Hawks Predicted to Part Ways with Franchise Star at Trade Deadline

The Atlanta Hawks may finally be ready to make some bold moves. It seems like they are comfortable moving forward, building their team around Jalen Johnson. This means that Trae Young could be expendable. The Hawks could build a defensive juggernaut around length and versatility, and Young just doesn’t fit that mold. 

Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report recently predicted “The 1 Player On Every NBA Team Most Likely To Be Traded,” and he predicted Trae Young could be on a new team before we know it. 

“Trae Young was a strong trade candidate before the Atlanta Hawks proved they could play a more balanced, defensively competent brand of basketball without him.

Over the summer, he couldn't agree with Atlanta on an extension, and his impending free agency (via player option) seemed like an organic opportunity for both parties to decide whether they were better off together or apart.

Now that Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker appear capable of sharing top playmaking duties in a much more egalitarian attack and the defense no longer features a clear target for opponents to pick on, well...it's not hard to guess which way the Hawks are leaning. And that's before even considering the potential cost of a new deal for Young.”

Trae Young being on the trade market really just comes down to the ascendance of Johnson and the fact that he didn’t sign an extension this summer. 

The Hawks might not want to lose Young, but they definitely don’t want to lose him for nothing. Now that they have Jalen Johnson leading the way, they could flip Young for some nice young pieces to fit around him. If they can find a buyer, they will likely do that this year or this offseason.