Trae Young is in Washington now, traded away in the prime of his career by the team that drafted him. At 27 years old, Young was supposed to be at the peak of his powers, leading a re-tooled Hawks to the top half of a wide-open Eastern Conference. Instead, he was traded for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert.
No draft picks. No swaps. Just a 34-year-old McCollum, who is still a fine player but on an out-sized contract at this point, and Kispert, a wing who can space the floor.
It is an ignominious end to the Young era in Atlanta. His downfall began in November 2021, when the Hawks started 4-5 after a surprising run to the Conference Finals. Asked about the tough start, Young said, “I'm not going to lie, it's a lot more boring than the playoffs. You got to find that motivation to play like the playoffs,” which is where my disdain for Young was born. Winning players find motivation in playoff losses because they failed. Young acted entitled.
He got Lloyd Pierce fired, then Nate McMillan, too. Now, with the Hawks sitting at 18-21, it was his turn to go.
Why now? And why for so little?
The answer, on the surface, is that the situation became untenable; that Young simply refused to adjust to the style that had been winning without him. But beyond that is the monster known as the collective bargaining agreement, which has dropped the “mess around” slider lower than ever, and increased the “find out” to an all-time high.
Simply put, the days of teams riding out fringe stars like Young are over.
Teams used to just hand out extensions to players like Young for a variety of reasons. First, they were so invested in the player that cutting the cord at 27 felt rash. It was a bit of the sunk cost fallacy, believing that they had gone this far, maybe he can find something in his prime that clicks with the right supporting cast.
Second,