Hawks guard Trae Young has found a rhythm after what began as an inefficient start to the year.
The point guard is putting up some of the best numbers of the year with a case to be an All-Star. Voting opened on Tuesday. Through 24 games, Young has averaged 28.1 points and a career-high 11 assists, while making 42.9% of his overall shots and 37.8% of his 3-point attempts.
Through 24 games during the 2019-20 season, the year of his first All-Star appearance, he averaged 27.9 points and 8.6 assists per game, while shooting 45.3% from the floor and 37.6% from distance. In 24 games during the 2021-22 season, where he earned second All-Star appearance, he averaged 26.2 points and 9.4 assists per game, while making 45.9% of his field goals and 37.8% from distance.
It’s not just his scoring that has taken a step forward. His teammates have capitalized on his passing as they make 44.3% of his assists, which puts Young in the 97th percentile, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Young’s assists per game has steadily increased over the course of his career. He has often said that assists are his favorite stat and this season the Hawks have prioritized getting everyone involved. Through 26 games, the Hawks have had seven to eight players average in double figures.
In Monday’s win over the Pistons, Young dished out 15 assists to go along with his 31 points. Young’s assists generated 36 points, threading the needle on several passes, as the Pistons defense threw everything they could to slow him down.
With 10:12 left in the first quarter, Young found Dejounte Murray with a pass from the top of the key all the way in the left corner. In doing so, Young had to navigate the ball up over Pistons’ Bojan Bogdanovic while whipping it just quickly enough to prevent the 6-foot-7 forward from contesting Murray’s 3.
Then at the end of that same frame, Young worked the pick and roll, finding Onyeka Okongwu with a lob that the Hawks center slammed. He would then find his favorite target toward the end of the second, sneaking a pass behind three Pistons defenders to Clint Capela for an easy two.
“I just talked with Trae, he got better finding passes and taking his time, especially when he does that two steps,” Capela said following Monday’s game. “And I told him that he’s still learning from watching other guys do it and the difference that I see from last year to this year is that he finds passes if he plays more with his footwork and gets the one-two or gets the fake. It’s really hard to stop because he always finds a way to make the defense make a decision to find the open pass. And what I saw tonight was really incredible the way that he was always able to find open guys, either in a corner, under the rim or for him to do both.”
Young is currently in one of the best stretches of his career, averaging 30.3 points and 11.4 assists per game since Nov. 15. He’s put up 30 or more points in 10 of his last 14 games. He has also put up 30-plus points and 10-plus assists in four straight games, the longest streak of his career. He has 68 such games in his career, just five shy of tying Hall of Famer Jerry West (73) for the sixth-most such games in NBA history.
“Just to be aggressive first,” Young said of his current streak.
“Look to be aggressive to shoot first because ultimately that’s going to open up for everybody else,” Young said. “And early on there are times I was trying to run the offense and at times being too unselfish and it would cause turnovers. ... I was looking for others before sometimes even my own (shot). And it just got to a point, where just sometimes (I) come into the game being aggressive that they’re not going to guard me and I can score a little bit ultimately opens up the floor for everybody else and we just got to have that feel to try to have for each other throughout the whole game.”
What Young has been able to accomplish in this stretch has not come as a surprise to Hawks coach Quin Snyder, who remains focused on the bigger picture.
“From my perspective the things that he’s doing, getting us in the flow of the game early, and letting the game come to him is really important,” Snyder said postgame on Monday. “ ... I’m not concerned about his numbers. I wasn’t early in the year and I’m not now. There’s some things that I want to see him continue to do and he’ll be even more efficient.”
According to Cleaning the Glass, Young currently ranks in the 31st percentile in effective field goal percentage, a statistic that adjusts field goal percentage to factor in the value of a 3-pointer as opposed to field goals.
“The thing that he’s doing to me that that is impactful to us, he’s guarding, and that’s our whole group,” Snyder said. “Just everybody’s got to hold themselves to a standard and him in particular because he’s on the point of the ball, but when he’s picking up a timeout or a free throw, those things I think, are good for his mindset. And as you mentioned, he’s been efficient. There’s a couple situations I want to keep showing him where I think he can be even more efficient, but he’s doing a good job. It’s playing the right way.”
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