The Washington Wizards are Trae Young’s first “legitimate potential trade destination,” per Marc Stein.
Young’s player option has put the Atlanta Hawks in a difficult position. While it is unlikely a rival team will offer him a max contract, the Hawks must decide whether they are comfortable holding onto Young despite the contract uncertainty surrounding him.
If Atlanta is not confident that their star point guard will re-sign, the safest move is to trade him. The team can regroup with draft picks and/or promising youngsters, and Young’s contract is no longer the Atlanta Hawks’ problem.
It's not quite this simple, though. Young’s trade value is at an all-time low, but it's not his fault. The team has a 20% (2-8) win percentage with Young playing and a 55% record (15-12) with him off the floor. To anyone watching the Hawks, however, it is clear that Trae isn’t the problem – not having a center over 6’8 is the much more pressing issue.
Unfortunately for Young, he has played just three games with Kristaps Porzingis. He hasn’t had the proper supporting cast to prove that he is a “winning player” once and for all.
Unfortunately for the Hawks, rival teams are not giving Young the grace he deserves this season. Perhaps it is logical for teams to be skeptical about the Oklahoma product, who hasn’t achieved a shred of team success since his miraculous 2021 Eastern Conference Finals run. While the Hawks would again point to the lack of supporting talent to raise his trade value, rival teams are not buying this pitch.
At long last, a potential Young suitor has emerged
Although it would make sense for Atlanta to trade Young if contract negotiations go south, no real trade buzz had occurred before Monday. No team close enough to winning has the space in its salary structure to add Young without sending key players in the return package. If the Hawks cannot recover meaningful value from a trade, they might as well run the risk of losing Young for nothing.
On Monday, however, Marc Stein reported that both parties are interested in a trade centered around Young and CJ McCollum.
While McCollum is in the twilight of his career, posting his lowest point and rebound averages over the past 10 years this season, he is on an expiring deal. If the Hawks could re-sign the veteran scorer to a reasonable contract, he could be a valuable bench scorer for the team – in simpler terms, would you rather play McCollum or Luke Kennard? Almost everyone would agree McCollum is the more effective player.
The Wizards could benefit significantly from an experienced floor general to expedite the development of their young players. The team has no “true point guard” who can be relied upon as the quarterback of the offense. With Young onboard, he could spoon-feed Tre Johnson, Alex Sarr, and Kyshawn George with easy looks. This would create an environment much more conducive to player development than the current roster.
The Wizards would have to send $6 million more in salary for the trade to be legal, and the Hawks would need some form of additional value to pull the trigger. Wizards forward Justin Champagnie is on a minimum deal and is a lights-out shooter, which the Hawks could use in the bench wing rotation. Cam Whitmore or Malaki Branham would be the most rational final piece of the trade. While these players were once highly-touted prospects, they hold essentially no trade value today.
A Young-McCollum swap would be an unceremonious end to the Trae Young era, but it would be the most promising path forward if Atlanta is unsure whether its star will return next season.