The Atlanta Hawks have a very unclear future at the moment, abandoning the Trae Young-Dejounte Murray backcourt experiment after two failed seasons by trading Murray for multiple players and picks this summer. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon recently said the Hawks have been trying to trade Trae as well but there’s no market for the 3-time All-Star. Young has rebuffed this with an Instagram story.
The post details the life cycle of made-up NBA stories, from reporters coming up with their stories to push agendas and how they keep misinforming fans of what’s actually happening in these cases.
Young has seen his name come up in trade rumors since last season, with speculation that the Hawks will move on from the 25-year-old point guard because he’s a malevolent presence in the locker room and due to the limitations his play style imposes upon the Hawks. Nonetheless, he’s one of the most gifted offensive guards in the NBA right now, averaging 25.7 points and 10.8 assists last season.
Tim MacMahon said this about Young, which was promptly reported all across basketball media given MacMahon is one of ESPN’s most reputed basketball writers.
“The simple fact of the matter is if there was a real market for Trae Young, he’d be somewhere else right now. It’s not like they got some kind of wild blockbuster return for Dejounte Murray. There wasn’t a real market for Trae Young and he doesn’t necessarily need to re-establish a trade market for himself, but as extension talks are coming, I think he does have to re-establish his value.
“But honestly, he’s in a bad situation in Atlanta because the Hawks are in a position where they should be entering what would hopefully be kind of a rapid rebuild, but they can’t because the Spurs have all their draft capital.”
The Hawks moving Murray is a sign of confidence in Trae’s ability to lead the franchise to heights, similar to what he did in 2021 without a defined co-star. The current Hawks team has a lot of pieces that complement Trae, whether it’s two-way players on the wing or rim-protecting lob-catchers at center.
Whether or not the trade rumors around Young are legitimate, this season is crucial for Trae to establish his future in the NBA. If the Hawks are an uncompetitive first-round exit or worse again, the team will have to start looking at avenues for future success, whether with or without Trae on the roster.
When the time comes to possibly listing Trae on the market, a situation where there’s no trade interest in him seems implausible. The interest may not match the price the Hawks want for a player who’s led their franchise for the last six seasons, but there would definitely be interest.
The Lakers have been rumored to show interest in Trae in the past, but they didn’t have the assets to trade for Murray, so Young would be a pipe dream at this point.
The most intriguing destination to keep an eye out on is the Spurs, who might start the season good enough to officially enter their contending window, with a young guard like Trae the perfect long-term guard solution to pair up with Victor Wembanyama.
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