Trae Young can opt out of his five-year, $215.1 million contract following the 2025-26 season, which would make him an unrestricted free agent. That is, of course, if the Hawks do not extend him or make some other drastic decision on the four-time All-Star before then.
That cloud of uncertainty looms large as the Hawks have dropped six of their last eight games.
Before their most recent loss versus the Orlando Magic, Young gave potentially telling insight about his future with the Hawks, and it still does sound as though he plans on leaving.
“I understand the space that we’re in right now. There’s probably two, really, teams that people in the – or maybe three – in the East that people really can see as contending teams. And for us, I don’t think we’re there yet, and I feel like that’s okay. I feel like here in a couple years we could be, or in the next year we could be,” Young told Chris Haynes on “The Haynes Briefs Podcast” on April 8.
“Right now, this is a good spot for us to work on the right habits. Because we have talent.”
It is a notably softer framing of the same message he has always espoused. Whereas Young has always expressed his desire to remain with the Hawks for the duration of his career, he has also noted that organizations and players can be at different points in their trajectories.
The Hawks traded a Sixth Man of the Year candidate in De’Andre Hunter and a former one in Bogdan Bogdanovic and have endured a slew of injuries.
However, Young remains encouraged by the current group.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t go in and surprise people and make some noise and do something that people don’t think we can do,” Young said. “But it’s just having the right mindset on this whole process and whole thing, and making sure we don’t lose track of the main side on just getting better this season and making sure every day, that’s what we’re doing.
“Obviously, that says a lot about our team and the talent we have. Obviously, we’re still a young team. But that doesn't change the fact that we can win games, and I think that was the mindset that we had even after … Jalen [Johnson] went down. And then we moved Dre, got some more pieces, some veteran pieces with that. But Dre was playing, obviously, great for us – at a Sixth Man of the Year-type level. So that was a big piece that left us too.”
Trae Young 'proud' of 2024-25 Hawks
“I’m just proud of our team that we kept fighting. We could have easily given up and counted the season out,” Young said. “But we've kept fighting. We’ve, obviously, given ourselves a chance to play in the postseason. So guys kept fighting, and that says a lot about our team, and our coach, and our culture that we’re building over here.”
Young’s endorsement of head coach Quin Snyder is significant amid the recent firings of Mike Malone and Taylor Jenkins by the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies, respectively.
Snyder is 73-88 in two full seasons as the Hawks’ head coach. Change has been a constant.
Young also addressed the elephant in the room from last offseason about his availability in a trade. Rumors sprouted that the Hawks had discussed trading Young before ultimately moving Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans instead.
In discussing his decision to host rookie No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher in Norman, Oklahoma following the draft, Young revealed he knew where he stood with the Hawks.
He also knew what this season would require from him following those conversations.
“My name had been thrown around in trade rumors and things like that, obviously, last summer and all these things. But I had been, obviously, in communication with the front office, so I knew what was going to be happening,” Young told Haynes. “I knew I wasn’t going to leave, and things like that. And I was going to have to, obviously sacrifice, maybe, and just try to bring on these younger guys as much as I could.”
Young spoke with that same confidence amid dour projections for the Hawks entering the season. It is encouraging to hear he has not wavered despite all of the turmoil. That is not to say the Hawks did not discuss such a move, or that they would not do so in the future despite Young's position.
It does suggest that the turmoil on the court has not disrupted the plan on either side.