Will Trae finally adjust his game this upcoming season

[NBASupes]

Into a more team friendly player. Playing team ball, not so many isolation. Learning from Jokic. Playing much better defense even if he's limited. He's getting knocked from a lot of NBA coaches who don't see it with him. I been saying, I think he's massively overpaid. There has to be a higher floor game he needs to achieve to me. I understand this site isn't the most realistic with Trae. At all.

You can't keep seeing coaches and his peers roll their eyes at him and think Trae isn't a part of the issue. I doubt any GM in this league would trade Mikal Bridges for Trae outside of ours who have Trae and value him more because of what he means to us and our ticket sales. 

His floor is still insanely low and that's a problem to me. 

Edited June 5, 2023 by NBASupes

[Spud2nique]

17 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

His floor is still insanely low and that's a problem to me. 

From the jump, Trae was special and will always be a superstar. 
 

Team friendly player? I dunno dude always looks to dime,

Only thing he needs to do is work on nailing those threes at a higher rate and tighten up that efficiency, otherwise, it’s just a matter of experience and time at it.

[Diesel]

Seems like a terribly biased presentation here. You can't ignore the stats...  You want to... you want others to.. but you just can't ignore the stats.  27/10..  Only a few players in the History of this game has been able to do that.  Name your favorite PG and he hasn't done that.   Like I said, that can't be ignored.

Then on top of that.. when you say his style of play can't win... you have to look back at 2021 Playoffs.   Had Trae not been injured, there is a fairly good chance that we go to the chip and win it.  You want to ignore that.  You want to call it a fluke.  You want to say that everybody was having an off game... No.. it was Trae Young. 

I believe that with this coach, his game will mature.  Not to say that his game is all bad (like you're suggesting) but to say that he raises it. 

Now... we have to get into the other bit of truth...  Until this year, Trae really didn't have a strong supporting cast.  There's a serious flaw between CC and JC.   Until we got DM, there was not another player capable of averaging 20 ppg. We had great shooters, but we lost 4 great shooter at once and JC's shooting went to trash with his injury. 

We have pinned all of our hope on good draft picks but guys who are still a far way off. 

So bottom line, when you want to know why we're not succeeding, it's not because of Trae. 

 

[NBASupes]

2 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

From the jump, Trae was special and will always be a superstar. 
 

Team friendly player? I dunno dude always looks to dime,

Only thing he needs to do is work on nailing those threes at a higher rate and tighten up that efficiency, otherwise, it’s just a matter of experience and time at it.

I think he could be special and is special at times. 

I would love for him to take more of a feel for the game approach as Jokic does. 

All of those things will improve if he does what's best for the team. 

[RedDawg#8]

Trae is 24, will be 25 next season., meaning he is just now entering his prime.

There is so much room for growth and you see the light bulb going off.

Trae is due for another great season (seems he only gets his respect every other year)

Quinn has his hands on him. You saw him raise his game in the playoffs and make winning defensive plays.

Its about effort and focus right now. Leave the refs and hecklers alone, play your game, build up and sacrifice for your teammates.

Trae has it in him. It’s a maturity thing. That chip on his shoulder that feeds the ego and says “screw the world,” he has to harness that energy and put it strictly in to winning and nothing else.

I see it coming.

[benhillboy]

He’s still concerned about trivial high school junior varsity cheerleading sh%t like scrubbing the Hawks from his Instagram.  Kid is gone, in the literal and figurative sense.  He doesn’t even know how to value team possessions on either end yet.  And as inarticulate as he is starting a podcast is silly at very best.

Edited June 5, 2023 by benhillboy

[NBASupes]

4 hours ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Trae is 24, will be 25 next season., meaning he is just now entering his prime.

There is so much room for growth and you see the light bulb going off.

Trae is due for another great season (seems he only gets his respect every other year)

Quinn has his hands on him. You saw him raise his game in the playoffs and make winning defensive plays.

Its about effort and focus right now. Leave the refs and hecklers alone, play your game, build up and sacrifice for your teammates.

Trae has it in him. It’s a maturity thing. That chip on his shoulder that feeds the ego and says “screw the world,” he has to harness that energy and put it strictly in to winning and nothing else.

I see it coming.

I hope so. I just feel we are at a career crossroad with Trae. It's clear he thinks he's greater than where the NBA thinks he is. 

[Final_quest]

The organization has to put him in a position to succeed.  We had our highest level of success when Capela was a monster DPOY candidate, NBA leading rebounder.  Plus Bogi was shooting 50%+ from distance and Collins and Huerter were in top form.  Then you had Gallo coming off the bench along with a host of other veterans like Lou, Solo, and Tony Snell.  THANK GOD Hunter and Cam were injured or we would have never gone on a win streak like that. 

