Atlanta Hawks 2025 salary cap primer, Trae Young, Nikola Djurisic, Caris LeVert, mid-level exception

Atlanta Hawks 2025 salary cap primer, Trae Young, Nikola Djurisic, Caris LeVert, mid-level exception

On today’s show, our final episode of the month of May. And by the way, as June arrives, the NBA draft is coming fast and furious. The offseason is definitely here. We’ll get into your mailback questions, some salary cap stuff, and more coming up. You are Locked On Hawks. Your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast, part of the Locked Onet. Your team every day. Hello friends, welcome to episode 1985 of the Lots on Hawks podcast. I am your host Brad Roland coming to you deep into the night here on a Friday evening here at the end of May. Before I dive into today’s show in more depth and by the way, we’ll include your mailbag questions and much more. I’ll say this, barring huge news over the weekend and basically on Saturday, this will be the last show of the month of May and it’s the 20th episode of the month of May. as keep things rolling along into the draft. It’s the rest of the offseason, summer league, all that fun stuff, free agency, everything in between. It’s been fun. I’m glad people are sticking around into the offseason. Last year, of course, the Hawks won the lottery, so it became pretty easy to uh get interested in what the Hawks were going on. But honestly, a lot of interesting decisions to make this summer as well with two draft picks and free agency and all that stuff. But earlier this week, if you missed it, I talked to Leaf Teen about the NBA draft. It was a fun chat on this feed on Thursday. Before that, I had Will Rucker on the show last week to discuss some trade-up possibilities for the Hawks. Conpple, common Malawak, all all those guys in that kind of late mid lottery range that Hawks might be able to get into if they want to. Before that, Glenn Willis was on the show earlier this month about the player capsule series. So is Tyler Jones, Richard Stamon, Robbie Callen. The list goes on and I plan to have at least 20 more shows probably in the month of June and then July, etc. So, if you’re not subscribed to this podcast, it’s Lot Hawks. You should be able to go ahead and do that right now on your favorite podcast platform of choice. Apple, Spotify, YouTube, follow, subscribe, etc. Leave five star ratings and reviews. I really appreciate that. So, rectify that if you if you need to. And of course, if you like the show already, we appreciate that as well. And be sure to tell your friends and colleagues about this podcast. All right, with that out of the way, most of the show today will be about your mailback questions. But the first thing is I got a lot of people asking me in recent days about some salary cap related stuff. A lot of it has to do with what the Hawks can and can’t do this summer, which is totally understandable. It is very difficult to navigate all of of the financial and CBA and all the rules stuff in the NBA. And I usually I used to kind of do like a financial primer for the Hawks at the beginning of the offseason. And I kind of realized I never did that in formal fashion on the show between the firing Landry Fields and the draft stuff that got lost in the shuffle. So, I want to lay out some of the financial stuff for you and the Hawks this summer. Largely because look, this stuff really matters for team building purposes. I do kind of wish sometimes that it was just easier and talk about just exclusively basketball and not care about contracts as much as we have to in the NBA. You know, baseball, it matters, too. I cover baseball, that stuff matters, but there isn’t a salary cap. There aren’t the trade matching restrictions that there are in basketball. The NFL has a salary cap as well, but again, there are way more trades, way more like exceptions and things to kind of navigate in the basketball landscape. So, this stuff really does matter whether you want it to or not, basically. So, what the Hawks can do, what they can’t do, etc. I did, if you missed it, um earlier this week, about 20 minutes or so on free agency, laying out some of the ways the Hawks can add to the team using their exceptions, the mid-level, the bannual exception, the room exception, um a lot of the players that could be free agents this summer. That was a podcast that was certainly worth listening to as well. But the actual numbers are also very relevant as to where the Hawks actually are. So, forgive me for getting a little bit nerdy here. I’ll return your questions in a minute. But here’s where things stand financially for the Hawks because it will definitely inform what they can and can’t and maybe, you know, will be harder to maybe do this summer. The Hawks currently have nine players, only nine, under guaranteed contracts for this coming season, the 2526 season. That is in no order Trey Young, Jayon Johnson, Zachary Risha, Dyson Daniels, Anek Kongw, Terrence Man, George Niang, Kobe Buffkin, and Muhammad Gay. Those nine guys combined to make about 142.3 million. For reference, the salary cap this coming season is projected