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

[JayBirdHawk]

16 minutes ago, kg01 said:

So the dude ranked SGA at Young's heels because SGA has shown he can be a role-player?  That takes some serious gymnastics to try to make himself sound right.

Not only a good role player, but a complimentary one on a GOOD team.

The things they say to downplay Trae is amazing.

[JTB]

Awesome article and a must read...I will admit seeing Trae sign with klutch scared me as a fan. I like klutch as young black business on the come up but the power they possess to form possible super teams is real thing in my opinion so I couldn’t help but to think this is a way to get trae away from Atlanta one day .... after reading Traes fathers comments in Koontz latest article my mind is at ease at least for now..lol Trae is on a mission and sounds like he is looking forward to making his own big name in Atlanta :

 

“I would ask those fans who are fans of Trae or Atlanta fans to just look at his history. He knows this is a team effort, but he wants to have that statue next to Dominique (Wilkins) one day, man. I’ve told you this before, my son is 6-foot-1, but he thinks he’s the best player on the court no matter if LeBron is on the floor with him. Hopefully, it never backfires on him, but he’s got big balls and is very confident. He just knows what he wants to accomplish. I never think my son is going to join a super team unless they all come to Atlanta. He’s just got too much pride to do that. Maybe that pride will backfire, but who knows. My son has seen it happen here in Oklahoma City with (Kevin Durant). He wasn’t one of those who called him a cupcake, but he’s seen the backlash of something like that happen.”

[RedDawg#8]

Trae wants a statue next to Nique.... I can respect that. I also believe he can do it. His dad made some great points. Trae Young is a real one.

[RedDawg#8]

Truth be told, the first player I think that will want out of Atlanta is Deandre Hunter if I had to guess. 

Id rank their loyalty to us as follows 

1. Trae

2. Cam/John

4. Kevin

5. Hunter

Cam saw the fan reaction on draft night. He knows he is beloved and wanted here when many other fans werent feeling him at Duke. He wanted to be drafted by us, and we wanted him. I think he will have it in his mind to look elsewhere someday, but will always have a soft spot for us. Plus, he is the most likely to get the keys to this team if Trae does ever leave. 
 

JC loves this city and he loves Trae. He also has the best role possible for his play style on this roster that could be jeopardized elsewhere. He will also be the first one paid and therefore not have to worry about us having enough money for him, which may cost us Huerter or Dre one day.

 Hunter is the one player of of our young core who will probably have to accept a role he does not agree with. I know Deandre sees himself as a 2-way star. But as Cam ascends, Dre will get relegated to the 3-D role more and more. He will likely want to showcase himself on a team that doesnt have a ball dominant guard, another star wing and a big man that is scoring 20 a game in his way. This will also be best for him because he may never develop in to that player on this team as we continue to add talent and potential star FA's

Huerter is the most likely player to get benched of our wings as he is the weakest defender and their offense will eventually catch his. This makes me believe he will take an opportunity to start elsewhere if it presents itself. He wont want to leave, but it will ultimately make business sense. 

Pay attention to what we do in the draft. It could mean the beginning of the end for some of these young pieces. 
 

 

[Spud2nique]

4 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Pay attention to what we do in the draft. It could mean the beginning of the end for some of these young pieces. 

It’s the nature of the beast. That’s why I would have preferred trading out of the draft for a vet but all the vets stink out there. Trade table ones.

[Spud2nique]

5 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

4. Kevin

5. Hunter

You can flip 4/5 5/4 here to me. It’s definitely between these two long term but I honestly love them both. One brings incredible shooter and underrated passing and the other stout D and a nice stroke from the corner.

[kg01]

I think it's pretty clear Heurter is on the most tenuous spot and, if you believe the reports, it's (at least partially) his own fault.  That said, I can see him coming back with a vengeance.  I hope he does.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Future of the Hawks, 1.0: What Trae Young’s rise means for Atlanta’s hopes

Quote

Switching gears, it still seems like there are many people who are still non-believers in Young. Just the other day, there was a tweet gaining steam on Twitter discussing point guards who should be taken over Young and the list included: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Ja Morant, Lonzo Ball and De’Aaron Fox. This week, ESPN’s Mike Schmitz rated Young third behind Alexander in his NBA sophomore rankings (Luka Doncic was No. 1). I am a big fan of Gilgeous-Alexander’s game, but there’s honestly no reason to have him over Young.  There were many skeptics of Young’s ability to succeed at a high level in the NBA before he was drafted, and there are still many who fail to accept that Young was one of the best point guards in the NBA this season. Why do you feel like the opinions around Young are still so polarizing? Do you feel like it’s just because his defense is so bad right now or that the Hawks haven’t been good (which isn’t Young’s fault), or do you have another theory? 

