I think it's pretty fair to say that Luka is better than Trae and likely will always be better than Trae

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Quote

Trae Young: It's Hard To Judge Who Won Or Lost Hawks-Mavs Trade Right Now

JAN 15, 2020 1:06 PM

Trae Young and Luka Doncic will forever be linked by the draft night trade between the Atlanta Hawks and Dallas Mavericks. Young offered his own assessment on the deal with approximately a season and a half of sample size.

"[Doncic's] on a team, and they've got more veterans and is a team that's more looking to win now," Young told Bleacher Report. "We're more of a team that wants to win now, but we're focusing more on developing, and we're one of the youngest teams in the league. It's just two totally different situations, so it's just hard to really judge who won or lost [the trade] right now. I don't really pay too much attention to it. I just try and focus on my team and how I can help my team. Maybe down the road at the end of our careers, I think that can be a topic of discussion, but right now, I don't pay too much attention to it."

The Hawks used the additional draft pick they acquired from the Mavericks to select Cam Reddish.

While Young has played at an All-Star level this season, Doncic has been in the MVP conversation.

"I want to bring a championship, I mean multiple championships, to the city of Atlanta," Young told Bleacher Report. "I think the fans and this city deserves it. It's a super dope cultural city, and they just deserve a championship with the Hawks. That would be great to have. For me, if I was able to do that, I think that would be a pretty big thing in my story."

MICHAEL SCOTTO/BLEACHER REPORT

 

[HawkItus]

If the Hawks were winning wouldn't Trae be in the MVP convo?

[marco102]

On 12/3/2019 at 6:20 PM, NBASupes said:

There is nothing wrong with saying Luka is better than Trae. That doesn't mean Luka will have better team success than Trae. Most people see Durant>Curry but Curry has had more team success. 

There's also nothing wrong with saying that Trae may be better than Luka one day.  Luka's efficiency has fallen off in his most recent games.  It happened the second half of last season too albeit with a worse roster.  Luka may have a stamina issue.  Not saying its a huge drop off, but he surely isn't playing as well as he was earlier in the season. The other thing is Luka's threes are not falling and he's finishing at the rim at 71%.  71% is an outlier season, maybe he's generational and the 71% continues, but he'll definetely need to pick up his three point shooting in the future if his finishing comes back to the mean.  I mean 32% on high volume isn't terrible, but it sure isn't good. 

Trae's improvement over last season has been nothing but phonomenial (so has Lukas).  If  Trae improves even more next season, with his playmaking, turnovers, defense, and efficency, he very well could turnout to be a better player than Luka by next season.  They really aren't that far apart now.  It may seem like I'm nitpicking Luka's game to uplift Trae, but Trae and Luka are literally like the same player except Luka is 6 inches taller and rebounds much better.

Just not putting a cap on how great Trae can be even though most have crowned Luka as the next great generational superstar already and Trae as an Allstar at best.

Also, Trae's defensive rating has continued to improve this month while Luka's this month is worse than Trae's.  This won't be discussed, but Luka's rating is down mainly because KP is not there to clean up for the Mavs. 

Edited January 16, 2020 by marco102

[Blunt91]

I would not even answer that question anymore.  I would tell them to go ask Luka.

[benhillboy]

I had no idea Atlanta has a higher GDP than San Francisco/ Oakland.  Just a hair lower than Dallas/ Fort Worth.  Just trying to find reasons why the Mavs are first in attendance and we’re 29th with a fan-voted AS starter.  
 

Luka is the man though.  That roster is dreadful on paper IMO, I wouldn't want any of their guys in their current role besides Curry off the pine and a healthy Porzingis (which is rare).  Powell and Kleber can masquerade as very good starters only beside Luka.  Brunson is cool but his handle isn’t.

[macdaddy]

1 hour ago, benhillboy said:

I had no idea Atlanta has a higher GDP than San Francisco/ Oakland.  Just a hair lower than Dallas/ Fort Worth.  Just trying to find reasons why the Mavs are first in attendance and we’re 29th with a fan-voted AS starter.  
 