to be 154.6. So they’re about 12 million or so under the cap, but that’s only nine guys. You have to fill the roster out. That’s a requirement in the NBA. You got to have at least 14 players. So even if they did absolutely nothing else, they wouldn’t have very much cap space. So that’s a always a buzz word. The Hawks don’t project to have any else. They kind of get really active and try to shed more salary, which I’m not expecting to happen in the coming days. Then beyond those nine guys, they have two more under contract. They want to keep them, but it’s on the team option side of things. So V creature has a super cheap non-g guaranteed contract that they’re almost certainly going to want to keep. Is uh beat’s not a star or anything, but he’s certainly worth more than the like two and a half million that he’s owed. And it’s a non-g guaranteed super team friendly contract that the Hawks signed and they want to keep him, I’m sure. Then a team option on Dom Barlo. That one’s more of a decision. Dom is a guy they like, but certainly could could go either way on that option if they need the flexibility, etc. If you were to combine Vit and Dom together with everything else I just said, the nine guys, that’s 11 players at about $146.9 million. Then on top of the 11 guys that they already have under contract, they have two salary cap holds for the two first round picks that they have. So, just so you don’t uh if you didn’t know this, as soon as the Hawks got the second second pick in the first round officially, their salary cap poll is going to go on the books if they make that pick. Um the numbers can change a little bit depending on how they do this the structure, but rookie scale contracts with first round picks and their contracts are basically set with very little wiggle room. There’s a little bit, but not very much. They’re pretty firm. So, the number 13 pick costs about $5.1 million in year one. That’s a rough number, but keep in keep that in mind. Number 22 pick is about $3.3 million. So less obviously because they’re picked lower down in the draft. Number one, last year reach made eight figures as a rookie. These guys are going to be cheaper, but they do cost more than the minimum. They do cost something. And if you throw in those two cap holds for the first round picks plus the 11 players that I referenced a minute ago, you are now at 13 players and you are over the salary cap. You’re at 155.4. And by the way, that’s totally fine. Nothing wrong with that. Just a obstacle of some kind. But a lot of what the Hawks can do this summer can be accomplished by either resigning players that they c that they have bird rights on so they can exceed the cap or using exceptions, etc. You got to have 14 players or more. So filling out the roster matters. And by the way, as a reminder, that 13 player group that I referenced does not include Carris Levert. It does not include Laress Jr. Quinn Capella, Garrison Matthews, but especially Levert is a big deal there because I wish this earlier this week in passing, but if they if the Hawks lose Levert, they have to replace him with a perimeter shot creator of some kind. He’s not a star, but Levert is a proven decent scorer who can handle the ball a little bit, get his own shot a little bit, defend a little bit. A good player obviously. Plus, as we all know, backup center is a bit of a uncertainty right now because other than Mo Gay, who might play there a little bit next season, they don’t have that guy. Um, unless they resign Nancy Capella or whatever, but right now those guys are free agents. So, in short, the Hawks clearly have work to do. That’s not a huge surprise. There are seasons where some teams kind of just bring everybody back and roll it back. And the Hawks kind of I mean, I guess they could do that, but a lot of teams have more than nine guys on guaranteed contracts. The Hawks are pretty flexible all things considered. There’s about a $33 million gap between the salary cap line and the luxury tax line for next season. The Hawks famously have not paid the tax in more than a decade because they have haven’t gone over the luxury tax since Tony Russell took over the team. It’s been a long time and honestly uh this is probably not going to be the year that changes. I’m not saying it definitely won’t happen, but this is the year that actually would make sense to not go over it. If you look at the way the Hawks have built their team to this point, they made some moves over the last year to help them financially and kind of clear the books a little bit headlined by the Murray trade, but especially the Hunter trade, which just happened, you know, three and a half months ago. Basically, the Hunter trade was not only about money, but as I said at the time, even it was a big part of the calculus. I discussed this ad nauseium when when the deal happened. And because of that, you can’t even fully evaluate the Hunter deal until you see what the Hawks are actually going to do this summer with the flexibility that they made on purpose doing that deal. So, we’ll see. Look, later in the summer, I might do like a future tax