Trae Young is Ridiculously Underrated

[eminence]

Trae should focus on defending more, stop with the low % 3-pointers, focus on his midrange more, and not leading the league in turnovers would help.

Leading the league in turnovers means a lot less when he's also leading the league in APG.

But actually having other worthwhile scorers, including at least one guy who can initiate his own offense, should make a big difference in the specific usage he'll have to run out on a nightly basis. If KP is healthy, that's a game-changer for Trae; he'd instantly be the best scorer that Trae has played with at any point in his Atlanta career, and that's not a trivial thing. And then having Okongwu finishing, with Risacher and NAW and maybe a slightly-improved Dyson hitting 3s...

Atlanta should look a fair bit better on O this year, if they're healthy.

I mentioned many areas of his game that he needs to improve on. You can bring up assists to his defense all you want but not many assist leaders have won a championship. Maybe Bob Cousey and Lebron James? I think Isiah Thomas lost to the Lakers the year he was the assist leader but I might be wrong.

Bob Cousy 3x ('57/'59/'60)
Larry Brown '69 (ABA)
Magic Johnson '87
LeBron James '20

Per game gets you '72 Jerry West

[RoyalWun]

I was hoping he got traded to SAS and paired with Wemby.

[Crazy-Canuck]

Trae isn't a first option, he's the engine. And a good one at that.

Switch him and herro, and i bet the heat are a top 4 team in the east. Bam would be looking at all nba honors.

[Rainwater]

Read on Twitter

Pretty much a prove it season

[tsherkin]

I mentioned many areas of his game that he needs to improve on. You can bring up assists to his defense all you want but not many assist leaders have won a championship.

You talked about turnovers, I talked about assists. Trae isn't perfect, but context matters. His actual TOV% is about 5% lower than Stockton, Magic and Nash, for what it's worth, so focusing on his raw TPG average is a mistake.

Assist leaders who have won the title, eminence covered. Lebron in 2020, Magic in 87... he was 7th in 80 before he got rolling, then he was 2nd in 82, 85 and 88. So, but for splitting hairs over 1st versus 2nd... West in 72. Cousy in 57, 59 and 60. Oscar never had the team to compete with Boston, Stockton's Jazz couldn't break through more to due scoring. Nash probably would have done it in 07 without the BS suspensions. It's quite manageable. Now, most of those guys are on a different level than Trae, and the stuff from the 50s, I care about a lot less.

Trae isn't a superstar, but he takes a huge beating because the Hawks don't win... without having enjoyed any kind of contention-level roster. It's discordant. He's small, and he's definitely shooting too much, but that's on the roster, not on him, until proven otherwise.

You know all of this: On paper he appears to have the best roster surrounding him that he has had in his career. KP, Zaccharie Risacher, and others will be key. Having some three point threats on the team will open things up for Trae to have more success. The Hawks only had two players that made 100 or more threes last season.

This we have all been saying, yes. This isn't a title team, but it should be substantially better than the past couple of years if they are healthy, for sure.

If KP's healthy, the Hawks are a very interesting team. He's a gamble, but he's a highly-efficient 19-20 ppg scorer with range and post game. He's a big deal when he's healthy... he's just rarely healthy. So we'll see what happens now.

If they're in good shape, that's a 50+-win team, but it's hyper-dependent on Porzingis' availability.

[tsherkin]

I was hoping he got traded to SAS and paired with Wemby.

That would have been way better than Fox, man.

[kg01]

Trae isn't a first option, he's the engine. And a good one at that.

Switch him and herro, and i bet the heat are a top 4 team in the east. Bam would be looking at all nba honors.

It's really strange how people thin-slice Trae to death to discredit him as a player.

Everything you say is true, but most people watch a 5'11", 175lb guy not be able to lock down 6'7" physical specimens on defense and just toss everything you said out the window.

[Jamaaliver]

Pretty much a prove it season

If Trae actually makes All-NBA next season and the team tries to extend him after the fact, the cost will be so much higher versus locking him in now while his value is depressed.

Read on Twitter

[zimpy27]

I was hoping he got traded to SAS and paired with Wemby.

That would have been way better than Fox, man.

That would have been unfair

[tsherkin]

That would have been unfair

Would have been brilliant to watch, though. Trae spams drives and is a wonderful playmaker. Him working with Wemby would have been really cool to see.

On the other hand, I'm kind of happy he's staying in Atlanta, and really hoping for 70+ games and a healthy postseason from KP. Atlanta could use a shot in the arm season about now.

[Rainwater]

Pretty much a prove it season

If Trae actually makes All-NBA next season and the team tries to extend him after the fact, the cost will be so much higher versus locking him in now while his value is depressed.

