Trae Young is currently the present and the future of the Atlanta Hawks after a couple of seasons, demonstrating he can be a legit superstar in the NBA. Even though he’s just starting his career, Trae has shown he can lead his team to compete for important things, making Atlanta fans dream about winning a couple of titles in the future.
The Hawks did a lot of things to get Trae in 2018, even trading picks with the Dallas Mavericks in one of the biggest win-win trades we’ve seen in the league in recent times. However, if Atlanta didn’t do any of that, there was another team with serious intentions to get Young.
During a recent edition of the “Gimme The Hot Sauce” podcast (via Heavy), Trae sat down with Stacey King to discuss a variety of topics. The young guard would reveal that he initially thought Orlando or Chicago would select him before the Hawks pulled off the move that landed them their star:
“To be honest, the day of the draft, I didn’t think I was going to Atlanta. I thought I was going to go to either Orlando at six or, if I fell to seven, go to ya’ll.”
Co-host Mark Schanowksi tried to stop Trae by saying that knowing all those details is painful, but that didn’t stop the player:
“Don’t tell us that, Trae. That hurt us.”
“I didn’t think about any trades. I didn’t hear about the trade going on all day. I didn’t know that Dallas was thinking about trading with Atlanta until literally two picks before I got drafted. So, all day I’m thinking…I knew I was going either sixth to Orlando or seventh to y’all.”
In the end, the Hawks got a big player in Young, while the Bulls selected Wendell Carter Jr., who didn’t have a long tenure in Windy City. Having Trae on the roster would have been huge for the Bulls, knowing that they could pair Trae with Zach LaVine and create one of the most electrifying backcourts in the association.
Both Bulls and Hawks finished the 2021/22 NBA season the same way, losing to a gentleman sweep against the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat, respectively. We’ll never know what would have happened if Trae was available for the Bulls, but right now, it doesn’t seem like he’s mad about being in Atlanta.
