Atlanta Hawks: Studs and duds from a very disappointing road trip

Atlanta Hawks stud from recent losing streak: Trae Young has stepped up despite the new foul rules

For all of the hand-wringing over the league’s new emphasis over “unnatural” actions during shot attempts, Trae Young had largely avoided the issues that had befallen the likes of James Harden and Damian Lillard. Both of them had seen their scoring output greatly reduced in the wake of the changes.

Young was certainly shooting the ball less efficiently, knocking down just under 43 percent of his shots and under 30 percent of his threes over Atlanta’s first six games. But he was down a more modest 3.0 points per game from last season.

Things have changed for Young and it started with the Hawks last win, their 118-111 revenge win over the Washington Wizards.

The superstar point guard had 26 points on 43.8 percent shooting in that game, but still shot just 1-for-6 from deep.

Since then, Young is averaging 26.3 points on 44.3 percent shooting to go with 9.0 assists and 3.8 boards. He’s gone 18-of-43, or 41.8 percent, from three over that time. The points, rebounds, and efficiency numbers are all above those from last year from Young.

His three-point efficiency would be a career-high across an entire campaign.

As mentioned, though, no Hawks are without their warts in this losing run, and Young is not immune. He’s averaged 4.2 turnovers through all of this which would be the second-most of his career across a full season.

Young has currently tied his career-low (from his rookie season) with 3.8 per game.

Overall, this is what you want to see from your best player; stepping up to the plate when times get tough. The next step for Young is rallying the troops to get off the schneid.