Hawks GM Onsi Saleh makes the most of trade, adds Newell in draft-night win

After Tuesday’s trade that will bring center Kristaps Porzingis to Atlanta, Saleh made another deal during Wednesday’s NBA draft, sending the No. 13 pick to the New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 23 selection and a 2026 first-round pick.

Getting an additional first-round pick for dropping 10 spots in the middle of a draft with mediocre talent outside the top 10 was a bonus for Saleh and the Hawks, given the uncertainty.

“You don’t ever know if somebody’s going to be available when you move down that far. We felt good about a bucket of players if we did get there, and it just was the right thing to do for us,” Saleh said late Wednesday night. “It just made sense for us and where we’re at, and I think it just helped our future a little bit. So, yeah, it’s a good trade.”

It’s also good that the Hawks got Georgia’s Asa Newell at No. 23, along with a potential lottery pick next season. They get to build the roster now and stockpile for the future, as they look to add more talent around franchise centerpiece Trae Young, who Saleh pointed out remains a priority.

Trading down 10 picks put the Hawks in the muck of the first round, when there were so many trades that viewers had a hard time knowing whether teams were drafting for themselves or a pending trade meant that a player was wearing the wrong hat. That’s always part of the risk, and Saleh and his front-office team weathered the storm to gain value out of their pick.

When the trade with the Pelicans came along, it only made sense for Saleh to take the deal. The ’26 pick will be the more favorable between the Pelicans’ and Bucks’ picks, which could be in the lottery again. The Pelicans traded veteran guard CJ McCollum this week, and there are indications that they could be entertaining parting with Zion Williamson or Trey Murphy.

Seeing New Orleans back in the draft lottery next year isn’t a farfetched notion.

As for the Bucks, they’ll be without Damian Lillard for the season, after his Achilles injury. It’s no sure thing that Giannis Antetokounmpo will remain on the roster through their retooling.

Either way, the Hawks stand to have a good asset with their incoming pick.

Maybe they were looking at Newell with the 13th pick from the start — and if that’s the case, they got the player they wanted, plus a little sweetener.

“It was a really good pick. So I mean, we got a lot of calls on it. We expected that, honestly, just given the context of this draft,” Saleh said. “So it was just it was expected, but there was a lot of different iterations of things going on, and you have a lot of stuff, a lot of teams calling you every minute, and we just had to make the deal that felt right for us and thought it made sense for us at the time.”

It will take time to sort out the winners and losers in this draft, but the trade and the Newell pick make sense for the Hawks — for now and for the future.