Waiting too long to trade Kobe Bufkin
The Hawks were a popular pick on offseason winners list, so the major missteps that have plagued them in past summers (the Dejounte Murray trade waves hello) were thankfully unseen in Atlanta.
Forced to nitpick, then, the Hawks really squandered whatever trade value Kobe Bufkin once theoretically held, didn’t they? In 2023, they made him the 15th overall pick. Two years later, on the heels of a couple injury-impacted, unproductive campaigns, Atlanta routed him to the Brooklyn Nets for only cash considerations.
Clearly, his market had cratered by that point, but if the Hawks knew they weren’t keeping him around, they could’ve at least moved him before he laid a bunch of bricks and struggled with turnover trouble in Las Vegas.