In the end, the Hawks cut their losses with Trae Young
It once seemed as if the Hawks could be NBA championship contenders with Trae Young as their best player. He was brilliant as playmaker and scorer during the team’s run to the 2021 Eastern Conference finals.
The Hawks had acquired Young with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2018 draft. Just three seasons later, he was looking like a franchise player. But that’s the last time the Hawks won a playoff series with Young.
Since then, they’d gotten diminishing returns from the highest-paid player on a middling team. In the end, the Hawks cut their losses before the end of Young’s $215 million contract.
The Hawks agreed Wednesday night to trade Young to the Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert. McCollum’s $30.6 million expiring contract is the main benefit of the deal for the Hawks. It gives them a chance to clear the books and add high-priced talent instead of potentially being on the hook for Young’s $49 million player option for 2026-27.
The Hawks will move forward with Jalen Johnson as the centerpiece of a core group that includes Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Onyeka Okongwu and Zaccharie Risacher. The Hawks have stayed afloat offensively with Young sidelined by injury for most of this season while being a bigger and better defensive team.
It is a disappointing end to Young’s seven-plus seasons in Atlanta. It was clear he was a legitimate NBA player within his first few weeks in the league. Young would go on to be voted third-team All-NBA in 2022 and was selected for four All-Star teams, including last season.
When Young was at his best, few players could match his combination of playmaking and scoring. He’s still an elite passer, but Young’s scoring efficiency declined over the past three seasons. That development, plus his poor defense and lack of size, severely reduced his value.
So, the Hawks had to settle for a modest trade package for Young, one of the best players to play for them during the Atlanta era. The Hawks made an earnest effort to win with Young. They paid him big money and tried more than once to shape the roster to accentuate his strengths and cover his weaknesses.
But an eventual parting seemed likely once the Hawks didn’t offer Young a contract extension last season. The possibility of him going elsewhere increased when the Hawks posted a 2-8 record with Young this season and 16-13 without him, including Wednesday’s win over the Pelicans.
The Hawks haven’t been great with Young out of the lineup. But they’ve been good enough to suggest that it was best to move on and try to build around Johnson and other young players. Now, Young will seek a new contract extension from the Wizards or some other team.
It once seemed as if the Hawks could be a championship contender with Young. In the end, they had to cut their losses.
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