NBA players send strong message on Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young

For some time, we have heard rumblings that Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young is not held in high regard amongst his peers.

To that effect, we may have just gotten the closest thing to visual evidence.

According to a new poll from The Athletic, conducted anonymously with 54 respondents, Young is not only viewed as “overrated” by his peers but he leads the way. Young received 14.8% of all votes, twice as much as the two players tied for second in Julius Randle of the New York Knicks and Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors both of whom received 7.4% of the vote.

There are a couple of caveats the first being that the poll is not definitive proof that players “dislike” Young or the also-popular notion that they do not want to play with him – we have seen him train with some of the game’s biggest stars for what it is worth.

The “anonymous” aspect is also key as is the fact that “others” led the way with 31.5% of the vote.

It is, however, just another bit of smoke from a fire that seems to be burning around Atlanta if not within the organization.

There were also rumors that the front office has carte blanche over the roster, including Young. But, again, that is a far cry from being the final say on Young or how he’s viewed around the NBA. 54 respondents are just 12% of the players in the NBA. And for every story such as this one highlighting John Collins’ desire for more touches:

“It definitely benefits us in large ways to attack mismatches and get easy buckets,” Collins said ahead of Game 2, per Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports. “Sometimes the game just doesn’t roll that way. I wish it would more, but I can’t really elaborate on that too much. Everyone getting involved and us getting easier buckets makes the entire offense more fluid.”

He has also called Young — the back-to-back total assists leader after also leading in total points last season — a “way better playmaker” than Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.

Conversely, enough players voted the other way for Dejounte Murray that he made the “underrated list”. While Jeff Schultz of The Athletic reported on how sold Murray is on new head coach Quin Snyder since the latter took over.

The new head coach and already made quite the impression on Murray, Young, and many others on the Hawks’ roster.

Atlanta Hawks set to shake-up coaching staff under Quin Snyder

“Former [Notre Dame Men’s Basketball head] coach Mike Brey plans to join Atlanta Hawks as assistant coach for Quin Snyder next season,” reported Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune on April 17. “No college head coaching job. No TV.

“Brey has bought a house in ATL … will be escaping snowy South Bend in mid-May.”

Brey coached the Fighting Irish from 2000-01 through this past season finishing with a .633 career record in South Bend. This past season, the Irish finished 11-21, and three of Brey’s four losing seasons guiding the Irish have come in the last five seasons. The coach retired this past season after eight NCAA Tournament appearances.

He is technically the first member of Snyder’s coaching staff since Nate McMillan’s crew was retained upon the change. The two coaches share a history that goes back 30 years and goes back to their time at Duke when Snyder played under Brey who was then an assistant.