Vecenie: I think there are a few things. First, he was a polarizing college player and one who got an incredible amount of attention from ESPN. He was on TV seemingly every night, and the hype machine got a bit out of control. That’s not to say it wasn’t deserved: Young led the country in points and assists. He was the best player in the country. Also, though, I think it built up a resistance to him once he hit any sort of wall, which he did later in his freshman season. 

And in that vein, I think any time you have a player who plays in a style that is relatively new to basketball over the course of a recent decade, you’ll have detractors until you prove that your style is conducive to winning games. Young dominates the ball because he’s such a terrific pull-up shooter and passer. He creates high-level offense on his own. Can that sustain going forward? Only this year did we start to see him with lineups that make sense and are talented enough surrounding him — and the Young-Huerter-Reddish-Hunter-Collins lineup feasted. So I think that also plays a role. 

 

On Trae's defense:

Quote

But let’s say he doesn’t get better defensively for whatever reason and remains one of the worst defenders in the league. Do you think that limits the Hawks’ ability to reach a championship level one day? To phrase it differently, do you feel like this current iteration of Young can be the key star in an NBA Finals series? 

Vecenie: It’s kind of a cop-out, but I think it would depend on what they do around him. Young never reaching even an adequate level defensively would put real pressure on the roster-building surrounding him and force the Hawks into tougher spots that make them less flexible going forward in the kind of players they can target. 

For instance, if Young never gets better on defense, it probably resigns Huerter to either being trade bait or to being more of a sixth-man. It would put way too much pressure on their help defense to have both Young and Huerter out there. Both of them — particularly Huerter — are smart defenders, but neither holds up enough in on-ball defense to really be out there together in late-game situations. In that vein, I actually think it’s really important for the Hawks to find a secondary ballhandler or playmaker who is also good on defense. 

I also think it forces the Hawks into making sure they have an elite-level rim protector around at all times. But to get the most out of Young and Collins on offense, the Hawks also need to find a pick-and-pop weapon who spaces it out above the break or from the corners from the center position that can also provide elite-level defense. There aren’t exactly a ton of those kinds of guys sitting around out there who are also true center size. 

Basically, Young not turning into an adequate defender makes the Hawks’ life much, much more difficult from a roster-building perspective moving forward. I don’t think it would necessarily crater their title hopes or anything, but it’d reduce them substantially. 

 

[AHF]

Huerter is a no-brainer 6th man type to me long-term (at least for us).  He should get significant minutes but Cam starts over him this season if I'm calling the shot.

[Spud2nique]

That’s sick!

 

 

[JTB]

On 6/30/2020 at 4:58 PM, JTB said:

Awesome article and a must read...I will admit seeing Trae sign with klutch scared me as a fan. I like klutch as young black business on the come up but the power they possess to form possible super teams is real thing in my opinion so I couldn’t help but to think this is a way to get trae away from Atlanta one day .... after reading Traes fathers comments in Koontz latest article my mind is at ease at least for now..lol Trae is on a mission and sounds like he is looking forward to making his own big name in Atlanta :

Wow I don’t know why I wrote Koontz! I meant Kirschner....

[JTB]

16 hours ago, AHF said:

Huerter is a no-brainer 6th man type to me long-term (at least for us).  He should get significant minutes but Cam starts over him this season if I'm calling the shot.

ABSOLUTELY....cam is no brainer starter at SG in my opinion too with Huerter coming off the bench 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[Dnice]

Good look on SI kids

[Spud2nique]

@benhillboy Trae won’t miss the playoffs again! Gimme ur avatar now!!!

   

[benhillboy]

3 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

@benhillboy Trae won’t miss the playoffs again! Gimme ur avatar now!!!

   

Nah bro.  2 Hand Yam Threezus is safe until I deem it fit for Cam to grace my avvy.  What do I change it to if I lose?

[benhillboy]

On 7/1/2020 at 1:13 PM, JayBirdHawk said:

 

Future of the Hawks, 1.0: What Trae Young’s rise means for Atlanta’s hopes

 

On Trae's defense:

 

Social media reading my posts, I ain’t said nothing about no damn Lonzo and Fox tho.  They can bite I ain’t mad.

Edited July 3, 2020 by benhillboy

[Spud2nique]

22 minutes ago, benhillboy said:

What do I change it to if I lose?

I have some time I guess but thinking something blue n orange!  

[benhillboy]

49 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

I have some time I guess but thinking something blue n orange!  

???  I have no beef with the Mets, Broncos, Gators, or Knicks.  Here’s yours though go on and upload that guy

I’ll accept this one as well

Edited July 3, 2020 by benhillboy

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, benhillboy said:

Knicks

As a bulls fan if u have no problem with the Knicks?