Hawks guard Trae Young will return Wednesday night when the team plays host to the Hornets in the Hawks’ final home game of the season.
Young will play on a minutes restriction after rehabbing from surgery on his left fifth finger. This will be the first time he has suited up for the Hawks since Feb. 24. He has missed the past 22 games after having surgery in February.
“I think it has more to do with fatigue than anything,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said before Wednesday’s game. “He’s clear to play. There’s always, I’m sure, anybody that’s had an injury, surgery, broken bone, there’s part of the just mentally that you need to work through. So that we’re more than anything, we’ll be conscious of fatigue and his conditioning, some of that needs to work through. Those are things we discussed. Or there could be a point in the game where he might be winded, and we’ll get him out and try to get him back in.”
This season, Young has averaged 26.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 10.8 assists in 51 games.
He now will have the final three games of the regular season to re-acclimate to the Hawks’ rotation.
“There’s an acclimation process for everybody,” Snyder said. “You could ask the same question about De’Andre (Hunter), Jalen (Johnson).
“So I think that always takes place, and there’s an evolution that goes on there, and I think the biggest thing is it’s great to have him back, and he’s excited to play and how we manage those other things, sometimes it’s just time not just for the group, but for Trae to kind of find his rhythm. But as I said, I think that’s a natural part of coming back, your timing, your conditioning, all this litany of things that kind of fall in that bubble.”
Young’s return to the lineup comes as the Hawks rest some of their players following some heavy minutes in their double-overtime loss to the Heat on Tuesday. Guard Dejounte Murray played 49 minutes Tuesday, and the team will give him the night off to recover from a right quad contusion.
Here are the other players out for Wednesday’s game against the Hornets:
De’Andre Hunter – rest
Wesley Matthews – right hamstring soreness
Saddiq Bey – left knee torn ACL
AJ Griffin – right ankle sprain
Jalen Johnson – right ankle sprain
Seth Lundy – left medial ankle impingement
Onyeka Okongwu – left big toe sprain
