Atlanta Hawks: Trae Young gets an apology…sort of

The Atlanta Hawks have been in the news a lot this offseason and most of it has been good. From getting rave reviews over their draft class to filling their few roster holes in free agency, it’s been a lot of good vibes. That wasn’t always the case for the Hawks and, in particular, superstar point guard Trae Young.

They say the apology should be as loud as the disrespect and, for Brad Botkin of CBS Sports, it is.

Botkin did his own version of freezing takes and pulled the receipts on himself; an exercise we all could stand to do a little more.

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In the article, titled ‘NBA apologies: Stephen Curry, Trae Young, Giannis Antetokounmpo made me look varying degrees of dumb’, Botkin writes that it wasn’t necessarily what he said about Young. Rather, it was the context in which he delivered it that was off.

"“This one is tricky because I’m not apologizing so much for what I said about Young as how I said it. In fact, what I said, technically speaking, turned out to be pretty accurate: He’s not a good enough shooter to warrant some of the shots he takes. But the headline, admittedly, was unnecessarily inflammatory, even attacking.”"

The headline called Young an “average shooter who thinks he’s Stephen Curry”.

It’s the same comparison many made when Young was coming out of Oklahoma so, in and of itself, it’s not bad. But to dismiss Young’s deep-range attempts as some sort of failed attempt to replicate one of, if not, the greatest shooters the NBA has ever seen is unfair to Young.

"“Players like Young seek and hopefully reach their potential by learning through mistakes, and Young proved himself willing to learn. He trimmed his 3-point attempts per game from 9.5 in 2019-20 to 6.3 this past season. His 30-footers, early clock and tightly contested 3s all went down.”"

For starters, Young’s three-point frequency was 35.6 percent. But this year is what changed Botkin’s mind. Well, in his second year, Young attempted a triple 45.5 percent of the time. That’s pretty high but he still hit them at a 36.1 percent clip which is average.

Young was also at 38.3 percent as a rookie, suggesting his high frequency in his second season is more the outlier than the norm. And his selection — which was the source of the gripe — has improved dramatically in terms of those deep triples.

After tying for third in shots for averaging 7.2 attempts from 25-29 feet and hitting 35.1 percent of them in his second season, Young cut it down to 4.4 deep threes per game but just 33.2 percent this past year.

He was actually more efficient on higher volume. And, for what it’s worth, Curry’s frequency was 58.5 percent and hasn’t fallen below 56 percent since 2016.

The comparison is changed from Curry to James Harden with the additional acknowledgment that “his shooting, on its own, isn’t elite from a statistical standpoint, but it’s a core ingredient in an overall sublime offensive package”.