Atlanta Hawks: ‘The Trae Young Trey Tracker’ At The Midway Point Of The NBA season

A closer look at Atlanta Hawks Trae Young’s three-point shooting, which has been slowly but surely improving throughout the 2018-19 season.

Point guards take longer to develop than almost any other position, so the most important thing to note with Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks in year one is how he is adjusting to the NBA game, specifically his dynamic three-point shooting ability.

In somewhat shocking fashion, Young is shooting 28.8% from three-point range through 41 games. He was expected to struggle but below 30% is disappointing for a player who hit 36% of his 328 three-pointers in college, a good number of them being very tough shots. All that being said, I’m not worried about Young’s three-point shooting yet and you shouldn’t either.

When you look at his three-point shooting splits, you notice that he started off taking just under 7 three-point shots per game. But then month-by-month, he started to refine his shot selection. His three-point percentage was dragged down considerably when he shot 19% from deep in November on 5.5 attempts per game. This stretch included some of the league’s best defenses in the Raptors, Warriors and Celtics.

Young still put 8.1 assists per game in November against that stiff competition, supporting head coach Lloyd Pierce’s notion that Young could dominate based off playmaking ability alone. But for Young to reach his absolute ceiling it will always come back to that three-point stroke.

The Atlanta Hawks coaching staff is working hard to build up Young’s confidence, so after his 19% three-point shooting November, they had him shot less in general. He cut his three-point attempts down, taking only 3.8 three-pointers per game in December.

In January—before Friday night’s game against the Sixers—Young is shooting 39.1% from the three-point line on 4.6 attempts per game. Those two figures are incredibly encouraging. While the three-point percentage is due for some regression, a figure above 35% would easily be his best month as a three-point shooter.

Young’s elite skill that could one day make him an All-NBA-caliber player is pull-up three-point shooting, something he has yet to fully unlock at the NBA level. But he is catching on right before our eyes. Young is still knocking down a paltry 27.5% of his pull-up three-pointers this season. However, he is shooting 42.9% on pull-up 3-pointers over his last 15 games, providing plenty of flashbacks to his Oklahoma days.

Following Friday’s game against the Sixers, the Hawks have three straight games against top-five defenses. This includes a match-up with the top-ranked Oklahoma City defense, which held Young to an 0/3 three-point shooting night back in late November. But with John Collins putting up 19.4 PPG on 60.7% shooting over his last five games, defenses have plenty to worry about inside, which in turn helps draw help defenses away from Young (and others) on the perimeter.

After this upcoming brutal three-game stretch, the Hawks will get games against the Bulls, Clippers and Kings unimpressive defenses as they close out January. It will represent a great chance for the Hawks to improve from 29th in the league in offensive rating, and another great opportunity to track Trae’s treys.

Statistics courtesy of NBA.com and current as of 1/10/19.