Trae Young... just got issued a reality check courtesy of the Miami Heat. ...before mercifully finishing a five-game gentleman's sweep of the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday.
Beyond averaging just 15.4 points while being held to single digits in two of the five games, Young's series numbers look abysmal.
- 30 turnovers against 22 made shots
- 18 percent 3-point shooting
- 31 percent overall shooting
Young bookended the series with a combined 19 points on 3-for-24 shooting, including 0 for 12 from 3, and 12 turnovers in Games 1 and 5. He posted 10 turnovers in Game 2 and never topped eight assists in any game. For all intents and purposes, he was erased...
...Young is not yet the kind of superstar that can thrive independent of his own terms.
Awkward. Better: Young is the kind of superstar who can only thrive on his own terms.
He needs to be able to get into the paint. He needs to be covered for defensively. Miami kept him from doing the latter, and they went after him every chance they got on the defensive end. The math of Young is simple: He has to create a ton of points to come out as a plus when you subtract all the points he's responsible for giving up, either directly or indirectly. He was minus-58 for the series.
After the Game 5 loss, Young said the Heat defense was "for sure" the best he's ever faced. ..."I couldn't get to certain places I normally get to."
That place, again, is the paint. When he can't get there,...he starts becoming too reliant on 3-point shooting, which, contrary to popular belief, has not historically been Young's strength.
...Young is, and long has been, an average shooter disguised as a great one. Young shot 36 percent form 3 in his lone college season, 32 percent his rookie season, 36 percent his second season and 34 percent last season.
Miami...game-planned to force Young into his worst habit, which is falling deeply in love with the 3-ball, with the operative term being deep.
After Game 1...Young had this to say: "If you're watching the game, you see they have five people in the paint when I have the ball. They're doing a great job of showing help and not letting me get into the paint. If I try to drive by somebody, they're sending a double and forcing me to kick it to my teammates."
Man, he DOES! lol
This is what happens when you're a superstar and you always have the ball. You're easy to track; not necessarily easy to defend, but easy to track. Hawks president Travis Schlenk has spoken with me numerous times about his and the coaches' efforts to get Young to see the value of moving more without the ball, where tracking him becomes a more difficult prospect. This is something he still needs to commit to and work on but it also requires the Hawks fielding enough capable playmakers that Young can be freed to move off the ball.
Schlenk has tried to construct his roster with that in mind. From Kevin Huerter to Bogdan Bogdanovic and DeAndre Hunter, who didn't have a great season but has evolved as a self-creator, you can see the idea of multiple handlers on the court. But the gap between those guys and Young is so great that it's difficult to go away from Young creating everything...
I did notice that just following the games in the play-by-play. Atlanta's roster SUCKS. I was not impressed with Huerter or the Director.
As constructed, the Hawks are almost entirely reliant on Young being magical.
Yes.
...the bottom line is that Young, from the very first quarter of the series, too easily gave into that frustration. He said to heck with the hassle and started hoisting up 3s.
That is what I meant by being undisciplined.
That was an excellent article.