Trae Young is Ridiculously Underrated

[Rainwater]

And more importantly, Trae has already shown massive improvement under our Quin's offensive tutelage:

Read on Twitter

...while shooting 40% from the field. At least his 4 turnovers per game was consistent with the regular season?

Yeah, it’s kinda revisionist history. He really didn’t have a great playoffs. His inefficiency on the offensive end is part of the reason why Hawks lost.

[Jamaaliver]

How is stating a statistical fact revisionist history?

[Ball4life32]

And more importantly, Trae has already shown massive improvement under our Quin's offensive tutelage:

Read on Twitter

...while shooting 40% from the field. At least his 4 turnovers per game was consistent with the regular season?

Yeah, it’s kinda revisionist history. He really didn’t have a great playoffs. His inefficiency on the offensive end is part of the reason why Hawks lost.

Hawks lost mainly because of defense….they still put up 116 ppg in that series vs a top 3 Celtics defense. Also again with the turnovers per game like the top 4 aren’t Trae, Giannis, Luka, Jokic. High usage players running their teams offense are going to turn the ball over.

[leo7]

...while shooting 40% from the field. At least his 4 turnovers per game was consistent with the regular season?

Yeah, it’s kinda revisionist history. He really didn’t have a great playoffs. His inefficiency on the offensive end is part of the reason why Hawks lost.

Hawks lost mainly because of defense….they still put up 116 ppg in that series vs a top 3 Celtics defense. Also again with the turnovers per game like the top 4 aren’t Trae, Giannis, Luka, Jokic. High usage players running their teams offense are going to turn the ball over.

Yeah I'm not sure why people criticize Trae for this, and not everyone else who does this.

[jokeboy86]

Yeah, it’s kinda revisionist history. He really didn’t have a great playoffs. His inefficiency on the offensive end is part of the reason why Hawks lost.

Hawks lost mainly because of defense….they still put up 116 ppg in that series vs a top 3 Celtics defense. Also again with the turnovers per game like the top 4 aren’t Trae, Giannis, Luka, Jokic. High usage players running their teams offense are going to turn the ball over.

Yeah I'm not sure why people criticize Trae for this, and not everyone else who does this.

I would bet that the other players fg% wasnt as bad as Trae’s. It’s one reason I’m sure that people tolerated Harden during his Houston days because even though he was also high usage avg about 4TOs his percentages werent just absolutely abysmal. Trae only shooting over 44% for one year in his career is really hard to ignore. It wouldnt surprise me if Trae is up there with Iverson for lowest fg% for a guard shooting that many shots in a season or seasons

[Rainwater]

How is stating a statistical fact revisionist history?

To state that Trae has “improved” or played better in the playoffs just based on ppg, apg, spg, when his efficiency declined ie fg% (which was already bad in the regular seasons),TS% declined, and usage increased while taking 5 more shots per game (to increase his scoring numbers) is revisionist history. And visually he didn’t play well either. Context is greatly needed.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Hawks lost mainly because of defense….they still put up 116 ppg in that series vs a top 3 Celtics defense. Also again with the turnovers per game like the top 4 aren’t Trae, Giannis, Luka, Jokic. High usage players running their teams offense are going to turn the ball over.

Yeah I'm not sure why people criticize Trae for this, and not everyone else who does this.

I would bet that the other players fg% wasnt as bad as Trae’s. It’s one reason I’m sure that people tolerated Harden during his Houston days because even though he was also high usage avg about 4TOs his percentages werent just absolutely abysmal. Trae only shooting over 44% for one year in his career is really hard to ignore. It wouldnt surprise me if Trae is up there with Iverson for lowest fg% for a guard shooting that many shots in a season or seasons

Have you ever heard of "advanced" statistics? The ones related to shooting %s are actually quite basic and easy to wrap your head around.

[LakersLegacy]

YOUNG can shoot

But he is very ball dominant and doesn’t coordinate the offense with rebounding position before chucking

If there were a Rodman or great rebounding monster besides JJj it would be a better fit. But Young is the wrong style

[KG Leonard]

I dont care about his offensive stats at all because he is very inefficient shooter, average 3pt shooter. 1% less than 36% NBA avg but he thinks he is Curry or Dame. Weak defender who shoots 40% from the field vs Boston in playoffs. He is a good playmaker but in Hawks vs Celtics my team i was bored looking at overrated player because his turnovers, heroball shots is so predictable. I cant take him seriously unless he can actually win real playoff games with his style that is not efficient at all.

Like my fav NBA poddcast on The Ringer said, in today NBA every bad team has someone who put up stats shooting Iversion % from the field. Dont insult Oscar and Isiah Thomas by comparing regular season stats. They are not known for scoring badly and being the leader of 8th seed teams.

[Jamaaliver]

I dont care about his offensive stats at all...I cant take him seriously unless he can actually win real playoff games with his style that is not efficient at all.

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Jamaaliver]

[brutalitops]

Underrated and disrespected to an extreme degree...

Read on Twitter

Two of the 3 you mentioned are also the best defenders on their team and SGA is a plus defender for his position. Guy can't guard a traffic cone and your still crying why people don't respect him. Come on.

[Pelly24]

I really cant tell if ur just trolling now...

Lol this happens literally all the time, no matter how many times it unfolds this way, people will forget the lesson. Devin Booker went from an empty stats guy to a franchise talent, Kyrie went from a guy GMs didn't think deserved a max contract after his first three years to the second-best player on a championship team. Bradley Beal will go from a non-playoff contender to a squad with KD and Devin Booker, where he'll now be written about as a true winner who learned to win once he joined a team with two superstars. DeAaron Fox gets a good team and finally gets the respect he deserves. If he goes to the heat, Dame will be seen as a top 5 player by season's end, and people will act like he's changed his game significantly when really he just has an All-NBA teammate for the first time in 10 years.

