The Sacramento Kings' Recent Surge in the Standings Bodes Well For the Atlanta Hawks

Just a few weeks ago, it looked like the Sacramento Kings season was on the verge of collapsing. They fired head coach Mike Brown, there were constant trade rumors surrounding star guard De'Aaron Fox, and the team was on the outside looking in when it came to the NBA playoffs and play-in tournament. Since then, they have done a complete 180 on their season and now have won six straight and are one of the hottest teams in the NBA. Sacramento has looked impressive over the past couple of weeks and defeated the Celtics in Boston last night to continue their hot level of play. This is a team that wants to win now and it is helping them, but there is another team that is glad the Kings have turned it around.

That team would be the Atlanta Hawks. Why does the Kings winning matter to the Hawks? Atlanta owns the Kings first round pick if it falls outside of the top 12.

Having the pick convey would be huge for the Hawks. When Atlanta made the big move to trade for Dejounte Murray in the summer of 2022, they spent a lot of draft capital to do so. The Hawks do not own their first round pick in 2025, 2026 or in 2027. After dealing Murray to the Pelicans, Atlanta landed the Los Angeles Lakers unprotected pick for the 2025 draft. For a team that has young talent such as Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, and Zaccharie Risacher on it, potentially having two first round picks would be huge for this franchise.

The Atlanta Hawks have been one of the NBA's most interesting teams this season. At times, they look like they could be a real threat in the playoffs, maybe not to win the championship or even make the conference finals, but as a team, you don't want to play early on. They have wins over Boston, two wins over the Knicks, two over the Cavs, and more. At other times though, they look like a young and inexperienced team that is still growing together and learning how to play together. There is a lot of optimism about their future, but there are going to be bumps along the way as this season has shown.

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