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Hawks Draft Analysis

Authored by Patrick J. Austin - June 29, 2005 - 1:59 pm

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Draft night has come and gone, so now is the time to breakdown who the Hawks decided to add to the nest. As expected, we chose with Marvin Williams with our top selection. I’m sure you’ve all heard this before, but I’ll say it again; he was the best talent available and has the upside to become a superstar.

Though, people have questioned this pick since we’re so loaded at the small forward position. To be honest, I was hoping for a trade but once Deron Williams and Chris Paul were drafted consecutively at three and four, I knew the rumored deal with Charlotte was dead.

So I guess that means Marvin is our guy; and that’s not a bad thing. Like I said, the kid is a potential franchise talent. Sure, he plays the same position as our other potential franchise talent(i.e. Josh Smith) but they could wind up working well together. If all else fails, the Hawks will at least be a fun team to watch again. Marv and Smoove will provide copious amounts of ESPN Top Ten highlights.

With the thirty-first selection, we went with Salim Stoudamire. I’m not very fond of this pick. Don’t get me wrong, I think Salim will turn into a solid pro but we needed a point guard and Salim is certainly not that. He’s a two-guard in a point guard’s body. He can stroke it from beyond the arc but doesn’t make his teammates better. He’s essentially Tony Delk Lite. At best, a poor man’s Jason Terry.

I was absolutely shocked we passed on Roko Leni-Ukic. The kid is a 6’5 point guard with fantastic court vision and extremely long arms. He could have stepped in and made an impact right away. Passing on him was a mistake and he’ll make us pay for it down the road.

With the fifty-ninth pick we chose Cenk Akyol. You know who he is??? Me neither. This has to be one of the worst selections in recent memory. Sure, it was a very low pick but Randolph Morris, Matt Walsh, Angelo Gigli, and Kennedy Winston were all still on the board. You can’t tell me Cenk freakin’ Akyol is a better prospect than Randolph Morris or Angelo Gigli.

All in all, I’d give the Hawks a C- for this draft. Selecting Marvin could pay off big time. He could be our savior. But the emphasis is on could. Everything with Marvin is potential. There’s no guarantee he becomes a stud, and the log jam created could cause problems in the immediate future. The selections of Stoudamire and Akyol were disappointing to say the least. We could have gotten so much more out of those picks it’s almost sickening. It was an average draft. Not great, but not terrible either.