Trae Young is Ridiculously Underrated

[Jamaaliver]

Insane that fans can see a young player putting up historic levels of production, but try to discredit it over nonsense...

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[kg01]

i think Trae Young is a phenomenal regular season player. He can pretty much get you a top 10 offense on his own. Great scorer, ok shooter (could be better with shot selection), one of the best passers in the leaguer, deadly from floater range.

In the playoffs however, he's always going to be an issue because he'll be hunted relentlessly.

So, out if the 5 playoff series he's been in, they won 2 series and went atleast 6 games in 2 others before bowing out. And they weren't favored to win in any of them.

They weren't competitive against the Heat 2 years ago largely because they figured a way to take Trae out of the series.

But he was targeted relentlessly in each of them. At what point does that narrative dissipate?

Overall, he's fared well in the playoffs. Dare I say he's excelled most of the games he's played in the second season.

[Jamaaliver]

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[Darth Celtic]

He had one game against the Celtics this year where he outshot the mean. And it won them a game they probably shouldn't have. He will give you that but also being a top reason they had little chance to win the four they lost with poor shot selection and maybe not bad defense, but defense by a 5'9" dude

[ChuckChilly]

Honest question, for harsh critics of Trae, what is his ideal scenario/ position? Seems that most people are insinuating that he's not a starting caliber player. Some probably believe he shouldn't be in the league because of his defense alone.

[ChuckChilly]

He had one game against the Celtics this year where he outshot the mean. And it won them a game they probably shouldn't have. He will give you that but also being a top reason they had little chance to win the four they lost with poor shot selection and maybe not bad defense, but defense by a 5'9" dude

He's 6'1. I posted a picture in another thread where him and Donovan Mitchell were nearly the same height and another with him being taller than Chris Paul.

[ryan in Maine]

Insane that fans can see a young player putting up historic levels of production, but try to discredit it over nonsense...

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You'd think he'd be at the top of the leaderboard for minutes, but,

Minutes first 5 seasons

Mpg (minus Rose)
1. Dame 36.3
2. Curry 34.5
3. Russ 34.3
4. Trae 33.8
5. Kyrie 33.6

Minutes played (minus Rose)
1. Dame 14,396
2. Russ 13,520
3. Curry 11,946
4. Trae 11,941
5. Kyrie 10,499

Edit
I think Rose would slot in at #2 in mpg no matter how you handle his injury, so push Trae down another spot. Rose's minutes played can move him around a little depending on how you treat the injury. If you remove his 13-14 season only he slots in at 5 behind Trae. If you remove all 3 of the injury seasons (11-12, 13-14, 14-15) Rose moves into #3. If you roll them all into one big generous season, Rose moves to #2, still not overtaking Dame.

[PurpleGreenGold]

The Jazz is weak. They are a safe culture that only wants safe players who get to their spots and do what they are told. They have their system and they want all players to abide by it. This is why they will never win a championship. The Hawks are one all star big away from being a legit contender.

This post is ridiculous. Apparently this safe culture that won't win anything was so sought out by Atlanta that they went out and overpaid the guy who created the Jazz culture? Good mental gymnastics dude.

Jerry Sloan?

That'd be a weird hire but I can see why it'd be an overpay.

Jerry Sloan? Really?

How about someone this century? Maybe a dude named Quin Snyder?

Atlanta was so hot to copy what the Jazz did for years they couldn't pay him enough dollars.

[PurpleGreenGold]

The Jazz is weak. They are a safe culture that only wants safe players who get to their spots and do what they are told. They have their system and they want all players to abide by it. This is why they will never win a championship. The Hawks are one all star big away from being a legit contender.

This post is ridiculous. Apparently this safe culture that won't win anything was so sought out by Atlanta that they went out and overpaid the guy who created the Jazz culture? Good mental gymnastics dude.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Jazz. That's how I know what kind of culture they have. Their system is solid but it does not develope iso creators that can win ballgames; I felt they were good enough to win it all in 98, but they fell short because they did not have that one player with the killer instinct to dominate the last 2 minutes like the Bulls did. I can see Malone doing it, but the system won't allow him to dominate on his own.

Can we discuss things that have happened this century?
The Jazz from the 90's and the Jazz as they are today have almost nothing in common besides bringing in guys who are generally community friendly.

You're saying the Jazz system was so flawed that your Hawks went immediately out and grabbed the guy that created it in the first place in Quin Snyder? C'mon dude.

Also saying that the Hawks are one star away from being a contender? That's a joke. The re-building Jazz currently have a better roster than what Atlanta has, and it was piecemeal put together in the last year. Walker Kessler is the 2nd longest tenured player on our team...and he was a rookie last year.

[kg01]

This post is ridiculous. Apparently this safe culture that won't win anything was so sought out by Atlanta that they went out and overpaid the guy who created the Jazz culture? Good mental gymnastics dude.

Jerry Sloan?

That'd be a weird hire but I can see why it'd be an overpay.

Jerry Sloan? Really?

How about someone this century? Maybe a dude named Quin Snyder?

Atlanta was so hot to copy what the Jazz did for years they couldn't pay him enough dollars.

