Even prior to the Atlanta Hawks making the trade to secure the services of Trae Young, the talk has always been that he is too small. Add to that he goes hunting for fouls and that he can’t defend and you have a narrative of a one-way hero player who wants stats over wins.
Well, having watched the maturation of Young this season, he is still small. He still can’t defend to the level that he or his coach would want to. However, that is where it ends, Young has started to show the rest of the league that he is a player in this league.
As far as foul baiting goes, we all saw the New York Mayor, Bill De Blasio, call out Young for this prior to the second game of the series. After getting to the line 8.7 times per game in the regular season, has only been to the line 5.5 times per game in these playoffs. Yet, he is still averaging 27.5 points, 10.0 assists, and 2.5 rebounds and his team is up 3-1.
The Atlanta Hawks are winning with Trae Young
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The biggest knock on Young to date, apart from his defense which he is working on, has been his inability to win. This has been an unfair knock on Young as he has been the young point guard on a team without huge amounts of experience.
The front office surrounded him with veterans this offseason and he has led the team beyond all expectations to the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. Considering the Hawks were expected to make the play-in tournament, this is an incredible achievement, especially taking into account the massive injury issues the Hawks had to contend with this season.
Now that Young has made it to the big stage, his game has gone to the next level. He has unlocked the much-vaunted New York Knicks defense. He is bringing his teammates into the game and the team is producing some amazing basketball.
If the Hawks take the series they will most probably face the Philadelphia 76ers in the next round. If this happens, do not think that Young will be overwhelmed, he will embrace this challenge head-on.