Atlanta Hawks offseason: Onsi Saleh, 2025 NBA Draft, Asa Newell, and more (with Tyler Jones)

Atlanta Hawks offseason: Onsi Saleh, 2025 NBA Draft, Asa Newell, and more (with Tyler Jones)

on today’s show it is a very busy time in the NBA as well as for the Atlanta Hawks i’m joined today by my friend Tyler Jones to dig into what has already happened what is going to happen and much more and it’s coming up right now you are Locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the Locked On Network your team every day hello friends welcome to episode 2011 of the Lot on Hawks podcast i am your host Brad Rolling coming to you on a Sunday here at the end of June and today’s podcast is brought to you by the folks at FanDuel Sportsbook if you’re a new customer you get 150 in terms of dollars in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins at FanDuel I also want to encourage you at the top of the show to make us your first listen here at Lots on Hawks each and every day check us out and subscribe to the podcast anywhere you find your podcast that includes YouTube like the video there as well as on Apple Spotify Overcast etc this is gonna be a two-parter this is part one that you’re listening to or watching right now with my friend Tyler Jones of ATL129 joining me to discuss all things Hawks in the midst of a busy time for agency opens on Monday as I’m recording this podcast right now Don Barlo player sorry team option is going to be up later today lots of moving parts katon Wallace and Jacob Toppen have qualifying offers it’s a busy time but we touch on everything having to do with the Hawks so far this summer from CET’s debut to Chris Esparzing trades NBA drafts next steps and much more and it’s coming up with part one right now I am joined once again my good friend of the podcast one of the co-hosts of ATL 29 Tower Jones is back hello sir how are you on this Sunday um well Braves won last night so
they did
maybe a little better but uh what’s the deal like why why are they like not good brad can you can you help me understand why they’re not good like all their supposed They signed all these guys to these long-term contracts and outside of Akunia they all suck what’s the deal and
best Olson’s been pretty good other than other but yeah it’s it’s a bit of a challenge and if you’re just finding us for the first time this is what Tyler does to me uh either about the Falcons or the Braves usually at the beginning of the podcast uh it’s not been good uh to name a few names Aussie Alb’s Michael Harris Austin has been better than those guys but not very good this year pitching is all hurt just everything’s going wrong it it is what it is it’s not a lot of fun but you’re right they won last night as we’re talking on today maybe the one today we’ll see um you know there’s a lot going on you and I were talking like lunch hour on Sunday and this morning on a day that’s supposed to be kind of a slower day in between the drafts in free agency we got LeBron opting in and maybe kind of putting out a statement that’s like maybe trade me he didn’t say that but it’s like kind of an odd statement malik Beasley who was a free agent is now under federal investigation that happened today um so far you got in yesterday was it Sam Merrill signed a pretty decent chunk of a contract like this is we’re still in the busy season so people I’m time stamping this it’s 12:30 on Sunday the Hawks have not been involved in any of this stuff yet although they I I would say there’s a ch a tangential link to Malik Beasley because he was probably going back to Detroit on a decentsized contract and if that doesn’t happen Detroit is a Nikquil Alexander Walker team and the Hawks are as well potentially so I say all that the Hawks haven’t done anything officially other than sign undrafted for agents since the draft i know you want to talk about lots of I mean we’ll talk about Porzingis obviously on this conversation the draft trade Ace New uh next steps where do you want to start you want talk about an I i mean Auntie kind of announced himself with authority this week yeah I I I want to start with Anie and really compare and contrast like the stark difference in his leadership of the Hawks compared to what was happening with Landry Fields where you know respected Landry who I don’t who I don’t think did a bad job like I want to be clear here like I think he did an okay job for an executive but okay is not good enough if you want to elevate your team to title contention status and so I think um Auntie has kind of rewarded uh Tony wrestler’s credit credit the big tone he’s rewarded Tony wrestler’s belief in him um with with the moves he’s made and h and the more importantly the process in getting to these moves the two things that that have been so important during this offseason one they have not been this leaky faucet organization teams you know the other 2019 teams have been guessing based on what the Hawks currently do or do not have on the roster what they’re going to do but by and large there’s been no solid there was no solid reporting on the draft what who they’re and there was no reporting until Porzingis was traded basically it was like a two second