Less than two years after one of their deepest playoff runs in franchise history, Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks may be headed for Splitsville.
Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes reported on Thursday that rival executives believe Young could be the next star player to request a trade if the Hawks fail to make progress come playoff time. Haynes notes that Young is “as competitive as they come” and has “a strong desire to win big.”
Young is a client of Klutch Sports, and Haynes is known to have strong connections within Klutch. Thus, it is possible that this report is coming directly from Young’s camp.
The multi-time All-Star Young is the face of the Hawks franchise and only recently turned 24 years old. But after last season’s first-round exit, Atlanta is barely treading water this year at 16-16 (ninth in the East). While Young’s counting stats still look decent, he is shooting a Westbrookian 41.1 percent from the field on 30.7 percent from deep. Questions have also arisen about Young’s relationship with Hawks coach Nate McMillan after a concerning incident earlier this month.
Young is in the first year of a five-year, $215 million max extension. He also has an early termination option after the fourth year (in 2026) as well as a 15 percent trade kicker. It is hard to fault the Hawks here since they made a big trade over the offseason for fellow All-Star Dejounte Murray (reportedly at Young’s urging). But it seems that Young still wants to see more from the team before fully digging his heels into Atlanta for his prime years.
