Trae Young is one of the best offensive players in the league, and there’s no doubt that he is equally as adept at scoring as he is at playmaking. He had a monster 2021-22 season with the Atlanta Hawks, averaging 28.4 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 9.7 APG while shooting 38.2% from beyond the arc.
While a lot of people traditionally view Trae Young as a point guard who is pass-first and looks to get teammates involved due to his high assist numbers, veteran J. R. Smith has recently claimed that Trae Young is more of a score-first guard like legends Kyrie Irving and Stephen Curry.
He’s not a point guard in the sense of trying to get people involved. He’s a bucket. When I look at Trae, he’s more of a Ky, Steph… he’s a point guard because he’s at the situation but he’s a scorer… it’s taking away from what he’s really at his best.
The Atlanta Hawks did manage to acquire Dejounte Murray, and perhaps with him taking more of the ballhandling duties, we will see Trae Young improve even further as a scorer. With that being said, it’s not as if Trae Young is a bad passer: he notably led the league in total points and total assists over the 2021-22 season, something that has not been done since 1973, when Nate Archibald achieved the same feat.
Trae Young has notably been compared with Stephen Curry in the past, and the two definitely have similarities in their games, most notably their ability to hit deep shots from way beyond the 3PT line. However, they are definitely different players, and Trae Young plays off-ball less frequently than Stephen Curry. Perhaps one day, though, we will see Trae Young achieve as much as Stephen Curry has in his career, but that is a tall task. With that being said, Trae Young is already an offensive superstar, and the sky is the limit for him.
