Of you who are on the fence about Trae Young having a Steve Nash kind-of career ahead of him... whats keeping you there?

[_s_t_u_r_t_]

Estimate is that there are 10-20 fairly common posters to this board who didn't post to the "affirmation" thread, so I'm now curious to compare notes and see what's prevented you so far from being confident enough in Trae's future as a multiple-top-5-MVP vote getter to say you have that level of confidence... what's keeping you on the fence?

As before, I'm not going to debate anyone about the validity of their position, so nope, no trick door here (again). And for what it matters... probably will just get the exact opposite result, but maybe not... I'd appreciate if some of the more aggressive "affirmative" posters from the other thread would resist those debates, and further, avoid targeting for some personal attack on the ego or personality of any people in this thread with whom you disagree.

Right now, I'm on the fence. There's a lot to like, and I think he'll even get better in some areas where he's already good. But my questions center on three things that overlap...

(1) There are players historically who will pile up the stats, but their teams still lose, and those players end up never being able to show themselves capable of translating their stats into wins.... or more particularly and relevantly, playoff series wins... and never end up, then, being considered so good that they merit any serious MVP consideration... Melo would be one recent example.

(2) This team will win more than it's been winning, of course, but I question whether this team will be capable of ascending to the upper echelon of winning because of Trae's defense. And if Huerter and Collins end up being the two other primary go-to guys, the defense of those three most likely will take up the most minutes, and not a serious defensive threat to be found among them.

(3) Again, when he's good, hes' very good. And I like that he is one of those prove-the-world-wrong attitude kind-of-guys. To me, there's no question he's going to pile up some ASG appearances. But when he's bad, he's typically very bad.... of his 26 games with 15 or fewer points, his plus/minus was, not just minus, but double-digits minus 16 times (62%)... compare that to a John Collins who has essentially the same regard offensively and defensively... of his 19 games with 15 or fewer points, his plus/minus was in double digits only 8 times (42%). So on his off-nights, Trae's got to somehow figure out how to be "less bad" than he is.

I don't feel good enough about Trae Young yet that I can just assume the best and build around him. That is, if we're talking about building a legit championship contender. And I am. I sure don't want to come out of this dark cave that is tanking just to get back on the ol' hamster wheel. But then, if some are merely looking to make a conference finals appearance again once every 5 years or so, he's probably going to be capable of leading this team to that much.

[_s_t_u_r_t_]

So, I'm sure the several who have affirmed their full faith in Trae's future are taking great joy in the fact that, a couple of days in, there have been no other fence sitters come forward at all, let alone, offer an explanation for why they are that.

Is it true? Of those of you who did not post in the other thread either, do you just not want to go on record either way?

Or is it unanimous other than me over here on the fence that you perceive Trae is going to receive serious MVP consideration in multiple years?

Or, otoh, are you indeed fence sitting, but just don't have any particular interest in contributing your thoughts here?

Mods? lethal? Spud? kg01? Wurdier? AHF? atlantabbq99? marco? tbhawksfan? hawkster? sultan? Brotha? deester? Sothron? PSSSHHH? NightTraen? observer? IHeart? benhillboy? A handful of others that I missed... ?

[tomaHAWKslam]

I just don't like to pigeon hole players like that. I can't say he's going to be either Bibby or Nash, when I think his game is different than both.

[_s_t_u_r_t_]

Thanks for the reply.

If I may respond, the question posed isn't intended to be interpreted so strictly as Trae Young will become one or the other, but rather there's more emphasis intended on the "kind-of-career" part... that a given fan is persuaded that Trae's career projects to track with someone who earned multiple top-5 MVP vote status... or that s/he can't really say s/he's persuaded of that, and so, can better be described as someone sitting on the fence.