Like other NBA teams, Hawks will learn the importance of Trae Young

The Hawks have navigated the past three weeks without All-Star guard Trae Young.

But they’ll get a medical update on Young, who has missed the past 13 games because of a right MCL sprain, by approximately the end of the week. It could be the start of the Hawks finally getting to see the roster they envisioned this summer.

Through the 13 games the Hawks (11-7) have played without Young, they have gone 9-4. They’ve won seven of their past nine games, including wins on back-to-back nights Saturday and Sunday.

Their defense has tapered off as of late, after putting up one of the NBA’s more stifling defenses. They also find ways to adjust, even when falling behind by double digits.

The Hawks have trailed opponents by 10 or more points in all but six of their first 18 games this season. They have a 5-7 record when they’ve fallen behind their opponents by double digits.

In each of the five rallies, the Hawks leaned on their defense to make scoring difficult for their opponents. When they forced misses, the Hawks, who are the fourth-worst rebounding team in the NBA, crashed the glass to complete the stop.

With the Hawks’ role players stepping up in Young’s absence, the team has begun to answer one of the big questions of the season: how to maximize the Young-less minutes?

The Hawks currently have leaned on Nickeil Alexander-Walker as their starting point guard in the absence of Young. Depending on player health, they’ve kept their opening-game starting unit intact.

They’ve also leaned on Vit Krejci and Keaton Wallace off the bench as some of their ballhandlers.

Before Young’s injury on Oct. 27, the Hawks barely got the chance to see what a fully healthy opening lineup looked like. The Hawks’ opening-game starting lineup of Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Jalen Johnson and Kristaps Porzingis played a combined 24 minutes. Alexander-Walker has played roughly 42 minutes with Young.

“It’s a lot of thought around that, obviously and really over the course of the summer, envisioning certain lineups, trying to find a style of play that kind of works for all of us,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said.

“Us being able to push the ball up court, to pass ahead, to play the pass. I think sharing and spread some of that ballhandling responsibility across a number of players, whether that be Keaton, Dyson, Onyeka (Okongwu). We’ve got some bigs that are capable playmakers and can handle it. So we play through our bigs more.

“That’s something that the last few games you’ve seen while trying to stay true, to I think, fundamentally, the things that we feel that we need to do, no matter who’s in the game, become even more pronounced and important.”

Teams having to navigate the regular season without their star players is nothing new in the NBA. This season alone, Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh reported that star players have missed more than 200 games because of injury or illness.

Of course, this isn’t the first season where star players have missed significant time at the start of the year. But they returned to their teams and helped them to postseason appearances. Some of those stars helped their teams to extended playoff runs.

Here are some of them:

Games played (2024-25):

Celtics (second-round loss to Knicks): Porzingis (42 games played), Jaylen Brown (63 games played), Jrue Holiday (62 games played)

Nuggets (second-round loss to Thunder): Jamal Murray (67 games played)

Rockets (second-round loss to Timberwolves: Fred VanVleet (60 games played)

Clippers (first-round loss to Nuggets): Kawhi Leonard (37 games played)

Grizzlies (first-round loss to Thunder): Ja Morant (50 games played)

Bucks (first-round loss to Pacers): Giannis Antetokounmpo (67 games played), Damian Lillard (58 games played)

Knicks (Eastern Conference loss to Pacers): Jalen Brunson (65 games played)

Thunder (NBA champions): Chet Holmgren (32 games played)

Magic (first-round loss to Celtics): Franz Wagner (60 games played), Paolo Banchero (46 games played)

The Hawks currently rank fifth in the Eastern Conference standings through their first 18 games and have sat as high as third in the conference.

They’ve played some solid defense but still have to figure out how to do so consistently. The Hawks also will have to learn how to adjust those defensive coverages when Young returns to the rotation.

While the Hawks’ defense has seen an upswing during Young’s absence, their offense has taken a hit despite the ball movement. Though the Hawks rank second in the NBA in average assists per game, they rank 16th in average points per game (117.3) and have the 16th-best offensive efficiency (115.5 offensive rating).

The Hawks want to play with pace and currently rank 12th in the NBA in that metric.

Young will inject more decisive action into the Hawks’ rotation. He will also have to adjust to a team that has found a way to operate the offense in his absence.

Alexander-Walker has developed into a player who can operate in the clutch, giving the Hawks another option in crunch time. Over the past 13 games, Alexander-Walker has averaged 3.3 clutch points on 83.3% overall shooting.