And no there was much more to the formula than spamming the PNR with Capela.  Capela, Bogi, and Collins have been slowed by injuries to keep them from their 2021 level.  At the time many thought Capela was the MVP with regular 20/20 nights and 4-5 blocks. We haven't been able to match the supporting cast we once had.  Our front court has been the strength of our defense, but it was much better in 2021.  Then we had all of the guys shooting 40% from distance. 

We were a nightmare and haven't been able to match the personnel we had back then. A lot of the same names, but they aren't the same players which confuses people and shifts the blame unfairly to Trae.  

[NBASupes]

2 hours ago, benhillboy said:

He’s still concerned about trivial high school junior varsity cheerleading sh%t like scrubbing the Hawks from his Instagram.  Kid is gone, in the literal and figurative sense.  He doesn’t even know how to value team possessions on either end yet.  And as inarticulate as he is starting a podcast is silly at very best.

This is honestly what worries me the most. I see the same shit each year and I am waiting for tremendous growth. I see shades as @RedDawg#8 mentioned but man, it's hard to buy in. 

[Gray Mule]

Look at the Hawks records.

Look at the Atlanta coaches.

Look at the roster of the Hawks.

All this must be considered.  It's true.  Trae Young needs to mature yet a bit more.  He's great!  No doubt about it.  Some how, some way, he must improve the mental point of his game.  Like a child, he cries to the officials when he believes he has somehow been done wrong.  S--- happens!  He must learn this and learn to continue playing.  

Trae has a tendency of trying to force things.  Sometimes he does.  It works.  Everyone is happy with the results.  However, when it doesn't work it makes the entire sequence look bad because it is.  

Trae Young can be better.  When this happens the Hawks will be better.  I'm hopeful that our new head coach and all his new assistant coaches can make this happen.  This is part of their job.  Improve each and every member of the Hawks roster.  

[TheNorthCydeRises]

7 hours ago, Diesel said:

Seems like a terribly biased presentation here. You can't ignore the stats...  You want to... you want others to.. but you just can't ignore the stats.  27/10..  Only a few players in the History of this game has been able to do that.  Name your favorite PG and he hasn't done that.   Like I said, that can't be ignored.

 

These are undeniable facts.  And he's done that without playing alongside another high level player.  Murray may have been the best offensive player he's ever played with. 

Diesel, here's the crazy thing.  You have all of these detractors about Trae's game, yet, every single coach in the league game plans to stop HIM.  And they fear his ability to facilitate and get in the paint.  That's why they double him.

I've never seen a PG get double teamed more than he does, yet, he's the most overrated player in the league.  They flat out fear that dude to the point that people take cheap shots at him sometimes.

 

7 hours ago, Diesel said:

Then on top of that.. when you say his style of play can't win... you have to look back at 2021 Playoffs.   Had Trae not been injured, there is a fairly good chance that we go to the chip and win it.  You want to ignore that.  You want to call it a fluke.  You want to say that everybody was having an off game... No.. it was Trae Young. 

 

I don't know about winning the chip, but we're definitely there.  The comments about our playoff run in 2021 are laughable. Now they say the Knicks weren't that good, despite them winning 16 of their last 20 games to close the season.  Now they say the Sixers weren't that good, despite them being the #1 seed in the conference and the favorite to win the NBA title.

The kid was the leader of a playoff team that made the deepest run in Atlanta Hawks playoff history ( not St Louis, but Atlanta ), yet, people act like that HE'S the one keeping the team from reaching greater heights. 

Trae has won 2 playoff series and lost 3, in a 3 year span.  He's only played 5 years in the league and he's only 25 years old, on a team that is one of the top 10 youngest teams in the league.  Playoff maturity isn't just about the star player playing great. It's about the role players being able to come up big in situations as well.

 

7 hours ago, Diesel said:

I believe that with this coach, his game will mature.  Not to say that his game is all bad (like you're suggesting) but to say that he raises it. 

 

I would like to see what could Trae "raise" his game to, that would lead to the Hawks winning more?  Last year, he had about as good of a season as a point guard could have, but flamed out in the playoffs when Miami put the Jordan Rules on him.

He loves Quin and has said that Quin is encouraging him to take more 3s, which is right up Trae's alley.  Before Nate, LP did have Trae taking a lot of 3s.  If Quinn has Trae increasing his 3 point volume, we need him back around 37%+ on that shot, which should enable him to blow games open a lot more.  And if Quinn installs an offense that can get him more catch and shoot looks, that should help him as well.

Truth be told, the fact that LP nor Nate are candidates for ANY coaching jobs around the league, should tell people that Trae may not have received top level coaching at this time.

 

7 hours ago, Diesel said:

Now... we have to get into the other bit of truth...  Until this year, Trae really didn't have a strong supporting cast.  There's a serious flaw between CC and JC.   Until we got DM, there was not another player capable of averaging 20 ppg. We had great shooters, but we lost 4 great shooter at once and JC's shooting went to trash with his injury. 

