Many pundits criticized the Atlanta Hawks for passing up the chance to get their hands on Slovenian phenom Luka Doncic, who instead went to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2018 NBA Draft.
The Hawks traded down from the third overall pick to select Trae Young No. 5 overall. They also acquired an additional 2019 first-round pick in the process, which turned out to be the 10th pick.
In a piece written by Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic, Hawks GM Travis Schlenk expressed his satisfaction over the trade and explained how a baseball philosophy influenced their decision to essentially trade down and acquire more assets:
“For us, what made it make sense is our analytic staff was predicting Dallas to finish eighth this year,” Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk said on the The Woj Podcast during the regular season. “Right now, I think they’re 10th. So I give those guys a lot of credit for being pretty on top of it. So to be able to add two lottery picks this year with a player (who) ended up being Trae — who we’re extremely excited about and he’s had a great rookie season — that made sense to us.
“I’ve always taken the strategy with the draft, (to) use a baseball strategy: the more swings you get the more chances you have to get a hit. So to be able to take one lottery pick and essentially turn it into two, that made sense to us.”
Doncic and Young arguably had the two best rookie campaigns of the 2018-19 season. Doncic, likely to be named the Rookie of the Year, had a more consistent season and was great from start to finish. Young, on the other hand, sturggled out of the gates but ended his season on a strong note and made the Rookie of the Year race a little more interesting toward the end of the year.
For now, there's still no telling who won the trade between the Mavs and Hawks, but both franchises are happy with the results.
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