talk trade for Porzingis and then the trade happened so it’s just one of those things where it’s like it’s an advantage in this way compared to how it was before like if you look back at the Pascal Seakum situation when the Hawks were trying to trade for Pascal uh during the summer they had no real leverage over the Raptors the Raptors were in no rush to trade Pascal pascal wanted the full you know boat from the from the Raptors so he wasn’t interested in being traded so he was publicly saying to everybody “Hey I’m not I’m not signing with any team if they trade for me.” So the Hawks already have no leverage so they can’t put their best offer forward because they don’t know if he’s going to sign a contract extension or not but so so like you you’re basically like not in the running for it like you you can claim you can leak that hey we’re interested in Pascal but guess what you have no pathway to a deal because there’s no there was no framework of a deal to be had going to this this trade deadline you know the big talk Brandon Ingram Brandon Ingram one the Hawks could have traded for Brandon Ingram in the Dyson Daniels deal right yeah that that was they I’m I’m pretty sure that was on the table
the Hawks decided not I think Smartly decided not to just because of you know everything involved but I I think there might have been a scenario where they got Ingram and Dyson Daniels in the deal like both together but they might have given up more brandon Ingram’s price drops over the course of the season because he gets hurt again clear he’s not going to resign with the Pelicans the Pelicans have no leverage over like there the NBA has them over a barrel with with Ingram pretty much so it’s like all right Hawks but the problem is like the Hawks interest keeps leaking out leaking out probably due to the Pelicans you know David Griffin on his last leg is in desperation mode like I I ain’t going to leak every he it is probably on his side but as a Hawks organization you know I’m speaking from from my perspective you have to know that he’s not just going to take your crack deal you know understand it’s the best deal available and he has to make a trade of course they’re g like you gotta you gotta have a little bit more gumption a little bit more patience and that gumption and patience is what Auntie did to get the first round pick for the Pelicans where he was like uh cuz I’m pretty sure they didn’t just offer the unprotected first round pick you know to move up 10 spots it was like yo we got pick protections here and all that and the and the Hawks are like “Uh no.” Hung up the phone
that was a seller negotiating job at the very least i mean yeah they’re like “No I’m going to h hang up we’ll take Dar Queen bro.”
You know
and that wasn’t the first off yeah to your point that was not the first offer i can tell you that with some big confidence it wasn’t like New Orleans called and said “This is our offer take it or leave it.” And the Hawks were like “No they negotiated them up.” and and the Pelicans didn’t know what the Hawks were going to do because again their draft profile didn’t leak like teams were assuming they were in on the big man but nobody knew then all of a sudden eagle Jagger or Demon you know there was some buzz with the Hawks with Jagger because Draft Express Jonathan Gra who has information kept leaking that the Hawks were interested in you know not not necessarily interested but that he kept mocking him 13th and it was con like at the last two mock drafts Jagger Denim and so then it was one of those it’s one of those spots where it’s like the Pelicans are unsure of what the Hawks are going to do they might take my our guy who we are apparently fully red-blooded peeled committed into taking in Derek Queen and the Hawks were like we have that knowledge because you guys have leaked out who you wanted
well and also widely known
Bryson
and we have Bryson Graham we know for a fact you want this guy at all costs so we’re like “Yeah not only not only are we willing to take the guy but we’ll take him and probably trade him to some other team who’s interested you know like we we we’ll we’ll we’ll make a betting market of this cuz cuz we’re in a position of strength we have no real need that has to be filled with the draft pick.” That was the biggest takeaway they had leverage over the Pelicans and they squeezed them for every ounce previous GMs from from uh Fields to even president basketball ops Travis Schlank in the in the Tony wrestler era have not squeezed either their own players or other teams for every inch we saw it with the Dyson Daniels deal over the summer where the Hawks were forced to take on a uh Cody Zeller or for no reason like they didn’t have to do it but they did because they were like “We have to get rid of Dejante we can’t go another summer with De Jonte on our team everybody knows it so we can’t get even though even though we have the Pelicans in an advantageous situation considering they they just aren’t able to pay the tax we can’t squeeze them for every dollar because on our end we don’t have we don’t have the gumption we don’t have the patience we don’t have the craft and the like the ability to sell