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

[marco102]

1 minute ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Hmmm.... nah. They got homecourt, we should get the lower pick. Cant have everything.

19 isn't the lower pick?

[JayBirdHawk]

Interesting and I love it!  Trae recognizes, give it to Bogi!

 

 

[MarylandHawk]

3 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Final Nutty of the 2020-21 Regular Season. Love it!

 

 

Did you see the look on Kelly’s face. Lol. He was “Whoa, what!?”

[benhillboy]

We all knew Bogi was killing once he got healthy but I didn’t realize he had a damn  .602 eFG on 13 shots.  For comparison Joe topped out at .536 on 14 shots in Phoenix in ‘04 (off the strength of a Snell-like .478 from 3). Bogi is arguably one of the most lethal scorers who “let the game come to him” face a$$.  

Trae is smart enough to look at the percentages as well as how much these guys like receiving his passes smack-dab in their shooting pockets so his decreased 3 point shooting is a no-brainer.  The coaching staff has got to manufacture some corner threes for him at some point though.  Everyone on the team shoots them at good to great frequency and efficiency (outside of Gallo’s attempts and Dre’s percentage for some reason) Trae’s corner 3s account for 3% of his total attempts.  Skylar Mays with the ideal ratio at 25% of attempts and 50% shooting, likely why his offensive rating is pretty husky with the 3:1 assist to turn.

Edited May 18, 2021 by benhillboy

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

 

Quote

From Henry Aaron and Deion Sanders to Chipper Jones and Michael Vick, the city of Atlanta has long enjoyed its larger-than-life sports stars. But the Hawks went a few decades without one.

Sure, the Hawks had Joe Johnson, a seven-time All-Star who could quietly score in one-on-one situations with the best of them. But he was the quietest star possible, doing just enough to keep the Hawks in the middle of the pack, but not quite doing enough to push them beyond that. The Hawks paid him handsomely—Johnson was even the highest-paid player in the NBA at one point—but he didn’t have an electrifying smile or personality. And for all his talent, he wasn’t putting casual Atlanta fans in the seats.

Here’s one way to look at just how long it’s been since the Hawks have had a superstar. You have to go back 28 years, to Dominique Wilkins in 1993, to find the last time Atlanta had a player finish among the top 10 in league MVP voting for a season. That’s not only the longest dry spell in the NBA. It’s a full 10 years longer than the Nets, who have endured the league’s second-longest drought.

“It’s been awhile,” says Wilkins, when told of the stat. “And it’s weird, because the city’s always had these iconic sports figures. But it’s a good feeling to know things are finally coming back around.”

Young and his team still have more work to do to catapult him into MVP talks. (He narrowly missed the All-Star team this season.) But if the last three decades have been a superstar desert for the Hawks, the diminutive guard has been a literal splash bucket to quench the club’s thirst.

Still just 22, Young has the impromptu passing ability of a Harlem Globetrotter and the long-distance shooting range of Robin Hood. Of the six players with the audacity to attempt 25 shots from 30 feet or more this season, only Stephen Curry (37.4%) knocked down a better percentage than Young’s 36.4%. And while he takes plenty of shots from other ZIP codes, Young is active in the paint, and made more free throws than anyone in the league. He’s become most known for his scoring (25.3 points this year) but ranked second in the NBA in assists per game. Young’s become highly annoying to defend. If you stay back too far on a screen, he’ll pull up from 40. Come up too much, and he’ll burst into the paint and either loft a floater or throw a lob for center Clint Capela, which flat-out deceives rim protectors, because the lobs look like floaters, too.

Even if you play him perfectly—closing out just enough to deter the long triple, and recovering enough to catch up to him before he gets off the floater or the lob—the floor general still might get the best of you. Like Chris Paul, he’s perfected stopping on a dime to prompt trailing defenders to crash into him.

Most impressive to those who work with Young: He’s quickly adjusted to the club’s improved rotation, realizing that the upgraded talent around him can only make him more difficult to stop down the stretch.