situation primer because it’s going to get more challenging for the Hawks financially if they pay Dyson, which they’re probably going to do at some point. And if they keep Trey to go along with Jaylen, to go along with guys making more money, it gets expensive in a hurry. But in the meantime, the state of play right now financially for the Hawks is actually pretty clean. Um, most projections I’ve talked to people that around the league that are smarter than I am about this stuff, whether it be agents or, you know, other media people, like the assumption is the Hawks can add to their roster this summer pretty effectively while also not going into the tax. And that would have been harder to do pre- Hunter trade, for example. They saved some money in that deal. But, you know, Levert’s going to come back. They got they got they have some money to spend and some again crucially they’re going to want to improve from what I understand they want to get better and win more games next year and that means adding to the roster um which does usually cost money. So that’s the primer right now. They’re in pretty good shape, pretty clean shape for the short term. Long term we’ll see. But uh I will talk about a mailback question in a minute that directly pertains to this and the team building aspects what the Hawks can do to add to their roster. And I’ll get to that in just one moment. NBA fans, you know what time it is. Playoff season means big performances and even bigger rewards. And Door Dash is bringing the heat with a slam dunk deal for Dash Pass members during the 2025 NBA playoffs. It’s called They Swoosh, You Score. A player 50 points or more in a playoff game. If you’re a member at Dashpass, you can score a free three-piece crispy tempers combo from Wingstop the very next day. Just place order $20 or more and use the code wingstop 50 at checkout and the combo is yours. Crispy, delicious, and totally free. offer valid noon to midnight the day after the game term supply. If you ever looked at food delivery in the past, thought there just has to be a better way. You should check out the folks at Door Dash with Dash Pass. Actually, zero $0 delivery fees exclusive purchase like this one. Just imagine how much you could save over the course of a full basketball season. So, here’s the play one more time. Sign up for Dash Pass to unlock this and more exclusive deals all season long. And when any player has 50 points or more in a playoff game, if you’re a member at Dash Pass, you can grab a free threepiece Christmas chair combo from Wingstop the very next day with a $20 plus order and code wings stop 50. That’s Dash Pass, your door to more savings, more flavor, and more ways to win. Terms apply. All right, so that question I teed up from the team perspective comes from Joey who says, “If we stipulate the Hawks will not pay the tax, can they sign Levert and also sign a player with the mid-level? I’m thinking about Steven Adams, Brook Lopez, or Luke Cornet for the backup center spot if they will take it.” So, thank you for the question, Joey. And by the way, the mailbag is always open. I don’t always make the call for it, but it’s always open on Twitterxon Hawks or IBT Roland. I’m also on blue skyt Roland and you can see send questions via email at ltonhawksgmail.com. Um so people are dream about bigger moves I would say this summer. I don’t blame you at all. The Hawks certainly could take a bigger swing this summer than they have in the past. That is certainly on the table. But it might be more practical and likely that they kind of just do a little bit of a addition. nothing nothing huge which could be which could be to this hypothetical bringing back Levert on a reasonable deal and then looking to plug a hole or two on the bench by adding quality depth not necessarily just running it back but kind of seeing what you have more with the young guys and how good you might be after Rishet is a year older for example with Tyson um back another year and a year older with Jaylen back and healthier and presumably even better than he was a year ago a full season of a Congu for instance as a starting center there’s some uncertainty there even if it’s encouraging positive uncertainty. Not the only path obviously again, but it’s a reasonable one the Hawks could pursue this summer. But to the actual question about adding Levert and using the mid-level, um, if they keep all 11 guys that I referenced before under contract and then make both first round picks, they’d have about $32 million under the tax line. And it could be 34 or 35 if they were to let Don Barlo go, but that’s another bit of flexibility. So 30 plus million probably. The mid level cannot start higher than $14.1 million this coming season. So if they give give out the entire mid level, they still have like 17 or $18 million in year one to get Caris Levert under contract. I think that will be enough. Now I wouldn’t guarantee that. Maybe he has an offer that’s a shorter term deal that’s like two for 40 or whatever. That wouldn’t stun me. But I think if all things are equal, my guess is Carris makes less or at least up