The Shadows Of 2005, and 2022 Loom Over The Hawks 2026 Draft

By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College

And Zach Tures, Sports Management Undergraduate, Mercer University

Back in 2005, the Atlanta Hawks made one of the most fateful draft choices in history. By passing on their glaring need for a big man, taking a point guard instead, did the Hawks fear repeating history? And did the team do enough to rescue itself in the first round?

John A. Tures: The 2005 Disaster For The Hawks

As “Soaring Down South” reports “Going into the 2005 NBA Draft, the Atlanta Hawks were a league-worst 13-69 on the season…The Hawks were slated to pick 2^nd. With Andrew Bogut being projected as the consensus number one pick that year, the Hawks were left with a plethora of talented college players to pick from, including a few standout point guards. During the 2004-2005 NBA season, the Hawks had a bad team, indicted by their league-worst record. In the 2004 NBA draft, the Hawks had two selections in the first round, taking Josh Childress and Josh Smith. With Antoine Walker and Al Harrington already on the roster, the Hawks had an excess of wing players, and the Hawks had a glaring hole at point guard.”

Despite only have Ty Lue, Royal Ivey and Kenny Anderson at the point guard position, the team passed on awesome point guards Chris Paul and Derron Williams, opting for freshman Marvin Williams, a forward from North Carolina, who didn’t even start for the Tar Heels, though the team did win a National Championship.

Despite have a blatant need of a point guard, the Hawks took the freshman from North Carolina, Marvin Williams a 6’9 forward, who averaged 11 points and six rebounds. “In his first season with the Hawks, Marvin Williams played in 79 games, only starting 7. In his time, Marvin played around 24 minutes a game, averaging 8 points and 4 rebounds…In the same season, Chris Paul showed how special he was almost immediately. In the more difficult Western Conference, Paul started 78 games. He averaged 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists.” Paul went on to be Rookie of the Year, a 12-time All-Star, winning two Olympic Golds, and was on the NBA First Team four times. Deron Williams made three All-Star appearances, won two gold medals for Team USA. Marvin Williams lasted 15 years in the league, often as a backup, never making an All-Star Game.

The question is whether or not the Atlanta Hawks made a similar mistake by passing on a much-needed big man to get a point guard, which was not the greatest need on the team, even if this time they went small instead of tall.

Zach Tures: Exorcising The Ghosts Of 2022 With A Trade, And 2026 Picks

Although center was the Hawks’ biggest position of need, it is not a gaping hole. Not being able to adequately guard the 7-foot Karl-Anthony Towns led to the downfall of the Hawks in the playoffs, but current center Onyeka Okongwu was also a big part of getting the Hawks to the playoffs.

“The Hawks will not win championships with their current roster, but they also won’t be horrible with their current roster.” That’s statement that longtime Hawks fans are haunted by, especially following the Trae Young era. The statement was true of the Hawks before this year’s draft. It seemed at the time that the Hawks still had not moved past the Trae Young Play-In plague even after Young was traded away to the Wizards, until the team responded well at the end of the season. Then GM Onsi Saleh drafted Kingston Flemings with the 8th pick in the 2026 draft.

Hawks fans might remember that after the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals run, former GM Landry Fields decided that all the Hawks needed in order to become a true contender was a player who could improve the defense and add an extra wrinkle to the offense. Fields decided to gamble away the future of the franchise in 2022, trading away several picks, in hopes that one young star, Dejounte Murray, would solve all of the team’s problems. The bet did not pan out, and the Hawks became a perennial Play-In team with no draft picks to build the team with.

This move to solve all the Hawks’ problems with one player is surprisingly similar to the Hawks being projected by some to take the 7-foot Aday Mara with the number 8 pick in the draft. Just like Murray, getting Mara would be done to improve the defense and add an extra wrinkle to the offense. The Hawks of old likely would have picked Mara in a heartbeat, but as Onsi Saleh has made clear, this is not the Hawks of old.

Although drafting a player number 8^th overall in the draft only for him to likely come off the bench is a tough pill to swallow for the fans of a team that just made the playoffs, it is a necessary step to take for the future success of the Hawks. As a Hawks fan watching the draft, I too was originally outraged by not getting Mara. The Hawks recently extended veteran point guard C.J. McCollum for one more year, meaning that Kingston Flemings will likely serve as the backup point guard for the Hawks this upcoming season.

Flemings is a medium sized guard with great defensive instincts, which were only improved in Houston under his college coach and defensive wizard Kelvin Sampson. The idea behind the pick is that Flemings fits perfectly in the Hawks’ new defensive identity, and his one year of learning from C.J. McCollum will greatly improve Fleming’s offensive abilities. Flemings is the perfect young player that will turn into a guard with elite offense and defense, and he will likely be a franchise cornerstone who will be the final piece to the Hawks young core of Jalen Johnson, Onyeka Okongwu, and Dyson Daniels. The Hawks future, for the first time in years, looks bright. ESPN gave the Hawks an A- draft grade.

Just because the Hawks drafted Flemings with the number 8 pick does not mean the need for a big man was ignored by Saleh. With the 23rd pick in the draft via the De’Andre Hunter trade, the Hawks drafted Center Zuby Ejiofor from St. John’s University. Ejiofor will likely split minutes with Okongwu, and allow the Hawks to move on from backup center Jock Landale. Ejiofor is an A+ defender, averaging 1.2 steals and 2 blocks per game in his last year at St. John’s. Ejiofor also has strong results against NBA-level talent. In March he beat Kansas, led by number 2 overall pick Darryn Peterson, and went toe to toe with another center, the number 3 overall pick and college player of the year, Cam Boozer, in a close loss. Ejiofor is a perfect defensive fit in Atlanta, and he will also play a key role in the future of the Hawks.

With these two first round picks, GM Onsi Saleh is patiently building a young core of players who will dominate on defense and will be contenders to win the East for many years to come. In 2005, the Hawks passed on Chris Paul. In 2021-22 the Hawks decided not to bother with the draft and just trade away the future instead. In 2026, the Hawks are finally prioritizing the future, and Hawks fans should expect great results for the next decade. Years from now, the Hawks will look back to this pick, and instead of regretting not drafting Chris Paul to be the point guard of the future as they did in 2005, they will be grateful to have learned from their mistakes and drafted Kingston Flemings as the point guard of the future, with a good big-man on board as well.

Zach Tures is an undergraduate at Mercer University, focusing on Business and Sports Management. John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu or on “X” at @johntures2. His first book “Branded” a thriller novel where corporate greed, media manipulation and academic intrigue collide in a deadly game of product placement, has been published by the Huntsville Independent Press (https://www.huntsvilleindependent.com/product-page/branded).