Trae Young - The Man, The Viper, and The Prosecution aka The MVP aka Ice Trae

[Spud2nique]

46 minutes ago, Thomas said:

Think Larry Brown was right about Aguustine. Plays well enough till it really counts and then....LB always was concerned about the team chemistry stuff too wherever he was/is so maybe part of the deal there as well. 

Ya there has to be something going on where he doesn’t stick on a roster. He is a very serviceable point guard in my opinion. He would be a great backup anywhere but not a starter and never was at any point in his career imo.

 

[NBASupes]

 

[NBASupes]

 

[marco102]

4 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

 

I actually thought I posted the eastern conference link in this thread.  I believe we should keep this thread alive until Trae wins us the championship and is the MVP of the league and finals, MIP, and 1st Team all NBA!

It is written so let it be! :)

[NBASupes]

Just now, marco102 said:

I actually thought I posted the eastern conference link in this thread.  I believe we should keep this thread alive until Trae wins us the championship and is the MVP of the league and finals, MIP, and 1st Team all NBA!

It is written so let it be!

I am posting all winnings and documenting this for Trae's career. This will be like a fact like thread, not so much opinion based thread. I doubt this thread will have as many replies but will have postings of games, data, stats, etc. 

[JayBirdHawk]

5 minutes ago, marco102 said:

I actually thought I posted the eastern conference link in this thread.  I believe we should keep this thread alive until Trae wins us the championship and is the MVP of the league and finals, MIP, and 1st Team all NBA!

It is written so let it be!

Love it!

[NBASupes]

 

[NBASupes]

 

[NBASupes]

 

[NBASupes]

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

 

Quote

PHOENIX – Trae Young made this interview easy.

“YOUR APOLOGY NEEDS TO BE AS LOUD AS THE DISRESPECT WAS,” his message read above a picture of Young running the floor against the Nuggets.

“Hey Trae, is your Dad younger than Vince Carter?” the man asks.

Trae – who is teammates with the 42-year-old Carter and whose father, former Texas Tech basketball player Rayford Young, is in his late 30s – shrugs.

“Yeah, he is.”

After typing in ‘Trae Young’ and ‘bust’ on the old Google machine earlier ....“I bet there was a lot,” he says when told of the chosen search engine words.

A quote from radio man Ryen Russilo, formerly of ESPN and currently with The Ringer, from mid-February of 2018: “Trae Young reminds me a lot of Jimmer 

Young stares at the screen.

“Oh yeah, he’s one of them,” he said with a smile. “Yeah, I’ve got a whole lot of those.”

Doug Gottlieb, the Fox Sports Radio host and former Oklahoma State point guard who once said, “Whoever drafts Trae Young in the lottery is going to lose their job over it. Is that the hill you want to die on?” 

An anonymous scout who told Sports Illustrated that he “wouldn’t touch” Young in the draft.

A December 2018 story in The New Yorker that was born out of a painful premise: The author who is also a self-described Hawks fan, Charles Bethea, interviewed his favorite franchise’s biggest bust, Jon Koncak, about Young’s early struggles and the question of whether Atlanta should have drafted Doncic. Koncak, who was taken with the fifth overall pick in 1985 and nicknamed “Jon Contract” because “his large salary was an albatross,” was taken ahead of Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Chris Mullin.

This story is clearly new to Young, and he has clearly never heard of Koncak, but his reaction remains unchanged. He’s still smiling, and then explaining.

“Yeah, it’s little stuff like that,” he says. “

Looking back now, Young believes that he was too passive early on last season. 

But all this newness – the NBA at large, a defensive-minded, first-year coach in Lloyd Pierce who preached the sorts of principles that Young wasn’t exactly known for, and a new lane to fill that felt far different from his days as a sensation at Oklahoma – left him out of sorts.

“Yeah for me, early on it was more about I didn’t know what my role was going to be,” he said. “Obviously I knew I was going to play a lot of minutes. I was going to be the starting point guard. But at the same time, I played with Jeremy Lin, who was one of our vets on our team at the time who was playing really well, and I was just trying to fit in.