to that number of 17 $18 million in his first season. That obviously helps you. So if I’m doing the math there, if my best guess, and again, it has to be a guess. It’s too early. There’s too much uncertainty. My projection would be that would be enough to get Levert and a full mid-level contract under the tax. So they’d be up against it, but to fill the roster out with a minimum or something like that. You still have two way slots to play with. The Hawks have nobody carrying over for sure on two-way. We’ll see how that goes. You got Nicole Jurich. You got Ke is a free agent. People ask about him all the time. Katon is a free agent. Um they could sign him, but we don’t know at this point in time. So anyway, this is an important thing. You could also use the midlevel without using the entire midle. For example, if you want to pay Luke Cornet 10 million instead of 14 million, you could do that. That’s totally allowed. You can use a mid-level to do that. There’s no requirement that you use the entire thing. You can if you want to, but that’s the max you can use it for is that 14.1 and up to four seasons on that contract. Overall, probably the cleanest way to improve the team without, this is important, without a trade. Obviously, trades are a bigger swing possibility. But in just not using the not using a trade, just in free agency, the easiest way and the most practical way to improve the roster is to bring back Levert and then also use the mid-level because that way you’re not creating another hole by letting Levert go, but you’re doing that and you’re plugging one of your holes, whether it be backup guard, whether it be backup center, another wing, another forward, any of that stuff would be useful at the mid level and there you go. So trades are hard to predict. Obviously, the Hawks will make a mid-size trade this summer. They could package guys together. That’s all very possible. trades are just hard to project. But you can again levert in and the mid-level and your team is better than it was. If all the Hawks did this summer, if not not win, but if they is sign Carris Levert and then turn around and give a eight figure contract to a mid-level person and do nothing else, they are better than they were last year. Full stop. So that’s not a huge increase probably, but it will help them. Um, also you can split the mid level if you want to into multiple players. If you want to use less of it and get multiple guys in here for for instance, if you want to sign Luke Cornet for that $10 million figure and then go sign another player for $5 million with bannual, you can do that, etc., etc. But one more time, answer to the question that came from Joey is look, it’s not guaranteed, but I do believe that the Hawks can fit Levert in and the mid-level without paying the tax in case that’s a red line for wrestler. No matter what he says, it has been a red line for the Hawks the last several seasons in a row. The Hawks have made active cost-saving trades, cost-saving moves in multiple years in a row. Now, they don’t have to do that this summer. They’re already well below it. In in previous years, it was like, oh, they got to do some gymnastics to get under. Like, you got to trade John Collins for basically nothing, etc. All those kind of moves. Now, they’re well under. They just I think the red line will probably be there, but we’ll see on that front. All right. Question from Hunter who says, “What is Nicole Yurich up to this summer? Is he technically a free agent? Where do you think he will start next season? Atlanta, College Park, or somewhere else?” So, a good question here, and this is on my agenda to talk about at some point in college. If you don’t remember this, was the 43rd pick in the draft last year, a second round pick, but never signed a contract in the NBA. I find from talking to people people around around the internet, Hawks fans, people kind of just forgot about him, which I do understand. Honestly, he was not on the radar. He wasn’t on the roster or the cap sheet. Um, I do understand that, but he is still very much in the mix. So, as a recap, he fractured his foot last summer at Summer League. I was there. Not a fun injury. It was a multi-month injury that suffered in July. He missed a bunch of time and that threw a wrench, I think, in some of the planning around him. Instead of signing a regular contract or a two-way contract like most draft picks do, the Hawks effectively stashed him. Usually a draft and stash is a player that’s drafted overseas like Jurich and an overseas player who actually gets left overseas for a year. That’s the traditional draft and stash. What the Hawks did was stash him in the G-League. And that’s strange, but they’re allowed to do that with cooperation from Jurassic. He signed a deal directly with College Park, which guys usually don’t do that are like top 45 picks. For instance, your two-way guys, Katon Wallace, name your name your players. Um, those guys are not on G- League contracts. They’re on NBA two-way deals. That’s very different. George was on a on a G-League only deal. He was signed with College Park