{"id":82978,"date":"2024-06-25T19:27:52","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T23:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=82978"},"modified":"2024-06-25T19:50:15","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T23:50:15","slug":"2024-nba-draft-does-alex-sarr-agent-trust-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/25\/2024-nba-draft-does-alex-sarr-agent-trust-hawks\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 NBA Draft: Does Alex Sarr\u2019s Agent Trust Hawks?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, Atlanta Hawks general manager Landry Fields confirmed that Perth big man <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/30\/alex-sarr-2024-nba-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Alex Sarr<\/a> has not come to their facility for a workout ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft. The Hawks hold the No. 1 pick in the draft, which is set to begin on Wednesday, Jun. 26.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was scheduled to come work out,\u201d Fields reveals (h\/t Brad Rowland of Locked on Hawks). \u201cWe had it on the books and then he declined to come work out.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Fields on whether he&#8217;s bothered by Sarr not coming in:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t take a large offense to that because it&#8217;s nothing novel. This is something agents do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fields also declined to give detail on what the explanation was from Sarr&#8217;s side.<\/p>\n<p>Also said Sarr was only player to decline.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BTRowland\/status\/1805621726753034705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t take a large offense to that because it&#8217;s nothing novel,\u201d Fields adds. \u201cThis is something agents do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Sarr\u2019s been projected to be No. 1 pick in the draft for much of the calendar year, this has led to many questions. In his own words, the 19-year-old says that he wants to be the No. 1 pick \u00a0\u201cas a competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, by saying \u201cit\u2019s more important to be drafted,\u201d he invited doubt about where his mind is at in the process.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Alex Sarr on whether he wants to be the No. pick in the 2024 NBA Draft: \u201cOf course, as a competitor, but for me it\u2019s more important to be drafted.\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/azHFrY74SQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/azHFrY74SQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenGolliver\/status\/1805667277485830484?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Addressing the elephant in the room, Sarr proclaims: \u201cI have a great team around me\u2026 I trust them.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Alex Sarr on Hawks\u2019 Landry Fields saying potential No. 1 pick declined to work out for them: \u201cI have a great team around me. \u2026 I trust them. I\u2019m not going to get into the specifics of where I worked out and where I didn\u2019t.\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ufIFUD3J36\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ufIFUD3J36<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenGolliver\/status\/1805668496166338637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not going to get into the specifics of where I worked out and where I didn\u2019t,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been doing my best in my workouts and that\u2019s all I can control.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Does Alex Sarr\u2019s Agent Trust The Hawks?<\/h2>\n<p>As of now, it appears that Sarr\u2019s representation (WME) <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/21\/nba-draft-lottery-prospect-alex-sarr-agent-doesnt-want-play-hawks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">is behind his decision<\/a> to hold the Hawks at arm\u2019s length. There\u2019s a chance that the tumultuous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngtr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trae Young<\/a> era has turned his agents off to the idea of him playing in Atlanta. To that point, there\u2019s been no shortage of trade rumors and locker room drama since his arrival.<\/p>\n<p>However, it\u2019s rumored that Sarr simply believes himself to be a power forward and that it makes him an imperfect fit for the Hawks.<\/p>\n<p>If true, this makes some sense on the surface, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Johnson<\/a> has similar scoring tendencies. Yet, Atlanta traded longtime starting power forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/collijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Collins<\/a> last offseason. His replacement, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/beysa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Saddiq Bey<\/a> is a restricted free agent this season. As a result, he can play power forward for the Hawks. Put bluntly, the argument that he couldn\u2019t play power forward in Atlanta is fallacious.<\/p>\n<p>There is an interesting aspect of this story that hasn\u2019t been discussed much though. Sarr is represented by Bill Duffy, who is also Dallas Mavericks superstar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a>\u2019s agent. Notably, the Hawks are the team who originally selected Don\u010di\u0107 before trading him to the Mavs on draft night. According to former Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk, Atlanta <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/mavericks\/2019\/02\/19\/atlanta-gm-explains-why-hawks-traded-luka-doncic-for-trae-young-one-thing-fans-don-t-know-about-the-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">would\u2019ve kept the pick<\/a> and Don\u010di\u0107 but were swayed by Dallas offering another lottery pick.<\/p>\n<p>Schlenk adds that Duffy believed Don\u010di\u0107 was going to be drafted by the Hawks and was excited about it.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Duffy hasn\u2019t forgotten Atlanta changing their mind about Don\u010di\u0107 at the twelfth hour. That\u2019s not to say he\u2019s looking for some sort of payback. However, the situation may have fomented a level of distrust. Notably, while Duffy represents over three dozen active NBA players, none of them play for the Hawks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, Atlanta Hawks general manager Landry Fields confirmed that Perth big man Alex Sarr has not come to their facility for a workout ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft. The Hawks hold the No. 1 pick in the draft, which is set to begin on Wednesday, Jun. 26. \u201cHe was scheduled to come work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":82987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1608,62,556,3],"tags":[49244,49317,49237,1133,98,1349],"class_list":["post-82978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-news","tag-alex-sarr","tag-bill-duffy","tag-landry-fields","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba-draft","tag-trae-young"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}