“They talked about this with Michael back in the day when he first came into the league: He was putting up a lot of numbers before Phil Jackson came in with the triangle,” says Hawks coach Nate McMillan, whose midseason takeover turned the team’s season around. “[The triangle] forced him to move the ball around and get other players involved, because he really hadn’t had a lot of [team] success. That’s part of the growth with a young player. Trae’s still trying to establish himself. He came in as a guy that could score and create offense. But when you’re trying to take that next step—win games—you’re not going to be able to do it by yourself. The team’s brought in enough talent to win games, and he has to learn to use the talent that he has. They have to form that chemistry on the floor, but I see them starting to do that.”

 

Quote

Much like Young has been the focus of opposing defenses—ranging from aggressive traps and even occasional box-and-one looks—he’s generated massive interest among a new wave of Hawks fans.

Chris Keith, a 50-year-old health-care administrator who lives in Alpharetta, just north of Atlanta, says the club was barely on his radar years ago. “After Dominique, they kind of became an afterthought,” he says. But then Keith’s 12-year-old son, Carter, grew more intrigued with the sport after participating in church-league basketball.

“I introduced him to the NCAA tournament [in 2018] when Trae was in it. Then he wanted to watch the draft for the first time that year. And the Hawks ended up with Trae. Now, my son has all the jerseys.”

Keith indulged his son by taking him to a handful of Hawks games each of the past few years. After a while, it made more sense to become a season-ticket holder. “I do feel like I’m on an island a little bit,” he says, adding that the rest of his suburban neighborhood is full of die-hard Braves and Falcons fans, with fewer Hawks supporters. “But I see a lot of Trae Young jerseys on my son’s friends. In a short amount of time, the Hawks became my family’s life. We went from casual watchers to living and dying with it.”

 

Quote

The Hawks don’t exactly run away from the idea that Young’s marketability was a factor. While general manager Travis Schlenk got extra value out of passing on Dončić—Atlanta was able to get an extra first-round pick that became Cam Reddish by trading down with the Mavericks—Koonin says he was adamantly in favor of taking Young, and that his interests went beyond just basketball.

“Travis will tell you that, for his part, he was looking for value. Meaning, we like Trae a lot, and we like Luka a lot. But getting another lottery pick was the tipping point,” Koonin says. “But the business side, we raised our hand and we said, ‘Trae.’ … Luka is an incredible player. I wish we had them both. He’s fantastic. Trae is on the path to superstardom, but for more than what he can do on the court. We saw in Trae somebody who was a dynamic player who had a real chance to connect with fans on many levels.”

Koonin is quick to add that his business-centric point of view about Young “means jacks--- to Travis.” 

(“Less than zero,” he says.) And he understands the Hawks would likely be in a good place regardless of which player the team had taken. But he also points to a key figure. “Our youth jersey sales went up 1200% with Trae,” Koonin says. “He’s helping us create an emotional connection with our fans.”

Part of that was likely Young’s visibility as a high-profile prospect who’d become must-see TV at the college level, while Dončić was still an unknown to the average American fan. And it’s hard to imagine the team didn’t see an opportunity to market Young to one of the nation’s largest primarily Black cities.

In talking about Young’s impact on youth fans, Koonin mentioned Curry—whom Schlenk worked with in his prior stop with the Warriors—and how Atlanta had to open its arena earlier than usual whenever Golden State was in town. Fans would show up hours before tip-off, just to watch Curry’s otherworldly shooting routine. And on some level, Koonin hopes, if not believes, that Young can inspire the same sort of fan intrigue with his own flashy skill set.

But for the first time in decades, there is a growing hope that the seats could be full soon on a regular basis. Because if you build it with an icon, chances are the stargazing Atlanta fans will eventually come.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[aali34]

19 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

I like that outlook. He will always have naysayers no matter what he does, so he shouldn't waste any mental space on them at all. Don't allow people who don't have your best interest in mind to have control over you.