other organizations that were willing to walk away from the deal that’s what the That’s what um I don’t have insider knowledge completely of what happened with Auntie and the Pelicans but that’s how you get what possibly the best asset in the NBA right now considering how good the draft class is next year and also considering the fact that the Pelicans are not going to be good like they they just aren’t going to be good due to due to the construction of their team not even necessarily because of the talent just because in today’s NBA it’s not just about talent anymore and and that’s that’s the the um failings that the Hawks fell in when they traded for DeJonte they were like “We’re going to upgrade the talent we’re going to get better.” Team got significantly worse because the context of the team changed and they didn’t have the pieces to compensate so like that that’s why I’m just like overall I’m like auntie is like he’s squeezing every every piece of value in every deal that he’s trying to make to better the team and that and that’s how the Hawks ended up with one of the best offseasons in my lifetime as a Hawks fan like I the only thing that comes close to this is uh when Ferry was able to ship off Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams and signed Paul Milsap and Deari Carroll to those two-year bargain complete bargain deals that actually ended up messing the Hawks up later on but still
you know it’s it’s just one of those situations where it’s like
it it’s been like well over a decade since the Hawks have had an offseason this good and I don’t know if any team is going to be able to overcome what the Hawks have done this offseason in terms of like pure processbased uh decision-m is brought to you by FanDuel summer sports are in full swing whether you’re all about baseball under the lights golf on the greens or high soccer action FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting you’re already following the action so why not make it a little bit more thrilling at FanDuel you can use FanDuel to track the favorite matches that you have it keep also keeps it fresh with new daily promotions and fun ways to bet they have offerings across the sports betting space from overunders to point spreads money lines game props future props uh future bets I should say player props live betting and same game parlays and they have every single sport and league that you can think of as well at FanDuel that of course is headlined by the NBA talk about all the time on this podcast plus the NFL MLB college sports NHL UFC they have golf tennis soccer boxing and everything in between it’s easy to use fast to pay out and even makes regular season games feel like they are mustwatch events whether you’re placing a st parlay or just watching a bite right in the ninth inning of a baseball game right now at FanDuel you feel like you’re a part of the action and if you’re new to FanDuel if you’re a new customer bet $5 and get $150 in dollars in terms of bonus bets if your first bet wins at FanDuel open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.comlockon one more time that’s fanduel.comlockedon to get started so there’s obviously a lot to get to it’s like I agree i mean there was lots of doubt and I saw and I got it honestly he’s never been number one decision maker before i get it and like I I knew him better than people that are just fans would because I you know and we’re not close i mean I’ll learn more about him now as he gets going but you ask around ask around the league people that he worked with worked around media people etc and everybody everybody’s like “That guy’s really really sharp.” Like everybody people that wouldn’t lie to me you know what I mean there are people that I know might lie to me and people that won’t like it is what it is and it’s like everyone was like “No this guy this guy rules you’re going to like this guy.” Okay uh and then you know first week on the job and look nobody bounce a thousand even even Sam Prey zie just had to had to make a deal this week of to to dump a first round pick they made last year
for nothing
like and obviously he does he’s done a phenomenal job at Oklahoma City they just they just won a championship nobody backs a thousand so he’s going to have a mistake at some point it’s going to happen so far he has not made one in the first week uh of prominence and you’re right there there’s the advantage of having the a bit of cloak and dagger this cycle with even like the Pobo rumors that were still floating out there it’s like who’s in charge over there Um yeah you know there’s not really there was they made these two hires midstream of Graham and did Woody
um as you know as recently as a month ago you got the Messiah Jiri thing and by the way I haven’t said this on the podcast yet mark Stein had this too i’m hearing that they don’t want Messiah i mean it didn’t make sense i’m talking about now it didn’t make sense now i mean once Aussie does this like you’re not going to go and hire above him I don’t think no
anyway
there was some advantages but they they leaned into them they took advantage of them and look I you know me I don’t particularly like to give out like A+es on many things
