Trae Young is the PERFECT player to lead an ATHLETIC Atlanta Hawks offense

Trae Young is the PERFECT player to lead an ATHLETIC Atlanta Hawks offense

What’s up, guys? Thanks as always for supporting the show. It would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos. Also, make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements. Number 24, Trey Young. Last season in review, he played in 76 games, averaged 24 points, three rebounds, and 12 assists, 1.4 stocks. decent steals guy over the course of the last couple seasons. His efficiency 41% from the field, 34% from three, 88% from the foul line, represents 49% in effective field goal percentage, 57% in true shooting. This is a lot having to do with his free throw rate. He has a high free throw rate and he shoots the ball well when he gets to the foul line. That allows him to have a high true shooting percentage relative to his actual ability to put the ball in the basket. play type data. Consistently one of the highest volume pick and roll players in the NBA. He ran over 2,000 pick and rolls last year, including passes. For perspective, when I’ve done the high volume pick and roll list each summer, I typically have the cuto off at a thousand. He’s ran over 2,000. Shay Gildas Alexander ran the second most last year, 1410. So, a massive gap in pick and roll volume between Trey and the rest of the league. Trey ran 2,78 pick and rolls last year, generating 2200 points. It’s 1.06 points per possession. That’s very good. On the high volume list, out of the 13 players to run at least a thousand pick and rolls, his 1.06 points per possession ranked eighth. Now, before we go any further, I want to shout out Tyrese Hallebertton and Damen Lillard here. Those two guys actually came in at number one and number two on this list as the most efficient pick and roll players in the NBA, but obviously they didn’t make the list this year because of their Achilles tears. I want to particularly draw attention to Tyresese Hallebertton. He ran over 1500 pick and rolls last year uh including the playoffs and got 1.13 points per possession which was far and away number one in the NBA in total efficiency. I’ve talked a lot about Tyrese Hallebertton’s uh like kind of like offensive engine capabilities and just how uniquely valuable it is in the modern NBA that he can constantly set guys up with advantages. And I just wanted to shine a light on Tyrese for a second because like again including the postseason, massive volume, over 1500 pick and rolls. His efficiency was three points better per 100 possessions than anyone else in the NBA. It’s just one of the very best offensive engines in the sport. I just wanted to take a minute to shout out Tyrese Salbert. With Trey, it’s important to acknowledge he’s playing with less offensive talent than many of the high volume pick and roll guys in the league. The Hawks ranked 18th in spot of efficiency. They were a bottom half catch and shoot team. They generated more role man touches than anyone in the league, but they were very mediocre at finishing them. This is not a team that surrounds Trey Young with super highlevel offensive talent. Trey was a remarkable offensive engine for a group of pretty young and pretty flawed offensive players. Yet, they still had a 115.2 offensive rating when he was on the floor last year. that would crack the top 10 among teams in the NBA. Their offense cratered to eight points worse per 100 possessions when he was off the floor. For Trey, he falls into that category of relentless advantage creation. The con the concept we’ve discussed with respect to James Harden, you know, uh uh Nicole Joic, Luca Donuch, Tyrese Hallebertton. this idea of these players that just set up their teammates with a massive volume of possessions where they have the ball with a player sprinting at them rather than the player standing directly in front of them. And that manifests with easier opportunities that even flawed basketball players can capitalize on. Trey is a relentless advantage creator. It is that rather than versatility that he brings to the table. A guy like Jamal brings that versatility, the ISO play, the ability to beat switches, things along those lines. For Trey, it’s the singular talent of advantage creation. Trey Young is not a very good ISO player. He shot just 30% from the field last year. From the field out of ISO, just 0.8 points per possession. He wasn’t good including passes either. He’s not an ISO player. He’s not nearly the tough shot maker that Jamal Murray is. He doesn’t get to the rim a ton. He misses more than half the time when he gets there. So, he is vulnerable to switching schemes. That’s the big offensive weakness for a guy like Trey Young, but he provides a reasonable faximile of what Tyres Hallebertton brings to the table as a lead guard. Excellent transition passing, kick ahead passes that unlocks the athletes on this Hawks roster. I’m specifically super excited to see a full season of a healthy Jaylen Johnson and Zachary Risach running the wings. Those are two of the best floor runners in the NBA. Obviously, more athletic depth with Tyson Daniels and Alexander Walker. Trey is relentless with kick ahead passes. That is going to be a super high value ad for the Hawks this year. That is what I mean when I say like that reasonable faximile of what Tyresese Hallebertton brings to the table. But he’s also the quintessential pick and roll player against against like traditional coverages. Like if you’re chasing Trey over the top of screens instead of switching, he’s got everything you need to succeed there. He’s a good drop coverage scorer. Like with his pull-up three-point shooting, this is a perfect example of the difference between him and I is ISO versus at a ball screen. So envision a pull up three. So, an off the dribble three in a ball screen, it’s probably going to be because you dribbled off the screen and the guy got hit because he got hit. Big man’s too far back. There’s an opening for him to settle into a pull-up three. A pull-up three out of ISO. The defender is squared up with him and he has to make some