Hawks land No. 23 pick after NBA tiebreakers determine 2026 draft order

Hawks land No. 23 pick after NBA tiebreakers determine 2026 draft order originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Atlanta Hawks now know where they’ll be picking—at least in part—after Monday’s NBA Draft tiebreakers didn’t fall in their favor.

Following a series of random drawings to resolve ties between teams with identical regular-season records, Atlanta landed the No. 23 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. The outcome comes after the Hawks lost multiple tiebreaker scenarios that could have shifted their draft positioning.

Atlanta originally finished the season at 46-36, tied with the Toronto Raptors. Had the Hawks won that particular tiebreaker, they would have secured the No. 20 pick. However, that selection is no longer theirs—it was previously traded to the San Antonio Spurs as part of the deal that brought Dejounte Murray to Atlanta.

Instead, the more consequential tiebreaker involved the Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets, who both finished the season with identical 52-30 records. The Hawks held Cleveland’s first-round pick after trading De’Andre Hunter to the Cavaliers, making the outcome of that drawing critical.

When Cleveland lost the tiebreaker to Houston, it slotted the Cavaliers’ pick at No. 23—ultimately where Atlanta will now select.