Analysis: With Trae Young, the numbers are rarely in question. Other things are up for debate
The numbers that Atlanta guard Trae Young are putting up are notable, averaging 28.1 points and 11.3 assists per game so far this season. Keep that up for an entire season, and he'll do something that only Oscar Robertson, Tiny Archibald and James Harden have accomplished.
Stats like those typically get a player at least mentioned in an MVP conversation.
With Young, it might not even be a guarantee that he'll be in the All-Star conversation.
The Hawks opened their post-Christmas schedule at Chicago on Tuesday night, when Young was trying to do something that nobody has ever pulled off in NBA history. He had at least 30 points and 10 assists in each of his last seven games, tying Robertson's league-record stretch done in the 1964-65 season. Nobody other than Robertson, until now, had ever managed that in more than five consecutive games.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going to stop you right there,” Young said after he tied Robertson's mark over the weekend. “Let's go to another question. I don't want to talk about my stats. Let's talk about something else. Thank you, though. Appreciate you.”
He had to settle for tying Robertson's record of 30-10 point-assist games: Young had 21 points and 13 assists in Atlanta's 118-113 loss at Chicago on Tuesday.
But maybe the way Young didn't want to talk about tying the mark is a sign of maturity from someone who has a confident swagger that can be perceived as arrogance. To his credit, he's 6-foot-1 and might be the lightest guy in the league; the Hawks list him at 180 pounds, which seems generous. He doesn't often let being the smallest player on the floor impede him in any way when it comes to putting up numbers.
But sometimes, his numbers get looked at as empty calories. Young's stretch of 30-point, 10-assist games seemed barely noticed, what with the league going into its Christmas schedule and with Detroit on a 26-game slide that tied the worst single-season run in NBA history going into its matchup Tuesday against Brooklyn.
And it should be noted, the banged-up Hawks went 3-4 in those seven games with Young on this 30-10 tear. Great numbers, not great results.
“You can't evaluate a player's performance necessarily based on their stat line,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “That's particularly true when you have a playmaker or a leader on the court.”
While Young's intangible leadership skills also might get lost in the shuffle, if people did evaluate him solely on the numbers, he'd be far more revered.
Young averaged 26.7 points and 10.3 assists before the All-Star break last season — and didn't make the All-Star Game. In the formula used to determine the starters, Young finished fifth among Eastern Conference guards in the fan voting, sixth in the media voting and, maybe most damning, 12th in voting among fellow players. There were 375 players who returned All-Star ballots last season (player voting counts as 25% of the formula) and 13 (3.5%) of them listed Young as someone who should start.
Those who got more votes among players in the East guard category last season: Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, Jaylen Brown, DeMar DeRozan, Harden, Tyrese Haliburton, Darius Garland, Jalen Brunson, LaMelo Ball, Jrue Holiday and Zach LaVine. Coaches picked the reserves and he fell short there as well.
“Let me say this: We have a tendency to put Trae under a microscope and that’s a credit to who he is as a player,” Snyder said. “And that’s a good challenge for him. ... Players want to improve and they want to be coached."
Snyder points out some of the things that he believes Young doesn't get enough credit for, like taking charges — no small feat since basically everyone in the NBA is bigger than he is. Young has helped the Hawks make the playoffs in each of the last three years as well, though at 12-18 now, Atlanta has some work to do if it will extend that streak next spring.
In fairness, there are things that go unnoticed. There are also things that are noticed.
People in Miami still haven't forgotten how Young told the fans there that “it's over” when the Hawks went up 117-111 with 59.9 seconds left of a game in 2019. It, indeed, was over: The Heat scored the next 22 points and won by 14 in overtime. Fans in New York won't forget how Young took a theatrical bow there when the Hawks were beating the Knicks in the 2021 playoffs, either. He played up to his newfound supervillain status by appearing in a WWE event at Madison Square Garden later that summer.
Young made it clear that he wasn't happy about not being picked for the team that USA Basketball sent to the World Cup in Manila earlier this year. That, combined with no All-Star nod and not making the All-NBA team last season, seems to have made Young even more defiant.
“If you don't think I've been disrespected, I mean, you're just not telling the truth,” Young said when this season started.
Maybe he has been disrespected. Maybe he hasn't merited more respect yet.
His numbers are elite, but for the Hawks — and for Young — to reach their full potential, those numbers need to add up to something bigger than stats.
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Tim Reynolds is a national basketball writer for The Associated Press. Write to him at treynolds(at)ap.org
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