The Hawks have had enough draft swings this decade to know the difference between a franchise-changer and a swing-and-miss. In the apron era, those calls matter even more. Cost-controlled talent is gold, and Atlanta’s recent first-round record has delivered both a real centerpiece and a few painful misses.
The biggest hit of the bunch is clear. The Hawks landed Jalen Johnson in the first round, and that pick looks better by the year.
He just made his first All-NBA team and has become one of the league’s rising talents. Johnson may not ultimately profile as the No. 1 option on a championship team, but he has already established himself as a winning player who keeps taking steps forward.
His 2025-26 season was the strongest of his career. Johnson played in a career-high 72 games, all starts, and posted career bests in points at 22.5, rebounds at 10.3 and assists at 7.9 while also adding 1.2 steals in 35.2 minutes per game.
That stat line put him in rare company: he became just the fifth player in NBA history to average at least 22.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists in a single season, joining Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, Nikola Jokic and Russell Westbrook. He also finished top 20 in points per game, assists per game and rebounds per game, becoming the first Hawk in franchise history to rank top 20 in all three categories.
Atlanta’s next first-round swing came in 2022, when it went back to Duke for AJ Griffin. That one never really took off.
Griffin flashed as a rookie, especially as a floor spacer and three-point shooter, hitting 39 percent from deep. But he dropped out of the rotation in his second season after Quin Snyder became head coach, then was traded on the second day of the 2024 NBA Draft to the Houston Rockets.
Griffin never played for Houston, choosing to retire from the NBA instead.
That selection stands as Atlanta’s first true miss of the decade, especially when the board offered other names such as Tari Eason, Jake LaRavia, Walker Kessler, Christian Braun or Peyton Watson.
The 2023 first-rounder, Kobe Bufkin, was another tough outcome, though not for lack of talent. The No. 15 pick simply could not stay healthy.
Injuries limited him to a combined 27 games across two seasons in Atlanta, and the Hawks traded him last summer to the Brooklyn Nets for cash considerations. Bufkin then put together a solid stint with the Lakers this past season, which led to a one-year deal with the New Orleans Pelicans this offseason.
The 2024 draft brought the most scrutiny of all. Atlanta took Zaccharie Risacher at No. 1 in a class that was considered weak at the top, with no Victor Wembanyama or Cooper Flagg waiting to solve the problem for them.
Risacher gave the Hawks reason for optimism as a rookie, finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting, but his second season went the other way. He lost his starting spot late in the year and eventually slipped almost entirely out of the rotation.
Risacher was moved this offseason in a three-team trade involving Dallas and Oklahoma City, landing with the Mavericks. He’ll try to get his career back on track there alongside Flagg.
Atlanta’s most recent first-round name, Asa Newell, is still more about projection than production, but there are signs to work with. The pick is remembered more for how the Hawks acquired it than for Newell himself so far, though he showed enough upside in his rookie season to suggest more could be coming. He spent most of this past season in the G-League, but he has a chance to earn a rotation spot this year and could be in line for a bigger role in the 2026-27 season.
In Other News...
Hawks Still Have One Roster Issue That Could Define This Season
The Hawks spent the offseason trying to make their roster sturdier around the edges, bringing back CJ McCollum and Jock Landale while adding Aaron Wiggins, Lu Dort and Devin Carter. They also moved Zaccharie Risacher to Dallas to clear space for rookies Kingston Flemings and Zuby Ejiofor, a sign that Atlanta was willing to reshape the back end of the roster in search of more balance and flexibility.
Even after all that, one issue still hangs over the group: the wing rotation. Atlanta has enough moving parts elsewhere, but the small forward spot remains thin enough to shape how the season unfolds, especially with Jonathan Kumingas contract situation still unresolved. Corey Kispert has come up in trade discussions as a possible answer, which says plenty about how much the Hawks still may need to do before this roster feels truly settled. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Draft What-If Just Got Tougher To Ignore
The Hawks frontcourt future looks a little different now, and the draft hindsight around it is getting harder to ignore. In a move that sent former No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher to the Dallas Mavericks in a three-team deal, Atlanta closed the book on one version of its roster-building plan while reopening an old what-if about the 2024 draft.
Alex Sarr, who went to the Washington Wizards, has only sharpened the debate with the way he has played since arriving in the league. For Atlanta, the appeal is obvious: a mobile big with size and versatility might have fit neatly alongside the Hawks current core, adding another layer to a frontcourt that has spent plenty of time searching for the right blend of rim protection, spacing and upside. [Read more 🡒]
Former Hawks Forward Leaves Atlanta With One Big What-If
Eli Ndiayes first NBA stop with Atlanta never really got the runway he needed. Signed by the Hawks as an undrafted free agent after the 2025 NBA Draft, the forward spent most of his rookie year on the fringes of the roster, with injuries and the way the team was built limiting his chances to establish himself at the NBA level.
Now Ndiaye is heading back overseas after just one season in the league, joining a growing list of former Hawks who have continued their careers abroad. It is a reminder of how quickly the league can move on from a young player, and how a promising fit can turn into a lingering what-if when the opportunity never quite arrives. [Read more 🡒]