The Atlanta Hawks failed Trae Young; there’s no way around it.
Young was supposed to be the second coming of Steph Curry coming out of college – a player with such tantalizing potential that Atlanta traded the reigning EuroLeague MVP, Luka Doncic, for the Oklahoma product and a first round pick. While he never quite developed into the shooter Curry is, how much of this is really Young’s fault?
He has been forced to be the only remotely competent offensive player on a franchise with truly underwhelming supporting talent. His best teammate was Jalen Johnson, whose injury struggles limited him to just 43 games with Young after breaking out as a star during the 2024-25 season.
The lack of team success caused Young's value to crater so far that Atlanta was happy to move on from him for expiring salary (CJ McCollum) and a bench sharpshooter (Corey Kispert). This trade package is simply humiliating for the Hawks.
After Johnson, who’s the next best teammate Young had? Dejounte Murray? Clint Capela? John Collins? This is a truly depressing group, considering this is Trae’s eighth season with the team.
Young is yet another star who was failed by the team that drafted him
It is truly an abomination that Atlanta didn’t swing for the fences at least once during Young’s time with the franchise.
The closest the Hawks came to “swinging for the fences” was trading for Dejounte Murray, but anyone with a brain could’ve told you this was a match destined to fail. Murray’s lone All-Star appearance was a complete fluke, as he was the second injury replacement. This means his single-season peak was two spots below All-Star level, or in other words, the 26th-best player in the NBA.
Murray was a horrible fit with Young, and Atlanta should’ve seen this coming. Both players need the ball in their hands to be effective on the ball, but Murray has no business being a primary ball handler when Trae Young, a real All-Star, was on the floor. Sure, Murray could cover for Young defensively, but how valuable is this when he handicaps Young’s greatest strength?
Young has been routinely blamed for the Hawks’ lack of success. But this is flat-out unfair. He was not responsible for building the team around him, nor for the series of underwhelming coaches who have graced Atlanta over the past eight years.
Despite only having a co-star for 43 games in his career, Young routinely dragged Atlanta into the mix for the Play-In game. How many other stars can say they achieved this with teams as poorly constructed as the Hawks were?
Hawks fans should be rooting for Trae Young this season. While a hot performance from him will make the franchise look foolish for trading Young for peanuts, he deserves better than this.