The Next Phase in Trae's Development

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I keep seeing fans of first the Knicks, then the Sixers and now the Bucks talking about 'roughing' up Trae. He's not that guy #BuiltDifferent for such a little guy.

As an entire arena called Kevin Durant a cupcake in his first game back to Oklahoma City after leaving the Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors, Trae Young kept a mental image of what that feeling was like for himself as he sat inside the arena that night as a high school prospect with his dad, Ray. Young and his father recently talked about that memory and how disappointed Young was at the time to hear how quickly the fanbase turned on arguably the greatest player in franchise history.

What he learned from that night four years ago has stuck with him. Durant scored 34 points as the Thunder crowd taunted him all night. The chants didn’t phase him. If Young was ever going to be on that level of brilliance in the NBA, there would likely come a time where he’d be on the receiving end of an arena trying to get under his skin. Through two playoff series, arenas have screamed “**** Trae Young” and “Trae is balding” over and over again with the hopes that Young won’t cook their favorite teams. It doesn’t work, though, because he welcomes that negativity. It tells him he’s on the path he set out for himself when he was a child going to the YMCA with his dad, hoping he’d be a big enough star where home and road arenas would scream his name.

“I’ve had many conversations with Trae, and I hesitate saying this because Trae’s still competing against these guys, and, he won’t say it, but his heroes have had to deal with it,” Ray Young told The Athletic. “He’s told me how he’s watched people talk about LeBron James balding, and LeBron James is one of the best players that has ever played the game and he just does what he does despite it all. He grew up watching KD and saw how the whole NBA loved him and how KD carried a basketball and a Bible in his backpack, and then just a handful years later, everyone in the league hates him. So I say that because Trae has witnessed it, and he lived through it and watched some of his favorite players and heroes that he grew up idolizing.”

Trae Young has been groomed to be this fearless, ultra-confident competitor since he started playing basketball. One of the first conversations his dad shared with Trae when he first started playing basketball was about how he could never let someone punk him on the court. If an opponent senses any fear and lack of conviction, they will use it to exploit you. When Ray played at Texas Tech, he wasn’t a highly recruited player like his son, so he always felt like he had to prove he belonged whenever he was on the court. Ray said he developed a “little man syndrome,” and it’s been one of the most important traits that has been passed on to Trae.

There’s never a moment where Young doesn’t feel he’s the best player on the court. He’s always been that way. When he was in high school, he’d push to the front of the line during drills in practice because he felt like he should be leading the team, even though the seniors would push him back. Young would keep moving forward. His high school coach, Bryan Merritt, shared that even when Young was in high school, if LeBron had walked into the gym, he’d believe he could take him one-on-one.

That’s just who Young has always been. There’s nothing that can shake his confidence.

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Trae Young’s Electrifying First Playoff Run Is Only the Beginning

The Atlanta star began the season with one primary goal: to make his first playoff appearance. One month after achieving that, he and the Hawks have made it further than many could have imagined—and he isn’t planning to stop there.



Last October, inside a gym in Dallas, Trae Young got a preview of what playoff basketball could look like...he found himself at this gym, working out alongside Kyrie Irving and eventually playing him one-on-one, too. There was no clear winner from the matchup, says Alex Bazzell, who trains both players, but Young had one major takeaway from watching Kyrie operate: Irving was nearly unstoppable in the midrange, and Young realized he would have to improve in that zone if he wanted to make another leap.

After that day, Young, who was mostly known for his deep 3s when he was coming out of college, focused more on the area between the rim and the 3-point line. That was in addition to the work he put in refining other aspects of his game, with the hope that this would be the season he’d make his first playoffs. That was the initial goal: just get there.

And while Young was preparing to play his part, Hawks executives were doing theirs. Atlanta revamped its roster, bringing in players who were more suited to play with and off of Young—including shooters Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari—and would complement recent additions such as defensive anchor Clint Capela.

Fast-forward a [year], it’s Young and the Hawks, not Irving and the superteam Nets, who are still alive in the playoffs. The team’s improbable run has turned Atlanta into one of the best stories of the season and solidified Young’s superstar leap.

“He’s always been able to score at three levels, and his instincts are great,” one scout with an Eastern Conference team said. Plus, the scout said, his physical maturation, improved shot selection, and trust in his teammates has allowed him to thrive in the tough postseason environment.

[H]is arrival in the playoffs—averaging nearly 30 points and 10 assists per game—has had both a silencing effect and an amplifying one for Young. His talent has been as undeniable as his confidence, and he’s brought the Hawks to at least a Game 6 in the Eastern Conference finals.

Young is making better decisions with the ball and learning when to be aggressive and how to better pick apart defenses. He has perfected his floater, sharpened his passes, and put in more effort on defense, all while continuing to get to the free throw line. But other traits—like his increased maturity and chemistry with his teammates—are less obvious.

Whatever happens in the conference finals, Young now has postseason experience and success to his name—and he’s only 22. It’s clear there are still miles of space between where he is and his ceiling.

The Ringer

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Next step for Trae should be to get wins, get into the MVP conversation in 2022 and get on the same level as Lillard

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Trae might need to make even more adjustments to his game.

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The Athletic ranks Trae as a Third Tier, top-25 player on par with Zion and Devin Booker. But not quite a superstar capable of carrying a franchise to a title.

[P]layers in this tier are undoubtedly stars. Most of them have been All-Stars, and many of them will be again, perhaps several times. These are great players. What they are not are the greatest players in the game today...


My skepticism of Trae Young has been well-established. However, at this point, it’s probably best to cut my losses, take the L and anoint him as the kind of archvillain (for fans of 29 franchises) the NBA genuinely needs.

Whether it was Nate McMillan’s coaching, the natural maturation and jelling of the Hawks’ roster, a reaction to being left out of the 2021 All-Star roster galvanizing him or most likely a combination of all three, Young started to rein in some of the excesses in his game that gave pause as to his overall effectiveness. They haven’t completely vanished, but the early-clock, zero-pass, 30-foot pull-ups have decreased in frequency.

While he still has a tendency to deactivate when off the ball, Young did show some willingness to use screens during the postseason. And speaking of the postseason, by far the biggest question prior to last season was whether his slight frame and, shall we say, foul-provocative game could stand up to the physical and competitive rigors of the playoffs. After Young led the Hawks to a blistering of the Knicks and a somewhat stunning upset of the Sixers, it’s safe to say those questions have been answered.

Whether Young can ascend into Tier 2 will depend on a number of smaller improvements. Can he continue to refine his shot selection? Will he find ways to be slightly less of a defensive liability than his 755th place ranking (of 755!) in three-year dRAPM suggests he has been? Can he become a more effective player off the ball to allow the talents around him, such as Kevin Huerter and John Collins, to shine a little more? Having learned my lesson, I’m no longer betting against him being able to do so.

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The Athletic ranks Trae Young just outside the top 20 players in the NBA

The Athletic is ranking the top 125 players in the NBA right now, and Hawks superstar Trae Young landed just outside the top 20.

https://www.sportstalkatl.com/hawks-the-athletic-ranks-trae-young-just-outside-the-top-20-players-in-the-nba/

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