The Atlanta Hawks have all the time chosen Trae Younger. They selected him the night time he was drafted, buying and selling Luka Doncic for him. They selected him once more as not too long ago as final summer season, when Atlanta traded Dejonte Murray to New Orleans and stored Younger because the core of its backcourt.
This summer season, that might change.
New Hawks new normal supervisor Onsi Saleh — in addition to the just-added Bryson Graham (senior vp of basketball operations) and Peter Dinwiddie (senior vp of technique and analytics) — have a choice to make about Younger, and by extension the long run course of the Hawks.
Younger is eligible for a four-year, $228.6 million max extension this offseason. Do the Hawks pay that, do they attempt to get Younger to re-sign for a smaller quantity, or do they give the impression of being to commerce him and retool the roster round their youthful stars Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels and Zaccharie Risacher? The Hawks additionally might push this choice again, these extension choices obtainable this summer season will nonetheless be obtainable all season and up via June 30 of 2026 (the danger by subsequent summer season is Younger declining his participant possibility and turning into a free agent, doubtlessly leaving for nothing).
Younger stated through the season what he desires is to win.
“I wanna win… if that’s in Atlanta, that’s the place I wanna be,” Younger stated.
Younger was an All-Star final season averaging 24.2 factors and a league-best 11.6 assists a recreation whereas taking pictures 34% from past the arc, but in addition had a league-high 355 turnovers (4.7 a recreation), and he’s a minus defender focused by different groups. He’s considered across the league as an excellent participant, however one who places a ceiling on how good your workforce might be. Nevertheless final season we began to see Younger evolve his recreation some, he tried more durable on protection, and he labored a little bit extra off ball, constructive steps we might see develop.
No max, but in addition no commerce?
First, it’s almost unattainable to ascertain the Hawks re-signing Younger for the utmost. It is a workforce that, if it re-signs gamers comparable to Clint Capela and Caris LeVert, could be flirting with the luxurious tax, one thing possession is extremely unlikely to need to pay for a 40-42 workforce that didn’t advance previous the play-in. Max out Younger and that new administration goes to restrict its roster-building choices in future years as a result of they are going to be flirting with the tax.
As for buying and selling Younger, whereas these rumors are well-liked on NBA Twitter, they go nowhere with NBA entrance places of work. Followers tried to hyperlink him to San Antonio for a very long time, however the Spurs traded for DeAaron Fox (and are about to draft Dylan Harper at No. 2). Zach Lowe stated it greatest on his Ringer podcast.
“I don’t assume there’s an amazing marketplace for him. So I don’t assume there’s a commerce on the market that fully simply reorients the franchise in a constructive manner.”
That leaves two choices. The primary is to get Younger to signal a extra team-friendly contract. ESPN’s Bobby Marks threw out a three-year, $120 million extension, which feels about proper. That’s a $40 million per season contract ($17 million a yr lower than the utmost) and a shorter time period, which has Younger again in the marketplace at age 29. It’s additionally a extra tradable contract in a yr if the Hawks (or Younger) need to go that route.
The opposite possibility is to postpone any choice and see how this season performs out, then make a name. If Johnson stays wholesome all through the season and the Hawks add depth via the draft and with the mid-level exception, this could possibly be a workforce pushing for a top-six seed. After that, each side is likely to be extra all for a below-max contract extension (and if issues go poorly, the flexibility to half methods is simpler).
It’s Saleh and the brand new entrance workplace’s first main choice, and it’ll give us a good suggestion of the course they plan to take the workforce within the coming years.
