The Atlanta Hawks were frustrated by the play of their point guards last season so they decided to fix that in the draft.  The Hawks selected Acie Earl with the 11th pick in the first round of the NBA Draft.  Earl was a shoot first point guard at Texas A&M but that doesn’t bother the Hawks one bit as they just want a starter that can contribute.  Earl is 6′3″, 195 pounds so he should be able to handle defending some of the bigger point guards in the league.  He played in 122 games at Texas A&M and he averaged 13.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game.  He also is a pretty good shooter as he hit 46.6% from the floor, 35.7% from three point range and 76% from the free throw line.  Earl should have very little trouble winning the starting job at the point for the Hawks.

The Atlanta Hawks resisted trade offers for their draft picks and they selected a couple of pretty good players.  Horford was picked #3 in the first round by the Hawks.  Horford is a 6′10″, 245 pound power forward from Florida.  It will be interesting to see what the Hawks do to fix their logjam at the position seeing how they already have Marvin Williams and Shelded Williams there.  Horford will do his best to make their decision a tough one and he definately has the skill to beat those guys out and start from Day #1.  He played in 109 games at Florida and he averaged 10.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.7 blocks per game.  He doesn’t have much range as a lot of his shots are from close range which explains his 58.6% shooting from the floor and his 62.4% free throw shooting.

The Atlanta Hawks have created the most pre-draft buzz of any team in the NBA.  They hold both the #3 and #11 picks in the draft and a lot of teams are interested in trading for those picks.  The Warriors have been rumored to be offering Monta Ellis for the #11 pick and if that is indeed true….the Hawks should jump on that.  They also have been linked to Amare Stoudamire in a big trade involving Kevin Garnett who would be going to the Suns.  The Blazers also want the #3 pick and are willing to package Jarrett Jack and another impact player to get the pick so they could draft Mike Conley and make Greg Oden happy.  I think the Hawks will make at least one trade before the draft and maybe as many as two or three.  Keep your ears and eyes open because I suspect that the Hawks are going to be a much better basketball team on Friday than they are right now.