NIKOLA DJURISIC
Life moves quickly in the NBA.
At the beginning of the day Thursday, the Hawks did not have a second-round pick in the NBA draft. But they made quick moves Thursday afternoon and drafted wing Nikola Djurisic with the 43rd overall pick. He landed in Atlanta two hours before he was set to join Landry Fields and fellow rookie Zaccharie Risacher on stage for an introductory press conference.
The 20-year-old has been on the move since his season ended for Mega Basket on May 30. He went straight into draft workouts, flying from city to city to each of his nine workouts.
“It was tough,” Djurisic said. “I finished my season, came back to America straight. All the flying, I’m not used to that. So, it was hard. I had nine workouts. I had one back-to-back. The back-to-back was Indiana and Atlanta, and Atlanta (I) did the best workout. So yeah, it was like really hard. I’m not gonna lie. I’m not gonna say like if it was easy.”
Though the past few weeks have not been the easiest for Djurisic, it all paid off with the Hawks acquiring the 44th pick from the Houston Rockets in exchange for wing AJ Griffin. They then swapped picks with the Heat to move up one spot to select the 6-foot-7 wing, who averaged 15.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.2 steals with Mega Basket last season.
Fields said the decision to move on from Griffin came down to the team trying to figure out the best decision for the franchise.
“Going into the last day, we didn’t have a second-round pick, and we knew it would cost us something,” he said. “We wanted to get a guy that we identified would really be good for us long term. So, we called a number of teams to try to get a pick, ultimately landed with Houston. But it was gonna cost us a really good player in AJ.
“But at the end of the day, that’s what we’ve decided was best for us. So, to go get one of our guys in the draft, that’s fantastic.”
Djurisic will bring an aggressive style of play to the Hawks, where he will constant look to attack defenders and will look to push the pace. He describes himself as a pass-first guy who plays for the team and will do anything to win.
He also said he can defend positions one through four, which is necessary for wings in today’s game.
The Hawks have a lot of things to mull over as they look to improve the roster. One of them being whether to sign Djurisic to a standard contract, a two-way deal or potentially “stashing” him overseas to develop.
“We’re gonna continue to talk about that,” Fields said. “We’ll get him here, working out through summer league and whatnot. But we’re excited about him as a player. He does bring a lot of versatility, and he’s tough, has an IQ for the game. He’s mentioned like that pass first, he sees the floor and at that size, I hope he was bigger than me, told me he was just standing up there. But, on paper, he is. That’s something that like gets us excited. So more size to our group is good.”
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