thanks for having me think this is like your fourth or fifth time being on this show uh usually like once a year I can twist your arm enough I I realized this I didn’t even say this to you on offline even but I realized when I I actually emailed you and I did not know you were on your honeymoon when you did when I did that and I saw that later on on either Twitter or something and I was like oh not the best time to ask Ricky to do my draft podast like Congratulations by the way on that that’s fun you know man it was the first time I ever left the country in my life but two days before I was at the combat so I I had gotten all these great interviews I’m flying to my honeymoon being like man like should I like try to write a Don Holmes feature right now like I got some good stuff from him but no always happy to join and talk draft with you Brad and you know this time well first of all I have to admonish you because the my favorite team who suck and are horrible they smoked the Hawks in the play they they sure did I actually I had your I had your Bulls co-host Jason pat on the show to preview that playin game and Jason and I were kind of been a a battle to see who wanted to win the game less I think at that point at least that’s what he wanted to make it into but yeah that was interesting it’s it’s been a weird two month stretch between that from that game to the lottery winning the lottery and then kind of pivoting to the Hawks are now in this position and um the Bulls are we we won’t do much Bulls content but the Bulls are the Bulls Ricky they just they just are the Bulls forever yeah I’d rather be the Hawks than the Bulls that’s for sure especially with this number one pick so you guys are sitting pretty yeah I think that’s probably uh that’s probably fair to say um I’ve asked kind of this question to almost everyone I’ve had on to talk about the draft and it kind of requires you to take your reporter hat on put your analyst hat on it’s like ignore everything about what’s been reported out there and like I I’ve been asking like how wide of a net would you be casting with the number one pick if you were the hawk how many guys would be in the mix for you and I it’s also a way to get into like what you think about the top this class I think obviously everyone I think by now knows that the consensus is the top is not anybody’s favorite in this class but uh do you agree with that and also like where would you be looking if it was just like context free just rookies analysis where would you be looking if you were at the top yeah it’s you know I think this is the 11th draft I’ve covered I do think this is the weakest one and drafts ultimately like the way people view them is through the prism of is there a player so obviously good at the top of the draft that not even the League’s worst front office could screw it up and wanyama last year was a premium example of that nobody would have taken anyone but wanyama and we’ve seen a lot of those guys in recent years sometimes it’s a two-player race like chatt and Paulo but uh you know there’s usually a consensus number one pick and for this class there’s not been a consensus number one pick at any point in the cycle when these guys were going through their High School careers uh up and through their pre-draft season so uh it’s a rough draft but you know I go back to 2013 when Anthony Bennett went number one overall and that draft had two Hall of Famers after the lottery and Giannis and Rudy goar so I think even drafts have good players and to say you don’t want the number one pick you’d have to be a coward of course you want the number one pick yeah there’s more pressure on you to get it right and the chances of the Hawks actually picking the best player in this draft at number one seemed like pretty small right like it would be I don’t know if it’s like 10 to one or something but like there’s not great odds that the Hawks actually get the best player with the first pick but I want the first pick and I think getting the first pick is awesome I wish my crappy basketball team had it instead of yours and there is going to be pressure on management to come through with this but you know go big or go home you got to take the player you think can actually Elevate the Hawks to a level of Eastern Conference contention because Trey young is only 25 years old and is just now entering his prime he’s already got a Conference Finals run under his belt the rest of the Hawks yeah they kind of suck but you got some interesting pieces there there’s like a rough outline of arguably an interesting team so I think you know the Hawks could go a lot of different ways with this pick and there’s so many different Avenues as I’m sure you have discussed at length the fact that they owe an unprotected pick in 25 and 27 to the Spurs is wild and it like really makes you think like wow should we just take Donovan Clingan because we think he could address our consistently crappy defense which has been the case since they drafted Trey and you know you don’t want to give up Cooper flag that’ll make you look bad so like there’s a pretty easy plug in play scenario there where clingin can you know I think I looked this up the Hawks were like 26th and blocks per game last year they didn’t have a lot of Rim protection obviously Capella’s level has slipped a bit kangu I love would love to see him get a chance he’s never really gotten a big chance so someone like kingan would just be like a plug-and-play guy I would not take Clingan because I would be thinking you got the first pick you gotta you got to try to hit a home run you don’t want to hit a double um but a home run could have a longer path of development therefore yielding more humiliating results in the present so there’s a lot of play um in terms of who would I look at for the number one pick uh nicoa topic has been my guy in this draft the entire cycle I had him the number one player since December well he got hurt in January