When Atlanta Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk found out whom other teams were planning on drafting and that he'd be able to select Kevin Huerter with the 19th overall pick, there was no need to trade up to get the Maryland guard.
Schlenk told 95.7 The Game in San Francisco on Friday that he had a deal in place to acquire the No. 17 pick from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for a draft pick, but he never had to make that deal because the media were projecting picks on Twitter.
Schlenk was talking about how leaks to the media make his job more difficult, but he said that a leaked report worked to his advantage during the draft.
"Last night, for instance, we had the 19th pick, and we're coming down and we're actually talking to Milwaukee on the 17th pick, talking about trading up to get a guy we like," Schlenk said. "There's were a couple of guys we felt really good about on the 19th pick, obviously Kevin [Huerter] was one of them, and it leaked who Milwaukee was going to take.
"So, all of a sudden, we were able to pull back out of that deal and keep the draft pick instead of packaging picks to move up because we knew that, two guys on the board we felt really good about and only one team in between us, so that was beneficial to us last night."
The Bucks took Villanova guard Donte DiVincenzo with the 17th pick.
During Thursday's draft, various media reports, including ESPN, projected picks before they were officially announced.
