Hawks work out prospect who is dark horse candidate to go No. 1

The Hawks are less than a week away from making a franchise-altering move with the No. 1 overall pick, and the rumor mill is FLOWING.

As of right now, Atlanta has yet to work out Alex Sarr but has worked out the other two candidates to go first, Zaccharie Risacher and Donovan Clingan.

Risacher seems to be the favorite, per Jonathan Givony and FanDuel, but the ESPN pundit also noted that he doesn’t believe the Hawks know what they’re doing just yet. There could be a name that few are talking about, though.

“Matas Buzelis being a dark horse candidate,” Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer wrote.

Buzelis is a prospect that very few, if any at all, have considered to be the first player off the board. The Hawks have worked out Buzelis, according to Givony, so there’s at least something there.

He chose the G League Ignite route over scholarship offers from several major programs and flashed the potential of being a dominant player at times, but he struggled to shoot the ball efficiently. He only canned 27.3% of his threes beyond the arc, but he did make 43.1% of his attempts from deep during his senior year of high school.

At 6’10” with the ability to switch defensively, the ceiling is astronomical if he can figure out his shot. He averaged 14.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and nearly one steal per game while shooting 44.5% from the field. At just 19 years old, that should spark some optimism, but he’ll never make it shooting at such an inefficient clip. With the top pick, he seems like a bit of reach. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t be a target in a potential trade down scenario for the Hawks, though.

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