“It was more just me trying to figure out how to find a way to fit into the team and the league instead of trying to make my name. I think that was the main thing. I wasn’t necessarily trying to take the league by storm. It was more trying to find my way to fit in early on. Maybe that’s the wrong approach I should’ve had. It’s definitely the wrong approach. I definitely wish I would’ve handled it differently, or attacked it more, but it didn’t happen and I had to learn.”

So the hard way, it was.

“I think I had to go through that to really be where I’m at now,” Young said.

With Young staying on this fast track, the Hawks, who spent approximately $200 million in arena renovations in October 2018, will keep looking for the right pieces to put around him for that proverbial next step (they’re slated to have $74 million in projected cap space this summer, but — Anthony Davis aside — this free agency class isn’t exciting anyone). It doesn’t hurt that Young plays with an inclusive flair that should attract more talent and sell plenty of tickets and sponsorships along the way. In the meantime, with fifth-year Hawks governor Tony Ressler saying last month that he expects improvement from their 29-53 record last season, they’ll try to survive the loss of Collins and Huerter to make an ahead-of-schedule playoff push this season.

“To be honest, in the East – besides maybe the first three or four spots – it’s wide open,” Young said. “If you look at our schedule, we’ve had a super tough schedule to start the season. And the way we’re playing right now, if we continue to play this way and focus and lock in every night and give us a chance to win, I think we have a chance to sneak into the playoffs.”

So long as they keep improving, with Young at the center of it all. Young’s to-do list from here is clear, and it’s full of items that will be attacked in an all-hands-on-deck kind of manner. But lest anyone confuse the push for more with a lack of appreciation for what Young already brings, don’t get it twisted. They know what, and who, they have here.

“He’s Trae f***ing Young,” as Schlenk put it with a laugh.

Yet still, he’ll likely become even more.

 

[Spud2nique]

I feel like a circus  number coming up from somebody in one of these games.

The record I’d want Trae to break is single season assist record held by Stockton 14.54 in the 89-90 season. 
 

The other one  is the Skiles 30 dimes in a game in 1990 as well. This one I think Trae has a decent shot at in the next few seasons, the Stockton one seems much harder obviously.

[enrique]

1 hour ago, Spud2nique said:

I feel like a circus  number coming up from somebody in one of these games.

The record I’d want Trae to break is single season assist record held by Stockton 14.54 in the 89-90 season. 
 

The other one  is the Skiles 30 dimes in a game in 1990 as well. This one I think Trae has a decent shot at in the next few seasons, the Stockton one seems much harder obviously.

The problem with Assists is that both records in a single game (30) and in a season (1164) are contingent on teammates and pace. I fully believe Trae can create the space, see to possibilities and deliver the rock with the greatest players of all time. Whether he will be able to hit those marks will be dependent on what the team needs from him. Currently we are needing him to shoulder both creation and points. When our other players develop more consistent shooting numbers (along with having his PnR buddy JC back), I believe we will see the uptick...but Stockton's numbers are truly outrageous in the modern era.  

[NBASupes]

 

[NBASupes]

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Quote

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NBA

 

Trae Young Is Making the Leap, As a Player and a Leader for the Hawks

 

In just one and a half seasons, Young has gone from being known as “not Luka Doncic” to a star in his own right. Now he’s trying to become the fully formed franchise player Atlanta needs him to be.

 

By Paolo Uggetti  Nov 27, 2019, 6:10am EST

 

Getty Images/Ringer illustration

 

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JustJust over a year ago, Trae Young sat near one of the practice courts at USC’s Galen Center, slipped off a pair of pink Adidas sneakers, and quietly mumbled responses to the questions of a lone reporter. At that point, there wasn’t much for Young to say. The fifth overall pick had played in only 13 NBA games and was still carrying the baggage of a bleak summer league performance and the trade that had sent the electrifying Luka Doncic to Dallas and him to Atlanta. It was early in Young’s rookie season, but there wasn’t a lot of optimism surrounding the player who was supposed to become the franchise’s cornerstone.

