Atlanta Hawks: “Unnatural Motions” Decision Won’t Stop Trae Young
One thing this series against the Philadelphia 76ers has shown us, it’s that Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young won’t be too severely impacted by the potential ruling of the NBA’s Competition Committee on “unnatural motions during jump shots”. The moves are often employed by Young and, quite honestly, everyone in the league.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the story shortly before Game 4, specifically mentioning Young by name in the tweet and ensuing story.
"“The league wants to limit the ability of players — including crafty stars like James Harden, Luka Doncic, and Trae Young — to lean backward and sideways, for example, to initiate contact and get to the free-throw line. – via Adrian Wojnarowski"
Clearly, Young wasn’t the only one being targeted, but the timing (and his frame) are two reasons his name stands out. Some still seem to believe that Youngs needs to draw “cheap” fouls to buoy his numbers. They haven’t been watching these playoffs because Trae has been getting it done in different ways the entire postseason.
Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young won’t be stopped by the potential NBA Competition Committee ruling
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During the regular season, Young averaged 8.7 free throw attempts per game. That was already a .6 decrease in trips.
In the playoffs, where the whistle is notoriously reserved for veterans, Young is down to 7.9 attempts per contest. For further context, he went to the free-throw line an average of 7.4 times per game during the Knicks series.
Against the Philadelphia 76ers, sure, he’s back up to 8.5 attempts per. But Philly is also being even more physical in this series than New York was so it stands to reason he’d get there more.
And while Young did go 4-4 at the line in the fourth quarter of Atlanta’s 103-100 win, Philadelphia boasts an All-Defensive First-Teamer in Ben Simmons and a pair of Second-Team players in Matisse Thybulle and Joel Embiid, who was obviously hobbled in the second half of Game 4.
If they can’t defend Young without fouling, who can? Before anyone cries foul over the officiating in that game, you’d be challenged to point to the game that was officiated cleanly this postseason. There hasn’t been one. If that wasn’t enough, the 76ers have averaged 6.3 more trips to the line per game than the Hawks in this series.
The disparity grows from the first to the second half, too, going from a 10.0 to 9.8 Philly edge to a 19.3 to 13.3 one.
Some players will certainly struggle with the potential ruling of the NBA’s Competition Committee restricting, or possibly banning, the use of “leaning” and other methods to draw fouls on jump shots; particularly those without a reliable jumper to begin with. Young is not one of those players by any stretch of the imagination.
Next. Atlanta Hawks: Why Trae Young is better for the team than Doncic would have been. dark
He became the first Hawks player since Mookie Blaylock in 1994 to have 15-plus assists in the playoffs, and the first since Tim Hardaway in 1991 to have 25-plus points and 18-plus assists in the playoffs.
His game is versatile enough to find other ways to beat opponents and you saw that very thing on display against the 76ers.