that that draft day trade like you can’t even argue against it the the only argument you can make is like what if Dererick Queen becomes a star and to sure totally reasonable argument that’s the way that New Orleans can justify it later on is if they hit on a star there they’ll be able to say they hit on a star right if you’re the Hawks I don’t think Queen was their guy i don’t and this always gets lost this is doesn’t matter that much but even as far back as like the Hunter trade or whatever anytime there’s a trade people assume that the picks that become other players were the picks the Hawks were going to make and that’s not how this works yeah so like it’s just not so anyway there’s not really any way are you against it yeah maybe New Orleans figures out a way to be 500 and that pick that that pick is 10th or 11th or something like okay cool guess what that’s still a good trade like if if you can trade 13 for 23 and 11 in the next draft or 14 in the next draft you still do it so like and that’s and that’s the downside scenario obviously you already you already brought it up the outside scenario i’ve shared some of these already but I’ll say another one that I heard from somebody in the league this week that I would describe as a high person in the front office that was like basically say what you just said it might be the best draft asset in the league because you get two chances it’s that somebody wrote I think I think the word was like super pick or something
i think John Hollinger said super pick yeah whatever you want to say it’s the Pelicans are the the probably more likely bet
but the Bucks are one Giannis ankle tear away from that being a terrible basketball team
or a trade or whatever
the Bucks are Giannis missing two weeks to being completely out of the playoffs like that’s a bad roster
they were on thin edges last year with Dame Lillard they have no name
for the rest of the season they are they their margins are super thin and they’re and they might lose Brook you know Brook Lopez isn’t guaranteed to be back on the team if Lopez if if Brook Lopez isn’t back the the Bucks have the same issue the Pelicans have no real defensive infrastructure because they don’t have the physical talents on the defensive side of the floor defense like they don’t have
Yeah you know or just somebody or or like an elite switch guy or a good athlete back there case
yeah and I get it like Giannis is so good that I get why Milwaukee you don’t for me you don’t trade Giannis unless he has to be traded so like they’re kind of stuck but also anyway that’s just a secondary thing to say they have two swings of this thing and yeah again if it’s the 10th pick is that going to be as exciting to fans no that’s a really good trade still so all that said we can I want to say Porzingis for a second because we’re already talking about the draft stuff so let’s talk about the trade i mean I can assume based on what you just said you love you love the trade as much as I did the pick of AC New right so people were picking on me saying I was too low it’s fine i might be too low on that that’s fine i also said the night of the draft and I stand by it now like he was basically right on my board like where they picked like I think that’s a totally fine pick he wasn’t the highest guy on my board available but like that doesn’t matter i spent the entire cycle saying how flat this draft was and that we’re all way too sure about all this stuff so I can’t turn around and be like “Hey I would have preferred this guy and this guy.” Like okay whatever he was in this totally in the range for me i like the talent i think you’re higher on him than I am after watching film so what do you like about Newell and we’ll talk about that and we’ll go back to later i want to I want to harp on a little bit more on the process because there were other teams that were offered a good deal like there are other teams that could have put pressure on the Pelicans um and you know if they were willing to give up their guy if they were willing to lose out on whoever they were going to pick at 9 10 8 9 10 11 12 like
and the the most egregious example being the Bulls considering their place in the league like
everyone should have less certainty about their guys it just process wise just take your guy but you can defend like if I’m the Suns I can defend not taking you know not aggressively trying to squeeze the Pelicans for value because I’m like come in Mox is there a 10 and he’s a perfect fit for what we we desperately need a young center like you know granted we we we make a trade for
like five minutes later for Mark Williams you know super desperate to get Mark Williams for some reason but like still they needed Perfect fit talent is real talent is there perfectly fine decision the Grizzlies are in
your your Grizzlies down the street
the Grizzlies the Grizzlies are trying to find max value on the cheapest contract available they have clearly shown they’re not interested in paying the luxury tax so they’re like Sector Coward is our only guy we are going to overextend you know we’re gonna move up five spots they they trade up they they love trading up
