Trae Young: Max Contract Superstar

[Jamaaliver]

Hawks beat writer for The Athletic asked Trae some tough questions about shot selections. Sounds like things got testy.

(And Hawks Twitter attacked the reporter for asking. )

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[Jamaaliver]

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[HMFFL]

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If the team can greatly improve their record Trae should be a serious MVP candidate.

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[jayu70]

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[Jamaaliver]

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[Jamaaliver]

Hawks beat writer for The Athletic asked Trae some tough questions about shot selections. Sounds like things got testy.

(And Hawks Twitter attacked the reporter for asking. )

Spoiler:

I do believe a beef is brewing between Kirschner and Trae...

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[kg01]

Hawks beat writer for The Athletic asked Trae some tough questions about shot selections. Sounds like things got testy.

(And Hawks Twitter attacked the reporter for asking. )

Spoiler:

I do believe a beef is brewing between Kirschner and Trae...

Read on Twitter

Wasn't it the same with Pierce/Kirschner?

I think his line of questioning was fair(ish) just maybe not well executed. Meaning, he didn't do a great job of framing it to avoid the inevitable defensive reaction he got.

Weren't you an anti-Kirschner guy, btw?

[Jamaaliver]

Wasn't it the same with Pierce/Kirschner?

I think his line of questioning was fair(ish) just maybe not well executed. Meaning, he didn't do a great job of framing it to avoid the inevitable defensive reaction he got.

Weren't you an anti-Kirschner guy, btw?

This is the second time you've asked me this question.

I don't recall ever having issue with his work or his line of questioning. I rate him just behind Michael Cunningham and Sekou Smith in terms of the quality work he's done as beat reporter.

Trae is our franchise player, but he has some diva tendencies whenever second guessed or criticized. Par for the course for young, talented millionaires, I guess.

NOTE: I wasn't much of a fan of Chris Vivlamore, the previous beat writer for the Hawks at AJC. I simply don't think he ever learned NBA the way his predecessors did. He had to cover multiple sports after layoffs occurred and the Hawks were somewhat of an afterthought.

[kg01]

Wasn't it the same with Pierce/Kirschner?

I think his line of questioning was fair(ish) just maybe not well executed. Meaning, he didn't do a great job of framing it to avoid the inevitable defensive reaction he got.

Weren't you an anti-Kirschner guy, btw?

This is the second time you've asked me this question.

I don't recall ever having issue with his work or his line of questioning. I rate him just behind Michael Cunningham and Sekou Smith in terms of the quality work he's done as beat reporter.

Trae is our franchise player, but he has some diva tendencies whenever second guessed or criticized. Par for the course for young, talented millionaires, I guess.

NOTE: I wasn't much of a fan of Chris Vivlamore, the previous beat writer for the Hawks at AJC. I simply don't think he ever learned NBA the way his predecessors did. He had to cover multiple sports after layoffs occurred and the Hawks were somewhat of an afterthought.

Sekou spoiled us. Agree with you on CViv.

[D21]

I will need to read the whole thing before being sure, but what I see is that Kirchner didn't ask the right thing, and he should have ask to Nate. Why ? because that's right that Trae takes some of this shots, I saw it, but what I don't like with this early long 3s is not that he's taking these shots, it's that the team looks like they don't know he can do it, because I can't count the numbers of time I saw these long 3s and our bigs being just under the basket, which is IMO the problem.
How can they grab a rebound under the basket on a long 3s ? 90% of the time, it will rebound up to the FT line, and this is how opponent take the ball in movement and kill us on the fast break.
On a long 3, I saw Capela waiting for a rebound like if Trae was doing a floater, it's something to fix

[Jamaaliver]

It's become a thing.

I think Kirchner needs to step away from the beat for a few days and cool off. It's a bad look when your reporter becomes the story.

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[Jamaaliver]

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[kg01]

It's become a thing.

I think Kirchner needs to step away from the beat for a few days and cool off. It's a bad look when your reporter becomes the story.

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Sadly, in 2021, the reporters that make the most money are they ones who become the story.

It's why journalism is dead.

[Jamaaliver]

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[Spud2nique]

Hawks beat writer for The Athletic asked Trae some tough questions about shot selections. Sounds like things got testy.

(And Hawks Twitter attacked the reporter for asking. )

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Chris Kirschner lol.

Watch on YouTube

[Jamaaliver]

NBA PR team finally treating Trae like a future face of the NBA.

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[jayu70]

Recognize.

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[Jamaaliver]

A well researched, in-depth article on our ascending star.

Trae Young’s Game Is More Dangerous Than Ever

The Hawks have struggled during the first quarter of the season, but that shouldn’t overshadow the maturation of their superstar.

It’s fair to be disenchanted with the Hawks. They’re 13–12 with a bad defense and myriad health issues. But in the grand scheme of what Atlanta can still become this season, none of that should overshadow Trae Young, an increasingly elastic superstar whose muted evolution makes it easy to feel optimistic about its eventual turnaround.

For the first time in four years, Young is the overwhelming deep threat his reputation has long purported him to be, averaging a career-high six pull-up threes per game while hitting 39.3% of them. If both hold they’d be personal highs and inject adrenaline into a career that’s already enjoying a dizzy ascent.

