Only a few days into his tenure as the general manager of the Atlanta Hawks, Danny Ferry has to quickly get up to speed on the team’s needs and the prospects that will be available entering Thursday’s draft.
There has been a lot of activity around the league in recent days with teams trying to work their way higher up in the draft. The Hawks will pick 23rd and from the sounds of it they aren’t looking to move from that spot.
Ferry is leaving the San Antonio Spurs organization where he served as the assistant GM there. The Spurs were without a first round pick so Ferry didn’t really scout any players who were slated to go in the first round.
So Ferry is relying on former Hawks GM Rick Sund’s staff to help him get up to speed on the prospects that are projected to go where the Hawks will be picking. Ferry has been very involved in evaluating the players that the Hawks have worked out so far.
The Hawks have worked out a lot of guards leading up to the draft. The list of guards they brought in includes Washington’s Tony Wroten, Iona’s Scott Machado, Kansas’s Tyshawn Taylor, Kentucky’s Doron Lamb and Memphis’s Will Barton.
The Hawks have also worked out forwards Moe Harkless of St. John’s, Iowa States Royce White, MSU’s Draymond Green, Syracuse’s Kris Joseph, Kentucky’s Darius Miller, Duke’s Miles Plumlee and Vanderbilt’s Jeffery Taylor.
A few centers were brought in also like Syracuse’s Fab Melo and Vanderbilt’s Festus Ezeli but there doesn’t look to be much help at that position once the Hawks make their selection.
The Hawks must also deal with trade requests made by forwards Josh Smith and Marvin Williams. If the Hawks decide to honor either of these requests then those trades could also play out during the draft or be used to bring in picks for another year.
Coverage of the 2012 NBA Draft will begin Thursday June 28th at 7 pm EST on ESPN.
Roosevelt Hall is a contributor for Outside The Redzone. Follow him on Twitter @Sportmentalist and check out his websites The Sport Mentalist (NFL blog) and The Sport Mentalist 2 (NBA blog).
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