You're not making any sense. This is what happens when you try to insult people with nonsensical logic.

[Jamaaliver]

How about someone this century? Maybe a dude named Quin Snyder?

Atlanta was so hot to copy what the Jazz did for years they couldn't pay him enough dollars.

You do know that Quin Snyder coached the Atlanta Hawks before he coached the Utah Jazz, right?

In actuality, Utah was "pretty hot to copy" what was Atlanta was doing.

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[Jamaaliver]

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

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[PurpleGreenGold]

How about someone this century? Maybe a dude named Quin Snyder?

Atlanta was so hot to copy what the Jazz did for years they couldn't pay him enough dollars.

You do know that Quin Snyder coached the Atlanta Hawks before he coached the Utah Jazz, right?

In actuality, Utah was "pretty hot to copy" what was Atlanta was doing.

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I know that he was Bud's assistant before he went out and did his own thing.
Okay, if that's your stance, then why are you talking to me and not your fellow Hawks fan who said that the Jazz' system could never work, but the Hawks are on the right track. It should be the same track, no?

[PurpleGreenGold]

How about someone this century? Maybe a dude named Quin Snyder?

Atlanta was so hot to copy what the Jazz did for years they couldn't pay him enough dollars.

You do know that Quin Snyder coached the Atlanta Hawks before he coached the Utah Jazz, right?

In actuality, Utah was "pretty hot to copy" what was Atlanta was doing.

Read on Twitter

I know that he was Bud's assistant before he went out and did his own thing.
Okay, if that's your stance, then why are you talking to me and not your fellow Hawks fan who said that the Jazz' system could never work, but the Hawks are on the right track. It should be the same track, no?

He also coached for Coach K at Duke, Coach Pop, the Lakers, CSKA Moscow...but he's completely copying Atlanta from 10 years ago...is that your contention?

[PurpleGreenGold]

Jerry Sloan?

That'd be a weird hire but I can see why it'd be an overpay.

Jerry Sloan? Really?

How about someone this century? Maybe a dude named Quin Snyder?

Atlanta was so hot to copy what the Jazz did for years they couldn't pay him enough dollars.

You're not making any sense. This is what happens when you try to insult people with nonsensical logic.

You must be the smart one. Please explain to me how talking about the Jazz from 25 years ago is relevant to what they are doing now with completely different coaches, different ownership, etc...

[liquidswords]

Every Trae supporter keeps posting offensive stats. we get it. he's efficient and elite. its his defense that's the problem. He's a turnstile and a pick and roll away from making it 5-4 on the defensive end

[wco81]

i think Trae Young is a phenomenal regular season player. He can pretty much get you a top 10 offense on his own. Great scorer, ok shooter (could be better with shot selection), one of the best passers in the leaguer, deadly from floater range.

In the playoffs however, he's always going to be an issue because he'll be hunted relentlessly.

So, out if the 5 playoff series he's been in, they won 2 series and went atleast 6 games in 2 others before bowing out. And they weren't favored to win in any of them.

They weren't competitive against the Heat 2 years ago largely because they figured a way to take Trae out of the series.

But he was targeted relentlessly in each of them. At what point does that narrative dissipate?

Overall, he's fared well in the playoffs. Dare I say he's excelled most of the games he's played in the second season.

At least a couple more trips to the ECF, maybe getting to the Finals one of those times.

May never win a title or at least not on this current contract -- which would pose a dilemma whether to give him another huge contract in 4 years.

But if he can keep being a key piece on a team that makes multiple deep playoffs runs in the next few years, then the narrative is gone, that he can't win in the playoffs.

He can win, maybe not go all the way but win enough.

[mcfly1204]

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

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

[Pelly24]

Every Trae supporter keeps posting offensive stats. we get it. he's efficient and elite. its his defense that's the problem. He's a turnstile and a pick and roll away from making it 5-4 on the defensive end

This really doesn't matter that much for a point guard. The point with every aspiring championship team in today's NBA is this: You need to have at least two all-stars. Jokic has a fringe all-nba guy in Murray to go with a functional all-star role player (16/7 on great defense) and a solid third option in 6'10" sniper MPJ. LeBron had a top 8 player, two-way force in Anthony Davis. he had an All-NBA guard that has averaged 25/6 on 50/40/90 for the last 5 seasons and the best spacing in the league. Steph had Klay Thompson, Draymond, Jordan Poole *and* Andrew Wiggins. Giannis has two all-stars in Middleton and Holiday (both players a good amount of people would say is better than Trae). When any of these guys didn't have their second or third best player, they didn't get to the conference finals. Trae doesn't have one player on his squad that is better than *any* of these guys, and he's still been to the conference finals. He still took two games from Boston ... Murray is not an all-star.


I just think folks should wait until Trae at least gets a great second option to ignore his production and say he's empty stats. We don't know what he can or can't be yet.

[Slimjimzv]

My problem with Trae isn't his defense (though that's pretty bad) as much as it is his impact on how the Atlanta offense runs. The ball movement in Atlanta has been tepid since Trae got there. If Quinn can get him to move the ball and put in as much off-ball effort as Steph, then I'll be all aboard the Trae Train.