2018 NBA Draft winners and losers: Great night for Suns and Hawks, but 76ers' Process takes a hit
The Hawks' stellar haul in the first-round was a huge winner on draft night
by
Kyle Boone
The NBA Draft provided fireworks almost instantly Thursday evening. After the
Sunsand
Kings did as many expected by selecting
Deandre Ayton and Marvin Bagley III at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, Atlanta threw a wrench into everything by swapping its third pick with the
Mavericks in return for the fifth pick in a mid-draft trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Mavericks and Trae Young to the
Hawks.
Draft Tracker
Young was the first of three first-round picks for the re-booting Atlanta franchise on Thursday.
Marylandsharpshooter
Kevin Huerter came off the board at 19 and
Villanova product
Omari Spellman was selected at 30. Together, they form a trio of young shooters that should help accelerate the rebuild alongside the youth already in place with
John Collins and Taurean Prince. T
heir stroke of genius by adding a versatile shooter in Huerter, a do-it-all offensive weapon in Young and a stretch-the-floor big in Spellman makes them one of the big winners of draft night.
Winner: Hawks
We won't be able to
truly declare whether the Hawks or the Mavericks won Thursday night's trade, but for now it's safe to say both come out winners. Instead of sticking with Luka Doncic at 3, the Hawks flipped him for Trae Young -- the player they had their eyes on all along. Young had a phenomenal workout with the team recently, according to CBS Sports' Matt Norlander. And as a sweetener to the deal, Atlanta also picked up a 2019 first-round pick from the Mavericks that will
convey to them next June as long as it falls outside the top five, according to the New York Times' Marc Stein.