The Atlanta Hawks have always chosen Trae Young. They chose him the night he was drafted, trading Luka Doncic for him. They chose him again as recently as last summer, when Atlanta traded Dejonte Murray to New Orleans and kept Young as the core of its backcourt.
This summer, that could change.
New Hawks new general manager Onsi Saleh — as well as the just-added Bryson Graham (senior vice president of basketball operations) and Peter Dinwiddie (senior vice president of strategy and analytics) — have a decision to make about Young, and by extension the future direction of the Hawks.
Young is eligible for a four-year, $228.6 million max extension this offseason. Do the Hawks pay that, do they try to get Young to re-sign for a smaller amount, or do they look to trade him and retool the roster around their younger stars Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels and Zaccharie Risacher? The Hawks also could push this decision back, those extension decisions available this summer will still be available all season and up through June 30 of 2026 (the risk by next summer is Young declining his player option and becoming a free agent, potentially leaving for nothing).
Young said during the season what he wants is to win.
“I wanna win… if that’s in Atlanta, that’s where I wanna be,” Young said.
Young was an All-Star last season averaging 24.2 points and a league-best 11.6 assists a game while shooting 34% from beyond the arc, but also had a league-high 355 turnovers (4.7 a game), and he is a minus defender targeted by other teams. He is viewed around the league as a good player, but one who puts a ceiling on how good your team can be. However last season we started to see Young evolve his game some, he tried harder on defense, and he worked a little more off ball, positive steps we could see grow.
No max, but also no trade?
First, it’s nearly impossible to envision the Hawks re-signing Young for the maximum. This is a team that, if it re-signs players such as Clint Capela and Caris LeVert, would be flirting with the luxury tax, something ownership is highly unlikely to want to pay for a 40-42 team that didn’t advance past the play-in. Max out Young and that new management is going to limit its roster-building options in future years because they will be flirting with the tax.
As for trading Young, while those rumors are popular on NBA Twitter, they go nowhere with NBA front offices. Fans tried to link him to San Antonio for a long time, but the Spurs traded for DeAaron Fox (and are about to draft Dylan Harper at No. 2). Zach Lowe said it best on his Ringer podcast.
“I don’t think there’s a great market for him. So I don’t think there’s a trade out there that completely just reorients the franchise in a positive way.”
That leaves two options. The first is to get Young to sign a more team-friendly contract. ESPN’s Bobby Marks threw out a three-year, $120 million extension, which feels about right. That’s a $40 million per season contract ($17 million a year less than the maximum) and a shorter term, which has Young back on the market at age 29. It’s also a more tradable contract in a year if the Hawks (or Young) want to go that route.
The other option is to postpone any decision and see how this season plays out, then make a call. If Johnson remains healthy throughout the season and the Hawks add depth through the draft and with the mid-level exception, this could be a team pushing for a top-six seed. After that, both sides might be more interested in a below-max contract extension (and if things go poorly, the ability to part ways is easier).
It’s Saleh and the new front office’s first major decision, and it will give us a good idea of the direction they plan to take the team in the coming years.
