Atlanta Hawks: Exploring Trae Young’s Recent Brilliance

A quick recap of what has been an incandescent stretch of play by Atlanta Hawks rookie Trae Young.

Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks is experiencing one of the best stretches of play for an Atlanta Hawks rookie in franchise history.

Though his Player of the Week award somehow got lost at Ben Simmons’s residence over the past week, Trae’s exploits sent reverberations throughout the league as no rookie had ever produced a 45-point, 15-assist game. In fact, only a select few players in NBA history (let alone a first-year player) had ever produced such a stat line.

Again, just so we have it, Young’s amazing week (which was punctuated by a legendary 49-point, 16-assist, quadruple-overtime game) was far better than Ben Simmons’s, who was somewhat surprisingly given player of the week honors. Here’s a quick rundown:

Seems a bit odd, right? Also, did we mention Young got tossed from a game in which he was forcibly injecting buckets into the grill of Kris Dunn?

For a talented young player that fans would most likely enjoy rallying around (a la Stephen Curry), the referees sure did have a quick whistle as Trae benignly gazed at the back of Dunn’s head – prompting an ejection. I digress. (If you want more spice on Trae’s ridiculous ejection, you can find it right here).

There’s no question that Trae’s recent surge has catapulted him (however tenuously) back into the Rookie of the Year discussion, and there can also be no equivocation that he has been the best rookie over the past 2 months.

Just taking a quick peek at some advanced metrics, ESPN’s Offensive Real Plus/Minus paints Ice Trae as the 19th best point guard in the league with a 1.79 ORPM. That mark puts him ahead of players such as nemesis Zach LaVine, Jamal Murray, Derrick Rose, Ben Simmons and De’Aaron Fox.

BBall Index’s Player Impact Offensive Plus/Minus is even kinder to Trae, and he currently sits with a 1.5 OPIPM, which is second only to John Collins on the Atlanta Hawks and is third among all rookies and sophomores in the league – John is first (2.2 OPIPM) and Luka Doncic is second (just ahead of Trae) with a 1.8 OPIPM.

Where Trae really shines for the Atlanta Hawks is via his truly inspirational passing. Already one of the league’s best passers, Trae’s recent assist numbers have him now third in the league with 499 total assists, according to Basketball Reference.

His Assist Win Probability Added by Inpredictable, which estimates how many wins his assists have provided his team, has skyrocketed all the way up to second in the league at 15.29 – behind only Russell Westbrook’s 17.37.

Lastly, Young’s Luck-Adjusted On/Off Rating, also courtesy of BBall Index is +4.0, which is tied with offensive luminaries Karl-Anthony Towns and Nikola Jokic – fairly good company for a diminutive rookie point guard.

There will be plenty more to come on Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, as he continues his quest to become the best Atlanta Hawks rookie of all time. Keep it locked to Soaring Down South for many more stories on Ice Trae and these young Hawks. (All statistics current as of 3-4-19)