The Next Phase in Trae's Development

[Jamaaliver]

If Trae Young wants to rival Stephen Curry's shooting, he has to start approaching it the same way

The Hawks All-Star needs to make a much greater commitment to moving without the ball

A few weeks back, Young stated that he would surpass Steph Curry as the NBA's best shooter within a year...if Young intends to move in the direction of probably the greatest shooter to ever live, he has to start embracing the off-ball aspect of the craft, because he already has the Nash part down.

"We've been telling Trae that since the first day he got here," Hawks president and GM Travis Schlenk told CBS Sports. "I tell him all the time, and he looks at me like I'm crazy, but the hardest time to score in the NBA is when you have the ball. When you have the ball, you've got 10 defenders' eyes on you. When you don't have the ball, you might have two eyes on you, your defender, but there's a good chance even he's not totally looking at you because he's, what, looking at the ball."

Schlenk saw Steph Curry evolve first hand. He's trying to put the pieces in place for Young to travel a similar route.

But Young has to take the challenge, too, and fully commit to not just continued movement once he gives the ball up, which takes incredible stamina and mental discipline, but movement with a purpose, sniffing out space with the same one-step-ahead instincts that guide his on-ball prowess. So far this season, just 8.8 percent of Young's shots have been of the catch-and-shoot variety, per Synergy. In 2018-19, that number was 38.8 percent for Curry.

Spoiler:

Yes, the Warriors use Curry a lot differently than the Hawks use Young, and they have had far more capable supporting playmakers during the Steve Kerr era than Young is working with in Atlanta. But even if you go back to 2013-14, when Curry was playing under Mark Jackson in a pick-and-roll-heavy system similar to the one in which Young plays, 16 percent of Curry's shots were catch-and-shoots, which is twice the number Young is taking.

it starts with a first step, literally, and for players like Young, that first step is the one you take immediately after giving the ball up. Watch below as Young gives the ball up and immediately has a split-second opening to sprint out to the wing for a return pass, but instead he just kind of lazily floats out to the 3-point line, so by the time he receives a pass, the defender is already there.

Watch on YouTube

For the Hawks to become a playoff team, and certainly for Young to be at his most dangerous once he gets there, his off-ball movement has to be much more aggressive. It has to have a shot-hunting urgency to it. You can only do so much damage on the ball when teams are going to do everything they can to take it out of your hands once you start playing in meaningful games.

To that point, Young is already seeing aggressive, advanced blitzing schemes to force the ball out of his hands. Most times when he passes out of the double, he hardly moves afterward...watch Young in the clip below. He's the guy who barely enters the screen at the top and lingers 40 feet from the basket the entire possession without once threatening the defense in any way.

Watch on YouTube

Once Trae Young figures this part of the equation out, that's when we can at least start talking about him in the same breath as Curry, or any other great shooter for that matter. He'll get there. The Hawks are committed to putting the right kind of team around him to bring that part of his game to bloom, and he's a known hard worker. Young's talent is undeniable. Most people could run around all day and they still don't have the shooting ability to take advantage of the space they find. Young does. And it'll be scary when he puts that all together.

CBS Sports

[Jamaaliver]

One of the many considerations a point guard must make is how to keep every player involved and invested. Sometimes, simply allowing teammates to feel the ball and contribute to the offense can help maintain -- or restore -- equilibrium.

He could also be quicker getting rid of the ball against double-teams, allowing teammates to keep possessions moving and exploit numbers advantages. As potent as Young is with the ball in his hands, both he and the Hawks might stand to improve by deploying him more often away from the ball. He scored an elite 1.33 points per possession on spot-up plays this season, but had fewer than two such opportunities per game. Adding and developing secondary playmakers should allow Young to incorporate more off-ball movement into his game and help diversify Atlanta’s offense.

SI.com

[jayu70]

Pierce's thought on playing Trae off ball from January:

....while the Hawks have said they’d like for Young to develop his off-ball skills, he hasn’t shown he’s someone who can constantly run off screens and come off of pin-downs just yet.

“Just because Jeff is here, you don’t just run Trae around,” Pierce said. “I think from a decoy standpoint or second-side action, John (Collins) can run it and come off of pick-and-rolls and kick it to Trae, who is a wide-open shooter or he’s attacking a guy who is running out on him. It’s just a different feel, so you move him off the ball because you have that advantage and not just move him off the ball and run him around and try to find ways to get him in pin-downs like Steph (Curry) or Dame (Lillard).

“That requires skill and still takes a lot of time. Once you buy in to playing and moving that way — JJ Redick and Joe Harris — that’s a skill. Trae has a skill with the ball. Those guys have a skill without the basketball, and it’s not get him off the ball, and he’s all of a sudden that. That’s a lot of commitment to movement and understanding you’re going to get the reward on the back end.”

Hopefully Trae buys in fully. There has to be options when teams double and triple team him, making himself available to catch and shoot and not just getting the ball back to reset the offense.

[atlantabbq99]

It is scary to think that Trae could even get better after this year, but he needs to start playing CP3 level defense in the next 2-3 seasons.

He should start watching tapes of Muggsy and Mookie.

[HMFFL]

Trae buying in is key!
His third year I hope to see more all around improvement and a better locker room.

I like this from the first article posted so I hope he listens to Travis Schlenk.

"We've been telling Trae that since the first day he got here," Hawks president and GM Travis Schlenk told CBS Sports. "I tell him all the time, and he looks at me like I'm crazy, but the hardest time to score in the NBA is when you have the ball. When you have the ball, you've got 10 defenders' eyes on you. When you don't have the ball, you might have two eyes on you, your defender, but there's a good chance even he's not totally looking at you because he's, what, looking at the ball."