Luka is the man though.  That roster is dreadful on paper IMO, I wouldn't want any of their guys in their current role besides Curry off the pine and a healthy Porzingis (which is rare).  Powell and Kleber can masquerade as very good starters only beside Luka.  Brunson is cool but his handle isn’t.

We are 25th in average attendance but also the worst team in the league record-wise.  Don't you think if we were 26-15 that we'd be in the top-10 in attendance?

[NBASupes]

46 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

We are 25th in average attendance but also the worst team in the league record-wise.  Don't you think if we were 26-15 that we'd be in the top-10 in attendance?

No, you gotta sellout the farm for that. 

1 hour ago, benhillboy said:

I had no idea Atlanta has a higher GDP than San Francisco/ Oakland.  Just a hair lower than Dallas/ Fort Worth.  Just trying to find reasons why the Mavs are first in attendance and we’re 29th with a fan-voted AS starter.  
 

Luka is the man though.  That roster is dreadful on paper IMO, I wouldn't want any of their guys in their current role besides Curry off the pine and a healthy Porzingis (which is rare).  Powell and Kleber can masquerade as very good starters only beside Luka.  Brunson is cool but his handle isn’t.

Their roster has no negative players. That's why they are so good. They have the best depth in the NBA with Memphis and Milwaukee. 

[macdaddy]

https://twitter.com/BaltejNBA/status/1220090109237891072

 

Quote

Atlanta's shot quality with Trae Young on the floor this year: 0.53 Dallas's shot quality with Luka on the floor this year: 0.53 The difference is their actual EFG% is 53.23% for Atlanta vs 56.2% for Dallas. They both generate great shots but 1 has a team that can make them

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by macdaddy

[Thomas]

So that looks like both are strong players and one team just may have two rookie wings working through shooting woes. Those stats right there seem to represent very accurately what has been going on for us. 

[enrique]

On 1/17/2020 at 11:28 AM, macdaddy said:

We are 25th in average attendance but also the worst team in the league record-wise.  Don't you think if we were 26-15 that we'd be in the top-10 in attendance?

Here are the average attendance for every NBA team over the past 8 seasons. http://www.insidehoops.com/attendance.shtml

Notice our attendance in 2014-2015...perhaps the most excited any of us have been as Hawks fans in the past few decades...what do you notice? Our attendance was 17th out of 30...

That same year Dallas was 3rd out of 30. Dallas has loved the Mavericks for a long time. Atlanta has always struggled as a sports town. It really won't move up a whole bunch even if we improve:(

Edited January 28, 2020 by enrique

[macdaddy]

At this point i'm going to guess that State Farm is one of the smaller capacities in the league.  So it maybe impossible to get into the top 10 in average attendance.  But percentage of capacity maybe a better measure.

In terms of how this town responds, we haven't seen a good Hawks team with a true star since the Nique days.  The population is about triple now what it was then.  We'll see.....

[AHF]

46 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

At this point i'm going to guess that State Farm is one of the smaller capacities in the league.  So it maybe impossible to get into the top 10 in average attendance.  But percentage of capacity maybe a better measure.

In terms of how this town responds, we haven't seen a good Hawks team with a true star since the Nique days.  The population is about triple now what it was then.  We'll see.....

My guess is that we smartly limited capacity by choice so we would be closer to full more often.

[HawkItus]

1 hour ago, AHF said:

My guess is that we smartly limited capacity by choice so we would be closer to full more often.

The upgrades reduced capacity as well

[marco102]

I'm not sure if you've been to any Hawks game this year, but Trae is actually bringing more fans to the games.  We are a bad team and people are still coming to see Trae. When the Hawks are good, "the Farm" will be at or over capacity. 

Atlanta is not a bad sports town.  You just have to put a good product on the floor for people to come out.  

