Atlanta Hawks swing home run trade with New Orleans Pelicans, select Asa Newell in 2025 NBA Draft
on today’s show the Hawks made a big-time trade during the first round of the NBA draft plus they add a local product to the mix for the long term we’ll get into all of what transpired and more coming up you are Locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the Locked Onet your team every day hello friends welcome to episode 208 of the Loton Hawks podcast i am your host Brad Roland coming to you deep into the night here in fact it’s now Thursday morning after the 2025 NBA draft the first round is in the books and I want to encourage you at the top of the show as I always do to make Locked on Hawks your first listen each and every day check us out and subscribe to the show anywhere you find your podcasts we’re on Apple Spotify Overcast we’re also on YouTube so please like this video as you’re watching it and of course be sure to tell your friends and your colleagues about this show i was in the building at Safar Marina this evening talking to all kinds of people about what was going on with the Hawks then hearing from Auntie Salet after the fact hearing from Asa Newell after the fact it was a busy night for the Hawks and for me as we’ll get into in a lot of detail on today’s show a very productive and positive night for the Hawks the draft is a favorite of mine this is the It’s a long day but it’s a fantastic day and by the way it’s not over yet second round is coming up on Thursday evening but in the meantime the headliner for me is that it was a very very positive night for the Hawks a good night for the organization moving forward a process driven valuedriven night and they also add a very intriguing player for the future so the big transaction was actually a trade so number one if you missed anything leading up to the draft I’d encourage you to listen back to all of that plus a the emergency podcast for the Chris Forzing trade that the Hawks made on earlier this week like that was a very bis busy kind of big picture move overarching decision that impacts so many things for the Hawks and then it leads right into the draft so here we are but Atlanta went from having two picks in the first round to having one at number 13 overall and then of course they cho they chose to trade down in the draft on Wednesday a a scenario that I explored on the show on Tuesday night but also was not necessarily expecting to happen it was one of those like this is very possible if things break a certain way and I thought it was extra interesting postdraft post first round kind of acknowledge like the scenario that I kind of laid out like if you get to a spot in the first round you have what he called a quote bucket of players that are kind of in the same range and it does behoove you if you get the right offer to trade down because you want to just kind of be maximize your available assets and that happened in this class so the trade is number 13 which is the Hawks remaining lottery pick after the Preseras trade for number 23 in this draft from the Pelicans and an unprotected 2026 first round pick now first of all picks that are not protected at all have big potential value particularly when they come from teams that are not clearly contenders as the Pelicans are not and then that pick for next year again one year from now is the most favorable of New Orleans and Milwaukee so basically New Orleans already has a swap with the Bucks which means they can now offer the best of those two picks to anyone in a trade and that happened here with the Hawks so the Hawks basically get two chances at a lofty draft position from two franchises that have some uncertainty to be kind right now i would say overall this is a legitimately fantastic deal for the Hawks if you’re a regular listener you will probably know that I don’t get hyperbolic or ausive in my praise all that often i’m pretty measured i like to look things all from all the angles and we’ll do that as we always do on the podcast um but I think it’s just a flatout excellent deal and I don’t mean that lightly when I say it i really do believe that was it’s like an A+ kind of grade of a transaction for me and just to get out in front of this a little bit it has very little to do with Derek Queen who was the pick at 13 to New Orleans who they wanted to go up and get i like Derek Queen uh he’s a lottery pick for me in his class not a shot at him at all also Carter Bryant went 14 he was a guy that I would have taken happily at 13 as the Hawks um he was still available obviously it was much much much more about the value of the trade and that future pick so a little bit of context of what I’m saying here to kind of illustrate what the Hawks pulled off in what I would call like a home run kind of transaction i shared some of this on social media tonight in real time but I would say it’s very very rare to get basically 100% approval on anything with a wide group of people who are smart but also have varying opinions on different things across the league like people from front offices and from the media from agencies all over the place i talked to a lot of people tonight during the draft and a big sample again people that are smart that I believe are like plugged into the league and a lot of them reached