and then he just didn’t play again yeah he got he got he got hurt and he’s also like not a great Hawks fit even if you are if you had number one it’s like kind of tough to draft an on ball an on ball guy like 100% yeah I wouldn’t take him I’m just saying like you know he was my number one guy in this class um now he has a torn ACL I assume he’s not going to play his rookie season he would not be a good Hawks fit he would not be on my Hawks board um Ron Holland would be on my Hawks board and I’m about to drop a big Ron Holland story at ESP Nation I’m currently in I think I just finished it or I need to like write the last couple sentences but well we stay tuned for that everybody read that when it comes out yeah I’m gonna need a day to edit it too but uh I talked to his high school coach David pey at Duncanville High School you should get him on the podcast if you uh are character yeah he’s a real character he was bringing the heat he gave me some good quotes and then I talked to his USA basketball coach charman white who coached Ron Holland to two gold medals with USA Basketball one of those alongside Cooper flag in the 2022 U7 World Cup so uh got a story on him coming out I would consider him um Clingan I wouldn’t consider him number one uh in then like you know I really like Reed Shepard Rob Dillingham I wouldn’t consider them for the Hawks so really it would be Ron Holland versus Alex Su and I would go s uh is where I would land on that with the knowledge that like this guy’s probably not gonna be very good next season um but I think long term he has the best physical tools he would be the most interesting chess piece overall and I think he’s a great fit with Trey where like you know if you’re drafting him you need someone to set him up he’s not going to create his own shot which is a weird thing about a number one overall pick like most number one overall picks are shot creators and if you draft alexar number one overall he’s not a shot Creator you need someone to set him up Trey can do that and then I’m thinking too like you know Trey got a little better defensively last year yep still going to be a liability the team defense has been terrible every year he’s been on the team the Hawks defense last year I believe was 26 um and you just want someone like SAR behind him I feel like because he has incredible recovery tools he could guard a bit on the perimeter it seems like and he’s going to block shots and he would just potentially give you uh a lot of coverage versatility that they don’t really currently have so I would probably take SAR um and I would probably look at Holland and SAR Holland might slip out of the lottery so this is just like what I would do and interesting team because like even if they traded deante I still you still don’t want read Shephard and Trey next to each other they’d just be too small so yeah and you still don’t want topit so yeah I’d go s Holland and i’ Le lean SAR Today’s Show is brought to you by FanDuel sports book subtime it means baseball basketball and so much more you can bet it all at FanDuel americ number one Sportsbook and right now if you a new customer get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed with FanDuel that’s $200 you can bet to use on everything from wmba to who’s going to hit the ball over the wall in Major League Baseball and so much more about all of your favorite players and teams with quick bets live s game parlays exclusive props and much more the app at FAL Sportsbook is really easy to use they have everything that you need in sports betting space from over unders to money lines game props player props future bets and so much more the FanDuel app is safe it is secure and they cover the entire range of sports as well NBA WNBA NFL college football MLB college baseball golf T tennis soccer auto racing boxing MMA and so much more and now is the best time s with the folks at FanDuel Sportsbook the place to go is fanduel.com lockon one more time just visit fanduel.com loock on and add a big win to your summer bucket list with FanDuel America’s number one sports book so there’s a lot to get into there I I kind of want to go philosophical first you kind of alluded to like number one overall pick taking the swing versus maybe plugging a hole is not like the most elegant way to put that but that’s kind of that’s kind of what it would be in some ways and not to spoil it but I know you wrote a mock draft this week and it had clinging number one and I based on what you just said you’re putting in there for Intel reasons not necessarily for analysis reasons that is that is that fair to say based on what you just said well yeah so you know like you’re doing a hawks podcast every day I’m doing a mo draft every week and uh last week was what I would do with every pick right just in case the NBA decides just go with this middle-age blogger this time let’s just see what he says um so that was mine last week and I had Alex SAR as the pick last week which is why I I read that and you know it’s there’s this philosophical conversation it’s happening look a lot of it in in Hawks land not to go down the internet rapbit hole too much but it’s like there’s there’s there’s a contingent that’s like SAR bust and they can’t they won’t hear any other explanation and I get it like if you watch the right the right games or the right clips of alexr especially in this class I totally get why you would be that way right and then there’s a growing I would say clinging contingent probably because some of it’s that the Hawks like him and it’s kind of you know people are watching him more and more and I get that too and the argument that you just kind of made is you know makes a lot of sense like there’s obviously a divide on how on how good he is but the stuff that he does well that everybody kind of agrees on he does well defend the rim massive size passing all those things the Hawks could use all of those things and then there’s like the what do you