 

I kind of disagree with this.  The 2021 squad had the right mix of young guys and vets that a playoff team should have.  I think that's easily the best squad Trae has played with.

Lou Williams, despite his defensive issues, was a very good luxury to have coming off the bench to provide offense.  What he did in Game 4 of the Milwaukee series when Trae was out, is the kind of things a team needs from a vet.

Gallo's shooting was big time that season. And he bailed us out on tough situations that Collins just didn't have the offensive ability to do. And we all know about the fantastic play he made in Game 7 vs Philly.

Tony Snell gave us nothing in the playoffs, but did have great shooting during the regular season that helped our bench.

And while "the Knife" Solomon Hill was almost a negative every time he stepped on the floor, he did provide much needed veteran leadership in the locker room, and at times, made the Hawks a physical team.

The 2023 team has POTENTIAL to be a high level team, but the lack of experience + lack of toughness were 2 things they didn't have over the 2021 team.

 

7 hours ago, Diesel said:

We have pinned all of our hope on good draft picks but guys who are still a far way off. 

So bottom line, when you want to know why we're not succeeding, it's not because of Trae. 

 

 

Exactamundo!!

Trae needs to shoot the 3 better and he needs to limit his open court turnovers.  But he's going to give you high level play more than he's not going to give it to you.  If that's the case, it's up to the players surrounding Trae to elevate their ceiling as players.

Trae could afford to scale back his game a little, and possibly be more efficient as a shooter IF his teammates shot the ball better, especially on wide open looks.  The Hawks were a dismal 27th in the league on Catch and Shoot 3s.  In a league where 3 point shooting is critical, we were horrible at it, only shooting 34.7%. 

( Miami was 28th by the way, which is why they were so up and down during the season. In the playoffs though, they're #1, shooting 43.4% on Catch and Shoot 3s. That's why they're in the NBA Finals. )

So if the Hawks shot 34.7% on catch and shoot 3s, let's see who was making or missing those shots:

• A. Holiday:   43.5% . . ( 0.4 made catch and shoot 3s per game )
• Bogi:               39.3% . . ( 1.9 makes . . . led the team )
• Bey:                38.2% . . ( 1.5 makes )
• Young:           37% . . .  ( 0.5 makes )
• AJ Griffin:    36.4% . . ( 1.0 makes )
• Hunter:         33.9% . . ( 1.2 makes )
• Murray:         32.4% . . ( 1.1 makes )
• J Johnson:   29.8% . .  ( 0.4 makes )
• Collins:          29.8% . .  ( 1.0 makes )

Let's not act like we didn't talk about this all year.  The Hawks were a low volume, low making 3 point shooting team that also shot a below average league percentage from 3. 

Hell, we were a better 3 point shooting team pulling up from 3 than we were on catch and shoot 3s ( 35.7% to 34.7% ).  And Trae, by far the guy taking the most pull up 3s, only shot 32.7% on those shot types.

So when we talk about the Hawks getting to that next level, it has to happen on the defensive end, and with our 3 point shooting.  We can't have our main guys missing that many catch and shoot 3s.  That's what the league is built on right now.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

The catch and shoot prowess of the 2021 squad was undeniable.  It's a reason why we caught fire after LP was fired and Bogi came back from injury.  That team could knock down everything.

• Snell:           59.2% ( 1.3 makes on catch and shoot 3s . . . Mr. Automatic )
• Bogi:            45.3% ( 2.5 makes . . . led the team )
• Collins:       40.3%  ( 1.3 makes . . . wow )
• Gallo:           39.9%  ( 1.6 makes )
• Huerter:     37.8%  ( 1.6 makes )
• Trae:            37.3%  ( 0.5 makes )
• Williams:    37.3%  ( 0.4 makes )
• Hunter:       34.7%  ( 1.1 makes )
• Solo:            31.5%   ( 0.9 makes )
• Reddish:    26.9%  ( 1.0 makes )

[Spud2nique]

If you just look to see who “liked” the original posters post on this thread, you can just about close this thread. #ifyouknowuknow #heaintus #fakehawkfans

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, Final_quest said:

The organization has to put him in a position to succeed.  We had our highest level of success when Capela was a monster DPOY candidate, NBA leading rebounder.  Plus Bogi was shooting 50%+ from distance and Collins and Huerter were in top form.  Then you had Gallo coming off the bench along with a host of other veterans like Lou, Solo, and Tony Snell.  THANK GOD Hunter and Cam were injured or we would have never gone on a win streak like that. 
 

 

UNDENIABLE FACTS!!

As much as we all wanted the kids to succeed on the wing, they were just too inconsistent and injury prone to stabilize us. But when we had more veteran stability in the lineup, the team took off in the 2nd half of the year, along with the coaching change.

