With the Atlanta Hawks in Miami to take on the Heat in the Eastern Conference’s first play-in game TuesdayTrae Young was asked about his future in Atlanta.
Specifically, Young was asked about Monday’s report from The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, which revealed that the Atlanta front office has been given the “green light” by its owner to consider trading Young.
From Joe Vardon of The Athletic:
No one from the Atlanta Hawks property or front office has told Trae Young that he can be traded, but “things like that come out all the time”, [Young] told The athletic on Tuesday.
“It could be false, it could be true, you never know,” Young said.
When asked by The Athletic if these Play-In games felt bigger, like they could influence Young’s fate with the Hawks, he said, “It’s hard – you can’t watch it.
“Especially as a player of the moment, you can’t look at what’s going to happen next year,” Young said. “If the game tonight doesn’t go the way you want, what happens after the game? For example, you can’t concentrate on things like that. That messes up your head and then you’re not ready to play, so I, I don’t worry about that I’ll let my game play After the season whatever happens happens I mean I’m focused on the next task I can’t worry about outside noise or any fake stories come out, or what’s true, whatever.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Young potentially being traded. From O’Connor’s report:
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given what’s happened over the course of the season. Hawks owner Tony Ressler said so in March The athletic‘s Jeff Schultz he neither opens nor closes the door for players who are moved.
Months earlier, Shams Charania and Sam Amick reported on escalating tensions between Young and former head coach Nate McMillan, leading to team meetings and questions about Young’s leadership. Players reportedly sided with the coach over their star player.
Things got so ugly that TNT’s Chris Haynes reported that Young could request a trade this summer if the Hawks fail to reach the playoffs.
This is where we are today with many star players. They don’t want to take any responsibility for when things don’t go as planned. Instead of committing to more movement off the ball or actually defending, things that would take Atlanta, a talented team, to a whole other level, Young, according to the referenced Haynes report, would apparently rather just go elsewhere go and the story reflects that Atlanta couldn’t deliver it with the necessary ingredients to compete with the big boys.
As for O’Connor, Atlanta could decide to leave him whether Young likes it or not. Another deep playoff run may be needed to put these rumors to bed, but can lightning strike twice?
You can point to the surprise 2021 conference finals in Atlanta as evidence that Young can lead a team deep into the playoffs, but we’ve seen enough evidence over the last two years to reasonably conclude that this is probably more of a lucky fluke used to be. The Knicks were an extremely deficient, limited tetracotyledon. The Sixers and Ben Simmons were coming apart at the seams in real time.
For the Hawks, it would be a bitter pill to trade Young. They traded Luka Doncic to get him, because he was crying out loud. But that was a different regime. Neither Quin Snyder nor Landry Fields had anything to do with that decision.
These guys consider this postseason an extension of what has basically been an extended tryout since Snyder took over. Who participates in future plans? Who not? If the Hawks don’t take another playoff opportunity and consider Young a more valuable trading asset than a franchise player, they will trade him. And honestly, it might not be the worst move.