Hawks are doing their best to follow the Warriors model

When Travis Schlenk left Golden State for Atlanta it was obvious he’d try to emulate the Warriors. His first draft was a clear effort to do just that.

The Golden State Warriors are currently the gold standard in the NBA. It only makes sense that other teams would want to copy their blueprint for success. Travis Schlenk is absolutely doing that early in his tenure in charge of the Atlanta Hawks.

No matter what you think of Schlenk’s controversial deal to let Luka Doncic head to Dallas, it’s clear what he was thinking. He believes Trae Young has a chance to be his franchise’s version of Steph Curry. There are certainly similarities in their offensive games. Each has the ability to really shoot the ball from long-range. Unfortunately, Young isn’t in Curry’s class. He’s an excellent shooter, but Curry is one of the best in NBA history. Expecting Young to give that kind of value is foolish at best.

The Hawks didn’t stop there. Their second first round pick was spent to acquire Maryland sharpshooter Kevin Huerter. He isn’t an electric athlete, but he can really make shots. Many NBA scouts compare him to, you guessed it, Klay Thompson.

Again, the problem here is that Huerter isn’t nearly the prospect Thompson was. Coming out of Washington State there were zero questions about Klay’s ability to make jump shots at a high level. He profiled as an elite shooter. Huerter profiles as a very good shooter. That’s an important distinction.

Attempting to copy Golden State is a wonderful idea in theory, but executing it in practice is almost impossible. It requires having the ability to acquire multiple All-Stars. Even more challenging is that it requires you to have transcendent talents like Curry and Kevin Durant on your roster.

With all due respect to Young and Huerter, neither of them project to turn out to be that sort of player. Young, in particular, has significant bust potential. There’s no clear indication he can guard at the next level. His lack of height, bulk and athleticism will be exploited on that end of the floor.

Huerter can likely become a quality rotation piece, but not even the most optimistic projections for him predict multiple All-Star berths. If Schlenk drafted Young and Huerter with hopes that they’d become his version of Curry and Thompson, he’s probably going to be disappointed.

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The only good news for Hawks fans is that this is just the beginning of their rebuild. Schlenk and the front office can afford some swings and misses along the way. If they want to become the Eastern Conference’s version of Golden State, they’ll still need to be searching for stars in next year’s draft.