directly. So, here’s how it works. Now, he has the same status this summer as a normal draft and stash guy, which means the Hawks have his draft rights still. They could sign him to a contract this summer, either a two-way or maybe they use the second round exception to give him a multi-year deal. Those are all on the table for them, but he is not a free agent. He cannot talk to other teams. He can only negotiate with Atlanta in the NBA. If you wanted to negotiate with a team overseas, he can do that, but he cannot sign with anybody else other than the Hawks unless the Hawks renounce his rights, which they’re not probably going to do. So, contractually, hang with me here, it’s basically as if he was drafted this coming year. So, if you just like in your brain say Jurisic is now a 2025 second round pick. Practical terms, that’s kind of what the Hawks are would be doing with him. Um, nothing is changing. He’s still a second round pick. He still is a draft rights guy for the Hawks. He could sign a deal for them this summer. So that’s it’s a little bit weird with the stash possibility, but he’s still around in the mix. So as for where he’ll start next year, my best guess, and again, this is definitely a guess because you got all the front office uncertainty. A lot has changed around the team. The roster may be in flux, two-way deals are open, etc. I would guess that he’ll be on the summer league team with the Hawks in Vegas and then maybe he’s sign two-way deal. That’s a guess on my part. The summer league thing is more educated. I’d be I’d be kind of surprised if he’s not playing summer league as long as he’s healthy. But after that, it’s like, oh wait, maybe it’s a two-way. Maybe it’s one of those, you know, multi-year cheap second round of pick kind of contracts. They’re non-g guaranteed uh in the style of Mogay, for instance. Um we’ll see. And a lot’s changed since they drafted him. Obviously, like he’s he wasn’t look, he wasn’t great in the G-League this year. He was really young in the G-League. It wasn’t shocking to me that he struggled sometimes, but his numbers are not great in the G-League. He was a project player, like talented for sure, but not someone that was ever going to help them sooner rather than later, which I tried to stress last summer. It’s like this guy is not going to help you for a little while, which is fine in the 40s, but that’s where he is still now. He did miss that summer of development time last summer. But anyway, I’m going to guess we see him in July. I’ll be there covering the Hawks at summer league. Hopefully, we’ll learn some more about then. But, uh, a good question. It he’s kind of off the radar, but he is still in the Hawks young player mix. just obviously below the likes of the guys who are on the roster because he’s not on the team and he hasn’t been on the team at any point so far. All right, I want to end the show with a question from BD on a slightly shorter version of the podcast than sometimes, but it’s Friday night and we’re trying to get in and out get out a little bit here because there’s a lot of heavy lifting to do coming up in the month of June. But question from BD is, “I want to preface by saying I’m not a Trey hater, but I saw your point about how he has the most assists in the league since he was drafted, and I had trouble squaring that with the fact that someone else wrote that he has the most turnovers in the league. Is that true? And if so, isn’t that a problem?” So, good question for BD for sure. Uh, for some context on this, there was a pretty absurd Marcus Morris clip on ESPN where he said he said, “Trey is a good player, quote, but he just started passing the ball.” End quote. So, uh, my my attempt to add context to that was saying, and this is accurate, by the way, that no player in the NBA since the day Trey was drafted in 2018 has more assists than Trey. Troy has the most assists, by the way, per game or total of any player in the league while he’s been in the league. So, the just passing thing now is very funny. I know he had le assists this year. It did go up. He’s passing more now maybe, but he’s always been an elite passer from the day he arrived. Basically, he’s been an elite passer and he’s probably the best passing guard in the league. Right now, if you want to say Hallebertton, sure, no argument here, but at a bare minimum, you could throw Joic in there obviously as maybe the best passer in the league that’s not a guard. He’s just ridiculous. And maybe LeBron, but Trey is a top five passer in the league and for me the best passing guard in the league. There you go. Mark Morris was rightly dunked on. Even my non-hawks fan was just an absurd comment obviously. Um that made the rounds though and the usual anti-Tay crowd also came out of the woodwork trying to crap on him basically by saying he has the best turnovers. Now that is true. It’s an objective fact. Trey has the most turnovers in the league in a couple of seasons and also in that time. That is true. Full stop. I’m not excusing that. It is what it is. I’ll give what I like to do on the podcast always is give context. People will often