Read on Twitter

That is the route the Hawks have chosen though. I really think they are skeptical on Trae like many are. My guess is unless the hawks have a crazy season, Trae on a max deal is a bit much and he is likely gone. If the hawks refuse to resign him at 50 million a year, I really doubt they resign at 70 million a year. He just not that type of player.

[Jamaaliver]

That is the route the Hawks have chosen. I really think they are skeptical on Trae like many are. My guess is unless the hawks have a crazy season, Trae on a max deal is a bit much and he is likely gone. If the hawks refuse to resign him at 50 million a year, I really doubt they resign at 70 million a year. He just not that type of player.

Then why not just trade him now?

[Rainwater]

That is the route the Hawks have chosen. I really think they are skeptical on Trae like many are. My guess is unless the hawks have a crazy season, Trae on a max deal is a bit much and he is likely gone. If the hawks refuse to resign him at 50 million a year, I really doubt they resign at 70 million a year. He just not that type of player.

Then why not just trade him now?

My guess is that they are hoping to see what happens this season and want to see if the “crazy season occurs” or maybe they are hoping to swing a trade deadline to pair a true star next to him. I just really have a hard time seeing the Hawks committing so much money to him as their number one.

[manlisten]

Trae's strengths are passing and drawing fouls. Does he have any others? Seems he does everything else at a below average or heinously low level. How do you build a contender around that? People keep shifting the blame to the front office and roster construction when the issue is that Trae isn't supposed to be the guy you build around.

[Ball4life32]

Trae's strengths are passing and drawing fouls. Does he have any others? Seems he does everything else at a below average or heinously low level. How do you build a contender around that? People keep shifting the blame to the front office and roster construction when the issue is that Trae isn't supposed to be the guy you build around.

Let him play make and build the best defense around him. His usage has gone down while his apg are up the last few yrs.

Read on Twitter

?s=61

[BelgradeNugget]

For me the question is how much money is he worth in this new CBA? In the past all players on his level got max automaticaly. Now with this new CBA, 2 apron rules, teams breaking championship cores to avoid 2 apron, what is his worth?
$40M? $50M? $60M?
Max you can pay him? If you sign him to $50M - $60M what is the next move? Can you trade him after max? There wasn't much market for him as was reported even on this site.
So I think Hawks are trying to get the answers next season before making a move wich is smarth I think.

[Celts17Pride]

That is the route the Hawks have chosen. I really think they are skeptical on Trae like many are. My guess is unless the hawks have a crazy season, Trae on a max deal is a bit much and he is likely gone. If the hawks refuse to resign him at 50 million a year, I really doubt they resign at 70 million a year. He just not that type of player.

Then why not just trade him now?

There has to be a market. Teams are not lining up to trade for Trae Young and then pay him a max contract. Possible 4 year $229 million extension. Looks like someone in the Hawks organization is growing a brain.

[Jamaaliver]

Then why not just trade him now?

There has to be a market. Teams are not lining up to trade for Trae Young and then pay him a max contract. Possible 4 year $229 million extension. Looks like someone in the Hawks organization is growing a brain.

And yet...Trae walking away next season for nothing (or very little) is the only worse scenario.

[manlisten]

Trae's strengths are passing and drawing fouls. Does he have any others? Seems he does everything else at a below average or heinously low level. How do you build a contender around that? People keep shifting the blame to the front office and roster construction when the issue is that Trae isn't supposed to be the guy you build around.

Let him play make and build the best defense around him. His usage has gone down while his apg are up the last few yrs.

Read on Twitter

?s=61

So again, specifics. What does a championship team with Trae as the best player look like? When you force yourself to actually put together a roster you realize how difficult (impossible) it actually is.

[wco81]

Then why not just trade him now?

There has to be a market. Teams are not lining up to trade for Trae Young and then pay him a max contract. Possible 4 year $229 million extension. Looks like someone in the Hawks organization is growing a brain.

And yet...Trae walking away next season for nothing (or very little) is the only worse scenario.

Trae puts up All-Star numbers, regardless of how many times he's been an All-Star.

So it makes sense to want assets back if the team decides it wants to move on.

How committed are the owners to winning? Do they want to build towards championship contention or would they be content if the team was good enough to get into the playoffs, as long as revenues from tickets, local TV ads, jersey sales, etc. do well even if it's just a treadmill team?

Some cities and fanbases may loyally support teams for years or decades even if they're unable to break through. Some owners may be happy as long as the finances are good.

In that case, they may give max contracts to a couple of players but not really get too deep into luxury taxes.

Or if the team wants to blow it up and start over if they determine that their core just isn't going to get the team into the Finals, maybe they'd be happy just getting a lot of draft assets back, as Utah did a couple of years ago when they traded away Mitchell and Gobert, blowing up a team which had won 50-60 games for a couple of years but underperformed in the playoffs.

Utah has no guarantee that they're going to have as good a team as the Mitchell-Gobert teams, which was the #1 seed one year in the WC. But they reset their timeline.