The NBA is a strange place. One day, you can be first in the Eastern Conference. The next day your team can be splintering with one of your three superstars requesting a trade.
That’s just the way the league works — at least over the last decade or so. Star player movement is the norm in the NBA.
But it’s still a bit shocking to hear that rival NBA executives think Trae Young might be the next star player to request a trade out of Atlanta. But that’s apparently a thing, according to reporting from Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes.
This is coming from pure speculation by rival executives at the G League Winter Showcase.
“Rival executives in attendance at the NBA’s annual G League Winter Showcase are of the belief that Atlanta Hawks star point guard Trae Young could be the next player on a rookie max extension to request a trade if the team doesn’t make inroads come postseason time.”
To be completely honest, this just feels like unsubstantiated speculation here. There doesn’t really seem to be much to it.
It’s another rival executive anonymously cited here saying “watch that Trae Young situation in Atlanta” with nothing really backing it up aside from a reported rift between Nate McMillan and Trae Young.
There’s almost no chance that this actually happens. There are a few reasons why. Let’s dive into them.
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Young's new extension literally just kicked in
The 5-year, $207 million extension Trae Young signed with the Hawks just kicked in this season. He’s in the first year of that deal right now.
There’s almost certainly no chance the Hawks would be willing to cave and kick the can down the road after committing to Young in such a massive way just over a calendar year ago.
There are also limits on where he can be traded to because he signed a designated rookie extension. Young can’t be traded to another team with a designated rookie because of a rule in the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
It just doesn’t really make sense for the Hawks to consider moving him now.
The Hawks just committed to Dejounte Murray for him
The team owes it to themselves to see the Dejounte Murray experiment through.
The Hawks traded away 3 first-round picks to land Murray from the Spurs. This was something they did by Young’s request — Haynes even alluded to that in his latest reporting.
“Atlanta has struggled to find the chemistry that propelled it to the Eastern Conference Finals two years ago. Last season, the Hawks won just one playoff game, losing in five games to the Miami Heat. This season, they are on a similar trajectory with an underwhelming 16-16 record, ninth in the Eastern Conference. All that despite the offseason addition of star guard Dejounte Murray, a player Young encouraged management to pursue.”
Despite the early struggles, it makes sense for Atlanta to exhaust every option they can to build the team around their young backcourt instead of tearing it down.
The Hawks just transitioned into new leadership
Former GM Travis Schlenk has moved into an advisory role with the Hawks’ front office. Former player Landry Fields is now the team’s GM and lead decision-maker.
ESPN Sources: After six seasons, Atlanta's President of Basketball Operations Travis Schlenk is moving into a senior advisory role. GM Landry Fields will oversee basketball operations. Schlenk's acquired significant talent, including Trae Young and reached Eastern finals in 2021.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 21, 2022
It’s hard to believe that Fields’ first major move would be trading the star player he was hired to build a team around.
Trae Young just isn't playing well so far this season
This is the biggest problem of all. Young just hasn’t been his usual self so far this season. He’s shooting a career-low 30% from deep and 41% from the floor.
His 3-point shooting has been particularly bad.
Worst 3P% in a season on 7+ attempts per game:
28.5% — Kobe in his last season
29.3% — Trae this season pic.twitter.com/fHraZX9br2— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 21, 2022
If Young were more efficient, the Hawks would be in a better spot as it stands. This probably wouldn’t even be a conversation.
Instead, we’re here talking about a potential trade request. The Hawks would be selling low at this point. No smart team would do that. Atlanta was never doing this anyway, but even if there were to be a discussion about it, this just isn’t the right time.
All in all, things aren’t great in Atlanta. They squandered a solid start to the year and are now 16-16. They haven’t seemed to improve much over the last year and have plenty to improve.
But that doesn’t mean a trade is coming. Hold on to your draft picks, folks.
