Atlanta Hawks: 3 Takeaways From Tough Road Loss to Sacramento Kings

Lloyd Pierce’s master plan for Trae Young is working

In early January, Jack Maloney of CBS Sports wrote a great piece focusing on Trae Young’s excellent playmaking skills, and how Lloyd Pierce and the Atlanta Hawks organization feels that he will be able to dominate NBA games one day with his passing acumen alone.

Pierce said to CBS Sports on Young, “He sees the opportunity to deliver [the ball] in different ways…..Wraparounds, bounce passes, between the legs, left and right hand skip outs. We’ve seen it all already, and I know there’s a lot more to give.”

Pierce hit the nail right on the head in that interview. Young is an exceptional talent when it comes to seeing the floor well and understanding the importance of timing and pace on passes.

Young has talked about his affinity for the “nutmeg pass”, and that pass as well as any that catch a defense off guard make them think twice about coming up to aggressively to corral him.

He has in turn—and likely at the behest of the coaching staff—started to use the threat of the pass to set up his exciting 3-point bombs.

In the above clip De’Aaron Fox thinks he is jumping into Young’s passing lane to deflect the ball.

Instead he ends up giving Young enough space to get off his 3-point shot, and all this takes place about 7 seconds into the 24-second shot clock.

Young finished the night a very efficient 4/9 from the 3-point line and overall shot 58.3 percent, scoring 23 points to go along with his 8 assists. With Young in a groove heading into the All-Star break, the second-half of the season will provide a solid chance for Ice Trae to gain some ground in the Rookie of the Year race.