NBA rumors: 3 new players could hit the trade market, 1 comes off

1. Is Trae Young done in Atlanta?

Haynes certainly didn’t bury the lede and the first paragraph in this roundup of NBA rumors was a doozy:

"“Rival executives in attendance at the NBA’s annual G League Winter Showcase are of the belief that Atlanta Hawks star point guard Trae Young could be the next player on a rookie max extension to request a trade if the team doesn’t make inroads come postseason time.”"

To be clear, this is an outside perspective. Not based on anything from Young’s camp or anyone within the Hawks organization. Still, there were the issues with coach Nate McMillan earlier this season, rumbles of frustration in the locker room with Young and, at 16-15, the Hawks haven’t exactly set the world on fire after their splashy trade to add Dejounte Murray in the backcourt.

Young, for his part, has struggled (relative to his own lofty standards). His scoring is down from last season but he’s also shooting just 41.1 percent from the field and 30.7 percent from beyond the arc, both career lows. His percentages are slightly better when he’s on the court with Murray but still well below his career averages. And then there is his defense which continues to rate among the worst in the league by all-in-one metrics like 538’s RAPTOR.

That being said, the Hawks probably won’t entertain trade offers for him unless things get even worse in the locker room or Young forces their hand with a trade request. And even in that scenario, they may have a difficult time finding a deal that feels like equal value — Young’s skill set is so specialized and requires so much offensive responsibility to be ceded to him that there may not be many teams willing to swap the Hawks’ current problems for their own.

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