they love trading up in Memphis and I don’t I Anyway I like Coward too but they love they love trading up in
I’m not I’m not I’m not arguing that they made the right or wrong decision i’m just saying the decisions they made there is bas like I mean granted they traded up like so it would be the Blaz like the Blazers probably felt at the time that the Grizzlies just offered a better deal that that unprotected first that the Hawks got you know we they might not have thought Yang will get there at at 23 anyway but I’m just saying that unprotected first probably wasn’t on the table for them and so they’re like we’re going to take we’re going to take this Grizzlies deal that’s better than what the Pelicans are because it at the at the moment they made the trade it was so I can I’m like all right but the Bulls the Bulls take Noah Sen and however much you like him the Chicago Bulls are not in a position to be not trading back in a flat draft like you to me you cannot justify taking Noah is over moving back 11 spots and taking a similar type talent there like that that’s that’s the reality and and quite frankly the the Pelicans put themselves in this position because they were afraid that their guy Derek Queen wouldn’t be on the table the Hawks didn’t have a guy i think they liked us it’s clear i think they liked ASA New a lot more
privately than than what we knew until you know the the choice and then they explained that hey we were going to take him at we he was our guy we
he wasn’t our guy at 13 but we liked him the most you know it’s it’s a it’s a confluence of
the mix he’s in the mix
it was confl and just as importantly if we don’t get him and we move back that’s not the end of the
It’s not the end of the world
right it’s a process if we lose the guy we want to take it’s not that big a deal because guess what we get two bites at the apple because we get another uh first round pick and next year’s draft so the Hawks just not being in love with one guy understand hey this draft because at the end of the day I think the biggest takeaway we had me you and a lot of people about the draft was like after the top honestly after the top two it’s pretty flat like at least on pure talent it’s pretty flat it’s eye of the beholder type draft and so the Hawks were like “Hey if if we lose out on Ace New oh well we got more guys on the board who we’re comfortable with taking we’re okay.” And it helped that the Hawks had two picks at two picks before you know and they were evaluating multiple guys and they were like “All right these are our guys.” ing it was like there’s not really a 10 person gap between the everybody we brought in so why don’t we just we can give up the 22nd pick to get a Porzingis because guess what we feel the guys at 13 are the same as the guys at 22 and we probably don’t want to bring it back to two rookies when we can get a Chris Porzingis we’ll talk about Porzingis later
yeah but just overall it’s just like hey it’s just the process that matters because that’s how you ele like this this trade elevates the Hawks from oh wow the Hawks sneakily might be Eastern Conference like finals caliber team now to if things break well for them next year and they get a top three pick in a truly special draft like multiple Cooper flags are in this draft class coming up like I I I you know as somebody who’s you know on the periphery of watching draft stuff these are like obvious elite talents in a way that has three consensus guys
yeah i mean it’s it’s early but yeah so it’s just like if you’re able if you’re able to already have this pool of talent you have in your team now you just added Porzingis and then on top of that you can add an elite talent in next year’s draft like you’re like this how you build OKC level dominance with what you already have on your team so that’s where that’s where I’m like man that’s you know hell you know hell of a day from us yeah so first of all we agree on all the process stuff it’s it’s a it’s a home run and like I’m not an overstater and I think I’m I love I loved it as much as much as you did um we can we don’t have we don’t have to spend a half hour on a new because we’re going to talk about him during summer league and all i mean there’s plenty of time talking new but I know you’ve been I know you’ve been watching film on him yeah pre and post the Hawks of course introduced him on Friday if anybody missed that I shared the video on the podcast of Ace’s comments um they really like him like they did think about him as high as 13 there’ll always be a debate on whether they would have taken him there it doesn’t really matter they ended up with him anyway and they had him in that range for sure um but what do you what do you kind of like about him what What do you see i mean I I I hate I hate player comparisons personally but that’s there’s always people are throwing those out there uh fast and furious this at this time of year presummer league but did you like the pick how do you feel as Yeah so like my initial comparison of Ace Newell was like what if Mo Gay defensively but knew what he was doing on the offensive side of the floor
