The Atlanta Hawks may be better off without Trae Young, but trading him might not be so easy

The NBA trade deadline remains over a month away, but rumors are starting to fly. My colleague Kurt Helin covered a whole slew of them in his recent piece, but the last week has seen one name mentioned far more than the others: Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young.

While Young was once thought to be one of the rising young stars in the game, the 27-year-old now finds himself alongside Ja Morant and LaMelo Ball as oft-maligned guards who are at the center of trade speculation. While it seemed implausible last year that the Hawks would want to move on from Young, an extended absence due to injury earlier in this season showed Atlanta what life might be like without Young in town, and it may have been a vision that they liked.

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On a recent episode of his podcast, The Hoop Collective, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said, “The Hawks certainly are indicating that they’re looking for the exit ramp with Trae Young. They did not make any attempt to get him signed to an extension. When that’s the case with your face of the franchise, that’s a pretty clear message that the end could be near.”

That sentiment was echoed earlier in the week when NBA reporter Marc Stein wrote in his substack, “The Stein Line,” that “There is a growing belief leaguewide that the Hawks are more open to trading [Young] away than they’ve ever been, but what happens to their payroll if no such trade materializes and Young winds up exercising that option? Can the Hawks dare to find out by trading for Davis this winter without Young exiting at the same time?”

Why would the Hawks want to trade Trae Young?

There is a pretty basic argument to be made that the Hawks have simply been better when Trae Young is not on the floor this season. They were 2-3 in the first five games of the season before he suffered a sprained MCL and missed almost two months. The Hawks went 13-9 without him active and then have now gone 0-6 since he returned from injury.

In the 22 games that Young was out, the Hawks were 8th in the league in points per game (119.0), 6th in field goal percentage (48.7%), 1st in assists (31.4 per game), and 1st in assist ratio (21.1). They also had…

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Publish date : 2025-12-29 20:56:00

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