Trae Young was not involved in the Hawks end of Game 5 huddle

Despite all of Young’s struggles, the Hawks still had a chance to send this game to overtime. With 5.2 seconds left on the clock and their season on the line, the Hawks needed a 3 to tie. McMillan said Young, who finished the game 0-of-5 from 3, was the first option on the play he drew up. What makes that interesting is that, while McMillan drew on his dry-erase board, Young wasn’t involved in the huddle. He sat on the bench and stared directly ahead, away from McMillan, as John Collins and Danilo Gallinari blocked his view of the huddle. When they broke as a team, Young was already walking toward the court.
Source: Chris Kirschner @ The Athletic

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Trae Young @TheTraeYoung
Year 4 over & more motivated than ever.! I’m gonna do what I’ve always done & that’s level up some more ! Appreciate the fans that showed this team Love throughout this season !
…Trust we taking this up a notch next year ! Just wait..❄️
#WeMove pic.twitter.com/BE7RCfm0Dl – 3:13 PM

Kevin Chouinard @KLChouinard
Trae left his drink, and a fair argument might be made for why he’d want to keep it in plain view lol. pic.twitter.com/bwF8vxmiSD – 2:15 PM

Kevin Chouinard @KLChouinard
Trae Young said a couple of times that he was extra motivated at the moment. Normally takes a month without touching a ball, but he’s relatively healthy and may keep working out and put that off until NBA playoffs are over. pic.twitter.com/Z97APyjHIT – 11:16 AM

CBS NBA @CBSSportsNBA
How the Heat gave Trae Young a wake-up call, forcing him into his worst habits at the worst time
cbssports.com/nba/news/how-t… – 10:32 AM

Dwight Jaynes @dwightjaynes
Miami held Trae Young to 11 points on 2-12 shooting last night to close the Hawks out. Without Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry. Never won Coach of the Year but Erik Spoelstra was and is the best coach in the NBA. – 10:31 AM

Shandel Richardson @ShandelRich
The Heat’s defense was too much for Trae Young #miamiheat si.com/nba/heat/miami… – 10:24 AM

Tas Melas @TasMelas
Trae Young will get better this offseason. He works too hard and is too dedicated not to. – 10:21 AM

Kevin Chouinard @KLChouinard
Clint Capela, on his second (active) season playing with Trae:
“He’s really great at figuring out the defense, because every night it’s a different defense that we have to adapt. Obviously, he showed this season that he had even more in him, so that’s pretty exciting.” – 10:11 AM

Ira Winderman @IraHeatBeat
Five Degrees of Heat from Tuesday night’s 97-94 victory over the Haws: sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-h…
1. Defense, depth carry the night.
2. Max Strus gone wild.
3. Oladipo steps in for Butler, steps up.
4. Trae Young is tormented to the finish.
5. Markieff idle, but has a hand in it. – 8:27 AM

Tim Reynolds @ByTimReynolds
Jimmy Butler, who had zero points in Game 5 because he didn’t play, still scored 45 more points than Trae Young did in this Heat-Hawks series.
122-77. – 7:18 AM

Chris Sheridan @sheridanhoops
Next season, I want last season’s Trae Young back. – 6:28 AM

More on this storyline

Two weeks into the season, Young told Atlanta reporters how the regular season is “a lot more boring than the playoffs.” It was a stunning quote that reverberated not only inside the organization but outside of it too. Sources around the league mentioned how lackadaisical the Hawks looked to begin the season, and some questioned the maturity of the team. Young later clarified his comments and said what he meant was the team needed to play every game with playoff intensity, but the damage was done by then. -via The Athletic / April 27, 2022

All of the analytics pointed to Reddish’s play actively hurting the Hawks, but he remained in the rotation. There was no mandate from the front office to play Reddish to increase his trade value. McMillan continued playing him, sources say, because he felt like if he didn’t, the team’s chemistry would’ve been negatively impacted. It was a bad read from McMillan. The Hawks were 15-19 when Reddish played this season and 28-20 without him. -via The Athletic / April 27, 2022

That was just one of several mistakes McMillan made this season after taking over for the Hawks midway through last season. McMillan’s declaration in mid-March that Delon Wright was out of the rotation surprised sources. They pointed to how the Hawks were in need of better perimeter defenders and Wright was one of the few who were capable of consistently staying in front of guys, but McMillan instead opted for Williams, who wasn’t the spark plug he was last season. Because of injuries to Williams and Collins shortly after saying Wright was out of the rotation, he was once again back in the lineup. But it was another decision that caught many by surprise. Wright ended up being one of the best Hawks in the Miami series. -via The Athletic / April 27, 2022