Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young’s value isn’t as high as the franchise would like it to be, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
“I don’t know if the Hawks would ever say this publicly, but I think they knew that they had to break up Dejounte Murray and Trae Young,” Windhorst said. “And, the player that they could trade for value was Dejounte Murray. I’m sure there was lots of different pieces of nuance involved in how they went about that, but I just don’t – I’m not sure that Trae Young’s value is as high as they’d like it to be. So, this is a real pivotal year, as you say, for Trae Young.”
Young, 25, is coming off a season where he made the All-Star team for the third time in his career. However, Atlanta failed to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, and it hasn’t made it out of the first round of the playoffs since it made the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2020-21 season.
Atlanta moved Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans this offseason in a deal that helped the franchise gain some draft capital and a young guard in Dyson Daniels. The Hawks also added some talent in the 2024 NBA Draft, taking Zaccharie Risacher with the No. 1 overall pick.
Despite that, it appears that the Hawks may not be willing to move Young in the offseason unless for a price they deem fair for a player of his caliber.
Last season, Young averaged 25.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 10.8 assists per game while shooting 43.0 percent from the field and 37.3 percent from beyond the arc. A smaller guard, Young has some limitations on the defensive end, but he’s averaged over 10 assists per game in each of the last two seasons.
Atlanta doesn’t want to tank since it still owes unprotected first-round picks to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2025 NBA Draft and the 2027 NBA Draft. The Spurs also have swap rights on the Hawks pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Since Atlanta forfeited all of that draft capital in the original trade it made to acquire Murray, it doesn’t control its draft pick for a few seasons.
That means the Hawks wouldn’t mind still competing for a playoff spot, but they need Young to prove that he can take them back to the level that they found in the 2020-21 season when they nearly made the NBA Finals.
It’ll be interesting to see if Young rebuilds his value now that he’s no longer sharing the backcourt with Murray in Atlanta.