Among point guards on noncorner threes, he’s jumped from the 25th percentile to the 92nd, drilling more than 40% of them for the first time. His average three-point distance is also deeper than it was last year (28.11 feet), which is farther from the rim than anybody who’s taken at least 30 this season. (It’s also a career high.) We’re either nearing or at the point where defenses can’t afford to ever duck under a high screen, which would take yet another response off the table against a delirious talent who does as good a job confounding opposing game plans as anybody in basketball.

Young’s spiking effective field goal percentage (and Atlanta’s No. 2 ranked offense) is largely thanks to that boost from downtown, but there's a more subtle shift happening, too—one that shouldn’t surprise anyone who caught Atlanta’s media day, when a reporter asked Young if he worked on any one specific area during the summer.

“I know people don’t like talking about the midrange game, but for me, I don’t think I shoot that enough and … being able to add that and try to perfect that was something I definitely focused on a lot this offseason,” Young responded. “[I’m] just trying to make it as difficult as possible for someone to guard me.”

That epiphany probably never materializes without last year’s playoff run, when more stifling schemes tested Young with mixed results. During the postseason 11 players attempted more midrange jumpers than his 50; only two were more accurate than the 50% he finished at: Kevin Durant and Chris Paul. But Young’s work here wasn’t loud enough to earn much attention. His biggest moments came after a floater or long ball, while his contagious confidence and intuitive playmaking (guess who currently leads the NBA in assist rate) were more synonymous with Atlanta’s success.

But the midrange can’t be overlooked when explaining why Young might be more dangerous than ever despite his on-the-fly adjustment to the league’s new definition of a personal foul. He’s averaging four fewer free throws per 100 possessions than last year but still ranks top five in points per game. During his first two seasons Young barely acknowledged the midrange, and last year he took only 2.1 shots from that area per game. (45.2% went in.) Right now he’s up to 4.0 per game and making a silly 54.5% of them. For reference as to how ridiculous this is: 1) the league average on midrange shots this year is 40.7%, 2) Chris Paul—the third-most accurate midrange shooter among all players who’ve logged at least 1,000 field goal attempts in the past 20 years—is taking 4.3 per game and making 54.9% of them.

At the risk of getting too granular, there are 35 players who’ve taken at least 35 shots between 15 and 19 feet, according to NBA.com. Only LaMarcus Aldridge is more accurate than Young. The percentage of Young’s points that comes from the midrange has spiked to 16.4%, which is more than double what it was last year and nearly triple his rookie season.

As Young explained at his preseason press conference, there’s obvious value embracing the midrange in a league that still prioritizes schemes that take away the arc and restricted area. Be great from an area that NBA defenses are still “willing” to concede and you can walk on water.

Sports Illustrated

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[Jamaaliver]

Yet another featured article about Trae's rising stardom.

Trae Young Is Making His Bid for Superstardom

After an early season stumble, the Hawks are back over .500 and Atlanta’s talisman is stating his case for a first All-NBA berth



Atlanta was expected by many to continue soaring coming off an Eastern Conference finals berth, but instead stumbled out of the gates. The Hawks have hammered opponents by 11.7 points per 100 possessions since coming back from a disappointing West Coast swing, according to Cleaning the Glass—the second-best efficiency differential in the NBA in that span, behind only Donovan Mitchell and the roaring Jazz. An uptick in play was to be expected from a team that boasts perhaps the best young core in the NBA, but Atlanta has kicked into high gear despite operating without three top-10 picks.

Already one of the highest-volume playmakers in the NBA, Young’s workload has skyrocketed amid all the absences. He’s finishing 36.1 percent of Atlanta’s offensive possessions with a shot attempt, foul drawn, or turnover over the past 12 games—a usage rate slightly higher than Luka Doncic’s league-leading mark—and thriving under the added burden, posting a .613 true shooting percentage in that stretch.

Just under 40 percent of Young’s field goal attempts have come from beyond the arc over the past dozen games, a significant jump from early in the season...

Young knows that defenders don’t want to give him the airspace to launch, so he leverages their lunges and the way they chase him over screens to get downhill, using his handle, timing, and footwork to create clean midrange looks. Or he’ll get all the way to the rim and use feints and pass fakes to get the defense off-balance before flicking a floater over the outstretched arm of a shot-blocker.

This is the intoxicating cocktail of skills—the touch, the vision, the range, the audacity—with which Young stretched the Knicks’ and 76ers’ defenses past their breaking points in the playoffs, and pushed the eventual champion Bucks to six games in the Eastern Conference finals. He’s employing them these days even more punishingly right now: Young’s shooting 64.1 percent in the restricted area, 52.3 percent from midrange, and 42.7 percent from 3-point land during this stretch, all of which would represent career highs over the course of a full season—not a bad way to combat a decline in free throw attempts due to the league’s “interpretive change in the officiating” of moves intended to draw fouls—while maintaining a 2.32-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio despite the spike in usage.

[W]hile Trae’s had help in turning things around, he remains the rising tide that lifts all boats in Atlanta—the sort of bona fide superstar who can snap an underperforming club to attention and drag it out of the doldrums through sheer force of will...it appears that he’s figured out how to provide the sort of three-level scoring and better-than-ever production that should return him to the All-Star Game—and might even propel him to his first All-NBA berth.

The Ringer