People talk about all of Trae Young's perceived flaws.  But if people simply shot the ball better when they got wide open looks, and secured defensive rebounds after we force a missed shot, we'd easily be a 50 win team.

That's why I believe that even if Trae improved to have the best and most efficient season of his career ( on both sides of the ball ), but everyone else stayed the same, we'd still be in this same predicament.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

All time Atlanta Hawks playoff records ( All-Star caliber players only )

• Trae Young               ( 12 - 15 ) . . .  44.4%
• Paul Millsap              ( 17 - 22 ) . . .  43.6%
• Al Horford                 ( 32 - 42 ) . . . 43.2%
• Doc Rivers                ( 19 - 25 ) . . .  43.2%
• Dominique Wilkins    ( 20 - 31 ) . . . 41.2%
• Joe Johnson             ( 19 - 27 ) . . .  40.4%
• Josh Smith                ( 21 - 31 ) . . .  40.4%
• Lou Hudson               ( 21 - 31 ) . . .  40.4%
• Dikembe Mutombo     ( 8 - 15 ) . . .  34.7%
• Mookie Blaylock        ( 17 - 33 ) . . .  34.0%
• Steve Smith              ( 12 - 24 ) . . .   33.3%
• Pete Maravich             ( 5 - 12 ) . . .   29.4%

[JayBirdHawk]

Trae has his flaws: needs better efficiency, play/effort on defense, limits TOs.....but there is so much 'other' stuff:

Coaching: Nate - I complained early at the start of last season and this season about Nate's antiquated offensive system.

Wings: When we had the trio of Huerter, Cam Dre....I said 2 years ago, the Hawks needed at least one of them to be the Yang to Trae's Ying: one took his ball and asked for a trade thinking he was better than he was, one got traded to save the owner money, the last is still here but when is he gonna show us something that resembles his #4 pick status?

Vets vs Youth

.....I can keep going, but why bother!

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Playoff record of players who made the All-NBA team this season, with Trae included in that mix

 

• Stephen Curry        ( 98 - 48 ) . . . 67.8%
• Lebron James         ( 182 - 100 ). . 64.5%
• Jayson Tatum         ( 52 - 42 ) . . . 55.3%
• Jaylen Brown          ( 58 - 47 ) . . . 55.2%
• Giannis                    ( 43 - 36 ) . . . 55.4%
• Nikola Jokic            ( 34 - 31 ) . . .  52.3%
• Jimmy Butler          ( 60 - 57 ) . . .  51.3%
• Joel Embiid             ( 27 - 26 ) . . .  50.9%
• Julius Randle             (  7 - 8 ) . . .  46.7%
• Trae Young              ( 12 - 15 ) . . .  44.4%
• Luka Doncic            ( 12 - 16 ) . . .  42.9%
• De'Aaron Fox             ( 3 - 4 ) . . .   42.9%
• Donovan Mitchell   ( 18 - 26 ) . . .   40.9%
• SGA                           ( 5 - 8 ) . . . .  38.5%
• Damian Lillard        ( 22 - 39 ) . . .  36.1%
• Domatus Sabonis    ( 6 - 14 ) . . . . 30.0%

[macdaddy]

I just don't get why there's still this appetite to tear this guy down.  What's the motivation?  When we started this rebuild everyone said it'll take 5 years to get to relevancy.  We tanked for 2 years after Trae got here and then first year we don't tank we go to the ECF.  Yeah we had 2 fairly disappointing years after that but we were still a playoff team while our front office was in total disarray.  

But the narrative is 'we can't win with Trae'.  News flash we already have.  5 years in the league, 3 playoff appearances, 1 ECF and Trae is by far the best player on the team those 3 years.  

[Final_quest]

3 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I just don't get why there's still this appetite to tear this guy down.  What's the motivation?  When we started this rebuild everyone said it'll take 5 years to get to relevancy.  We tanked for 2 years after Trae got here and then first year we don't tank we go to the ECF.  Yeah we had 2 fairly disappointing years after that but we were still a playoff team while our front office was in total disarray.  

But the narrative is 'we can't win with Trae'.  News flash we already have.  5 years in the league, 3 playoff appearances, 1 ECF and Trae is by far the best player on the team those 3 years.  

Well, I always ask who are the guys drafted since Trae that are outperforming him?  You can name maybe 2 players, but shouldn't we be glad we have one of the top drafted players of the past 5 years?

[shakes]

He didn't adjust his game last off season so I doubt he does it this off season.

 

At this point I've given up on him ever giving a crap about moving without the ball.  That ain't ever happening folks.

 

My new hope is that he grows up and at least improves on his shot selection.  I would also like to see him become a more willing passer early in the shot clock and also a more accurate passer when driving and kicking to the perimeter.  Those are a couple areas where he can definitely improve without changing his entire play style.