RE: 2014-2015 Hawks we may have been 17th, but in December - April, they were pretty much sold out especially during that 17 game winning streak or whatever it was. 

[marco102]

Also, @NBASupes the title of this thread should get you a timeout (joking). 

Trae's come on pretty strong lately.  In the month of January, 11 games, he's putting up the following

32.3 pts,  5.5 rebounds (am I the only one amazed at how well he rebounds for his size?), 10.7 assists on 45.9% from the field, 39.4% on three, and 82.5% from the line.  The Hawks are 4-7 in the games Trae's played.   

This run has pushed him to third in the NBA in scoring (29.5 pts a game) and second in assists (8.9 per game).  His PER is now 9th in the league at 24.51.  

Luka's tailed off a little from his hot start. He's still putting up excellent numbers. In the month of January, 13 games, he's putting up the following:

28.9 pts, 9.8 rebounds, and 8.6 assists on 44.9% from the field, and 33.6 on threes, 65.5% (YIKES!) from the line.  The Mavs are 8-5 for the month. 

League wide Luka is now 3rd in scoring (29 pts a game), tied for third in assists (8.8 per game) and 16th in rebounding  (9.6 per game).  He's 3rd in PER at 29.46 per game. 

Also, Luka's doing better on turnovers 4.0 to 4.7 for Trae.

These two guys are having excellent sophomore seasons.  Luka may be better than Trae right now, which is debatable, but the gap between them is not much at all. 

 

Edited January 28, 2020 by marco102

[marco102]

17 minutes ago, marco102 said:

Also, @NBASupes the title of this thread should get you a timeout (joking). 

Trae's come on pretty strong lately.  In the month of January, 11 games, he's putting up the following

32.3 pts,  5.5 rebounds (am I the only one amazed at how well he rebounds for his size?), 10.7 assists on 45.9% from the field, 39.4% on three, and 82.5% from the line.  The Hawks are 4-7 in the games Trae's played.   

This run has pushed him to third in the NBA in scoring (29.5 pts a game) and second in assists (8.9 per game).  His PER is now 9th in the league at 24.51.  

Luka's tailed off a little from his hot start. He's still putting up excellent numbers. In the month of January, 13 games, he's putting up the following:

28.9 pts, 9.8 rebounds, and 8.6 assists on 44.9% from the field, and 33.6 on threes, 65.5% (YIKES!) from the line.  The Mavs are 8-5 for the month. 

League wide Luka is now 3rd in scoring (29 pts a game), tied for third in assists (8.8 per game) and 16th in rebounding  (9.6 per game).  He's 3rd in PER at 29.46 per game. 

Also, Luka's doing better on turnovers 4.0 to 4.7 for Trae.

These two guys are having excellent sophomore seasons.  Luka may be better than Trae right now, which is debatable, but the gap between them is not much at all. 

 

Lukas 4th in scoring.

[macdaddy]

It is amazing how both these guys are elite players and how similar their numbers are outside of rebounds.

I agree about Trae's rebounding and he doesn't get enough credit.   He's tied for 3rd on the hawks for defensive rebounding.  Only Collins, Jabari, are better and tied with Len.   

And bball reference shows him with an official uniform #8 now !

8-11	Trae Young	PG	6-1	180	September 19, 1998	us	1	Oklahoma

[thecampster]

Just like last year, the thread is not aging well.  That is not to say that Trae has pulled away but the number suggest pulled back even for the year and has outplayed Luka for about 2 months.

[NBASupes]

On 1/28/2020 at 7:52 PM, thecampster said:

Just like last year, the thread is not aging well.  That is not to say that Trae has pulled away but the number suggest pulled back even for the year and has outplayed Luka for about 2 months.

You sure?

[NBASupes]

Luka has been nothing short of an elite top 5 player in the bubble while we didn't even qualify. I don't know why it's so hard for us to accept that Luka is like just better.