The Atlanta Hawks may have had a suitor on board, but then the Sacramento Kings stepped in and left their Eastern Conference rival in no-man’s land. The potential trade candidate? Three-time All-Star Trae Young.
Instead, the Spurs agreed to a three-team deal with the Kings and Chicago Bulls that brought De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio.
The result is plenty of questions for the Hawks to answer.
“Before the San Antonio Spurs made the move for De’Aaron Fox, they were considering De’Aaron and they were considering Trae Young. But with the way that the Spurs are set up right now, they're not set up to start trying to win games and contend now. So there was never really a hurry to bring in an established point guard to move on to the next phase,” Chris Haynes said on NBA TV’s trade deadline special on February 6.
“De’Aaron Fox kind of fell in their lap, and he picked them as the sole team that he wanted to play with, so they chose him. There was a much easier lift and easier route to get De’Aaron. But Trae Young was on the San Antonio’s radar.”
The Ringer’s Howard Beck reported during the offseason that the Hawks and Spurs discussed a Young trade before the former ultimately traded Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans.
“One exec said Atlanta discussed a potential Young trade with San Antonio before last week’s deadline,” Beck wrote in February 2024. “The Hawks were also well known to be shopping Dejounte Murray, their other star guard, before the deadline, but never found a deal they liked. It’s considered a near certainty that they will part with one, or both, this summer.”
The Spurs were not the only team that believed Young was or might become available.
“There are several front offices that listened to Atlanta’s pre-deadline chatter and came away from conversations with the Hawks of the belief Trae Young could become available for trade this summer,” Jake Fischer wrote for Yahoo Sports after the 2024 deadline.
Young scoffed at rumors that the Hawks would have traded him if they could have received commensurate value.
But the Hawks’ moves at this year’s deadline have reopened the flood games for speculation.
Trae Young's future back in question after Hawks' trade deadline moves
“That guy is a fierce competitor. He wants to win. I’m saying, he wants to win,” Haynes said. “So the direction of the Hawks is very – I would say very unique considering they know where he stands and what he wants to accomplish.”
Trae Young on the most recent trade speculation pic.twitter.com/NrRoJIW6Z6
— Josh Buckhalter (@JoshGBuck) September 3, 2024
Young embraced the lowered expectations around the Hawks coming into the season. And he still has two more years on his five-year, $215.1 million contract.
But he wants to win ASAP even if that is not in the Hawks’ plans on a similar timeline.
“Everybody knows, obviously, I want to be in Atlanta,” Young said on the “From The Point” podcast in April 2024. When I was drafted, that’s where I wanted to spend my whole career. But at the same time, I want to win. So if we’re not on the same page wanting to win now…
“There’s times teams want to take their time, be slow with winning, their process. It’s just, I’m not there anymore. I want to win, and I’ve always been that way, so. I don’t feel like I have very much time to waste. I just want to continue to play at a high level, and I feel like I can do that: play at a high level and win.”
That is a far cry from demanding a trade, and Haynes’ report did not say the Hawks and Spurs held talks this time around. But it is also not as though they needed to after last offseason.
With the Spurs presumably off the board, where does that leave Young and the Hawks?