Trae Young and Jeremy Lin Give the Hawks Big Names

The Atlanta Hawks acquired veteran point guard Jeremy Lin in an unexpected trade late Thursday night.

The move comes just weeks after the Hawks added another point guard to the roster, Trae Young, whom they acquired via a trade with the Mavericks on draft night.

The additions not only indicate that Dennis Schröder is likely on his way out, it shows the organization’s new focus on raking in some bucks at the box office.

Atlanta has never been among the most popular teams and that lack of following peaked in the 2017-18 season, when they came in dead last in attendance per game.

Interestingly enough, it came out after the draft that the selection of Young was an agreement between the front office and Hawks’ ownership.

This would make sense since players like Luka Doncic and Jaren Jackson Jr. might be better ball players (right now), there’s no doubt that Trae Young was one of the biggest names in the draft. He became a near-household name by tearing apart the college game last season, and for that reason, it’s no surprise that big media outlets like ESPN and Bleacher Report can’t get enough of him.

Even when the Hawks were making the playoffs year-in and year-out, they didn’t own much star power. Joe Johnson was quietly great, Paul Millsap made 4 straight All-Star games with little mainstream recognition, and their biggest star during that time, Al Horford, left town for a bigger market.  

Trae Young arguably has more established appeal already, and if nothing else, he’s going to draw more people into Phillips Arena, which is, by the way, in year two of a pretty drastic renovation process, further showing interest in selling more tickets in upcoming seasons.

The Jeremy Lin trade fits this narrative as well because while the days of “Linsanity” are way behind him, he’s still the most popular backup point guard in the league for his flashy style of play combined with his large base of loyal fans.

Lin, who has became a journeyman since his days lighting up Madison Square Garden on a nightly basis, gives the Hawks a much-needed veteran at the point guard position who can run an offense. While he did suffer a ruptured patella that ended his season just 25 minutes after it started last year, he averaged 5.1 assists in 24.5 MPG in his last healthy season for the Nets in 2016-17.

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It’s not likely the Hawks are making these moves to make a playoff push, and Lin will probably make good trade bait come February, but as long as he and Trae are in Hawks uniforms, they’ll be garnering more mainstream pull than they have for quite some time.