Prior to last week’s trade deadline, the San Antonio Spurs allegedly made an attempt to acquire point guard Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks.
Atlanta was reportedly considering its options before the deadline and considering parting ways with their lone All-Star, according to Howard Beck of The Ringer. The Hawks are allegedly more receptive to dealing Young than they have ever been, though it is unknown how deep the conversations went.
“He’s available,” an executive from the Eastern Conference informed Beck. “I think they would love to trade Trae.”
Young, who is in the second year of a five-year, $215.2 million contract, is still one of the NBA’s best offensive players, but his defensive shortcomings have made it difficult to build a team around him. The Hawks, who are currently 24-30 and battling for the final Play-In Tournament spot with the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday, also considered trading Young’s backcourt partner, Dejounte Murray, before the deadline, but ultimately decided against it.
The front staff will probably keep looking into ways to assemble a team capable of making deep postseason runs on a regular basis. A 2021 run to the Eastern Conference Finals appeared to have deceived the Hawks, who at the moment doubled in on their core and saw diminishing results. In the last two postseasons, Atlanta has been ousted in the first round.
Given that they are now in the midst of a comprehensive reconstruction around Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs’ interest in Young is remarkable. With Jeremy Sochan playing point guard out of position, they’ve had trouble getting into their offensive setups, so adding Young would have had an immediate positive effect.
Gregg Popovich and company believe they’re far closer to winning with Wembanyama than their current record suggests, as seen by San Antonio’s desire to take a win-now stance.
