The Trae Young era is over in Atlanta with his trade to the Washington Wizards

After 7 and ½ seasons, the Trae Young era in Atlanta is over as the Hawks traded the 4-time All-Star on Wednesday night to the Washington Wizards in exchange for C.J. McCollum and Corey Kispert. Yes, that is it. The Hawks missed the boat on a Young trade, always hoping to get more than they were being offered. Why both teams did it and what deals could the Hawks make next.

Let’s start with the Wizards part of this. Adding Trae Young at this price is a no brainer. I am not personally the biggest Young fan but this return makes it worth the swing. We have seen Trae Young be great at his peak, in fact just last season he averaged 24 points and 11 assists per game. They’ll likely start Young, Bilal Coulibaly, Khris Middleton (at least until he is bought out), Kyshawn George and Alex Sarr with 5th overall pick Tre Johnson replacing Middleton at some point. I am very excited for the Young/Sarr pick and roll. This season with Sarr as a roll man in the pick and roll, the Wizards are scoring 1.03 points per possession on 3.8 pick and rolls per game, according to Synergy. Those are good numbers and Young should only help. For this price, it is a no brainer deal for Washington. To acquire a player in his prime who has had the highs that Young has had is a good piece of business for the Wizards. They badly need a star player and that is what Young is. With that said, he is not even close to a perfect player and there are a lot of negatives.

First off, he has only played 10 games this season and he has not played well in those games. Averaging 19.3 points and 8.9 assists per game on shooting splits of .42/.31/.86. When Young is not making his threes, and he has not this season making just 30.5% of them, his offense can become ineffective. Young has never been a two point shooter, the 50% he is shooting inside the arch this season is among the best of his career. He is listed at 6 foot 2 and he is probably shorter than that. It can really hamper his ability to finish around the cup which makes his three point shooting so important. He is also a dreadful defensive player, the Hawks are giving up 129.2 points per 100 possessions in the 280 minutes Young played for them this season, 15.3 points worse than when he is not on the court. That’s not great and a major reason for this deal. So while the Wizards are acquiring a very good player, they are also getting a very flawed player.

There is also the issue of Young’s contractual situation. He has a player option for next season at $49 million and it sounds like he is likely to pick that up so he will be on the roster next season but as an expiring contract for next season. I don’t think that the Wizards made this trade with just this season and next season in mind, especially considering they owe the Knicks their first round pick if it falls out of the top 8. There should be some kind of extension, 3yrs/$130 million is something that could make sense (Young cannot sign a deal longer than 3-years with Washington in the present moment). That should be good enough for Young to sign, $43 million a year is a big number and it actually would make me nervous but a 3-year deal makes it fine. A new contract is a big part of this but this is a no brainer deal for Washington. At just 27-years-old, Trae Young should be just entering his prime and we have seen that building an offense around him can work. This is good asset management for Washington and a low risk move.

On the other side, this is a deal the Hawks needed to make. They missed the boat on getting real assets for Young and are trading him at a time where his value is at an all time low. That is poor asset management and this is not an inspiring return by any means but they just needed to rip the band-aid off. The Trae Young era was over, they were never going to capture what they did in 2021 when they went to the Eastern Conference Finals again with him as focal point. It was time for the Hawks to trade Young and while the return is underwhelming at best, this era needed to end.

That said, I do think Corey Kispert is a good addition for Atlanta. He is in the first year of a 4yr/$54 million deal and can help the Hawks with his shooting. A career 38% three point shooter, Kispert is shooting 39.5% from beyond the arc this season on 4 attempts per game. Kispert can play the floor spacing role off of the bench for the Hawks around Jalen Johnson and others. I also like adding C.J. McCollum to this team. He can be a primary ball handler off of their bench (though that role could take some adjusting for him) and his shot making will help as well. The Hawks needed to move off of Young and while this return could be categorized as disappointing that does not mean it is the wrong move.

There are rumors that the next trade the Hawks want to make is for Mavericks big man Anthony Davis. The player portion of the deal is simple, Davis and another player (let’s say D’Angelo Russell) for Kristaps Porzingis, Zaccharie Risacher and Luke Kennard is a legal trade and keeps the Hawks out of the luxury tax. Atlanta would likely need to toss in some kind of draft compensation to get Dallas to agree to this deal. It could be the lesser of the Bucks and Pelicans 2027 pick they got in the Dejounte Murray trade, it could be either the Spurs, Cavs or their own pick this year (that swap is complicated) or a different pick I am not considering. If I were running the Hawks, I would not be looking to make this trade right now. I just don’t think trading for Davis propels them in the east in a real way and it hampers their ability to make a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade in the future. Davis is 32-years-old (he will be 33 in March), is hurt a lot and has not been as effective since the trade to the Mavericks. Yes, he is still a really good player who would improve their defense a lot but I just would be hesitant to make a big deal for that player if I were running the Hawks.

The Trae Young era in Atlanta is over. The return is underwhelming but this is the right move by the Hawks. They have been significantly better without Young this season, they clear out his $49 million player option for next season and they add 2 players who can help them. It will be interesting to see what they do next, if anything at all, before the February 5th trade deadline.