The Hawks trade with the Brooklyn Nets to acquire Allen Crabbe and two first-round picks signaled something much more significant could be in the works. Atlanta now owns a league-high six selections in this year’s draft and has the potential to have three first-round picks in the 2020 draft as well, giving Travis Schlenk a plethora of options to explore before June 20th.
One of those alternatives, according to Jeremy Woo of SI.com, is to trade up from the eighth spot with an eye on Jarrett Culver out of Texas Tech. Woo states,
According to league sources, Atlanta has been angling to move up in the draft by packaging their various picks, and continue to explore possibilities there. Their primary target would seem to be Jarrett Culver, and they would likely have to get ahead of Phoenix to get him. After dealing with the Nets to add Allen Crabbe’s salary and acquire two first-round picks, Atlanta owns a league-high six selections in this draft, and is exploring all its options. If the Hawks do stay put at 8, it seems likely Reddish will be available to them. Teams are all over the board with their opinions on him, and his inconsistent season has inspired some healthy skepticism, but Reddish fits nicely with Trae Young and the Hawks’ other pieces. Depending on what happens with these Atlanta picks, there’s a chance he could fall out of the Top 10.
Culver is a player I talked about here extensively. He’s a 6’5″ shooting guard that is long enough to guard any position on the perimeter. His offense spiked during his sophomore season even though his three-point shooting dipped. He can be that second ballhandler beside Trae Young and showed a lot of promise as a distributor at Texas Tech. There aren’t a lot of flaws in Culver’s game, and his ceiling is extremely high. The Hawks have every right to be intrigued, and I agree with Woo – Culver will likely not be around for Atlanta with the eighth pick. If Schlenk wants him that badly; he is going to have to trade up.
How much truth there is to Woo’s report? I have no idea. Travis Schlenk has come off as a general manager that is very tight-lipped. The Hawks play-by-play commenter for Fox Sports, Bob Rathbun, mentioned that the other day in our interview with him. This could all be smoke, but it does make a considerable amount of sense that the Hawks are exploring all options to move up and down the draft board with their overload of selections. They won’t be able to bring in six new rookies; trades will be made on the night of the draft.