yeah because like defensively granted he didn’t have the impact that you would think that when I just say that but I’m just talking about his physical tools and how he moves on the basketball floor particularly on defense suggests to me there are some real defensive like on an NBA floor there’s some real defensive upside considering his size length and athleticism like just flat out being able to switch one through five to guard multiple positions and he had good tape like he had really good tape at you know at Georgia defensively the impact wasn’t there in large part because the SEC one was the best conference in the world uh you know best conference in in division one basketball history maybe but also like it was super big like you watch I don’t Brad it felt like every team had a sevenfooter or a near sevenfooter who weighed over 250 pounds at a definitely a big league it was a it was a big league and like they were and so it was very hard for it’s a bigger league less spacing that means defensive rebounding is hyper critical and he wasn’t a good defensive rebounder uh when he was asked to guard up basically that’s not going to be the case at the next level NBA I think action might be a little smaller than what he was going up night to night um it’s a more skill-based league more vertical ical based league uh than strengthbased for the most part you know they’re they’re they’re of course the behemoths but overall like I think ASA’s case defensively is going to shine way more than it did in college u just just based on just based on how he’s like literally it’s just me based on how he moves and also how he plays um it combined with I think he was in the worst context for him as an offensive player
yeah they all kind of facing for sure yeah i mean to your point
go ahead not just basic like talent issues like their
Oh yeah
guards guards were slow like their guards not only were their guards not good they were also slow like they couldn’t they literally could not play faster and so like and Asa just to me feels like someone who needs to play with pace and in transition to maximize his gifts offensively where they are now where he’s a I think he’s a real transition threat for the Hawks a great offensive rebounder a a also a damn good finisher all things considered like again these were muddied waters he was playing with and he was cons like at what was it over 70% at the rim
at the rim yeah
you know with no spacing with no and often him having to selfreate for himself like he showed some ability to selfreate it wasn’t elite but just the ability to do that at that level considering the context that he was in was pretty impressive to me so I’m just I’m I’m somebody I’m like you you get him with elite spacing not even elite just NBA spacing I should say um elite basketball spacing is probably is more of what I mean not necessarily
like basketball spacing and then combined with significantly better guard play i think you’re go I think Hawks fans are going to be pleasantly surprised with how good he is like just overall as a player
yeah Georgia to back you up i mean they were a in the context of the country a perfectly fine team they won 20 games they weren’t a bad team but in that context in the SEC they were like near the bottom in tempo near the bottom in turnover rate because of like the lack of spacing about three point shoot rate all these numbers that are like not great he and you know there’s an argument and we we can maybe talk about this like how he’s best maximized but he was the best player by far and everybody knew it so he got a lot of attention and probably was not ready to handle that as like a number one or whatever it was going to be offensive option in that league which is fine he was a freshman like he played high level basketball he’s also used to in a way that a lot of guys aren’t and I this came up with rec last year you know I talked about him a lot both pre and during the season newell is not unfamiliar with playing as in a supporting role like this is a guy who played at Mont Verde with Cooper Flag and Derek Queen like he’s not this is this will not be it would not be the first time he’s played as not the best player on the team and I kind of like that especially for a guy that you’re picking in the 20s that probably will never be your best player like he’s willing i think he’s by all accounts the the makeup stuff is really really good not only on the record like obviously the guy the Hawks are going to talk up his his makeup they just took him but even the behind the scenes like the background stuff like everybody’s like “Oh this guy’s a really good kid hard worker.” Like all those things are real and he can fit in and also this is one of our hobby horses like he doesn’t have to play 20 minutes a game right out of right out of the shoot like he probably won’t play that much and he probably shouldn’t play that much as a 19-year-old rookie in the NBA but he can get there and you’re right like the offensive side of the floor I have more concerns about but nothing dire like he’s got the potential to shoot it he’s not void of feel like he feels the game pretty well there’s some passing flashes in there he’s a really good athlete um he can handle the ball in a way that a lot of