accuse me of giving excuses. I like to say context and give you the whole picture. Win, lose or draw, positive, negative, whatever. That’s my mindset always on the show. So, number one, that is true. Now, but there’s always this fundamental disconnect on this particular thing. And I’ve said this before on the show in various forms, but um the list of players who commit the most turnovers in the NBA is without fail always populated by superstar players. Always, always, always. And there’s a reason for that. It’s pretty logical when you think about it. They have the ball all the time. That’s the biggest thing. They do the most things. They have they have the most uses. They have they dribble the ball the most. They pass the ball the most. They have the ball the most. And obviously that is the case with Trey. Now in his entire career basically maybe you could say the Dejonte years a little bit less but for the most the lion share of Trey’s career he has been the number one option on a team without a traditional number two option which means Trey’s usage has been skyhigh for his entire career. Even with Dejante they didn’t really play together that much. They staggered them. He was still playing 20 minutes 25 minutes a night without Dejonte on the court. So his entire career basically has been him as the undisputed lead number one creator by far. That leads to a lot of usage etc. So I won’t give the halfhour answer on this but I want to give you some more context. So I pointed this out on to someone on social media. Um I pulled the list of the players with the most turnovers in the league since Trey got in the league in 2018. Like I said number one number one assist that time. Uh, the top seven players in the most turnovers list since Trey was drafted is honestly kind of hilarious. It’s Trey who we talked about. James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Luca Donuch, same draft class, Nicole Joic, Giannis, and LeBron James. Five of those guys could retire today and be in the Hall of Fame. Now, obviously, LeBron, Giannis, Jokic are on a different tier in my opinion than Harden and Westbrook, but Harden and Westbrook are first Hall of Famers. They’re gonna be in no matter what. I guarantee you that. Luca might get in right now if he retired. I I won’t say he for sure, but he’s probably going to be in the Hall of Fame. He’s a fivetime first team AllNBA player at 26 years old. No matter what you think about him, he’s probably going to get there. Trey might be in the Hall of Fame, too, which I’ve said before. I’m not going to say that’s a guarantee by any means, but he’s on the track. He He has to keep it up for a while and small guards and aging and all that stuff is definitely fair to point out, but currently Trey Young is third all time in assists per game. Third, while averaging 25 plus points per game in his career. Um, so anyway, I’ll stop I’ll stop there, but that the top seven of those guys, it’s very funny. Like, obviously, you have to have the ball a lot to commit turnovers. One more step here. I have some more fun facts for you. You want to know the player that has the most the most turnovers of all time? LeBron. LeBron is a top three player ever. Full stop. You can you can I will not do the debate right now as to where he falls there, but the top three in some order are LeBron, MJ, and Kareem. And he’s number one all the time in turnovers. Westbrook second, Carl Malone is third, Moses Malone is fourth, James Harden is fifth, John Stockton is sixth, Kobe Bryant is seventh, then Jason Kidd, Dr. J, Artist Gilmore, Isaiah Thomas, Hakee Malajuan, Kevin Durant, Patrick Ewing, Paul Pierce, and Magic Johnson. Every single one of those players is in the Hall of Fame or will be in the Hall of Fame. All of them. If you want to do turnovers per game instead, Magic Johnson is fourth most all time. Imagine Dustin’s like the the guy everyone would hold up as a traditional point guard. Obviously besides the size, but like a pass first point guard, inner circle hall of famer, fourth all time in turnovers per game. Isaiah Thomas, like the bastion of 61, six foot point guard, Hall of Famer, fifth all time in turnovers per game. Westbrook and Luka also in the top five. LeBron’s in the top 10. So I’ll stop right now. You get the point. Hopefully turnovers come with the territory for high volume, highle star players. They just do. So, here’s what I’ll try to wrap it up a little bit. It is definitely fair to say that Trey could stand to commit a few less turnovers. There have been several post games where I’ve talked about this even this last season. There’ll be nights where he has nine turnovers and like there’s not really ever a night where it’s good to have nine turnovers ever. Like, you’re always going to have some if you’re if you’re this kind of player, but he does commit more turnovers than I would like him to commit. That’s fair to say 100%. That also does not negate his 11 assists per game. It does not make him a bad player. It does not make him a turnover machine or whatever you want to say it is. Also, it’s pretty clear to me looking at this data again freshly, he is not an outlier in turnovers among guys with his level usage. Like when you average 11 assists per game, as he does, you can you can live with four turnovers a game. You just can’t. Would it be great if it was two? Sure, it would be. But like, okay, you can live with four. You can’t live with seven. I’ll give you that. But four is not seven. Um Trey had 400 more potential assists than any player in the league this season. 