Trae Young

[George Gervin]

I’ve been on the record before that I thought it’d take him a while to get adjusted, and the speed/physicality at the NBA level would give him trouble for at least his first two seasons. In the last 25+ games, though, a switch has flipped for Young— on offense at least— and he has been on an absolute tear. In that stretch, some key counting stats:

• 43% FG
• 37% from 3 (on almost 7 attempts per game)
• 23.5 ppg
• 9.3 apg
• 4.0 rpg

He also has some very favorable advanced metrics (40% assist percentage, positive WS, a positive Offensive BPM) on one end of the floor, and I’m sure many of you have seen the passing highlights and clutch shots recently for a suddenly interesting young Hawks team.

However, it’s not all good for Trae...statistically, per Basketball Reference and the NBA’s own advanced stats site, he is a bottom 8 defender in the league by almost every metric possible with a horrid -2.8 Defensive BPM (only Collin Sexton, statistically the league’s worst defender, is poorer amongst rookies) and allowing, in aggregate, players he defends to shoot almost 62% FG. This is, though, a rookie PG averaging 19 ppg and 8 apg which is pretty impressive.

In short, I think he warrants a bump from his current 76 rating to a 79 at least, especially as he has carved out a clear #2 position behind Doncic in the RoY race IRL.

[Jeremiah Hill]

43% and 37% are like OK at best. I'll give him a 78 purely based on his assists but he's REALLY garbage on defense. He makes Booker look like Scotty Pippin.

[Jerry West]

I can't state enough how much potencial I think Trae Young has. That being said he is an horrible defender this year and still commits a lot of rookie mistakes. His also shooting 42% from 2 and 33% from 3. If you take into account rookies who shot at least 100 3 pointers this season Trae doesn't even rank in the Top 10. And it's only .004 above Doncic and Doncic has taken 50 more 3's than Trae.

Anyway his passing ability it's outstanding for his age and with a better shot selection I'm sure he'll be an all star someday, but for now this dude is a bit overrated. And I don't want to get to the argument of empty stats on a bad team but yeah.

Edit: Watched 2 games of the Hawks of his, despite everything I said remaining true, he is clearly the most talented player on the court despite not being the best player at the moment.

79

[Amare Stoudemire]

78

[Jared Montini]

77.5. He's fast as shit and an elite passer. However, his shooting stats are only around average and that's with the insanely hot past couple of months. I still haven't mentioned his god awful defense. I'm going 77.5 for now but man does this dude have potential

[Brian Scalabrine]

I love Trae but at this point he's a limited player. His defense is really bad, not only is he small but his effort level isn't good normally. He is alright at gathering steals but that's pretty much it.

His shooting has really come around the past few months but overall he's only at 32.7% from deep and 82.5% from the line. His finishing at the rim has been slightly below average at 55%.

That said he's got a killer floater, one of the best in the NBA already. He is a savant passer. His ability to put the ball in the absolute perfect place at the exact time is insane. It's always been his most impressive skill imo. He's the engine behind Atlanta's late season. His basketball iq is also off the charts. He sees things 2 seconds before everyone else on the floor.

In short I'm really excited for Trae's future and his development has exceeded my wildest expectations. However he's still not a particularly winning player at the moment.

77

[Mark Price]

78

[Mike Krzyzewski]

78...as stated, his defense is absolutely terrible.

[Kevin Hollis]

77.5

[Walt Frazier]

77.5. Want to see the good parts for longer and much improvement needed on the bad parts.

[Andrei Kirilenko]

Thread closed after 10 votes. New rating = 78