The Atlanta Hawks were unfortunately knocked out of the playoffs by the top seed in the East, the Miami Heat. As a result, there has been some criticism directed at Trae Young despite the fact that he had an All-NBA type season as well as making the All-Star team for a second time.
A chunk of this is due to the success of the season before when the Hawks made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. There is no telling how far they could have gone except for the freakish ankle injury suffered by Young when he stepped on the referee’s foot.
Still, when the Hawks made it as far as they did last season, there is a certain level of expectation for this season. To those who watched the Hawks, they know that they were decimated by injury for most of the season and they were not able to get the chemistry they needed to make a good run to get a decent seeding.
The Atlanta Hawks have done more in the past two seasons than was expected of them.
In the last two seasons the Hawks have made it to the Eastern Conference Finals and then the first round of the playoffs this season. This coming from a team that was 14th in the Eastern Conference in the 2019-20 season. This is something that cannot be underplayed.
Now that the Hawks have been knocked out of the playoffs this season Young is saying all of the right things. However, if look at what he has achieved in the past two seasons in terms of leading his team through the playoffs, this has been such valuable experience, that not many of today’s superstars had at the tender age of 23.
Kyrie Irving did not make the playoffs in his first three seasons and only made them in the fourth season when LeBron James came back to the Cleveland Cavaliers. James himself missed the playoffs in his first two seasons before taking it one step further in his third season by making the NBA Finals before being swept by the San Antonio Spurs.
It also took Kevin Durant three seasons to make the playoffs but he got knocked out in the first round. It was the fourth year of Durant’s career when he made a conference finals series, in which he lost 1-4.
Looking at a generational talent Joel Embiid, The Process has not made it out of the second round in four tries. Young led his team past Embiid last season meaning that the star center has been knocked out in the first round twice and the second round twice. There is a chance that Embiid will be knocked out in the second round again as the Miami Heat are looking strong this season.
Young is going to come back better next season, every time he sets himself a challenge the star meets it. The Hawks may play around with their roster this offseason, but as long as Trae Young is their point guard, the Hawks are going to be all right. He is already on track with a number of today’s stars and better than others in terms of playoff series.