NBA Draft 2018: Winners and losers

Winner No. 3: Atlanta Hawks fans

A pretty simple rule of fandom: If your team is going to be bad, at least having them be interesting is a saving grace. Well, Atlanta acquitted themselves nicely in that regard tonight. The team appears to be eschewing defense entirely in favor of shooting from their three young picks — Trae Young of Oklahoma, picked No. 5, Kevin Huerter of Maryland, picked No. 19, and Omari Spellman of Villanova, picked No. 30.

In those three, Atlanta picked up two of the draft’s top-three shooting prospects in Young and Huerter, and a top-five shooting big man in Spellman. Young might end up as the best player in this draft if his shooting breaks the right way, and his pull-up game is like having a Dennis Schroder whose talent matches what he thinks his talent is. Huerter is a natural catch-and-shoot weapon with great mechanics who looks like the next in the line of J.J. Redick, Kyle Korver, Jason Kapono and company. And Spellman, while a lot more raw than the others, helped win a national title in part because of his ability to pick-and-pop. Put him in pick-and-roll with Young, and it opens the paint for everyone else, in theory, because you need to have two defenders glued to the line.

It’s a good thing Atlanta got Dewayne Dedmon to re-up his player option. He’s going to be plugging a lot of leaks next year. But at least they’ll score, and they’ll score a lot. Buckle up, Hawks fans.