You can blame Trae Young for so many of Atlanta’s first-round exits to Miami. He is in 22-to-69 from the floor, shoots 17% from 3 and has as many passes (31) as he has assisted (31). He doesn’t even listen in group chat before their last game of the season, so if you want to kill him, feel free. I won’t stop you.
However, the biggest reason the team couldn’t reactivate the magic of the final season when it reached the Eastern Conference finals was the Hawks themselves. Comparing Young to the player he was traded to on draft night, Luke Dončić, is unfair, but even more unreasonable than to expect him to lead the team to continued playoff success as is the number 1 scoring threat.
Being the #1 pick is not the same as being the best player on the team. Atlanta could win a title with Young as its best player; it couldn’t win the title with Young being the actual scoring threat.
It doesn’t sound right to say that about a guy who was this year’s top scorer. He averaged 28 points, nearly 10 assists and nearly 4 rebounds with 46-38-90 splits. How the hell could this fascinating artist write that? That’s because I’ve seen this before.
The Portland Trail Blazers, a team I follow to an unhealthy degree, also use a short, first shot, play-defensive-last point guard and I think it’s safe to say that the top-notch Damian Lillard is better than any other. any version of Young we’ve seen. However, Lillard’s playoff defeats abound, and often the formula for beating the All-Star six times is similar to the one that took out Young. Defend them with bigger players, beat them on pick and roll, get their teammates to beat you, and live with the incredibly hard hits they take.
G/O Media may receive a commission
You could even argue that their teams running to the grand finals brought as much luck as it did brilliantly. The Knicks and Thunder are overrated, the Nuggets and 76ers play well but neither Joel Embiid nor Nikola Jokic are MVP contenders or winners yet, and each has faced championship teams in Golden State and Milwaukee, who beat them with relative ease despite the injury. player.
That’s not to say fans should be any less excited about replays of Lillard’s series end-of-series typo scene from nearly half the courthouse, or that Young became the best villain at Madison Square Garden since Reggie Miller. However, the deep playoffs with the same make-up and lineup design didn’t work for Lillard, and if his series against the Heat is any indication, it won’t work for Young either.
The difference between the two is that Dame knows he has to trust his teammates, and Young hasn’t learned that yet. While Portland was belatedly in overhaul mode because Lillard’s trust in CJ McCollum was a mistake, Young didn’t have McCollum. However, what his team has enough assets to exchange for the next disgraced All-Star star.
The list of 6-foot-1 and lower point defenders who are the #1 scoring pick on a team that won the final is short. In fact, it’s not even a list. It’s a name: Isaiah Thomas.
The next closest person is Allen Iverson. The answer reached the final in a bad season of the NBA, but still only won a single victory. (Thank God it stopped the Lakers from making it through to the knockout stages.)
Steph Curry is not a point guard, and he is technically 6 foot-3. Also, those who consider Young a poor man, Curry is clearly assuming that Curry is the greatest shooter ever and his skill level is not something that can be developed.
Thomas and Iverson were surrounded by the best defensive players of all time, which may have come into play in the late 80s and early twentieth century, but the teams were too smart and scored too many points. to let the opponent hide the ability to attack or defend. (Nor Thomas, which is why he should be mentioned more as an all-time great. If only he hadn’t insulted Larry Bird, angered Michael Jordan, and sexually harassed his employees.) myself, but alas.)
Chris Paul, the Scorer, had never made it to the final – or came miserably close – until he played alongside a real No. 1 scoring pick. As good as Blake Griffin is, he’s never hit 70 in a match. (I think we can agree that the 2018 Rockets are a finalist-worthy team, simply playing in the same convention as one of the greatest teams in NBA history.) We saw what CP3 looked like when Booker was out, and that looks as solid as any group of Hawks or Blazers in recent memory.
I know Paul is not the Clippers or Hornets version of himself. That said, we also know he can’t win the title by relying solely on his elbows and add-ons. He perfected the art of game management and picked his points brilliantly. The Suns needed him to shoot 14 for 14 from the pitch to get close to the Pelicans because Booker wasn’t 100%. Paul can carry the team with difficulty for a game or two, but he will certainly need help, as in Phoenix’s Game 5 victory when he led 8-18 and took 31 points from Mikal Bridges.
Young is an extremely talented passer, who can spend most of the 48 minutes setting up teammates in the meantime, and then taking advantage of scoring opportunities. As it is currently being built and trained, he thinks the task that depends on him is the right to trade, to hit big shots, to commit the offence.
Trae can still own Atlanta, and pretend to shiver after 3 seconds deep like a jackal, without becoming a scorer. Not being able to do what only one player has ever done is not a pity if that’s the case. And the fact that these Hawks aren’t that Pistons team, and Young’s defense isn’t in the same galaxy as that team’s Hall of Fame point guard.
Until Atlanta gets Trae a runner who can go 40 years old and allows him to get 25 and 15 in offense time, both the team and Young will suffer from unreasonable and impossible expectations. reach and get stuck in NBA purgatory.
