Assessing Expectations for Trae in Year 2

[graymule]

Side note: Will we see Zion Williamson and Bruno Fernando go against each other on October 7th ?
This would be exciting to see !

[Jamaaliver]

What will Trae Young look like in his second season?

There is a lot of young talent to get excited about with the Hawks. They grabbed a few intriguing prospects in the draft. Kevin Huerter will be a lot better in his second season. John Collins really seems to be finding an identity and a role under Lloyd Pierce. But this car will still only go as far as Trae Young can take it. Some people want to be very optimistic about the Hawks this season because the young core is so exciting. However, that core is so young that it’s unreasonable to expect it to make a real playoff push all season.

Young will eventually change all that. His intelligence on the court can be overwhelming at times, and he doesn’t yet combine that with much experience. He’s going to be a huge threat from downtown during his career, but his ability to dissect the floor with dribble penetration and passing will open everything up for his teammates. That will eventually lead to him having his teammates open things back up for him. Eventually, this core will figure that out. Until then, we get to see Young troubleshoot in his second season and show how worthy he is of the hype.

The Athletic

[Jamaaliver]

Where Trae rated in PPP last season. He seems likely to exceed this with reasonable improvements in personal efficiency, right?

[jayu70]

Stop turning the ball over.
There were two where he was just trying to be too flashing, didn't like those.
A couple where guys just weren't ready for the pass - I can live with those, it'll take time to gel with new players.
The rest - part of the game, other teams defense.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

[Jamaaliver]

B/R NBA Player Rankings: Top 15 Point Guards for 2019-20

12. Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks

Trae Young never challenged Luka Doncic's claim to Rookie of the Year. Not really. But his late-season tear served as a more meaningful referendum: clear, conclusive proof of his All-Star arc.

From Jan. 1 on, a stretch spanning more than half the season, Young averaged 21.9 points and 8.6 assists with a 43.3/35.3/85.4 shooting slash. He was even better after the All-Star break. His three-point efficiency never quite took off, but the Hawks weren't—and still aren't—built for him to be the most accurate scorer. Out of the 423 players who appeared in at least 20 games last year, only four had a greater share of their made triples go unassisted.

Rookies don't usually carry such an extensive burden. Young proved up to his. The Hawks offense, while not great, was much better with him on the floor. He didn't have a huge problem navigating traffic or making plays around the rim, and his vision off the bounce belied his experience.

Young would be set to keep climbing the individual ranks without making noticeable change. Except, well, he spent part of the summer working with Steve Nash. That's deeply terrifying.

Bleacher Report

[leo7]

Will Trae be consistent from 3 this year or will he still have multiple games where he goes 1/7 from the 3pt line?

[Jamaaliver]

Will Trae be consistent from 3 this year or will he still have multiple games where he goes 1/7 from the 3pt line?

Hell, I'd be okay with an occasional bad shooting game. I just never want to see dude have an entire month where he shoots below 30% from deep. Those are the kinds of slumps that will derail a team's offense and cost the player an All Star/All-NBA selection.

[jayu70]

Will Trae be consistent from 3 this year or will he still have multiple games where he goes 1/7 from the 3pt line?

Hell, I'd be okay with an occasional bad shooting game. I just never want to see dude have an entire month where he shoots below 30% from deep. Those are the kinds of slumps that will derail a team's offense and cost the player an All Star/All-NBA selection.

Heck, I'd be ok if he stops turning the ball over.
20 assists, 23 Turnovers thru games.

