Breakup brewing in Atlanta: what went wrong with Trae Young with the Hawks?

The story of Trae Young and the Hawks may be approaching its final chapter. The gifted point guard, one of the standout players of his generation, has come to feel like a diminishing asset – a star who no longer helps his team win. He was injured on October 29 and did not return until December 18. Since then, Atlanta went 0-6 before traveling to Oklahoma to face the mighty – or perhaps not so mighty anymore – Thunder. The poor run has convinced the front office that, no matter how good he is or how much he has given, the time has come to move on from a project that is going nowhere. The franchise feels stuck, clinging to scraps of what little success it once had, hoping to usher in a new era of prosperity whose arrival date is anyone’s guess.

One of the clearest signs that Young’s time may be running out is the player option in his contract for next summer, worth close to $50 million. If the Hawks truly believed in him as their cornerstone, logic suggests they would already have offered an extension – but they have not even tried. Young was selected fifth overall in the 2018 NBA draft, the one headlined by Luka Dončić. He was drafted by the Mavericks and immediately traded for the Slovenian, a move Mark Cuban had planned in advance. Their careers have remained intertwined ever since, without ever crossing paths again. One is now with the Lakers; the other, at 27, looks set for a change of scenery that will determine whether he is remembered as a toxic presence or a generational talent. The answer, if there is one, lies largely in his own hands. And sometimes a fresh start helps. You never know.

In any case, the Hawks will need to do far more than just trade Young – assuming anyone is willing to take on his contract and depending on what Atlanta can get in return – to truly reset their sporting direction. That means letting go of a player who, for all his flaws, finished second in the Rookie of the Year race (won by Dončić), has been a three-time All-Star and led the league in assists. He was also the driving force behind Atlanta’s run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021, something the franchise had not achieved since 2015 – and before that, since the distant prehistory of the competition. For all his current physical issues and uneven form, he remains the best player the Hawks have had in a long time. That alone makes the decision fraught.

Against that backdrop, the result in Oklahoma mattered little. Young did not play – officially through injury, though it remains to be seen whether he will ever wear the jersey of what has so far been his only NBA team again – and the defending champions won 140-129 by sheer momentum. The Hawks slumped to a seventh straight loss. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 39 points, six rebounds and six assists, supported by Chet Holmgren (24 points, nine rebounds) and Jalen Williams (20 points, nine rebounds, seven assists). For the visitors, Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 30 and Onyeka Okongwu added 26 points, 14 rebounds and six assists, while rookie Zaccharie Risacher – another disappointment – managed just 12. In the end, though, everything pointed in a different direction: toward guessing what comes next for Trae Young. No one knows yet, but there is a strong sense that his future lies somewhere very different from where he is now – for whatever reason.

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