Atlanta Hawks: Exploring Historically Good Start for Trae Young

An in-depth look at the torrid start for Atlanta Hawks rookie Trae Young, who continues to impress Hawks fans on a nightly basis.

When the Atlanta Hawks opted to trade the rights to Slovenian wunderkind Luka Doncic for mercurial and slight-framed Trae Young out of Oklahoma, the team immediately a bullseye on his back that has yet to abate.

Many fans groaned at the prospect of the Hawks missing on a potential generational star – much like they did in the 2005 draft when they selected versatile utility player Marvin Williams over one of the greatest point guards of all time in Chris Paul.

However, Hawks General Manager Travis Schlenk has stuck to his guns and his faith in Ice Trae has paid off after nine games of the regular season. While Doncic has certainly impressed in his time with the Mavs, Young has put up some spectacular efforts and his highlights are almost certainly superior to the steady, solid production of Doncic.

In a highlight-driven league, that’s a good thing for the Hawks.

It also doesn’t hurt that, statistically, Trae Young is in some rarified air.

Among his Hawks teammates, Young is leading the team in almost every major category. Seeing as he has the ball in his hands the majority of the time, Young is being given free rein to do whatever he wants on the court, which is usually a good thing for the Hawks.

Ice Trae is leading the Hawks in the following categories in terms of per-game production: points (19.1), assists (7.9), free throws made (3.8) and attempted (5.0) and total field goals made (6.7) and attempted (15.2). Only Taurean Prince is getting up more three-point makes and attempts than Trae as well.

Though Trae’s scoring is not quite up to the level of some of the best players in the NBA, his passing is already perhaps his most lethal weapon. One day after notching a career-high 15 assists against the Miami Heat, Young’s assist numbers are fairly impressive from a league-wide perspective.

Ice Trae is tied for 8th in the NBA with 7.9 assists per game – sharing that 8th spot with none other than The King, LeBron James.

Beyond that, Young has 71 total assists, which is also tied with King James for 5th in the entire NBA. Not too bad for an undersized point guard through the first 9 games of his career – while also carrying the scoring onus for an extremely young Atlanta Hawks team.

While those numbers are great, they are even more impressive when looked at through the lens of history.

Though a small sample size bias is certainly taken into account here (since Trae Young has only played a total of 9 games so far in his young career) the early returns are rather striking for the Atlanta Hawks point guard.

Currently, Trae Young is the only rookie in NBA history to attempt 6 threes a game while also logging at least 7.5 assists per game. Great stuff from the rook! Though Ice Trae is only shooting 32.1% from distance, that number can be expected to rise as he gets his sea legs at the highest levels of NBA competition.

Beyond that, Trae Young is one of only 7 rookies to attempt 5 free throws per game while also dishing out 7.5 assists, joining luminaries such as John Wall and Isiah Thomas in that category. Young’s ability to draw fouls in crucial moments of games have netted the Atlanta Hawks some free points early in the season, and his 75 percent shooting clip from the charity stripe can also be expected to improve.

Trae’s passing frequency also has him in exclusive company. Young is one of 6 players to record a total of 70 assists or more with a higher than 40 percent assist rate. The two most recent players to do that were Ramon Sessions for the Bucks in 2007-08 and Sergio Rodriguez in 2006-07 for the Blazers. Neither of those two guards, however, had the same offensive burden that Young has for the Atlanta Hawks.

Finally, when Trae Young notched a career-best game against the Miami Heat on Saturday, he joined an elite group of players by producing the following stat line: 24 points, 15 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 free throw attempts, 8 three-point attempts and 47 percent shooting from the field.

One of only 10 such games in NBA history, according to NBA.com, Young joined LeBron James, James Harden, Brandon Knight, Baron Davis and Tim Hardaway as the only other five players to produce such an exquisite blend of shooting volume, scoring efficiency and all-around production. Great stuff from our rook.

While Trae Young’s physical stature might make him look like less of an NBA player than some of his peers, if you watch him play, it becomes clear that he is a premier NBA athlete due to his ballhandling, ability to absorb contact in the paint and supreme passing.

All of Ice Trae’s best attributes were on display in a dazzling performance against the Heat, which was compiled here by the Hawks:

https://twitter.com/ATLHawks/status/1059199105614991360

While there many notable moments, perhaps the best was this incredible heads-up outlet pass to Kevin Huerter (another underrated rookie on the Hawks off to a hot start) after a jump ball, leading to an awesome “bow-and-arrow” celebration and ear-to-ear grin:

Young, who is supremely confident, is able to back that up with amazing plays as well as an extremely genial and likable personality. Though a showboating move like the “bow-and-arrow” celebration might be seen as excessive by some, he can also cook guys off the dribble if they try to stick with him on the perimeter, as he did to galumphing big man Kelly Olynyk here:

Though Ice Trae’s three-point stroke is lagging a bit behind his expected levels, it is only a matter of time before Young is hoisting up triples with reckless abandon and hitting them at a stellar clip. Remember, he attempted 8 three-pointers in the game against the Heat and if he had hit only two more he would’ve been right on track with De’Aaron Fox – who outplayed Young considerably in the Atlanta Hawks previous game.

This season will definitely be a learning experience for Trae Young as the Atlanta Hawks new face of the franchise, but so far, Young looks to be the real deal and has gotten off to a historically good start in Atlanta.