out to me unprompted after the trade happened but some of them also also proactively went out and touched base with and I’m not kidding when I say this everyone that I talked to dozens of people everyone liked this deal for the Hawks if not liked most of them loved it to be honest and then a smattering more like of people on social media that I follow and interact with that are writers and people that chronicle this stuff like John Hollinger was talking about how the Hawks are smart now basically uh Sam Bassini good friend on the podcast from the Athletic basically was questioning whether New Orleans need to be taken over by the league that kind of thing very obviously the Hawks won this deal um and look no deal is without any risk at all maybe in a few years we look up and Dererick Queen is an all-star and then people kind of equate this with trading away Derrick Queen even if by the way from what I heard the Hawks were not going to take Derrick Queen if they made the pick at 13 but regardless it could same things could be said for Carter Bryant like you know how this works if somebody below that spot becomes a star the Hawks will get some flak for not taking just taking that player but maybe the Hawks get nothing from Newell for instance as we’ll talk about later on ace Newell was the pick for the Hawks at 23 years old sorry 23 in the draft from Georgia and maybe he misses and they you and the pick next year doesn’t work out whatever you want to say all that is possible but from a process and a value standpoint it’s pretty much gold for the Hawks they move down 10 spots in the first round which is not nothing by any means but it wasn’t going from like 2 to 12 going from 13 to 23 is a drop but it’s not a massive difference and that was the kind of consensus in his class i thought that same thing etc it does matter not the end of the world though but the price for that again was an unprotected first round pick that’s the better of Milwaukee and New Orleans so that’s upside already with just an unprotected pick and you only need one of those two teams to have a bad season one of them to be in the lottery and then anything could happen and look I talked to some people around the league about this two people that I would say are front office analytics types that work in front offices and they basically I thought they might have a projection ready for that pick most of the time like they’ll have a working relationship with like assets around the league that are short-term assets for instance one of them told me that that pick that’s coming now to the Hawks from New Orleans has a current expected value of about number seven overall in the class when you factor in the downside for both New Orleans and Milwaukee and the fact that it was again the better more favorable of those picks that’s very high it’s a mid lottery pick the other one said a top 10 grade was the quote on that pick so that’s two people whatever but it’s obviously has upside and even if it doesn’t break perfectly for the Hawks I would personally project right now that at least one of Milwaukee and New Orleans is in the lottery next year because right now New Orleans will be projected at the moment to be in the lottery they have won 21 games last year and yeah they had better talent than that for sure there were a lot of injuries but they’re not some like loaded roster right now milwaukee made the playoffs of course but Giannis is there that’s part of this but they could trade Giannis still at some point dan Lillard is out for the season or at least a lot of the season um that’s the roster that’s kind of flawed so look it maybe they’ll put it together but the chances that one of those teams kind of have a bad year is pretty high and even if that pick becomes like number 16 overall in the draft it’s still a good trade is it as good as if it was five no but it’s still a good trade one more different kind of viewpoint here on this transaction and I promise I’ll move on to the rest of this with Ace of Newell um people that I talked to today most people I talked to would have traded the pick at 13 for the Hawks today straight up for that future facing pick from New Orleans next year like people the consensus was that I talked to thought the pick at 13 this year was less valuable than the pick they traded for just the pick and then they also got 23 back from New Orleans in this trade so again I think this is like a a A+ kind of grade of a transaction there is uncertainty but as we’ll talk about later on in the show a CE was positive about this from the podium after the draft tonight and I wanted to leave with that because for me yes Asa Newell is a interesting prospect a guy that matters to the Hawks a pick that was I liked totally fine but the big thing was the process and the move they pulled off to restock the cover for next year because now looking ahead as we’ll talk about a lot more in the coming weeks and months the Hawks have two picks in the first round next year to restock the cupboard be young add more talent they still bring Asa Newell who they thought clearly was better than the 23rd pick in this class etc etc we’ll get into Asa Newle and much more on the podcast when it comes to how what I thought about that choice his overall skill set and more in just one