Why the Atlanta Hawks are both a big winner and big loser from the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery

The Atlanta Hawks were hoping to move up in a big way in the NBA Draft lottery, but it did not work out in the way that they had hoped. Atlanta is still going to have the No. 8 pick in this draft, and the process for figuring out what to do with the No. 8 pick begins immediately.

I think the Hawks are a winner and loser in this and I will explain why.

You could argue that the Hawks were going to be a winner in the lottery no matter the result because of the process of the trade with the Pelicans. Atlanta traded the No. 13 pick for No. 23 in last year's draft, and an unprotected pick from the Pelicans that was the most favorable of New Orleans and Milwaukee's selections, and both teams finished in the top ten of the lottery odds. Atlanta had a chance to get a top-four pick in a very good draft, and even though they did not, they are still going to have the opportunity to land a good player and one that could even turn out to be a star.

On the other hand, it has to sting for the Hawks to make this trade, have the 6th best odds to win the lottery, and fall to No. 8. The No. 8 pick was statistically the most likely outcome, but Atlanta was hoping to jump up and grab a franchise-altering player such as AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Caleb Wilson, or Cameron Boozer.

Atlanta still has a very good core of Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, and Onyeka Okongwu, but you could argue that Atlanta does not have a No. 1 guy on their roster to lead it to a championship. Johnson was a first-time all-star this season and is likely to make an All-NBA team as well, but he had a really tough series against the Knicks and did not play like he did in the regular season. Is this just an issue because it is his first time going through the playoffs as the top guy or does it show that Johnson might be more of a 1B option to a better player?

Alexander-Walker looked overmatched in his role, Daniels is very good but does have some obvious shooting limitations, and Okongwu is similar, though instead of shooting, he faces certain limitations because of his size.

Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh has been adamant that this team is not one player away from competing for a championship, but if the Hawks had jumped into the top four, they would have instantly moved closer to opening their window. Now that job becomes harder and the Hawks are really going to have to do their due diligence and make sure that they make the correct pick.

There are going to be players available at No. 8 who can help the Hawks and fill their biggest needs, but when you are at No. 8, it is harder to project who is going to be available for the Hawks there.

Atlanta has their work cut out for them in the next month or so leading up to the draft, but for a team that won 46 games and looked very good after the All-Star Break, having the No. 8 pick is still exciting and a chance for them to continue to build this team.

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