The Hawks have one of their most important windows to upgrade their roster over the next two days. To make sure they get it right, Hawks president of basketball operations Onsi Saleh said they won’t skip steps.
Saleh met with local media Monday ahead of the NBA draft. This year, the Hawks have two first-round picks, at No. 8 and No. 23, and Saleh said multiple times the team feels good where it is.
“We’re superexcited,” Saleh said Monday. “We’ve been waiting for this for a while. I think we’ve watched enough film to make a really good decision (Tuesday). We did all the intel, a couple decisions to make (Tuesday), but we’re really excited about adding a couple guys and see how the process goes.
“But like we said before, no skipping steps. (We) want to grow this thing out organically, and I just feel like we’re going to add two really good players (Tuesday) in the draft.”
Here are some other takeaways from Saleh’s availability session:
On selecting the best player available versus need: “It’s always going to be best player available for us. It doesn’t matter what position. It could be (a) big, (a) 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.
But, yeah, 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.
Saleh will have a patient and measured approach: “I think one thing is, trying to solve all your problems at once, too, can 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 we want to make the team better.”
When it comes to his draft board, it’s all set: “We’re locked and loaded. I don’t think anybody’s moving around anymore. I think that’s bad process if you’re moving around this late. What’s going to change it for you at this point, in my opinion? … So we’re at the point where we’re good with pick 8 and 23. So we feel really good about that. And then pick 57, we got to still dig into some stuff there, different options, but feel really good about the draft. And, honestly, if it were today, I’d be happy for it.
On the Hawks extending CJ McCollum: “We’re superexcited to have CJ back here. It brings that continuity together. … Basically put this team together in 2½ months, and to have a training camp with your core guys, that’s important. That’s important for the next step and iteration of this team and development of our guys.”
On what he takes away from each of the last eight NBA champions: “They’re all different, but they all seem to have a good sense of continuity amongst them, like the Knicks. I know how they built their team was through a lot of their trades and stuff like that, but a lot of their guys have known each other since college, and they played together for a while now. I think the continuity in chemistry is at an all-time high in the NBA, like you see that with OKC (Oklahoma City), San Antonio.”
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