moment this show is brought to you by Wayfair there’s nothing quite like stepping into your own personal space outdoors and feeling like they actually escaped into a personal oasis of sorts if you want to update your patio or your backyard this season Wayfair has made it so easy to turn that space into something that feels exactly like yours comfortable stylish and ready for the summer wayfair has everything you need to level up 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it all summer long head to wayfair.com right now shop a huge outdoor selection with Wayfair that’s wayfair w a yf a iir wayfair.com wayfair every style every home all right and before I dive into the asen experience as a player I will just say broadly speaking I thought the pick was totally fine and reasonable at 23 is that sexy to say no but the way that I it’s the way I feel if it had been a Agrade tra agrade pick in my opinion I would tell you i did a lot of work on this class if you listen to the podcast in the last couple months you would have known that if I hated it I would tell you if I loved it I would tell you i neither of those things i think it’s totally fine it’s reasonable he’s a talented guy he’s a first round talent in this class for example um but unlike the trade that I thought was an unequivocal like home run awesome move the pick is like right where I thought it could be like I kind of had Asa Newell exactly in this range somewhere in the you know high to mid 20s totally right there i’m totally fine with the choice there were a couple guys that I had rated higher than Newell but it’s only like a half tier up nothing crazy nothing like no one that was on the board at 23 infuriated me that they were not the pick for example again a couple guys that I had higher nothing crazy new’s totally fine one more thing on the uh new the player breakdown there was a very strange I would call it bizarre report from NBAraft.net earlier in the day on Wednesday about how the Hawks reportedly quote unquote promised Asa Newell at 13 um that was ridiculous immediately and I called to check on it just to make sure i was told immediately that’s not true um like knowing an Soet a little bit now um I thought there was just no way they were going to be promising anyone at 13 much less someone who was like not a consensus lottery pick like New was 19th on the consensus board so a good player good prospect all those things but like that’s not a guy you promise at 13 that’s not something that I think he would do generally speaking i made fun of that at the time and by the way it’s not just just about new it’s not it’s a practice that most smart teams just don’t do because look what if someone falls what if the guy that you have fourth falls do you now pass to that guy because you promised a new so all those things um it was silly i did though start to hear over the last week or so um some some guys like a little bit of buzz Asian communities all those things about like knew being a guy the Hawks were at least interested in he came to town obviously he’s not far away with having played at Georgia but the Hawks liked him from what I heard um but as I’ll get into one more time later Anie did say that they had a quote bucket of players that they were kind of considering at 13 so it wasn’t just New Center or not obviously they felt good enough to have a process that I like which is basically hey let’s be practical if all these guys are kind of the same for us let’s move down and get one of them later on and that happened in this class i think that I think that Newell was at least somewhat in consideration at 13 from what I understand my intel is that they probably were not going to take him at 13 if they stuck there there was a guy or two i think they probably had a little bit higher than New but they clearly had him rated as like a late lottery mid first round pick above this slot they’re happy with it obviously so it’s fixed the pro process overall that he was at least in play for them at 13 and they still were able to go down 10 spots get a massive overpay in my opinion to get um down 10 spots and then still get a guy that they really liked so again process-wise check the box great stuff to the actual player now if you don’t know Newell played at Georgia one and done player 69 in uh bare feet so like a you know traditionally the way it was measured for a long time like 610 and a half with shoes something like that um one of Dun got Georgia an Atlanta native by the way who played at Mont Verde Academy in Montver Florida as a uh senior in sorry two years in in high school alongside by the way Cooper Flag and the guy he was traded for Derek Queen they all played together on a crazy good uh high school team so he Asa talked briefly to the media via Zoom of course he’s in New York and I was in Atlanta um he mentioned growing up as a Hawks fan being from the area having a Kyle Corver jersey which was funny and so made fun of that later as well um Kyle being in the front office is kind of a bit of synergy now on this but obviously he’s excited to be here confident kid great intel from what I’ve heard like people uh really like Asa Newell the person and said the same thing so that’s a good thing of course he is kind of a tweener positionally um and not in a bad way