Over the last few years, Trae Young lost his mojo—his team has gotten worse; his numbers have felt emptier. Once the NBA’s terrifying pixie king, Young has never been able to reprise the same magic and verve that defined his breakout run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021. Even as the Hawks beefed up by trading for All-Star guard Dejounte Murray and hiring head coach Quin Snyder, the team stalled out, winning just 36 games last year and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2020. For large stretches of the season, they played with the tension and discomfort of cousins whose parents don’t get along. As a result, Young often seemed more sniveling than snarling.
Amidst this underperformance, Young’s personal star has dimmed to the point that Adidas yanked his shoe deal. Despite putting up uniformly excellent stats, he’s taken such a reputational hit that he’s fallen behind more limited players like Kyrie Irving, De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Maxey, Damian Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton in the court of public opinion. The only real difference between Young and Haliburton is that Haliburton has kinder eyes and a gentler smile.
This year represents a chance for Young to reclaim his rightful spot as one of the league’s elite players. For his entire career, Young has been a remarkably sturdy, load-bearing offensive force; the more he’s asked to do, the better he does it. While the award voters and gate-keepers are loath to admit it, Young is piecing together a historically great career. Through his first six years, he’s the only player since the NBA/ABA merger with career averages of more than 25 points and nine assists per game.
With Murray gone, the Hawks have recalibrated their roster around Young in smart ways. After two abortive seasons, Atlanta bailed on Murray, sending him to New Orleans in return for Dyson Daniels and Larry Nance. Although Murray was productive, he was never productive in the right ways. As a Spur, he earned a reputation as a hellacious defender who played with a purposeful, vectored energy; with the Hawks, he mainly just took a lot of mid-range jumpers. In doing so, he became the nightmare teammate for Young—good enough to demand the ball, but not good enough to actually do stuff with it.
Once again, Young is the Hawks’ main Guy with a capital G—the other 14 players exist purely to serve him. Every player on Atlanta’s roster is now a gritty defender, powerful athlete, dependable shooter or some combination of the three. In fact, with the first pick in last June’s draft, the Hawks opted for Zaccharie Risacher, an egoless wing who will enhance Young, rather than someone like Reed Sheppard who could potentially replace him.
Despite being one of the twerpiest players in the league, Young is such a gifted passer and scorer that he single-handedly guarantees an above-average offense. Whereas most small guards can’t access the same passing windows that bigger players can, Young is the rare exception. Like Patrick Mahomes, he’s a master at changing the release point of his passes to keep defenses off balance—and, unlike Patrick Mahomes, he’s ambidextrous. He flings hook passes to shooters in the far corner with his left hand and pops pocket passes to rolling big men with his right. More, he expertly blends his passes into the cadence of his dribble; he makes it impossible for defenses to be proactive, forcing them to scramble behind the play.
Beyond being one of the best and creative passers in the league, Young is an eager and accurate shooter. In the last five seasons, only Luka Doncic and James Harden have made more unassisted threes. And, to start this season, Young is averaging a torrid 28.2 points and a league-leading 11.6 assists per game. Through five games, he’s shooting 77.8 percent at the rim and rocking a 54.6 percent free throw rate, both career highs.
As such, Young has asserted the central promise of his game: he’s the master of his domain. Who needs secondary and tertiary playmaking when Young is such a powerful primary option? At full strength, the Hawks have the right alchemy of rim-running centers, athletic defensive wings and canny off-ball shooters to support Young; between Jalen Johnson, Daniels, Risacher and Onyeka Okongwu, the Hawks can fill out lineups with complementary players who warrant touches, but don’t demand them.
To be at his best, Young doesn’t require a co-star, so much as a security detail. His offensive gifts are so expansive that it inherently narrows his teammates’ responsibilities—his teammates provide the muscle and he provides just about everything else. De’Andre Hunter and Risacher will happily wait in the corner until Young finds them for a wide open three. In the frontcourt, Clint Capela and Okongwu don’t need to post-up since Young will hand-deliver dunks to them on his own.
Within the larger hierarchy of the Eastern Conference, though, the Hawks have a very defined place: they’re better than the bad teams and worse than the good ones. The difference between a good Hawks season and a bad one is rooted more in vibes than in actual wins and losses—the gap between the eighth and ninth seed is mostly a symbolic one.
Still, this isn’t a wasted season so much as it is a transitional one; the Hawks are not mediocre, they’re maturing. If Young can reassume the mantle of superstardom, the Hawks have a clear path to claw their way back into the East’s upper middle class. If Young falters, it’s probably time to reboot the team around Johnson and Risacher. With each game, the Hawks come closer to figuring out the scope of their ambition. Another day, another opportunity.
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