It’s not too early to start sketching out the 2027 NBA Draft picture, and for the Hawks, the first projection brings a name that already stands out in a thin class.
Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman has Atlanta landing UConn forward Braylon Mullins at No. 6 in his first mock for 2027. That’s a notable slot for a player who, by the source’s read, would have been a lottery pick this year if he had declared. Instead, Mullins is headed back to UConn with a chance to chase a national championship.
The appeal is easy to see. Mullins is described as an elite shooter, and that kind of weapon tends to translate fast once a player reaches the NBA.
In a draft that currently lacks the kind of top-end buzz attached to prospects like Cooper Flagg or AJ Dybantsa, that shooting punch could make Mullins one of the cleaner bets on the board. Still, the class is a long way from being set, and plenty can change before June 2027.
For Atlanta, the draft setup is tied to a pair of earlier trades. The Hawks tried to position themselves on the night of the 2025 NBA Draft by dealing with the New Orleans Pelicans, acquiring an unprotected 2026 pick that would have been the most favorable of New Orleans and Milwaukee. Lottery luck didn’t cooperate, though Atlanta still came away with Houston point guard Kingston Flemings at No. 8, and he flashed well in Summer League.
The 2027 draft is the last one in which Atlanta will owe a pick to San Antonio, but the Pelicans and Bucks situation still gives the Hawks a path to a useful selection. If one of those picks lands outside the top four, Atlanta gets the least favorable of the two. In a draft class this lightly regarded at the top, that’s not the kind of premium asset that changes everything, but it still carries value.
What Atlanta actually needs by then is still impossible to pin down this early, and that’s part of the challenge. The Hawks have a strong young core already in place with Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Onyeka Okongwu under contract for next season. They also have rookie talent in Flemings, Zuby Ejiofor, and Henri Veesaar, plus Aaron Wiggins and Asa Newell, who should also be on the roster next season no matter what.
At the same time, Atlanta could be staring at a pile of turnover. CJ McCollum, Lu Dort, Jock Landale, Mouhamed Gueye, and Ryan Nembhard could all be gone, and Devin Carter and Buddy Hield may also be off the roster depending on how things shake out, whether through a star trade or simply because their contracts expire.
That’s why the Hawks’ draft approach under President of Basketball Operations Onsi Saleh has remained straightforward: take the best player available. That should hold true next June too, wherever the pick ends up.
There’s also a chance the whole exercise ends up meaning very little. Atlanta is already one of the youngest teams in the league, and if the 2027 class really is as stripped down as it looks right now, the Hawks may not even want to add another rookie. The pick could be moved in a trade, or Atlanta could be left without one at all if both the Bucks and Pelicans selections land in the top four.
In Other News...
Hawks Still Have One Offensive Question They Can't Ignore
The Hawks offense last season was built around a level of shared creation that kept them near the top of the league in assists and related metrics, with Jalen Johnson doing a lot of the heavy lifting as a playmaker. Even after adding more ball-handling help for the coming season, including bringing back CJ McCollum and using a draft pick on Kingston Flemings, the bigger question in Atlanta is still whether the passing can hold up when Johnson is not the one making everything go.
Johnsons importance is hard to overstate because the Hawks have already seen how much their offensive shape changes when he is unavailable. The front office has given the roster more ways to initiate, and the hope is that others can take pressure off him without asking anyone else to become a duplicate of his game, but the real test will be whether that support shows up when the season turns rough and the offense needs another reliable creator to emerge. [Read more 🡒]