400 more. That’s five per game more than every other one in the league. For comparison, Jokic was second on that list. Trey had 36% more potential assist than Yic this year. So if anything, Trey should have averaged more assists. If he had better shooting talent around him, he would have averaged 12 or 13 assists per game this year. He also averaged almost a quarter more assists than any player in the league this year. Like it is what it is. And oh, by the way, before I forget this, from a team standpoint, the Hawks actually recently had a run of four seasons in a row where they were basically top 12 in the league in avoiding turnovers. Even with Trey on the team, this terrible high turnover play, they still were good at taking care of the ball. The Hawks were in the top five multiple times. Also, they’re almost always better turnover rate wise with him on the court than off the court. And yeah, obviously you don’t want him turn I’m not saying again you want you want you don’t want him turn the ball over a lot. You you don’t want that. But when he’s the main guy turning the ball over, you can live with that because that means he has the ball all the time. So, I’ll stop ranting about this for now. Yes, Trey Young commits a lot of turnovers. There are certainly some nights where it has been a problem and it will be a problem again. I’ll be the first to say that. But overall, it’s not really a massive issue in the way that it’s often framed with people trying to pick on Trey and Turnovers again just come from guys who are high usage. And it couldn’t be more plain when you look at the list of players. I mean, Hall of Famers everywhere, like everywhere. And he has a Trey Young. One more fun stat and I’ll sign off. Trey Young currently has a lower turnover percentage turnover rate than Magic Johnson in his career. Trey’s turnover rate is lower than Magic Johnson’s for his career right now. And by the way, not by like 1%. It’s like a couple percentage points. Not not not really a problem. Again, commit fewer, Trey. I think he’d be the first to say there have been nights when he stopped turning the ball over so much. Quinn would probably love it if he suddenly cut a turnover per game off the list. Not saying otherwise, but uh if you’re trying to like dunk on Trey by saying he turns the ball over a lot, yeah, he does, but so does every other not every other star. I should say every other star. Tyresese Hallebertton is a freaking outlier. People ask about that in uh it’s actually the next day about Hallebertton. Uh Hallebertton is an outlier in the other direction, but part of that, and this is not a pitcher podcast, so I’ll sign off now. Uh is that Hallebertton plays much differently. Number one, he is he actually is a historical outlier in turnover rate. He’s awesome at protecting the ball. It’s probably his single best skill, honestly. But um he also plays a different style than all these guys that I’m talking about. Like even Joic, LeBron, Russ, Harden, Luca, Trey, Hallebertton is so much more low usage than those guy. He doesn’t score like those guys and shoot like those guys. So that’s that’s the difference. It allows him to be that low of a turnover player even. And then on top of that, he’s also awesome to take care of the ball. So anyway, I’ll sign off now. That was longer than I wanted it to be, but I had a lot of little fun facts and uh you know, it’s just kind of silly and I get it. It’s the internet. People want to dunk and I I totally get it. But uh Trey is not new to passing and turnovers. Yes, he commits a lot of them, but uh so do a lot of guys. So there you go. All right, everybody. That’s all I have on this Friday evening into Saturday. Please subscribe to this show anywhere you find your podcast. We’ll be uh again rolling into June full. I have some guests already lined up for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully even more of them. I want to talk to four, five, six people more about the draft. Um, we’ll be what episode 2 at some point before the draft. So, that’ll be fun to kind of dig into that. A little bit of a milestone on the show. We’ve been rolling for almost a decade now and not slowing down at any point in the future. So, please again, one more time, subscribe, tell your friends, and we’ll see you all next time.

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts Episode 1985 of the Locked on Hawks podcast, taking a look at the Atlanta Hawks finances and answering mailbag questions. Topics include Atlanta’s spending power this summer, Trae Young’s “turnover problem,” the future of Nikola Djurisic, and much more.

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