necessarily but kind of a split on him from scouts to some degree like people had him as high as the lottery people have him as low as like you know late 20s maybe early 30s even um part of that is the where is the positional uncertainty for me his biggest appeal like biggest positive thing is his defense i really like his defense quite a bit he’s a really good athlete with those kind of you know rangy tools he can be disruptive I would say and how hard he plays which I appreciate i like the motor quite a bit he can switch effectively defensively he played multiple schemes he can show all those things like he’s very versatile and effective defensively one thing that I would say right now on defense is that he’s not a great rebounder right now defensively um that could be better in the future also if he’s playing the four he’s fine as a rebounder at the five it’ be a weakness for sure but worth noting on offense definitely more of a mixed bag not a disaster but there’s like stuff to work with for sure again his motor runs hot sets screens flies around good rebounder on the offensive glass kind of crashing there he finished very well at Georgia shot like 70 plus% from the from the floor around the rim I should say that’s good a good vertical athlete again uh that definitely helps things the shot from the perimeter is an open question he’s not a total non-shooter 30% from three at Georgia not a huge volume but it was he was taking them sometimes there’s some shooting projection and it would be very very helpful if he shot it from three now there are plenty of examples of guys who are similar to him who have have gone both ways like guys who developed as shooters like your Obie Toppins you know even John Collins back in the day for the Hawks like that weren’t shooters until they got a little bit either older in college or older in the pros became shooters then you have guys who like never kind of got there and it’s fine and he can he can function without without without that but it would be very helpful for his offense if he can kind of figure out that jump shot um his feel on offense is like not that great uh honestly did kind of praise his smarts generally speaking which I thought was encouraging um but again the energy the burst the athleticism should be helping to offset some of that stuff he had awesome numbers and transition at Georgia that should be a weapon of his he was able to get out and run the Hawks like to do that for the most part um that’ll be good to see he’s gotten some Nick Claxton comparisons which is kind of maybe a little bit lazy because he’s he’s also from Georgia like like Claxton was but also they play fairly similarly similar size all those things um last thing on New for now um he rated very well in ESPN’s Kevin Pelton has like a stats only projection model basically and it’s uh pretty renowned for being good um he was eighth in the entire class in the stats only portion which is really encouraging now some of that’s like he is kind of a tweener is that more of a downgrade yes but like it’s not everything but it’s a good data point that the numbers do like Ace Newell so again overall I do like New particularly on defense he unlocks a lot i think he fits pretty well in Atlanta like he doesn’t have to play a lot right now but he could probably play with a Kongwoo play with Jaylen play with Borzingis etc again for me if you’re a new listener what I always say is you’re not drafting for the rookie season you’re drafting for two or three years down the line in the future um rookies are not generally great i don’t know how much he’s going to play it will depend on how much everybody else has brought in how much Porzingis is healthy all those things but Newell is a perfectly worthy investment at 23 overall he’s a talented player i think maybe longterm he might be like more of a third big than a starter but at 23 overall if you get a third big you’ve done well like someone was it was funny this is a good example and also I don’t mean to pick on this person but unnamed person basically was saying “Oh great another John Collins like with that tone.” And I was like “Well number one John Collins is pretty good.” But if you end up with John Collins or even like 80% of John Collins at 23 in the draft you’ve done extremely well so keep that in mind too like they’re not the same players but like for instance if Collins made a shooting improvement they’re similar sized like again kind of tweeners that’s that can be limiting to some degree i’m not saying it’s not but given his burst athletically his character stuff that Anie was raving about that I’ve heard great things about as well the pick’s totally fine i like New i think he’s a real prospect and a lot to like about him even if there is certainly some uncertainty as there would be for the vast majority of prospects drafted in the 20s of the draft all right more to come in a second when it comes to what Aussie said from the podium as well as some uh nuts and bolts from the Porzingis trade and what’s been announced and what can’t be announced all that stuff is coming up in just one moment so this is brought to you by Skiims when I found out that SKIMS was making underwear for men I was intrigued by that i’ve heard a lot about the quality from my friends and family i had