Trae Young wanted strong start to season - he’s done that and more

Four days before the Hawks had even played an exhibition game this season, Trae Young had a fast start on his mind.

In his rookie year, Young improved in the second half, making it a much tighter race for Rookie of the Year than most expected, though the Mavericks’ Luka Doncic eventually took home the prize.

Sure, John Collins had missed the first 15 games of last season with an ankle injury, and the chemistry he and Young developed upon his return was key for the Hawks, but Young wasn’t buying that as an excuse.

“I just want to see myself start out better than I did,” Young said Oct. 3. “I think people judged my whole season off the way I started and so for me, I want to start better and just use that momentum that I had to end the season to begin it.”

Through two games, albeit a small sample size, Young has done just that, and in a historic fashion. As of Sunday, he’s the NBA’s leading scorer at 38.5 points per game, helping lead the Hawks to a 2-0 start.

Young became the first NBA player to tally at least 38 points, seven rebounds and nine assists in each of his team’s first two games of the year. Sustaining that pace is highly unlikely, but it’s quite an accomplishment, especially this early in the season, and it’s helped the Hawks start off on a better note than last year (they went 0-2 their first two games and were 3-16 by Nov. 23).

Young had 38 points, seven rebounds and nine assists in the Hawks’ season-opening win in Detroit Thursday, then followed it up with 39 points, seven rebounds and nine assists in their home opener Saturday, a 103-99 win over Orlando, a team that beat the Hawks four times last season (his banked-in 3-pointer with 26.2 seconds to play was the dagger, giving the Hawks a 102-97 lead).

“The stars shine brightest in those type of moments,” Young said of his play in the final minutes. “That’s what makes the big-time players who they are. They step up in those moments for their team and it helps them win. So for me, it’s just the mentality you have to have. And for me, I feel like I have it.”

Young attributes his strong start to work he put in during the offseason, and also growing more comfortable in the league in Year 2.

“I put in a lot of work this summer and just for me, going into my second year, I knew what to really work on,” Young said. “Going in as a rookie is kind of hard, you don’t know what to expect. You just go in there with an open mind. But going into my second year I knew what I needed to get better at and I did it, and my hard work is paying off right now.”

Through two games, Young is shooting 58.7 percent from the field and 55 percent from 3-point range (taking an average of 10 per game). Again, it’s likely his numbers will cool off a bit.

As a rookie, Young shot 41.8 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from 3-point range. He shot 34 percent from 3-point range and in October but struggled from the perimeter in November, shooting 19.8 percent from 3 (taking an average of 5.4 per game).

His 3-point shooting is the main difference second-year coach Lloyd Pierce identified when comparing the beginning of last season to the beginning of this one.

“We all know last year, this time, early in the season, he just wasn’t, from the 3, he just wasn’t making those shots,” Pierce said. “And because he is now, the lane just opens up even more. They’ve got to chase him over screens. Last year, at this time, they were going under everything.”

That forced Young to take some poor shots. Against Orlando, Pierce saw Young get into a rhythm early (his first shot was a floater), then when Young started sinking 3-pointers, the Magic had to start defending Young farther up the floor, which opened things up further for the Hawks.

“He’s getting his rhythm just getting downhill and he’s getting floaters, then eventually they’ve got to step their bigs up the floor and chase him over screens, and he gets going hitting one of those 3’s, now he can pick his poison with getting downhill, shooting 3’s, the defense collapsing, he can make passes to the weak side, but I thought his first three shots were all in rhythm, they were all floaters, they were all in the paint, he was attacking downhill, and it just opens up everything for us.”

Remaining the NBA’s leading scorer certainly isn’t the focus for Young. Whether it’s 40 points or 40 assists required from him to get the win, he said, the end result is what matters to him.

“Hell nah,” Young said when asked if being the league’s leading scorer is his goal. “That’s not my goal. I don’t care about all that. I’m just caring, focusing on winning.”