You can mitigate locker room stuff and bad defense, but when it comes down to it, if there's a guy with elite offensive talent, you can always find a way to make them work on a great team.

Just out of curiosity where do you rank Young as a player in this league? top 5? top 10?

I forget whether I responded to this, but to me Trae is a likely top 20 player. I think he's better than Jamal Murray and probably at least as good as Devin Booker. Based on advanced stats and regular season production, I'd say Kyrie is technically a proven guy that's better, but Trae's displayed a level of transcendent ability (dropping 48 against the bucks, stealing two games from the Celtics by himself, etc.) that puts him up there in the top 10 player discussion, where as Kyrie is more like 12-17 for me. I think if Trae were on the heat, they'd be a guaranteed NBA finals team and he'd be seen as a no-question top 15 guy.

His passing ability, his speed and quickness and handle are just unstoppable. He can obviously get hot from the perimeter, too. He needs to stop going through 30-game stretches where he shoots 30% from three, though.

[watch1958]

Is Trae game more underrated than Kyrie's athleticism is? Maybe a thread is needed.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

[NDaATL]

Lol this happens literally all the time, no matter how many times it unfolds this way, people will forget the lesson. Devin Booker went from an empty stats guy to a franchise talent, Kyrie went from a guy GMs didn't think deserved a max contract after his first three years to the second-best player on a championship team. Bradley Beal will go from a non-playoff contender to a squad with KD and Devin Booker, where he'll now be written about as a true winner who learned to win once he joined a team with two superstars. DeAaron Fox gets a good team and finally gets the respect he deserves. If he goes to the heat, Dame will be seen as a top 5 player by season's end, and people will act like he's changed his game significantly when really he just has an All-NBA teammate for the first time in 10 years.

You can mitigate locker room stuff and bad defense, but when it comes down to it, if there's a guy with elite offensive talent, you can always find a way to make them work on a great team.

Just out of curiosity where do you rank Young as a player in this league? top 5? top 10?

Trae's displayed a level of transcendent ability (dropping 48 against the bucks

That was on the road, in game 1 of the ECF and he went in and dropped 48 and 11 and won. He was playing with all-time confidence. Dude was throwing oops off the backboard and shimmying before shooting and making threes.

If Trae doesn't roll his ankle on the referee in game 3 (dumbest freak injury ever) there is a very good shot we beat the Bucks. We were up 5 early in the 4th quarter at home and he already had like 32 points. Giannis was shook at the FT line. We could have went up 2-1, and then we won game 4 at home without him. That postseason Trae was maybe the best 4th Q closer in the league. Giannis then got hurt in game 5. We would have had 3 chances to beat them, 2 without Giannis.

A PHX-ATL series would have been a toss up.

I don't think people really remember how close were were to a chip. And he did it without Hunter, and with Bogi playing on one leg.

[Evenacus]

You could say that one time making the wcf was a fluke occurrence. After that, the last two seasons they lost twice without much fuss. He was obviously not good enough to push them further then before. The stats are generally skewered towards offensive output in this era, that is the reasons he can be painted as being better then he is. He isn't a good defender neither does he have that much room to improve there and he doesn't have the personnel good enough to cover for him in that department ( dunno who could be brought in to help ).
I just don't see him being the main cog in a championship winning team, maybe even not the robin on such a team.
How can he be better then Jamal Murray, did you even watch this year's playoffs. Murray was scoring left and right and especially when the games were being close, Murray would score to keep Denver ship steady. His defense wasn't pristine, but he wasn't blown by on a regular basis. Maybe Atlanta lacks the second guy for the kinda of combo Denver runs, could be that.
I have issues with stats in this era, almost every no. 1 option on a team will get "their share" just due to the sheer volume of scoring and the way the game is played. It could be said that stats in this era do not reveal the full picture. Hell, you can call that a blasphemous view, but that is my subjective feel here.

[Pelly24]

Just out of curiosity where do you rank Young as a player in this league? top 5? top 10?

Trae's displayed a level of transcendent ability (dropping 48 against the bucks

That was on the road, in game 1 of the ECF and he went in and dropped 48 and 11 and won. He was playing with all-time confidence. Dude was throwing oops off the backboard and shimmying before shooting and making threes.

If Trae doesn't roll his ankle on the referee in game 3 (dumbest freak injury ever) there is a very good shot we beat the Bucks. We were up 5 early in the 4th quarter at home and he already had like 32 points. Giannis was shook at the FT line. We could have went up 2-1, and then we won game 4 at home without him. That postseason Trae was maybe the best 4th Q closer in the league. Giannis then got hurt in game 5. We would have had 3 chances to beat them, 2 without Giannis.

A PHX-ATL series would have been a toss up.

I don't think people really remember how close were were to a chip. And he did it without Hunter, and with Bogi playing on one leg.

Yup. But people who watch the NBA just have a limited imagination and they can only see what's literally happened — AKA, the outcome they'll judge everything by. But the truth is, if Trae played with a truly complementary all-star and with a solid defense, the hawks would be serious threats every year, and I don't think it's a guarantee the Celtics beat them. And trae was great in this past year's playoffs, too. He's had one truly awful playoff run — against a great team. So what.

People let narratives and outcomes and stereotypes obscure some very obvious things. He's easily worth his contract and with his talent there's nothing really to debate in a lot of ways.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter