Trae Young’s Atlanta Return Shows Why Hawks Were Right to Move On
· Yahoo Sports
Before too long, it will have been a year since the Atlanta Hawks traded Trae Young. On Friday, Young played in Atlanta as a member of the Washington Wizards for the first time, and the Hawks beat him for the second time in three days, 139-132. So, it feels like an appropriate time to reflect on the Young trade.
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Young had 23 points and 10 assists, along with a season-high 8 turnovers. He came back to State Farm Arena last season after the trade, but a knee injury kept him from playing. The Hawks also won Wednesday’s game in Washington, 120-105, and have won three straight.
It was certainly the end of an era. Young was the Hawks’ franchise player, so trading him was a monumental decision. The Hawks were 17-21 when they agreed to the deal on Jan. 7. Some thought the Hawks would be losing games for years after the fact. So far, it hasn’t gone that way:
And one player the Hawks received in the trade has been a big reason.
Hawks Got Unexpected Contributor in Young Deal
On a surface level, it looked like a bad return for the Hawks. It was widely criticized. They traded Young for CJ McCollum, Corey Kispert, and...that’s it. It didn’t look like much:
But McCollum’s play last season went a long way towards justifying the deal. The Hawks went 20-10 with McCollum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson, and Onyeka Okongwu on the floor, with a plus-20.3 net rating.
He was never going to be as statistically productive as Young, but his ability to play both with and without the ball made him a better fit alongside Johnson. The superstar point forward unlocked his game after Young’s departure. Johnson averaged 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 7.9 assists, earning his first All-Star selection and a spot on the All-NBA Third Team.
Last season, it looked like a case of addition-by-subtraction. After the All-Star break, the Hawks were one of the best teams in the NBA. They went 20-6 over that stretch, the third-best record in the league, and finished 46-36.
So was it a good deal after all?
Hawks Shouldn’t Regret Moving On From Young
Yes, but not because it yielded CJ McCollum.
That’s a nice bonus, but this trade was never about win-now aspirations for the Hawks. It wasn’t about asset collection, if you couldn’t tell from the fact that they didn’t receive any draft picks.
For the Hawks, this deal was about moving on from Young. It simply wasn’t working. As remarkably talented as he is, Young is a problematic player. He’s incredibly ball dominant, and among the worst defenders in the NBA.
That’s not an attractive package. That’s why Young didn’t have a trade market, which is why the Hawks couldn’t get so much as a protected first-round pick for him. It reached a point where giving him away made more sense than keeping him on the roster.
Some of this could be interpreted as unduly harsh towards Young. That’s not the intention here. He’s talented enough that someone should be able to make it work with him, but this article is simply saying that it’s understandable that the Hawks decided not to be that team anymore.
Based on how the year has gone, it was the right decision.