ATLANTA — The new darlings of the Atlanta sports world will be back in the spotlight on Thursday night as the NBA Draft goes down - for the Hawks, though, it'll be a little bit of a different experience than the last few years.
The Hawks are coming into the draft with plenty of opportunity to make some noise and far less urgency than in recent years - with a young team on the rise that just made a Cinderella run of sorts to the Eastern Conference Finals, Atlanta is sitting pretty.
The team is in a position where they can really weigh their options - sit back, take things in, wait for a move, or use their pick. With a franchise cornerstone in Trae Young, supporting players from the past few drafts growing into their own and filling out the roster, and strong veteran depth, the Hawks are in the enviable position of not needing to nail their pick.
That creates for some interesting possibilities.
Where do the Hawks pick?
Atlanta is slotted in at No. 20 in the first round - which might be a good sign. The last time they were in this range, with No. 19 in 2017, they landed John Collins.
What time is the draft?
It begins at 8 p.m. ET and you can watch it on ESPN.
What are the Hawks going to do?
That's obviously an open question, but there are some indications a trade could be in the works.
Atlanta has stacked up young talent in recent years, and at the moment the hottest rumor appears to be that they may be prepared to part with wing Cam Reddish - who has battled injuries and struggled to develop his offensive game in two seasons with the Hawks - in order to move up in the draft.
Depending on where the Hawks were to move up to in the draft and who was available, that could mean they're looking to fill a void on the bench that was problematic for the team at times in the playoffs.
Lou Williams turned back the clock for some highlights during Atlanta's run, but he's 34 and now a free agent with an uncertain future. The Hawks need some bench juice, and if they make a trade up in the daft could be targeting a dynamic backcourt scorer late in the lottery - think Baylor point guard Davion Mitchell, Arkansas' Moses Moody or UConn's James Bouknight.
Mitchell, in particular, would be the kind of instinctual playmaking backup to Trae Young they've not quite locked down for a couple years, along with the ability to provide strong defensive cover for Trae.
You can also never have enough shooting, meaning college starts with sweet strokes like Oregon's Chris Duarte (42.4% from three last year) and Gonzaga's Corey Kispert (44%) could conceivably be in play.
If they don't make a trade, and stay at No. 20, don't rule out shifty Illinois point guard Ayo Dosunmu, VCU gunner Nah'Shon Hyland or Auburn string-puller Sharife Cooper.
The Hawks could of course, go the opposite way and make a move for a big - The Ringer reported in its draft preview that they intend to target North Carolina's Day'Ron Sharpe if they make a trade.
A true interior-bound big man seems like a weird play for the Hawks, though, with Clint Capela locked up and after using their top pick last year on Onyeka Okongwu. Both are defense-first big men with little to no shooting range - and so is Sharpe.
The team's own draft preview mentioned Baylor's Jared Butler, a two-way shooting guard who could fill out a second-unit backcourt rotation, and Virginia's Trey Murphy, who actually often gets compared to the Hawks' De'Andre Hunter, himself a former Cavalier. Both of those picks would be in line with shoring up the team's ability to threaten from three-point range.
With all the possibilities out there, it's almost impossible to narrow down what Atlanta might be thinking. The only certainty is that it probably won't be a boring night for Hawks fans.