[AHF]

1 hour ago, aali34 said:

I like that outlook. He will always have naysayers no matter what he does, so he shouldn't waste any mental space on them at all. Don't allow people who don't have your best interest in mind to have control over you.

Some guys seek out the naysayers and use them to fire themselves up.  MJ was probably the king of this.  

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[Jdawgflow]

3 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Trae is a boss.  And I really want TJ McConnell even more now.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

On 5/18/2021 at 8:40 AM, benhillboy said:

We all knew Bogi was killing once he got healthy but I didn’t realize he had a damn  .602 eFG on 13 shots.  For comparison Joe topped out at .536 on 14 shots in Phoenix in ‘04 (off the strength of a Snell-like .478 from 3). Bogi is arguably one of the most lethal scorers who “let the game come to him” face a$$.  

Trae is smart enough to look at the percentages as well as how much these guys like receiving his passes smack-dab in their shooting pockets so his decreased 3 point shooting is a no-brainer.  The coaching staff has got to manufacture some corner threes for him at some point though.  Everyone on the team shoots them at good to great frequency and efficiency (outside of Gallo’s attempts and Dre’s percentage for some reason) Trae’s corner 3s account for 3% of his total attempts.  Skylar Mays with the ideal ratio at 25% of attempts and 50% shooting, likely why his offensive rating is pretty husky with the 3:1 assist to turn.

 

How many high usage PGs shoot corner 3s though?

I don't know that off hand, so I'll have to research it.

[benhillboy]

On 5/22/2021 at 10:07 PM, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

How many high usage PGs shoot corner 3s though?

I don't know that off hand, so I'll have to research it.

Here are the career percentages of threes taken from the corner for the top usage guys.  I don’t count Luka as a PG he’s big as a house.  Excuse the different font from pasting:

Irving .143

D. Russell .99

Sexton .109

Ball .161

Walker .66

Murray .131

CP3 .110

Conley .177

Dennis .108

Westbrook .094

Lilliard .057

Steph .135

Fox .130

Rose .99

I didn’t compare all of the percentages to their standard three point shooting but I think Fox is the only one who has a lower corner efficiency than overall.  Most of them spike like Conley (.379 to .432) and Steph (.433 to .492)

This certainly isn’t a time to bash Trae just following up on the thought.  I think these numbers are a good raw indicator of off ball movement, finding open spots, and confidence to catch-and-shoot in any area of the floor.  Many games Trae will not attempt a shot that isn’t in the paint, circle, or at the top of the arc.  Again not criticizing the kid, just something I hope the staff works on a bit this summer.  
 

One thing Trae has down pat is thine hippopotamus ball sackage when it comes to clutch scoring.  He made taking on thousands of drunken New Yorkers look like a walk in Central Park causally holding an AK.  He and Ja were awesome on the road in playoff debuts no less.

Edited May 24, 2021 by benhillboy

[HawkingAwesome]

 

[MarylandHawk]

For the people who were complaining about his long three point shots, that final game winning play is an example of how opponents have to respect him all the way out to the half court. He was picked up half court and the double team came all the way out past the three point line. This gave him a TON of room to waltz down the lane for essentially an uncontested floater. A football analogy would be the play action pass. Stretch the field from side to side and deep with passes and it just gives you all types of running lanes within a zone running scheme. 

[NBASupes]

Hissss......

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Hissss......

The  sound of the air coming out of New York's dreams.  Bubble burst. 

[MarylandHawk]

ESPN better give that man his respect. When Trae hit that shot in NY all I could think of is the song on Game’s album LAX Dope Boys. 
when he said “Tell Dre to pick up the phone before I crawl through that window like Doc I’m home”. 
 

Somebody better tell ESPN to pick up the phone. Lol. 

[Spud2nique]

Michael Jordan... Reggie Miller...

 

TRAE YOUNG

 

Muderers in the Mecca