want out of this pick conversation you know whereas it’s not just SAR is the upside pick and kingan’s the safe pick it’s not that easy because it’s just not like you know I I’m actually kind of on your side with Ron Holland I think Ron Holland might be the actual upside pick in some ways because he’s the wing everybody wants but the league doesn’t seem to agree with people like you and I that to hire on him Steph Castle same thing so I think practically speaking and the reason I asked that question is because I it I I had samini on who you know uh earlier this week and I basically was like Sam would it floor you if it was someone other than klling and sawar or Reay at number one if they drafted someone else because you brought up 2013 Anthony bet was a surprise like not Not only was that like a weird pick it was actually a surprise like day of almost people were like not seeing that coming that was a big surprise go ahead yeah I mean that was my first year covering the draft and we pre-wrote seven guys for number one and not him not him yeah so that and look I’m not saying that couldn’t happen but I think the uh the Intel game is a little is probably a little bit better now there’s just more information out there I would be uh very surprised that the Hawks were honestly good enough at masking it to where they actually could pull a total Surprise by draft a but so you know basically Sam was like yeah I’d be surprised it was not one of those three guys that doesn’t mean that they’re number one two and three on my board because honestly they’re not but I’ve just come to grips and talked a lot about more of those guys recently because those seem to be the three picks that they’re trying to kind of choose between there’s this whole thing about actually let’s just n on SAR so you talk about SAR SAR is your number is the guy you would pick you just said that right have you heard any Buzz about like SAR not wanting to be a center that’s kind of out there and people ask about that all the time like is he kind of view the way he plays even not even necessarily Intel but there’s some of that too if you watch him play I think he’s he fashion himself more of a perimeter player on offense in some respects especially um which could be a good thing but what do you make of that especially for like you know the Hawks have Jaylen Johnson and not everybody’s like totally in love with jayen Johnson but the Hawks are the Hawks love Jaylen Johnson he’s their starting power forward he could play him three but if they if you view alexar as a four there’s some interesting overlap there especially if you have to have a center next to those guys so I’ve said a lot but what do you make of like what is alexar like other than a guy that we agree is really talented what does his next like step look like especially early and then as he transitions to like year three year four the first thing I’ll say is that just uh talking to Blue Chip basketball players like before they get into college I’ve been doing this for a long time somehow thankfully that’s that’s why I’m asking you all the big men say they don’t want to play center like when Harry Giles was the number one guy in the class I talked to him and he’s like oh I’m not playing and of course Anthony Davis would be the premium example of this and even when Bama was playing power forward to start the season probably because he wanted to he’s set fourar so um I think you know playing Center in the NBA is kind of like playing offensive line in the NFL you get hit you get pushed you got guys pushing you in the back all the time it probably sucks right like it’s like I don’t know did you ever play pickup Brad when I play pickup I’m like I don’t want to get a rebound somebody else please get the rebound box boxing out’s not boxing out’s not fun like having aoral weight around that’s uh that’s sort of a a topical sidebar that there was a lot of I think the the smarter people people that kind of the nerdier people were mentioning Jason Tatum kind of Defending centers like throughout the playoffs is like something that like guys don’t do like star forwards do not want to basically defend centers and he kind of did that and that’s why it was so notable it was like wow this guy’s and granted it’s the NBA playoffs and it’s it’s winning time but still like guys don’t want to do that to your point yeah it just sucks you know and especially when Sorry’s gonna be what is he just turn 19 I think um he’s gonna he seems like he has a body where he can add muscle just eyeballing it like he’ll probably get pretty strong and how his body develops could really like determine what is upside is like you want to compare him to Giannis but obviously that was the big thing with Giannis is his body just blew up he as he got more skill he became Unstoppable in part because he could just run over people right and SAR is not gonna be able to run over any uh in the NBA I would even say he plays a little soft which is frustrating and he’s one of these guys who’s so talented that he just leaves you wanting more but he’s 19 and I mean like of course he’s not going to be finished product yet and so like you know I love the fit of him next to a cono and I think Jaylen Johnson’s awesome you know I’ve had a lot of hits and misses Brad in my H published draft boards over the years but I did have Jaylen Johnson number eight in that class which one of my better hits in recent memory because I had Sharie Cooper Number Nine and Jaden Springer number 10 and both of those guys haven’t done anything the Hawks the Hawks went eight and nine in that class for you when they dra they drafted share right after yeah it didn’t work out but no hey chance man someone I agree no you you were right about you were right about Jaylen and and you know actually this is more inside baseball there’s this whole debate that I’ve been kind of on the side of of hawks people like C jayen is basic what position is Jaylen Johnson has