[shakes0]

He needs to get his head out of his ass and start playing. Way too many blocked layups. Stop going into the lane without a plan.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Jamaaliver]

Eight NBA Bets We Wish We Could Make This Season

The beginning of the season is the best time to do a bit of gambling—it’d just be nice if the lines offered were a bit more fun

Bigger Second-Season Improvement

Luka Doncic (minus-150), Trae Young (plus-100)

Year 2 of the Luka-Trae debate will be even better than their Rookie of the Year race (or robbery, depending on your allegiances). Both the Mavericks and the Hawks have improved so significantly that they’re both playoff bubble teams in their respective conferences. If Young’s momentum from the latter half of last season carries over, he could push Atlanta to being the surprise of 2019-20. Doncic, meanwhile, no longer has to worry about doing a weird dance with Dennis Smith Jr. for possessions, and instead has Kristaps Porzingis and shooter Seth Curry—who finished with a better 3-point percentage than his brother last season, mind you—to bump his assist count.

The Ringer

[Jamaaliver]

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[Jamaaliver]

Trae Young: ‘My Hard Work is Paying Off Right Now’

Watch on YouTube

Trae Young feels that a slow start basically cost him the Rookie of the Year last season, and came into the 2019-20 campaign determined to impress right out of the gate.

Mission accomplished: Young has torched the Detroit Pistons (38 points, seven rebounds and nine assists) and Orlando Magic (39 points, seven rebounds and nine assists) to kick things off for the 2-0 Atlanta Hawks.

Slam Online

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

“He’s getting his rhythm just getting downhill and he’s getting floaters, then eventually they’ve got to step their bigs up the floor and chase him over screens, and he gets going hitting one of those 3’s, now he can pick his poison with getting downhill, shooting 3’s, the defense collapsing, he can make passes to the weak side, but I thought his first three shots were all in rhythm, they were all floaters, they were all in the paint, he was attacking downhill, and it just opens up everything for us.”

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

2. Trae Young



Yeah, it's early. But if Young's going to score like a wild-child every single night for the up and coming Hawks, it's going to be impossible to ignore him for the All-Star team in February. Young made a strong push during the second half of last season to snatch Rookie of the Year honors from Luka Doncic and he's already off to an impressive start in his sophomore campaign after he poured in 38 points and nearly had a triple-double. We know Young can't defend, but he can light it up like few others. And let's not forget that he's fun to watch. In terms of competition in the East at the point guard position, Young's going to have to fight it out with Ben Simmons, Kyrie Irving, and Kemba Walker. But if the pint-sized PG averages 25-plus per game, it's going to be awfully tough to keep him off the squad this season.

[Jamaaliver]

Winners and Losers of the First Almost-Week of the NBA Season



2. Who’s the biggest winner of the first almost-week of the season?

Trae Young, who has channeled the highest highs of Steph Curry’s 2015-16 campaign and distilled it into pure long-range carnage. After two games, Young is already 3-for-4 from 30-plus feet out and averaging 38.5 points per game on 58.7 percent shooting; he has been everything the Warriors presently need Curry to be. The biggest stars of the 2018 NBA draft are showing out to start their sophomore campaigns, but Luka Doncic’s steady progression felt preordained. Young’s historic output thus far is both startling and heartening: Curry disciples exist, and they can thrive at the highest level. It won’t last, but Young has already proved that the model is sound. -Danny Chau


...let’s go with the super fun, surprising, undefeated Atlanta Hawks. Trae Young has been a human heat check so far. Through the first two games, he’s averaging 38.5 points (58.7 FG percentage), nine assists, seven rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 5.5 3s on 10 attempts. The Hawks—and this is not a sentence I expected to type this season, let alone so soon—are appointment viewing.
-John Gonzales


Young. It took only two games for the sophomore guard to upgrade from rookie phenom to possible All-Star in the East. In his first game against the Pistons, he put up 38 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists. Against the Magic in Game 2, he had 39 with the same amount of rebounds and assists. Those are “Russell Westbrook on a good day” numbers. Young’s been more willing to take the from-the-midcourt-logo 3s he took back at Oklahoma, and he’s hit more than half of his 3s in total. The opponents will get tougher, but if Young can keep some version of this up and get the Hawks into fringe playoff contention, it will be impossible to keep him away even bigger honors this season.
-Paolo Uggetti


