Atlanta Hawks PG Trae Young punctuates All-NBA case with history
Fans saw Atlanta Hawks (43-39) point guard Trae Young officially end the NBA regular season as the leader in both total assists and total points scored in Sunday’s 130-114 win over the Houston Rockets. Now, they will host the Charlotte Hornets in a one-game Play-In Tournament matchup on April 13 following the Brooklyn Nets win over the Indiana Pacers.
It takes a tremendous amount of fortune and skill anytime a team gets into the postseason.
The Hawks have been known as one of the more talented teams since their run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. But injuries and COVID did a number to their fortune throughout the campaign dragging down their standings and outside opinions of them.
Their only true constant this season has been Young, who had 28 points and 11 assists in the win while connecting on 4-of-7 threes and hauling in five rebounds.
Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young deserves a spot on one of the All-NBA teams
We have been enthralled with Young’s historic season the whole way. This is just the 14th time in league history that a player will finish a season averaging at least 28.0 points and 9.0 assists. It is Young’s second time making him one of just five players to accomplish the feat while he is also just the third to do it multiple times.
The other two are Hall-of-Famers Oscar Robertson (8) and Nate “Tiny” Archbald (2).
Young, who is the only person to do it while shooting even 35.0 percent from three-point range, now joins Archibald to finish a season as the total points and total assists leader.
Along the way, Young has surpassed many milestones. He surpassed 7000 points, 2500 assists, and 1000 total rebounds this year. The only other player to do that over the first four seasons of their career was Robertson.
And yet, there is some debate over whether or not Young deserves to be on an All-NBA team. It certainly has a lot to do with the Hawks record. But is it fair to punish Young for the amount of shuffling the Hawks have done due to factors out of their control? His 75 games played were second on the team only to Delon Wright.
Young is second among guards with 28.4 points and third with 9.7 assists per contest. The only other guard in the top-10 in both categories is Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks.
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We could compare Young’s stats to other All-NBA hopefuls.
He is averaging more points (28.4 to 27.4) and assists (9.7 to 6.7) than Ja Morant with a higher true shooting percentage. Young is also nearly doubling up Chris Paul’s 14.7 PPG while trailing the Point God by just 1.1 assists and appearing in more games than both Paul and Morant.
You can count many of those same points for Stephen Curry who missed 11 more games and shot worse from three-point range.
It’s not that the others don’t have an argument. Young’s case has just been that strong. In a season where the NBA made changes to the rules because of him, he led the league in total points and assists while keeping this team in most games even when they were going through their worst. If that isn’t All-NBA material, nothing is.
Technically, Young entered the day with the distinction after the Chicago Bulls announced that DeMar DeRozan, who trailed by just 18 points coming in, would rest for their final contest versus the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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Still, this was a great way for Young to send a strong message to all of the voters who may have been on the fence.