guys his size cannot yeah so like there’s some stuff in there to like and there again if he doesn’t if he doesn’t shoot it gets a little bit dicey but like I think he probably will be okay and if that’s okay then a lot of stuff kind of comes along with it there’s some real like when uh closeout ability for him like he can attack at close out and he he showed some things as a driver like and quality post up play particular if he’s able to post up cons more consistently against smaller players i think there’s some real mismatch ability with him because he’s such a great vertical athlete i I think that’s probably his best gift is his vertical athleticism and his second jump ability like smaller players are just going to have a hard time contesting him and keeping him off the offensive glass and like that’s a real weapon like that’s a you know a skill that will translate to the next level almost right away so that’s why I’m like if he can develop more he might he might have the potential to be more than what his baseline projection might be look I um I think uh Capitol Avenue Club on Twitter he he brought it up like you know the Hawks kind of hit for a single instead of trying to go for the home run play here with Asa Newell and I maybe they maybe they it turns into a double or triple you don’t know might end up being a home run but but like it’s a safe pick like you know he is a real NBA player i you and and you know I I think some fans you know wanted either Rasher Fleming or Nick Clifford sure and I’m perfectly fine if if the Hawks would have taken him but I think those two don’t have the athleticism or the size you know in Nick Clifford’s case where I’m worried that it might not translate to the next level like especially uh Nick I think uh I mean not Nick I’m sorry um Rashier the more I watched the less I was impressed with him athletically like I just at least his side to side lateral movement just didn’t inspire much confidence in me that he was he could play power forward at all in the NBA today
like I you know so that that’s why I’m like I’m a little worried and if he doesn’t shoot it what is he and he’s already 21 that that’s the big thing if a Asa we don’t we don’t know if he’ll shoot it or not but he’s 19 right you know
and it’s not broken it’s not he’s not a zero shooter which is that matters like I think if they if they were drafted a guy who like could we knew couldn’t shoot and had this profile I’d be more worried to be honest but look and you know I don’t like doing outliers but because people were trying to make this comparison in a negative way which blows my mind people were like bringing up John Collins like that was like that would be a bad outcome it’s like you’re number one you’re out of your mind which we we don’t have to cover that but like John Collins was not a shooter in college like was not a shooter at all and then became a regular high30s 40% three-point shooter and you you don’t necessarily project that but like it is a possible outcome like guys that have touch which N does have which Collins always had but like also it’s about realistic expectations i don’t do this to run anybody’s parade i never It’s not the point of me doing this bit that I always do but at number 23 in the draft if you get a rotation player not a starter a rotation player that’s a successful outcome are you dancing in the streets no but like to your double that’s a double if you if you get a if you get a rotation player at 23 you hit a double in the draft like you you did a good job better than that awesome like obviously I know Jaylen went 20 so we’re people are a little bit spoiled by that because Jaylen is like a fringe star already and he went 20th i get that but like Kevin Hurder was 19 john Collins was 19 those guys become those guys became NBA starters and that those are like A minus to A draft picks not A+ but like you can’t bank on much better than that bank on is different than hope for i’m sure they’re hoping for him to become a starter and be this core piece for them that’d be great but if he’s like the seventh man you’ve done well at 23rd overall it just you have [Applause] all right that is it for part one of this two-part conversation part two should be available in this same podcast feed pretty soon if not immediately on Sunday as you’re listening to this podcast into Monday please subscribe to the show anywhere you find your podcast as well apple Spotify YouTube etc ratings reviews appreciated please follow the show on Twitterx at lotsonhawks follow me there BT Roland follow my blue sky at BT Roland and my nonpodcast work about the Hawks at patreon.combt again stay tuned for part two and we’ll see you all next time

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts Episode 2011 of the Locked on Hawks podcast, and he is joined by Tyler Jones (@Jonesy2x4) of ATL and 29 for Part 1 of a 2-part conversation. Topics include the start of the Onsi Saleh era with the Atlanta Hawks, the Kristaps Porzingis trade, the 2025 NBA Draft, the big trade with the New Orleans Pelicans, Asa Newell, the next steps for the Hawks over the next few weeks, and much more.

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