A decade of No. 1 picks: The good, bad and ugly

ATLANTA — With the first pick in the 2024 NBA draft, the Atlanta Hawks select …

If the Hawks make the selection that will kick off the draft June 26 in Brooklyn (GM Landry Fields said it’s likely, but the team will continue to look “at the whole picture”), will commissioner Adam Silver announce a player who:

— Will make an immediate impact on the franchise — on and off the court?

— Could develop into the face of the franchise in a few years?

— Fails to live up to the hype but has a solid NBA career.

— Fits like a square peg in a round hole and eventually gets traded.

Over the past 10 drafts, the selectees have fallen into one of the categories. And if you go back to the 11th draft (in 2013), the first pick — Anthony Bennett of UNLV — was out of the league after four seasons.

Deciding the right player for your franchise can be a daunting task, and it’s almost as difficult to forecast as it was for the Hawks and their 3% chance to win the lottery ending up with the top pick.

Clearly not as easy as last year, when Victor Wembanyama of France was the clear-cut top prospect — and was welcomed to San Antonio on a billboard before Silver announced his name as the Spurs’ official pick. He had an immediate impact on the team as the leading scorer and rebounder and his visibility increased as the season progressed — the next time on a horizontal Louis Vuitton billboard benefitting a player who’s 7-feet-5 inches and has an 8-foot wingspan.

Will Zach Risacher or Alexandre Sarr — a pair of big men from France who the Hawks are considering drafting No. 1 — have an immediate impact like their countryman Wembanyama? Or could their Atlanta journey develop along the lines of Atlanta native Anthony Edwards, the top pick in the COVID-delayed 2020 draft?

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