Take the Guard. Don't Overthink This.
The Hawks have Onyeka Okongwu. Career year. Starting center. Locked in.
They traded Porzingis to Golden State at the deadline. On purpose. They looked at their roster and said: we don't need a seven-footer.
Now the mock drafts want them to take Aday Mara at 8.
A 7'3" center. With the worst speed and agility numbers at the combine. Behind the starting center they just committed to.
I'm 72% sure the Hawks need to take a point guard at 8. Here's the receipt.
McCollum scored 6 points in an elimination game. Six. Hart erased him schematically across three straight games. I was at 62% on the Trae trade being right, and what killed the number wasn't the regular season -- it was April, when this roster needed a lead guard who could create in the half court and didn't have one.
That's the hole. Not center. Guard.
Mara's 9'9" standing reach is real. The 12% block rate plus 19% assist rate combination is genuinely rare. But 56.4% from the line and the worst agility at the combine aren't red flags -- they're sirens. Okongwu is 23, improving, and already here. You don't draft his backup at 8.
Kingston Flemings is the pick. De'Aaron Fox comp isn't my line -- it's the scouting consensus. Best rim-pressure guard in the class. The Hawks' offense died in the halfcourt against New York because nobody could get to the paint. Flemings fixes that.
Mikel Brown Jr. is the fallback. 18.2 points, 4.7 assists at Louisville. The back injury that cut his season to 21 games is the concern, not the talent. If the medicals clear, he's the safer version of the same thesis: this team needs a creator, not a rim protector.
The Knicks just reached the Finals. The team that ended Atlanta's season is playing for a championship. The gap isn't size. It's shot creation.
Take the guard. Trade Risacher if you have to -- I was 65% on that in May and nothing's changed.
Tell me I'm wrong.
The Tilt
Hawks drafting Mara at 8 would solve a problem they don't have while ignoring the one that ended their season.
— Dex Ponce
What's your take?
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