Key Quotes and Takeaways From Onsi Saleh's Pre-Draft Media Availability

The NBA Draft begins tomorrow night, and while the basketball world is bracing for a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo trade, the Atlanta Hawks are more focused on the players that they will be adding tomorrow night or the deals they will be making.

Atlanta has already been a busy team this offseason, re-signing CJ McCollum and trading a pair of second -round picks for Thunder wing Aaron Wiggins. The next big decisions they will be making will be regarding what they do tomorrow, whether it is selecting two rookies or trading either the No. 8 or No. 23 overall picks.

Ahead of the draft, Hawks President of Basketball Operations Onsi Saleh spoke with the media, and here are the notable quotes and takeaways from today.

Hawks are not skipping steps in this building process

The Wiggins deal is more prove that the Hawks are going to be ready to make the right deal to add to their team, but they are not ready to go all in and trade loads of assets to land a player. That is something that Saleh said after the Hawks lost to the Knicks in the NBA Playoffs and he reiterated it again today:

"We've been waiting for this for a while. I think we've watched enough film to make a really good decision tomorrow. Did all the intel. A couple decisions to make tomorrow, but we're really excited about adding a couple guys and seeing how the process goes. But like we said before, no skipping steps. We want to grow this thing out organically. I just feel like we're going to add two really good players tomorrow in the draft. And we have a lot of opportunities to move forward with this group.

We don't want to be that team that skips steps and we want to be sustainable. It's everything I've been saying. You guys are probably sick of me saying that, but that's just the truth. We really like where we're at as a team. where we're going and really young still. We're about to get younger. But we're really excited about this draft class and the opportunities that are before us. And yeah, can't really say too much else."

On drafting best player vs trying to fill needs

Whether it is the NBA Draft or the NFL Draft, deciding between the top player on your board or the player that fits a need best can be tricky and even an overthought process. When asked about trying to fill the Hawks biggest needs and drafting the best player available, Saleh was pretty clear what this front office is going to do:

"I mean, it's always going to be best player available for us, whatever. It doesn't matter what position. It could be big, it could be guard, it could be wing. If that's the best player we think is there at that position in the draft, great, we're going to take them. Yeah, like I think we could get better in different areas for sure. And we got some some things we got to figure out with a roster, but we do have a lot of flexibility. I'm not going to. Are you guys sick of optionality?

I need a new word. I might need a new word. But now we're we got a lot of avenues to get better. That's beyond the draft, too. Like, I think one thing is like trying to solve all your problems at once to get a little dangerous. That's when you make mistakes. So we have a pretty good process here and we just want to make sure we stick with. that as we move forward and so far so good. We feel good about what's coming ahead and make the team better."

Open to moving up or down

There has been lots of speculation about the Hawks and what they will do with the No. 8 and No 23 picks and Saleh sounded open to moving up or down when speaking:

"Anything's possible. Last year, we didn't expect to move pick 13 that we had, and that happened on the clock. So I feel like this is going to be a very... There could be a lot of calls transactionally with different things available. So yeah, anything's possible for us. But if we just stayed still and had 8 and 23, I feel really good about it."

Excited to have CJ McCollum back

It was reported yesterday that McCollum was coming back to Atlanta on a one year deal and shortly after Saleh spoke with the media, it was officially announced by the team. Before the official release though, Saleh spoke about bringing McCollum back and what that means for Atlanta:

"So we're really excited to have CJ back. You guys saw what he did last season when he came in. He's just been an ultimate professional veteran for our team, and the guy could hoop. He is just an amazing basketball player. So we're super excited to have CJ back here. Brings that continuity together. It's kind of like I talked about, I think postseason was basically put this team together in like two and a half months. And to have like a training camp with your core guys, like that's important.

That's important for the next step and iteration of this team and the development of our guys. So we're super excited to have CJ back."

High praise for the guards in this year's draft

The Hawks have been linked to a number of different prospects at the guard position, whether it is at No. 8 or No. 23. When talking about this year's point guard class, Saleh had plenty of high praise for them:

"Yeah, like the guards in this class are really great. They're a lot different. There's a lot of different archetypes there with guys that could play with the ball, without the ball. They're all just a little bit different, but I think this is one of the best point guard classes we've had in a long time. Some of them could play, two positions I think so I just feel really good about uh that group of guys there's a group of bigs that's really good there's some wings that are really good so like we feel really good about wherever we're drafting."

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