 

Fast forward to earlier this month: The Hawks were back in Los Angeles for a two-game stint against the Lakers and Clippers, and Young—this time wearing the N3XT L3V3L Adidas sneakers, which he’s become the de facto face of—received the superstar treatment. As the Hawks wrapped up practice at UCLA, multiple cameras followed Young’s every move. Reporters crowded around him, and as he exited the John Wooden Center, a line of people waited for him outside. He took selfies with kids, signed jerseys and pictures of himself on poster boards, and shook hands like a presidential candidate at a rally.

 

“I’ve obviously made a big jump from last year to this year,” Young said after the practice session, “but we haven’t done anything yet.”

 

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Young has been constructing a chip on his shoulder throughout his entire basketball career, ever since he was the smaller kid who didn’t seem to fit in on the court. That chip only grew in size last season, when, as Young puts it, “people didn’t think I was going to be able to do what I’ve been doing.” A couple of weeks ago, he even sent a tweet asking for an apology from those people who disrespected him during his rookie year. “I think if you feel like ‘Oh, man, he may be talking about me,’ I’m probably talking about you,” Young said about the tweet. “Everyone has their certain type of motivation, and this is what fuels me. And I try to use that to my advantage.”

 

So far, it seems to be working. After a stellar finish to last season that catapulted him to runner-up in the Rookie of the Year race, Young hasn’t just picked up where he left off; he’s leveled up. In 16 games this season, he’s averaging 26.6 points, 8.7 assists, and 4.5 rebounds with a true-shooting rate of 57 percent—all of which are higher than last season. Games where he drops 30 points and 10 assists are already becoming customary (he’s had four so far this season, and three others with 30-plus points and nine assists). And now he’s focused on new challenges, like improving his effort on defense (which assistant coach Marlon Garnett says has gotten a lot better this year), rounding out his offensive game, and becoming the leader of the Hawks in just his second season. Sometimes the future arrives faster than expected.

 

“I’m more comfortable. I know what to expect more going into games,” Young said. “I feel like it’s showtime every night.”

 

TheThe logo is uncharted territory for all but a few daring shooters. Steph Curry popularized the almost-half-court shot earlier this decade, and Young has followed in his tracks. Young has been working on his deep ball since grade school, and now he’s using it to stretch opposing defenses to their breaking points. He’s already made the same number of 3s from 35 to 39 feet this season (two) as he did all of last season, and he’s currently on pace to take 128 shots from beyond 30 feet, which would be 57 more than he took in 2018-19.

 

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“How he goes from his handle into a 3-point shot so quickly, those are some of the things that are similar to what you see with Steph,” said Damian Jones, who played for the Warriors last season and is now a member of the Hawks. “It’s amazing to watch.”

 

It all comes from the torque Young generates with his hips and legs, which helps offset his Curry-like frame and height. His shot has a flatter arc than the typical shooter’s parabola, which gives the ball a more horizontal pathway to the basket and provides Young with a longer range.

 

But not every shot can be a 3, and for a player like Young, whose size disadvantage is all but eliminated behind the arc, the midrange is where things can get chaotic. While that space on the court is often maligned from an analytics perspective, Young knew that improving in that area would be essential for his growth in Year 2. So for four weeks this past offseason, he and his trainer Alex Bazzell hunkered down at a high school gym in the San Fernando Valley and prioritized the midrange. Fifty percent of their workouts focused on pull-ups, floaters, and fadeaways from that part of the floor, while the other 50 percent was split between 3-pointers and finishing at the rim.

 

“The midrange shot is completely different from your 3-point shot,” Bazzell said. “In the midrange, you have to be able to raise up and shoot at the top of your jump, otherwise it’s going to be hard to get it over those defenders. Especially for Trae—he’s coming off a lot of ball screens, and they put a lot of longer, taller defenders on him.”

 

“He has court vision like Jason Kidd, like Pete Maravich. [He’s] got eyes everywhere.” —Jabari Parker

 

To help Young maximize his effectiveness in midrange situations, Bazzell sent him clips of Clippers guard Lou Williams—a known midrange maestro—to study over the summer. Williams is an expert at using his body and his dribble to create space, and given that Young runs some of the same actions with the Hawks as Williams does with the Clippers, Bazzell wanted Young to duplicate the balance and high arc Williams maintains on his shot while fading away from defenders.