been a talking point um and all I my contribution is basically the Hawks have viewed him as a four which is what matters the most what what is the team view you as is kind of what you are for the most part but he can play the three and I think he probably will at times and look if they drafted alexar to your point I’ve said this I think you can play Jaylen Johnson alexar and Kongo that’s not unplayable it’s just there’s some questions about shooting and offense and all yeah 100% And I mean bonovich is basically one of the best Shooters in the league Trey is one of the best Shooters in the league so could that line up but here’s the thing like just play the three of those bigs at the 45 the whole time you know what I mean for All 48 minutes like you could give SAR stretch at s and if he doesn’t want to well too bad buddy like you’re the number one yeah I think I think I think he’s going to have to at some point that’s one thing yeah I think at some point he might be one it might be one of those Evan Moy kind of things where he plays a lot of four early in his career and then year two year three everyone agrees EV M’s really good but there’s a lot of people that are like hey EV Mo’s probably got to be a center at some point right like what are we kind of what are we doing here and I get why he’s not they got Jared Allen he’s Jared all’s really good and that’s probably the guy that I’ve seen s and also done it myself compared to the most recently is Evan Moy right as that kind of not in a bad way but the good kind of tweener who can do a lot of different things well and that combo four five I love Moy so yeah I if he turned out like I would take Prospect Moy over Prospect so I agree without thinking about it that hard yeah Moy has really not been as good as I was expecting him to be but he’s still pretty damn good and he unlocks a lot of different uh just like play Styles I think you know whether he’s at the four or the five and just like his you know his passing is pretty interesting that hasn’t been totally tapped into a lot yet anyways like I think that’s a decent catchall comparison forar and really what’s interesting about him is you know he’s just the big man who can switch and still protect the rim and there’s just not a lot of those guys jiren Jackson would be another one you know the top end of that would be like Anthony Davis or like Giannis but that’s a very hard guy to get and you know you really got to ask yourself like do you believe in his shot like do you think that when you get him into the organization that like this guy’s going to shoot it long term now the buzz is like oh Donovan clingan’s ripping threes in workouts and Zack Edy I just saw Zack Ed hit like 50% of his threes in the workout get that out of here I don’t believe those guys can shoot because they played a lot of high profile minutes and never shot SAR shot he just didn’t make a lot of them what he make 25% he made as many as RH and I think I think he wants to shoot too like that’s the other thing like with with cl maybe cling Ed want to shoot I’m not saying they don’t but I do think that if you’re drafting Alex star number one you kind of have to buy that he could shoot like at least a little bit just with the way he plays um maybe maybe not right away but like if he’s going to be that more perimeter face up you know he likes he likes to shoot jump shots it’s very clear that he likes to do that and if you if you do that at a decent level it can be a real weapon for you but if you start if you keep shooting 28% to your point that’s not going to be the best well I mean so you know I’m reading the Holland story and I’m thinking about this now like you know is the ideal version of Ron Holland someone like Aaron Gordon um can he get to Aaron but you know part of the thing I’m gonna say is that he’s a little small for that he’s more like size of a three but he kind of has the game of a four but SAR is like a super sized version of Gordon I actually think that SAR can get to an Aaron Gordon shooting level much more than I believe that Holland can um is that good enough I mean it might be good enough if he’s just flying all over the place and making plays and dunking on people and running the floor and doing Chaos style stuff opportunistic scoring like if that’s kind of uh a pathway for him like he just has to be as good of a shooter as Aaron Gordon I know that Gordon’s game is more distinct obviously than just being athletic and strong uh but a lot of the reason he’s good is because he kind of does like you know Swiss army knife SL garbage man style contributions and could SAR just do that playing hard obviously like I think SAR doesn’t play through contact as well as Gordon does and that makes a big difference in the NBA um but in terms of sar’s jump shot I think he can at least get to Aaron Gordon level which might be okay that might be palatable for you picking number one all right that is all for part one with myself and Ricky O’Donald ESP Nation part two should be available in this same podcast feed right now so go ahead and click over to that stay tuned please subscribe to this podcast Apple Spotify also YouTube Etc follow the show on Twitter SLX loon Hawks follow me there at BTR roll also do some extra work when it comes to the Hawks and the Braves on occasion at patreon.com btrr which appreciate your support there as well stay tuned for part two and more and we’ll see you all next time

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts episode No. 1742 of the Locked on Hawks podcast, and he is joined by Ricky O’Donnell (@SBN_Ricky, SB Nation) for Part 1 of a 2-part discussion. The show opens with the latest buzz on the No. 1 pick. Then, the conversation with Ricky O’Donnell focuses on the Atlanta Hawks and the 2024 NBA Draft with one week to go before the big day, including No. 1 pick options, Ricky’s favorite players in the class, and much more.

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