2022 NBA Draft: Atlanta Hawks select AJ Griffin, Duke forward

Duke Blue Devils forward AJ Griffin is off the board in the 2022 NBA Draft. With the No. 16 pick of the first round, the Atlanta Hawks selected Griffin as their first pick in the draft.

Heading into the draft, the former Duke freshman was predicted to go well within the first round’s 30 picks.

He averaged 10.4 points per game last season to help lead Duke to the Final Four in Mike Krzyzewski’s final season before retirement. Versus rival North Carolina in February, the 6-foot-7, 200-pound forward posted a career-high 27 points.

Griffin shot 49.3% from the field and 44% from three-point territory while adding 3.9 boards per game. He was one of five former Blue Devils stars to declare for the draft. Paolo Banchero, Mark Williams, Trevor Keels and Wendell Moore Jr. are also slated to go in the first 40 slots.

Coming out of high school in White Plains, New York, Griffin was a four-star recruit. He signed with Duke as the No. 23 player in the nation from the class of 2021, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

What the scouts are saying about AJ Griffin

“We haven’t really seen consistency from AJ Griffin this season after starting the year banged up, but we have seen some brilliant flashes — and the flashes are pretty great,” CBS Sports’ Kyle Boone wrote ahead of the 2022 NBA Draft. “In a draft that lacks star potential around this range, it’s easy to see how he could climb anywhere from No. 4 to No. 10. The wing is a bulldog defender with a big frame who is hitting nearly half of his 3s as a freshman at Duke. His emergence late in the season has shown he’s capable of creating and there’s still a lot of untapped potential in his game, too.”