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NBA Draft Lottery: Hawks get first pick, despite 3% chance of winning

Gillberg
NBA Draft Lottery: Hawks get first pick, despite 3% chance of winning

The Atlanta Hawks will have the No. 1 selection in the 2024 NBA Draft after winning the draft lottery on Sunday.

This is the Hawks’ first top pick since drafting David Thompson in 1975. Atlanta had never won the draft before. The team was represented on stage in Chicago by general manager Landry Fields.

The Detroit Pistons (14-68) and Washington Wizards (15-67) had the best odds of landing the No. 1 pick, at 14 percent. The Hawks had a 3% chance (and +3000 chance) of winning the selection with their 36-46 record.

Unlike last year, where Victor Wembanyama was the clear first selection with Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson considered the next best prospects, there is no obvious choice for No. 1 in this year’s class. But several players can fill key needs for teams that didn’t make the NBA playoffs.

Here’s how the top 14 selections for 2024 line up after the lottery results:

  1. Atlanta Falcons

  2. Wizards of Washington

  3. Houston Rockets*

  4. San Antonio Spurs

  5. Detroit Pistons

  6. Charlotte Frelons

  7. Portland Trail Blazers

  8. San Antonio Spurs**

  9. Memphis Grizzlies

  10. Utah Jazz

  11. Chicago Bulls

  12. Oklahoma City Thunder (Houston) ***

  13. Kings of Sacramento

  14. Portland Trail Blazers (from Golden State) ****

*Houston received this pick from Brooklyn in the 2020 James Harden trade.

**Toronto lost this pick, traded for Jakob Poeltl, after it wasn’t a top-six selection.

*** Oklahoma City obtained this selection from Houston in a 2019 deal involving Russell Westbrook.

****Golden State would have kept this pick if it had landed in the top four.

Two French basketball prospects, Alex Sarr and Zaccharie Risacher, are considered the two best prospects in the draft.

Yahoo Sports NBA draft analyst Krysten Peek has Sarr, 19, as the No. 1 selection in her latest mock draft. Here’s what she had to say about the 7-foot-1 center in a draft lottery preview:

Sarr, who opted to play for the Perth Wildcats in Australia’s NBL for one season, caught the attention of scouts and NBA executives in the fall during two exhibition games in Las Vegas against the G League Ignite. He featured a much-improved motor and elite rim protection, and solidified himself as a potential top pick after dominating the paint against other projected lottery talents like Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland. In his lone season with the Wildcats, Sarr averaged 9.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 18 minutes per game.

Risacher, also 19, is more of an offensive talent than a defensive presence as a 6-foot-9 winger, according to Peek:

Risacher still plays for JL Bourg-en-Bresse in the LNB Pro A French League. The 6-9 winger – whose father, Stéphane, was a six-time French League All-Star and won a silver medal with France at the 2000 Summer Olympics – played in more than 60 games this season, more than any other prospect, and has shown significant improvement since playing for Team World at the Nike Hoop Summit last spring. One of the best catch-and-shoot wings in the draft, Risacher is shooting 39% from 3-point range on 3.5 attempts per game and has added better decision-making in the lane and is an improving facilitator.

Other players who could be selected among the top five picks are UConn center Donovan Clingan and guard Stephon Castle, as well as Serbian guard Nikola Topić. Kentucky guards Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard, Tennessee guard Dalton Knecht and G League Ignite forward Matas Buzelis are also projected as top prospects in the draft.

These players and many others are among the 78 prospects who could improve their chances of moving up the ranks with their performance in the NBA draft, which began Sunday in Chicago. Fans can watch the combined action May 15-16 on ESPN2 from 1-5 p.m. ET.

The 2024 NBA Draft will take place on June 26-27. For the first time, the draft will take place over two nights, with the first round taking place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 26. The second round will take place at ESPN’s Seaport District studios in New York on June 27.

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