to give it a try for myself let me tell you it was up to the hype and more people around my life and others have issues with their underwear sometimes whether it comes to fit or comfort and just finding the right style for what they want what skims changes all of that their men’s line offer something for everyone from boxer briefs classic briefs all designed with the perfect balance of comfort and style in mind for example their stretch 5-in boxer briefs have rave reviews they’re perfect for the active lifestyle they move with you they never lose their shape and they stay in place all day long whether you’re working out or just running errands they’re the most comfortable and reliable underwear available anywhere plus lightweight material it feels amazing in all situations across the board shopkens right now at skims.com/locktonba and also in skims stores also let them know that we sent you to them after you place your order select podcast in the survey and select our show locked on hawks in the menu that drops down after that one more time the place to go is skims.com/lockedonba all right and I alluded already to some things that Auntie Cle said from the podium on Wednesday evening into Thursday one note before I get to that is that there was some consternation and it’s kind of hard to understand all the minations of why the NBA does the way they do it’s hard to explain some of this stuff because the draft is before the league year begins there’s always always always been weirdness with like trades and guys wearing different hats and explain i get all that i don’t love it either but one thing that’s important to keep in mind as to like what hasn’t been said so far is that the Hawks have not announced the the Porzingis trade again one more time I did an emergency podcast on Tuesday about the deal that’s still available to listen to right now but it cannot be officially completed and announced until the moratorum is over in about a week and a half two weeks in July so the reason why I guess there’s multiple reasons why but one of them for example is that the Nets cannot take Terrence man’s contract in until the new league year begins right now we’re still in the old league year they don’t have cap space they will in about a week and a half so that’s one reason why it can’t happen so that means that at the moment the Hawks cannot say anything publicly about the Morzingas trade you know Trey Young tweeted about it trey is a player that’s different if you’re in the front office you cannot acknowledge the deal on the record it’s happening don’t worry but barring a physical issue or whatever but they can’t say anything about it so it’d be it would it would have been great to be able to ask an about the Morzinga trade because so far he can’t speak on it but that could not happen tonight that’s why it has not happened so far psa on all that stuff um also if you watch the TV broadcast of the draft tonight you would have seen that quote unquote the Hawks made the 22nd pick that was the deal that was in that sorry it was a pick that was in the the Bzingus deal that pick was made quote unquote by the Hawks but it was made on behalf of the Nets as part of that trade and then the opposite happened later on when the Hawks were announcing well when the when Silver was announcing the 23rd pick it was the Pelicans making the pick even though it was we all knew it was the Hawks because that was part of the trade with the Pelicans involving the rights to Queen and the rights to Ace and New so it’s one of those weird things i don’t like it either but uh keep in mind like what happened here they go to 23 they make a pick 22 was not their pick anymore and uh in the meantime we do not have an on there acknowledgement or an announcement or any quotes from Anie about the addition of Chris Brazin last thing speaking of Anie he talked extensively about Asa Newell post draft that was the one thing he was allowed to talk about was the draft so that’s what we focused on post uh postdraft uh he said that again the Hawks felt good about the bucket of players new was one of those he did confirm they that they were definitely considering him at 13 again I from what I can glean and report they were probably not going to take him at 13 but they certainly considered it um he noted that the deal made sense for them and just where the team is at basically saying that it helped them in the future that’s logical and understated but certainly the case anie also referred to Newell as quote a ridiculous athlete quote also a great human being he said he plays quote hard as hell and he is an unbelievable competitor those were all direct quotes from Anie about Newell he also talked about talked about his intelligence on and off the floor he noted his uh prop his propensity for doing things that quote impact winning and quote he got a question about maybe adding a second round pick on Thursday predictably in an fashion he said they have quote optionality but they also want to be flexible now that’s a very standard answer that’s what anybody would say um what I would say is to wrap this up and look look ahead to tomorrow i think from what I have heard they will be active they’ll be on the phones currently as a reminder the Hawks do not have a pick in the second round so right