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

[shakes0]

It is scary to think that Trae could even get better after this year, but he needs to start playing CP3 level defense in the next 2-3 seasons.

He should start watching tapes of Muggsy and Mookie.

he's never going to play CP3 level defense nor does he need to.


He needs to get better at defending screens, keeping guys in front of him and get stronger so when he does get caught down low it's not an automatic 2 points.

[birdlives_ma]

We need a guy I trust to have the ball while he’s moving though.... a secondary playmaker is going to be just as key as Trae buying in IMO

[jayu70]

Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, Zion Williamson or Trae Young: Which young star would NBA execs build around?

Young placed third on four ballots and last on the other 16. And while those polled were quick to praise his prodigious offensive exploits -- particularly on such a young Atlanta Hawks team -- concerns about the other end of the floor prevented him from gaining traction in our survey.

"Trae clearly is fourth because of the defense," an Eastern Conference executive said. "I just don't think you can win big when his defense is that bad."

Those who had him third thought his offense is so productive that it outweighs the concerns about him at the opposite end.

"Being an elite deep shooter has so much value," another Eastern Conference exec said. "The thing with Trae is: Does he become James Harden, where you say, 'F--- it, and we'll build around him because he's so good you win 55 games,' or does he not work with other better players, like a Russell Westbrook, so you have to minimize his role?"

While Doncic is the current favorite to build around, it's clear this quartet represents the future of the NBA -- with a long way to go.

"All four are really unique for the position [they play]," said one general manager, before adding with a laugh, "Frankly, who the f--- knows?"

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29016357/luka-doncic-ja-morant-zion-williamson-trae-young-which-young-star-nba-execs-build-around

[Jamaaliver]

Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, Zion Williamson or Trae Young: Which young star would NBA execs build around?

Young placed third on four ballots and last on the other 16.

ESPN

What?!?!?

I do wonder about his...shortcomings and if they can be overcome.

Number of titles and ALL NBA selections will be the true determination of whether we made the right call on Trae over Luka.

[jayu70]

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[atlantabbq99]

You win championships with defense. Their is a reason why Nash and Harden never won a ring. Even Curry became a very good defender with the GSW being an elite defensive team.

Trae and Hawks will need to up their defensive game. Even Isiah needed 3 all world defenders in Joe, Dennis, and Bill to win two rings.

[Jamaaliver]

[shakes0]

I'd love to see Trae play good defense. That would be something new, something different.

[jayu70]

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[Jamaaliver]

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Like Steve Nash before him, Young far and away uses the most ball screens of any player in the NBA, keeping his dribble alive and patiently waiting for passing windows to creak open. And like Stephen Curry, he plays the game in constant heat-check mode, firing up off-balance 3s whenever the mood strikes him. Only one player in NBA history has averaged a higher assist percentage (45.6) while scoring more points per game (29.6) than Young. He’s only 21.

He’s also still in need of some help. The Hawks are 25th in offensive rating this season...If Atlanta is committed to running this much pick-and-roll (fourth-most possessions used by the ball handler and third most for the rollers), then more outside shooting, better off-ball cutters, and fewer paint-clogging big men are a necessity.

It does make you wonder if Atlanta should help Young embrace a different part of his Curry side. The impossible pull-up 3s are what capture the mind’s eye when you think about Curry, but it overshadows the bulk of his real work: zipping around screens, relocating after drive-and-kicks, somehow getting easy spot-up looks when everyone is dead set on stopping him. The Hawks don’t use Young that way: Only 2.1 percent of his offense is generated from off-ball screens.

Part of what makes Curry great is that he’s willing to trust and rely on his teammates to make the game easier for him. Young can’t do that within the current framework of Atlanta’s offense. Huerter has some juice as a secondary playmaker, but there’s no Draymond Green type to stir the drink. Almost everything is generated by Young.

Even with all that responsibility, Young already makes the game look easy. Just wait until it actually is.

[Jamaaliver]

Predicting Every Team's Best Player 3 Years from Today

Atlanta Hawks: Trae Young

Trae Young is 21 years old and already engineering a campaign for the ages.

He's splashing 3.4 triples per night, a rate Stephen Curry didn't clear until his fourth go-round in the big leagues. Young already has a fast-pass to the free-throw line, too, averaging more makes there than anyone not named James Harden. His 9.3 assists per game trail only LeBron James, and it's not like Atlanta's 25th-ranked offense is overflowing with other scoring options.

Young is just the fifth player ever to average 29 points and nine dimes.

He'll probably always be a liability on defense, but the same is true of Curry and was true of Steve Nash—Young's most common comparisons and both two-time MVPs.

There's no telling how high Young can climb, other than acknowledging he has a skyscraper's ceiling. Give him and his teammates three more years of developmental time and he could be in the MVP running while his team is at least a playoff regular—if not a championship contender.

Bleacher Report

[Jamaaliver]

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[Spud2nique]

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COPYYYYYYRIGHTTTTT!!!! Ive been calling him Zeke since day one! He’s got that fiiiiiirrrreeee! Some say Nash and some say scurry but it’s Zeke. Get 2 rings that Zeke and I’m good! Heck, I’m good with one. JUST 1!!!! Then we can talk more.

[Jamaaliver]

Is he referring to defense, off-ball-scoring or hair cut?

NOTE: That is a dope logo he's trademarked for himself.

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[Jamaaliver]

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