Monday, May 12 is unquestionably a big day in NBA circles, with the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery set to transpire in Chicago and the future of Cooper Flagg up in the air. In addition, a pair of high-leverage playoff games are on the schedule for the same evening, and myriad organizations will be watching the festivities with great interest. For the Atlanta Hawks, the rumor mill is churning, and here is a look at three major news storylines.
Pursuing Bob Myers?
The Hawks still have a vacant chair in the front office with an ongoing search for a president of basketball operations. Many names have been floated, but former Golden State Warriors executive and current ESPN analyst Bob Myers has been a dream name for many. However, Marc Stein and Jake Fischer poured cold water on that possibility over the weekend.
Citing league sources, Stein and Fischer wrote that "Hawks owner Tony Ressler has pursued former Warriors executive Bob Myers for the post but without success." This is not entirely surprising given that Myers has a comfortable gig at ESPN, and in the same piece, Stein and Fischer noted Myers has "made it clear to interested teams that he plans to be selective in the extreme when it comes to deciding whether to return to front officing after winning four championships with the Warriors."
Never say never, but Myers-to-Atlanta seems unlikely.
2025 NBA Draft Lottery Odds
While teams across the league are dreaming about winning the lottery and a chance to select Cooper Flagg, the Hawks have no such illusions. Because Atlanta owes its own pick to San Antonio, the Hawks have no chance to win the lottery, but they do have a big sweat on Monday night.
The Sacramento Kings owe a top-12 protected pick to Atlanta, and the Hawks enter the night with more than a 96 percent chance to have that selection convey. To be more precise, the Hawks have a 92.9 percent chance to pick at No. 13 overall and a 3.3 percent chance to pick at No. 14 overall, leaving only a 3.8 percent chance that Sacramento jumps into the top four and keeps their selection. If that remote scenario happens, the draft obligation would roll over to 2026 as a top-10 protected selection.
The Hawks already have the No. 22 overall pick, but two picks in the top 22 would be a lot better than one.
A potential wild card in the front office search
In addition to the reporting noted above on Bob Myers, Marc Stein and Jake Fischer have pointed to the Hawks' potential pursuit of an established agent to fill the president of basketball operations role. On Sunday, the pair outlined the belief that Sportsology, the search firm hired by the Hawks, "has been reaching out to various agents to gauge their interest in making such a move."
While Fischer and Stein have not named individual agents, another report emerged over the weekend from Grant Afseth at RG.com. He writes that CAA agent Austin Brown "has emerged as a name of interest" with the Hawks.
This is notable for multiple reasons, both in that Brown is a big-name in the agent world and also that he currently represents Hawks star guard Trae Young. In the recent past, Brown also represented Caris LeVert, who will enter unrestricted free agency this summer, but the storylines would abound if the Hawks were to tap Brown for the job just as Young is up for contract extension negotiations.
At present, this is more of a faint rumor than anything else, but there is plenty of buzz pointing to the Hawks seriously considering agents in their POBO pursuit. This would be a very interesting name to monitor, if nothing else.