 

Bazzell also trained Kyrie Irving this offseason, and in those sessions he picked up more specific tips for Young. “Kyrie is a lot stronger than people realize, and there’s a reason he’s able to hang, get the space, and not get blocked in a lot of his pull-ups,” Bazzell said. “I learned just what he was doing with his hands, his shoulders, just to separate and get space. After seeing that and guarding that up close, it was much easier to implement that when training with Trae.”

 

So far, those tactics have been paying dividends. From 10 feet out to the 3-point line, Young is shooting more than 5 percentage points better this season than he did his rookie year. And for a player who already has a top-five usage rate in the league (33.4), any kind of improvement in efficiency goes a long way.

 

Young’s foundation as a play-maker—from shooting to passing to finishing at the rim—is already so advanced that his teammates trust him to lead their efforts on the floor. Take Jabari Parker, for example. Just a few weeks into the season, Parker (who signed with the Hawks in July) told me that Young already knew that Parker needed to get a dunk early in games to get his energy going. Now, thanks to Young’s passing, Parker is tied for second in the league in dunks with 47. “He has court vision like Jason Kidd, like Pete Maravich,” Parker said. “[He’s] got eyes everywhere.”

 

”For him it’s always more about learning about personnel and what the teams throw at him,” Hawks teammate Alex Len said. “When he sees the trap coming, he splits it or gets around his player so quick and then makes a decision, whether it’s to score, or going to be the big on the roll or the long pass—he reads it so quick. There’s only a few players who can do it like that—Rubio, LeBron—players who have that level of vision.”

 

AsAs Young started to speak to reporters on Sunday night following a second straight blowout loss in Los Angeles, his voice cracked. He stopped, asked for water, Gatorade, anything, and then started over. It was a moment that made even Young laugh, and it served as a reminder that he is still only 21 years old. Around this Hawks team, that fact is easy to forget.

 

When head coach Lloyd Pierce mentioned that Young talked to rookies De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish after the tough loss, the fact that Young is nine months younger than Hunter didn’t seem to cross his mind. “We know what Trae is capable of doing on the court, getting a shot off, facilitating, getting downhill, making big plays,” Pierce said. “The growth for him is … emotional and mental leadership. We’ve asked a lot of Trae, to lead this team in his second year, and he does that on the court by example. We’re also asking him to do that with his voice, his leadership, encouraging his teammates, because he’s the guy who can facilitate and communicate.”

 

One of the reasons Young and Bazzell got only about four weeks to train this summer was because Young spent much of the offseason in Atlanta getting acquainted with his new team (only half of the top-12 players in minutes from the 2018-19 Hawks returned this season). It was an anticipatory move, as both Young and the organization knew that the leap he’d need to take this season wouldn’t just come on the court.

 

His veteran teammates have been helping him step into that role, too. Evan Turner, who’s been in the league for 10 years and has experience mentoring younger guys at previous stops, is trying to find the balance between giving Young pointers and letting him learn as he goes. “When things are falling apart, or are tough, I tell him, ‘Keep your composure. Lead. You’re a leader—lead,’” Turner said. “I just remind him of that. I think he’s stepped up and tried to be mature and do that. He’s really trying.”

 

In a lot of ways, Young’s rapid improvement contrasts with where the Hawks are as a franchise; while the rest of the basketball world has caught on to how good Young is already, Atlanta is 4-13 and going through the growing pains of a young team. But both the Hawks’ coaching staff and their front office have the same long-term goal—to build a contender around Young. Even if it requires time, there is no greater value in the NBA than having both a plan and a star. The Hawks continue to look like they have both.

 

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https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/11/27/20984676/trae-young-atlanta-hawks-second-version-team-building

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[Spud2nique]

Didn’t wanna make another Trae thread but I’m thankful for Trae as a Hawks fan. He’s a special special talent. Thank you basketball Gods for gifting us with him. 

[Atlantaholic]

Trae's exceeded sophomore expectations so far from me. Problem is the team around him has completely fallen apart... Trae is never going to get the respect he deserves until we start winning at least a game here and there. 

[Spud2nique]

@High5

Young’s eight 30-point games rank third in the Eastern Conference behind Washington’s Bradley Beal (nine) and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 10