now they could just be done with the draft they could be but they’re not going to just sign off they’re going to take calls they they have there are ways they can offer stuff to get back into the draft on Thursday whether it be future picks whether it be money whether it be like Don Barlo or Kobe Buffkin or whatever there are stuff you can offer to get more picks and more firepower and for me there are guys that I have that I have in my top 35 or so that are still on the board for instance Rasher Fleming I would have thought about today in fact I had Fleming um right in the same range a little bit even a little bit higher at times than I did with uh with New Noah Penda is a real top 30 guy for me adu Fiero Maxi Marino Tyrese Proctor Ryan Kulk Brener and Jamir Watkins are all my top 35 those guys are all available still so we’ll see i I would say it’s certainly on the board there are also some financial reasons that the Hawks might want to add a second round pick so they can maybe sign a guy to a cheaper contract and make some more room they have all the discussions that I had earlier this week about adding with the trade exception or adding with the mid-level or resigning Caris Levert they have more work to do with the roster for sure even with Newell being part of it now and we’ll get into all this later on I’m sure when it comes to summer league and productive moving forward new at the moment is probably going to be like in a battle for playing time or role with Mogay like they’re not exactly the same kind of player but they both are kind of hybrid bigs combo four fives defense first probably prospects right now so like that’s a head-to-head that you’ll probably see at some point battling in camp etc but that’s kind of where we are with Newell right now again rookie 23rd pick especially a oneanddone guy it might take him a while he might play in College Park some we just don’t know but again like the pick encouraged by that love the trade like the pick fine and that is the end of where we leave it on today’s podcast so uh there is a chance that nothing happens on Thursday for the Hawks that is definitely possible i will be doing a show at some point no matter what whether it comes to Thursday or Friday um usually the plan is I don’t think it’s been officially announced usually the plan would be for them to get a new into town tomorrow and have him be able to speak to the media by Friday um he did do a a get a little bit of a z a zoom in review today but more of a true intro press conference we’ll see but tomorrow well I guess today as I’m recording this podcast now on Thursday is a busy day with the second round of the draft i’ll be dialed into that of course and then there’s other stuff that can happen too like non-draft trades could happen like there’s this we’re certainly now in the zone where things can happen any day any hour for the Hawks for about probably the next like three weeks you’re in that like high alert zone that’s where we are so stay tuned i will have a show at the very latest on Friday but maybe even tomorrow on Thursdays you listen to this podcast um but please subscribe that’s my full thoughts at least for now on the draft i’ll have again wall- to-all coverage of summer league of free agency all that stuff coming up in the coming days please subscribe to Lot Hawks anywhere you find your podcasts Apple Spotify YouTube etc follow the show on Twitterx Hawks follow me there BT Roland i’m also on Blue Sky BT Roland my non-podcast work about the Hawks is at patreon.com/btroent all right everybody i appreciate you listening a really nice night for the Hawks honestly and sets the tone for the future in a big way more to come later this week and we’ll see you all next time
Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts Episode 2008 of the Locked on Hawks podcast, reacting to the work of the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft. Topics include a home run trade with the New Orleans Pelicans that could have tremendous upside in 2026, Atlanta’s overall process, the addition of Georgia big man Asa Newell with the No. 23 pick, and much more.
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35 Comments
Brad working all day and getting zero sleep I love the determination!
Onsi is making great moves
This was the highest iq hawks draft in years I think. Getting an unprotected first round pick was masterful. They got a home town guy with a lot of potential. Just a really smart few days for hawks.
This was highway robbery for Atlanta. We are getting a probable top 10 pick in 2026 plus Asa just to move down 10 spots. I really like Queen as a prospect but this deal was way too good to not take. Onsi is killing it as a new GM.
Pels could have kept 23, and this trade is still an A+
Because of the swap, that pick may be best in the nba for next year. Both MIL and NO are lottery teams next year.
Onsi is on one for real
Hawks makin moves shakinn tricks
Late one
This Onsi guy is good with trades.
Way to much praise to Onsi. They hawks could have done much better. The could have had Yang at 13. The draft pick is just is just ok.
i think him being able to play the 4 and 5 is more of a plus than a negative
I don't see a 2025-2026 season where BOTH the Bucks and Pelicans are contenders. Fantastic trade.
