Hawks' Trae Young disaster all starts with a mistake the Lakers are thankful for

These last eight seasons could have been very different for the Atlanta Hawks with one domino falling in the other direction: sticking with Luka Doncic as their guy in the 2018 NBA Draft. That could have changed the whole trajectory of their franchise.

In case anyone forgot, the Hawks selected Doncic with the third overall pick in 2018 before finalizing a trade with the Dallas Mavericks that landed them Trae Young and future assets. A win-win trade is what many people tried to convince the basketball public of the move. It was not.

Atlanta peaked with an Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 2021 during the Young era of Hawks basketball. After dragging their feet with whether they wanted to commit to the undersized guard for the long haul, they traded him away for pennies on the dollar to the Washington Wizards.

Doncic and Young have been linked in many ways throughout their careers. Getting traded for a fraction of their value has become yet another thing both stars have in common. The Los Angeles Lakers may have never been in a position to land their current franchise player had the Hawks decided to handle the 2018 NBA draft just a little bit differently.

Trading Luka Doncic set the Hawks on a path of pain—and handed the Lakers everything

If there is a simple lesson to be learned here, it should be quite obvious. You never want to be the team trading Doncic away. History has taught us that lesson twice now.

Perhaps the Hawks could have enjoyed all the success that Luka brought to the Mavericks instead. Perhaps Doncic would still be there today. Perhaps the Lakers would be stuck in a bleak set of circumstances at this point. Perhaps we'll never know.

The not knowing part is something the Lakers will be glad for. The alternate reality in question is not one that anyone in Los Angeles will ever truly want to dwell on for too long. Why would they? Doncic plays for their franchise.

Luka is the type of player that should have only switched teams of his own accord in the modern day NBA. Trading someone of his quality is absurd otherwise.

Granted, the Hawks' mistake is much more forgivable. It's tough to know on draft night just how great a prospect is really going to be. Not everyone arrives in the NBA as a LeBron James or Victor Wembanyama.

One could easily argue the player who was dominating the EuroLeague at 16 years old should have been billed as much more than he was at the time. However, if that was the case, Doncic would never have made it down to the third pick. Quite frankly, even without hindsight, Luka should have never made it past second, but he did.

The Lakers have their guy, because of that fact. The Hawks? They have CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert.