The Atlanta Hawks draft room was split between Luka Doncic and Trae Young.

The Hawks ultimately chose Young because he brought the Hawks a first-round draft pick.

The Hawks added a new floor leader to their rebuilding effort by acquiring Young in Thursday night’s exchange of NBA draft picks with the Dallas Mavericks.

Atlanta drafted Doncic Derrick Shelby Jersey , the guard from Slovenia, with the No. 3 overall pick and then traded rights to Doncic to Dallas for rights to Young, who was the No. 5 selection, and a 2019 first-round pick.

For Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk, it was all about remaining loyal to goals of adding talent and adding assets .

”In all honesty, our group was really split between the two,” Schlenk said, adding the Hawks regarded the guards as ”the best two playmakers in the draft.”

”Luka is a heck of a player. We were happy with him. Trae is a heck of a player. Obviously we’re excited to have him. When the opportunity came to pick up a first-round pick from the Mavericks, it just kind of made sense to accomplish both goals with one move.”

The Hawks will have three first-round picks in 2019, just as in this year’s draft.

Young is best known for his 3-point shooting. The Hawks selected Maryland’s Kevin Huerter, a shooting guard, at No. 19 overall. Atlanta’s third first-round pick was power forward Omari Spellman of Villanova, at No. 30 overall.

Atlanta traded its second-round pick Michael Strahan Jersey , Kansas point guard Devonte Graham, to Charlotte for second-round selections in 2019 and 2023.

Schlenk focused on outside shooters in the draft.

Young led the nation with his averages of 27.4 points and 8.7 assists for Oklahoma. He is the first player to lead the nation in scoring and assists in the same season.

Huerter made 42 percent of his 3-point shots as a sophomore last season at Maryland while averaging 14.8 points per game.

Spellman (6-9, 255) was considered one of the best shooters among big men in the draft. He made 43 percent of his 3s last season while averaging 10.9 points as a freshman starter on Villanova’s national championship team.

Young worked out for the Hawks on June 12. He said the trade to Atlanta wasn’t a surprise.

”I got a feeling past few days that would happen, that was a possibility, but you never really know until your name is called,” Young said in a telephone interview.

The 6-foot-2 Young scored at least 40 points in four games and tied a Division I record by recording 22 assists in a game.

Young’s deep 3-pointers earned him comparisons with Golden State’s Stephen Curry, but Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk said he was won over by Young’s floor leadership.

”We love his ability to pass the ball, to make other players better with his court vision,” said Schlenk, a former assistant GM with the Warriors. ”Obviously he gets a lot of notoriety for his long-range shooting, but I think his ability to pass the ball is what we really liked about him.”

Schlenk’s review impressed Young.

”It means a lot because a lot of people in my opinion are so focused on my ability to shoot, which is a really big thing, especially in the NBA Jack Crawford Jersey , but my ability to pass I feel is really underrated,” Young said.

Hawks veteran point guard Dennis Schroder’s future in Atlanta is uncertain. Schlenk said Schroder and Young could play together.

This is not the first time the Hawks have quickly traded the No. 3 overall pick. In 2001, the Hawks made Pau Gasol the No. 3 overall pick and then traded his draft rights to the Memphis Grizzlies for Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

Doncic was Atlanta’s highest draft pick since 2007, when center Al Horford was the No. 3 pick. The trade for Young gives first-year coach Lloyd Pierce a new scoring weapon.

”Obviously his ability to shoot the ball in today’s NBA, the 3-point shot, is very important,” Schlenk said. ”What really separates him with his shooting is his ability to shoot off the dribble. You don’t see that in a lot of guys and he possesses that.”

The Hawks finished last in the Eastern Conference last season, when they began to rely heavily on young players. Forward-center John Collins showed promise as a rookie, and forward Taurean Prince is another young piece of the rebuilding effort. Veterans Kent Bazemore and Dwayne Dedmon are under contract for next season.

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AP Sports Writer Schuyler Dixon in Dallas contributed to this report

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A game behind the Philadelphia 76ers in the race for the third seed in the NBA Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers long ago received a gift from the schedulers: home-and-home matchups against the woeful and wounded New York Knicks to end the regular season, starting Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

Whether the Cavaliers can catch the scorching 76ers remains to be seen. Philadelphia is the NBA’s hottest team with a 14-game winning streak — including a 132-130 victory over Cleveland on Friday — and with games at Atlanta and at home against Milwaukee still on the schedule.

But the Cavaliers have their eyes on that crucial prize, made even more crucial by No. 2-seed Boston’s injury problems. A third seed would ensure a second-round matchup with Boston or the No. 7 seed. A fourth seed could mean a meeting with the No. 1 seed Toronto Raptors.

“I always think you try to take the easy way out, it’s always going to come back and bite you Justin Coleman Jersey ,” Cleveland’s Kevin Love said after losing to Philadelphia. “Both teams played extremely hard tonight, we both wanted to get the higher seed no matter who we’re playing. Some matchups work in your favor, I guess, but I just think taking the easy way out in some cases is not the way to go.”

The Cavaliers’ loss to the 76ers revealed a glaring weakness that seemed to have been cured. Cleveland gave up 132 points.

The Cavs entered that matchup on a five-game winning streak and with wins in 10 of 11. The first five wins were scary — the Cavaliers allowed an average of 113 points per game — but in the six games before the loss to Philadelphia, Cleveland had allowed 102 points per game.

“We’re a prideful team, and the only way to get back in was be scrappy, play a little bit more physical and hit more shots,” James said. “We were down 30, and for us to come all the way back shows what were capable of doing. But every offensive rebound here, every missed shot. … We turned the ball over, they made us pay, and they were flying.”

Luckily for the Cavs — at least for the next two games — the Knicks are one of the worst offensive teams in the NBA.

The Knicks have gone 4-16 in their last 20 games, averaging 105.5 points per game Jason Verrett Jersey , and that includes 128-, 124-, and 122-point nights. Remove those and New York averaged 102.

Hurting the Knicks: Tim Hardaway Jr. (ankle) remains out.

Solution for New York: The emergence of rookie second-round pick Damyean Dotson, a two-way player with the G-League’s Westchester Knicks. Dotson had 30 points and 11 rebounds in 36 minutes in the team’s surprising 122-98 win over the Miami Heat on Thursday.

“It’s amazing. Just trying to stay the course, keep believing, keep working hard,” Dotson told reporters after becoming the first Knicks rookie to put up a 30-10 game since Patrick Ewing in 1985-86. “Eventually something good will happen. It’s playing the right way, believing in myself, believing in the development, coming from the G-League, coming from back and forth, playing.”

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