Atlanta Hawks select Nikola Durisic with 43rd pick

After selecting Zaccharie Risacher with the first overall pick last night, the Atlanta Hawks were left with no picks to make before the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft. Earlier today, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report that the Hawks had traded former first-round pick AJ Griffin to the Houston Rockets for the 44th overall pick. Atlanta then traded up from the 44th overall pick to the 43rd overall pick, offering cash considerations to the Miami Heat. With that pick, the Atlanta Hawks selected Nikola Durisic, a 6-foot-10 forward who played in Serbia.

There’s still a chance the Hawks are hiding Durisic, but that’s unknown at this point.

Durisic is a strong and creative player with the ball in his hands, but he’s going to have to develop his off-ball game to have a role in the league. If Atlanta keeps him, I think he’ll probably see some minutes in the G-League. Atlanta has done a great job developing guys in College Park, so that could be a great place for Durisic.

Durisic was the 37th player on Sam Vecenie’s board for The Athletic. Here’s what Vecenie said were his strengths heading into the draft:

STRENGTHS: Djurišić is big for a creative wing scorer: 6-7 without shoes with a 6-8 wingspan and an 8-6 1/2 standing reach. He has bounce, lift and a certain degree of shiftiness. His 10.63 lane agility time was among the best at the combine, especially considering his size. He also has strength that he can access when he gets to the rim. Creativity is key to his game. Djurišić is very quick in the way he attacks defenders and his movements are sudden. He is constantly aggressive and inquisitive, trying to make things happen. He wants to advance the pace and tempo of the game with speed and craft. He is confident. He thinks he is the best player every time he steps on the court.

Investing in Djurišić is investing in the idea that he can be a big-time creator in the long term. Djurišić is very clever from the start in the way he attacks the game. He tries to put pressure on you. This works best with ball screens at the moment. He loves to attack and try to get downhill and is also creative in trying to find tricks. He knows how to split ball screens and is also good at stringing together bigs when he can to try to find a mismatch. He will patiently wait for first level defenders to act, then attempt to attack them suddenly. He can beat big players in isolation. In this light, it poses a threat on three levels. He’s ready to stop and pop up behind the 3-point line, stop mid-range, or try to drive to the rim. There’s an unpredictable cadence to the way he attacks, making him slippery and difficult to stay ahead of. There are some benefits to being a secondary creator.

Betting on Djurišić also means banking on his ability to pass. Djurišić clearly has a vision for the game. He is good at drawing defenders towards him and finding angles to make clearances or on-the-fly passes to players in dunk position. I think he’s better when he makes quicker decisions and gets things done faster. Again, his creativity shines through here at times. He throws fun wraparound and dribble passes, one-handed, and he can do it at high speed. At Mega this season, he averaged almost four assists per game.

Djurišić has also improved significantly as a finisher this season. He’s completed 58.2 percent of his attempts at the rim in the halfcourt, according to Synergy, a high number considering many were self-created in the second half of the season. His unpredictability helps him generate touches in the paint. He also does a good job of converting that creativity into power; he jumps well off one foot to catch defenders before they’ve fully established their positioning. He doesn’t sky, but he can finish above the rim in traffic. He has 25 dunks this year, including 15 in the halfcourt. I liked the way he got the ball back at the end of this year. He made a few rotations to get separation, as well as some tough steps in the Euros around players in traffic. He’s shown improvement as an off-ball mover and cutter this season, getting into more dangerous positions off screens or early in the attack.

Djurišić has clean mechanics in his top half that make you believe he will be a shooter at some point. He has confidence every time he stops. As mentioned above, he is a legitimate threat on three levels: very good ball pickup and good balance on the pull-up. He has a chance to be a scorer on the ball. Beyond that, he’s also a solid driver all the way to the rim. Considering his field goal shooting numbers, his 53.5 rim percentage is acceptable for a teenager at this level when he gets there about three times per game. It’s easy to imagine Djurišić as a fun dribble-pass-shoot weapon at almost 6-8 years old in the shoes. He makes contact and commits a foul. Djurišić is an active defender. He wants to play hard and try to disrupt things. The size, strength and athleticism are there to potentially work for that purpose. »