Hawks Draft Lottery

I wrote a bunch about this a while ago, so I guess I need to comment now.

Basically, tonight's Lottery results hurt Billy Knight. In the immediate, because at #5, the top frontcourt players (Aldridge and Thomas) will likely be gone, the top point guards would be a reach there, and the best players likely on the board there are all either shooting guards, which BK spent an asston for last year, or small forwards, of which the Hawks could use about one fewer. In the less immediate, picking 5th hurts even worse because of the Diaw/Johnson trade. Now the Hawks are stuck with the 5th pick in a weak draft, where the top players are probably off the board. Meanwhile, if the Hawks end up 5th next year, they'd probably get a stud in a really loaded draft, but that pick would go to Phoenix (the Hawks pick is only protected through 3).

Best case scenario for the Hawks: trade down and get Marcus Williams or a lesser respected big man, and maybe pick up another pick next year or something.