- I’ve watched Trae Young play for the Atlanta Hawks his whole career. And for most of it, I’ve been saying this guy needs to be traded. The front office wasted 3-4 years while his value dceclined, but they finally dumped him to Washington.
- Trae Young is a net negative and has been for years.
- Yes, he has many offensive gifts. His pick and roll is deadly. He lobs the ball to a big man better than anyone out there. He has a great attitude. But…
- He’s not a great shooter (never has been). For all those assists, he somehow makes the team worse. Like my other most-hated players Luka Doncic and James Harden, everyone else stands around and watches Trae be Trae.
- He’s a defensive liability. A huge defensive liability. Yes he is small, yes he is weak, but it’s mostly he doesn’t try. He hangs out on the perimeter, sometimes makes a half-hearted double-hand downswipe attempt at a steal. That’s it. Otherwise he stands around at watches. His whole career, the rest of the Hawks have had to play 4-on-5 defense.
- He’s the kind of player I hate the most, someone who plays the refs. I can’t stand watching players endlessly jump into other players and manipulate the rules to get fouls called. Just the worse.
- Going into this year, Mr. Kid and I agreed that if the Hawks had a Trae Young who committed to team ball and a healthy Krystaps Porzingis, they’d be great. If they had one of those, they’d be pretty good. If they had neither, they’d be mediocre. That analysis was perfect – they had neither and they’ve been mediocre. But now with Trae they have a chance to be pretty good. And who knows, maybe Porzingis will be healthy for the end of the season.
- They should have traded him two years ago. Anyone could see he was hurting the team, and he was steadily getting worse. But management decided to stick it out. One amazing playoff run in 2021 (and it was amazing… some fluky circumstances, but that happens) was enough to delude management. If Danny Ainge was in charge, they would have sold on him when the market was high. Instead, they are getting basically nothing back after blowing more years of .500 ball.
- Jalen Johnson is an all-star. He’s fantastic. He works hard on both sides of the floor. His court vision is great, his assists are pretty. Everything works better when he’s out there. They have several other quality players. They have a great draft pick next year. Their goal should be: Don’t mess it up.
- Anthony Davis? C’mon. That’s just absurd. I don’t know if this is real or just the media eating itself. You can’t buy a healthy young Anthony Davis, only an aging and fragile Anthony Davis. You already have one of those in Krystaps Porzingis why would you need another one? Both Davis and Porzingis are always injured, why think one is better than the other. A healthy KP is maybe not as good as AD, but not so far away. The gap doesn’t justify the price difference. The price tag is crazy high for Davis, you’d be crazy to make this trade. Update: Ha ha, Davis is injured again, out “indefinitely”.
- Atlanta does have one thing now. Cap space. Options. Those are worth a lot. I don’t like a move for Anthony Davis, but there are others. And there will be more next year.
To summarize, good riddance. Don’t let the door hit on your way out.