Doncic and Young might both make an All-NBA team this season. The NBA is changing, and the ability to shoot 3s off the dribble and generate 3s off passing is the most important combination of skills in the game. Forget that they’re only NBA sophomores. There aren’t many players in the league who can do those two things as well these two second-year guards. The Mavs and Hawks have built everything around Luka and Trae, and their confidence in them is paying off so far.
-Johnathan Tjarks

The Ringer

[Jamaaliver]

Best Opening Weeks from NBA's Top Stars

2. Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks



Trae Young is ferrying yet another ridiculous workload, only this time his offensive burden is colossal by proven-star standards. (Note: He suffered a right ankle injury in Monday's game against the Miami Heat and will get an MRI after X-rays came back negative, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.)

No one who has logged at least 50 total minutes thus far has a higher usage rate. More than 61 percent of Young's three-pointers have gone unassisted, an increase over last year's 57.7 percent share. For context's sake, Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry and Kemba Walker are all putting in more assisted treys.

Not surprisingly, Young is likewise taking more than half his shots with a defender between two and four feet from his person. Devin Booker isn't dealing with that type of strain this season. Nor is Kawhi Leonard.

That Young entered Monday's injury-shortened outing averaging 34 points and nine assists on 65.9 percent true shooting is remarkable even this early. His turnovers are still an issue, but short-circuited possessions are the price of ungoverned playmaking in its infancy. He has shown he can control the pace of games, squeeze passes through tight pockets, sneak lobs above trees and throw full-court bombs.

Defenses have to guard Young's vision for a full 94 feet. They have to guard against his shot the moment he crosses the timeline. Even his lack of size barely holds him back. Finishing around the rim can be a chore, but he's perfected the release on his floater.

Little is clear this early into the season, but this we know for sure: The answer to Young's offense doesn't exist.

Bleacher Report

[Jamaaliver]

Eight Overreactions to the First Week of the NBA Season

Trae Young Might Actually Be the New Steph

Trae Young sprained his ankle against the Heat on Tuesday, but thankfully it doesn’t seem like the injury is serious. We’ll get to see him try to continue his blazing start to the season soon enough. The best comparison for Young has always been Steve Nash. Young idolized Nash growing up, and this summer they worked out together. Nash’s influence on Young can be seen in the Hawks playmaker’s ability to manipulate defenders with his movements and then laser passes across the court. He makes some truly absurd dishes.

Spoiler:

Another big influence on Young is Steph Curry. Blame that on Young’s explosive freshman season at Oklahoma, when Trae was a small point guard making defenses look foolish by launching 3s from outer space. He led the nation in scoring while the Warriors were making a run at their third title in four seasons. But the truth is that Young was never a shooter like Curry; as I wrote this preseason, Curry never shot worse than 38.7 percent from 3 in college or the pros, while Young has never shot better than 36 percent. Young was a theoretical knockdown shooter, but not the real deal. Maybe not until now.

Spoiler:

Young looks like he’s stolen Curry’s powers this season. He’s breaking ankles with filthy right-to-left crossovers, like in the clip above, and sinking logo 3s while averaging 34 points on 50 percent shooting on dribble-jumper 3s and 57.1 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s. (He’s also averaging nine assists.) The Hawks are 2-2 largely thanks to Young. These shooting percentages are obviously unsustainable, but the question will be how far they’ll fall.

As a rookie, Young shot only 32.4 percent from 3. But there were always indicators he could thrive from deep: He’s a knockdown free throw shooter at over 80 percent since college, and he has pillowy-soft touch on layups and floaters. Maybe Young just needed to get stronger to launch consistently from deep, and that’s exactly what we’ll find out this season. But even if he’s not quite Steph as a scorer, and not quite Nash as a passer, a hybrid of the two could be enough to have kids wanting to be like Trae.

The Ringer

[shakes0]

any word yet on Trae's availability? Three home games in 4 days starting Tuesday.