Whether it's his intelligence, business acumen, or reputation, it's apparent Onsi seemingly has given the Hawks front office almost instant credibility around the league. As a longtime Hawks fan, this is like a breath of fresh air and I love it.
Rookies are bad, and New Orleans will be giving 2 of them serious minutes next season…Their pick could be huge.
Will the Hawks themselves have a pick next lottery aside from what we accumulated today?
i think your underrating his offensive ability a little, his numbers @ the rim are crazy, can put it on the floor a little, great in transition, good looking jumper. im excited about him
Player breakdown yall might like of Asa https://youtu.be/nSnqPwP1pl8?si=Y8cdyADpe4k6alA0
Good draft. Go Hawks!
Good draft. Go Hawks!
Same, I think Asa was a solid pickup. Not John Collins or Josh Smith athletecsim but he's athletic. He has better decision making and handle than Josh and John though. He does have that lefty catapult shot a la smoove but it's more accurate a la the Joker. I was disappointed he wasn't really 6'11 and is only 6'9 so best case scenario is probably Aaron Gordon? Not bad, it's not Jalens ceiling 😂 but not bad. If he develops into a SF hybrid things could get really interesting.
He is basically a slightly taller athletic Niang(I just mean hes replacing niang in our depth chart) without the Dead-Eye shooting. Useful if we get decimated by injuries again, but I doubt that'll be a problem this season. I have O Gueye as the backup PF , he's also 6'11 with shoes on and more versatile(or optional😆) at this point but I love the Depth.
I can't even be mad we picking Asa at 23, that could be a steal at this range.
It’s amazing to see an Atlanta front office actually making great moves
All we need is Alexander-Walker now.
Roster Tracker:
So, Bill Simmons and Chris Mannix did a Pod yesterday and they basically said the Hawks should "Go For It" this season based on the Eastern Conference landscape. So I put my GM cap on and put together my ideal "Go For It" roster given our current situation. Here it is:
Starters:
Trae Young
Dyson Daniels
Zaccarie Risachier
Jalen Johnson
Kristaps Porzingis (Or big O)
Bench:
*Nikiel Alexander-Walker/Spencer Dinwiddie
Caris LeVert
*Cam Johnson/Norman Powell/Sam Hauser
Mo Gueye
Onyeka Okongwu
Vit Krejici
Kobe Bufkin
Larry Nance
Victor Oladipo*He's healthy now*
Asa Newell
Two-Way:
Nikola Duristic
Keaton Wallace
Daequan Plowden
Odd Man Out:
Dominic Barlow
This roster should Insulate us from missing a beat with injuries. Plenty of depth for a very long run into June of next year. This roster should be achievable with the combination of our MLE, Exceptions, and cap space. Give or take a player…Short term contracts like 2-year with team option on 2nd years would be ideal to maintain flexibility etc…
With tatum and haliburton injured, the east is really open for all now😊
Way better than John Collins only comparison is height. Collins had no motor or energy and played extremely soft.
Unnamed needs to chill with the JC disrespect. He was one of the heads that got us back to the playoffs back when we were at the bottom of the league.
Appreciate it Brad. Maybe we will find ourselves in the finals one day.
pelicans gm job could be on the hot seat after that move 😂😂
Can't wait to see what he does now with that large trade exception and in Free Agency…Love Asa at 23!!! Go Hawks!!!!! Go and get that GETTABLE EAST!!!!!!!!
OPTIONALITY is here
Onsi is showing us what practical solutions and basketball strategic planning looks like… that trade in the draft is incredible we got two teams to root for in terms of losing 😂😂😂
Hey Brad….around the NBA teams COVET unprotected #1's! Just saying…A large trade exception packaged with that unprotected #1 all of a sudden could be the start of a BIG TRADE PACKAGE…..Our GM isn't sitting on his hands….would love to add a big time player to the mix! Why not…..this is the year of the GETTABLE EAST!!!!!!!! Gotta believe that Trae and Quin…want to WIN!!!!!!!
.. and he's a lefty