kind of move to get separation, a side step, a step back, something along those lines. Maybe a hesitation dribble, pulling the ball further away from the basket, whatever he needs to do to get that pullup three out. Very different type of shot. Trey Young was below 20% on pull-up threes out of ISO last year. He was 37% on pull-up threes out of pick and roll. That is a perfect example of that dynamic that I’m talking about. The same thing goes with two-point shooting. What is a two-point jump shot look like or two-point shot of any kind look like out of a ball screen? It’s a floater because the guard got caught on the screen and the big’s too far back or a little mid-range pullup, something along those lines. They are open shots that are being conceded in the action. Whereas a two-point shot out of ISO, that’s more of I’ve got to get separation from an onball defender. Trey Young shot 36% on twos out of ISO last year, 46% on twos out of ball screens. That’s kind of the dynamic with Trey. That’s what makes him so susceptible to to switching schemes. That’s why their front office went out to go get a guy like Chrisops Porzingis to help give him an ability to have some resilience against pick and roll switching. But against traditional coverages, he scores the ball plenty well enough to unlock his greatest strength, which is that he’s one of the great passers in the NBA. He’s incredibly gifted in ball screens at looking off backline defenders with no look passes that open up angles for bounce passes and lobs to bigs that are on the roll or cutting along the baseline. He can make skip passes to the corner with either hand. He’s a great left-handed passer. That ability to relentlessly create advantages for his teammates is what puts him into that special category of elite offensive engines in the NBA. Let’s go back to the Jamal Murray example. Jamal Murray can credibly make the reads. He can reach a certain floor as a playmaker that can allow him to run a bench group or to be a reasonably good lead ball handler, right? But Jamal could never come close to leading a team like this Hawks team to the offensive uh heights that Trey Young has lifted them to. It’s not something he’s capable of doing because he’s not the relentless advantage hunter and creator that Trey Young is. Conversely, if the roles were reversed and Trey was in Denver, he wouldn’t be as successful with Jokic as Jamal Murray is. Jokic doesn’t need Trey’s relentless advantage creation. He’s a relentless advantage creator himself. There’s a redundancy there, a diminishing return. and Trey isn’t nearly as gifted as a tough shot maker. So Trey’s vulnerability to switching would be a ceiling lowering effect in that Denver Nuggets offense in a way that Jamal is not. That’s why I always talk about your specific value relative to your specific situation. Basketball is more art than science in that particular way. My belief in the Hawks as a team this year lies in the unique way that Trey Young accentuates this particular group. The roster is chock full of talented young athletes, but none of them are particularly good at all at breaking down a set defense. They will not be able to score when Trey Young is off the floor, but each of the players on that roster can score if they have an advantage given to them. Zachary Russ and Jaylen Johnson are two of the best transition floor running wings in the league. They can score effectively there. Both of them are improving as spot up jump shooters and as closeout attackers. Nquille Alexander Walker is an excellent catch-and shoot player and has a little bit of close closeout attacking of his own. Dyson Daniels is super raw but has some tools and has good touch in the short range and a lot of things that will allow him to score with openings and Yaka Congu can score on the roll and Christophs Porzingis should again help them be able to deal with Trey’s biggest offensive weakness which is his vulnerability to switching in Washington three years ago 1.13 points proposed up including passes first year in Boston 1.31 last year in Boston 1.23. He is a reliable, efficient on an island postup player, especially against advantages that come out of switches, which teams will inevitably deploy because that’s the best way to uh to kind of contend with what Trey Young does. Now, on the defensive end, I think Trey falls into the high IQ player that has good defensive instincts and knows where to be. He’s just especially lazy and especially limited as an athlete. And that puts him at the very bottom of that type of defensive player. Most famously recently, his putrid effort at the end of that playin game against Miami where he’s just kind of floating around and watching the Heat grab multiple offensive rebounds that ends in a dagger by DaVon Mitchell along the left wing. Right. Although it’s worth mentioning the game was basically out of reach at that point, but he does understand defense. He does know where to be and I have seen him at various points over the course of the last few years be a serviceable defender for short stretches. He’s a quick guard. He can cover ground in rotation. And like we mentioned earlier, he does understand where to be, but his limitations are so loud because of his lack of physical tools. And so that kind of prevents him from getting to the same level of the other great offensive engines in the NBA. like Tyresese Hallebertton for instance h like is in that category but is much more active more consistently and has like legitimate length so he can be a defensive playmaker in a way that Trey Young can’t be. So that prevents him from getting higher on the like you guys know how much I value offensive advantage creation and Trey has always been like on the outside looking in on this list or barely cracking this list in large part because those defensive shortcomings are so loud with his physical limitations. But I still think advantage creation is one of the most valuable traits for an NBA player to have and Trey brings it in spades. And I’m especially excited to see him play with this young and deep Hawks team this year. So he comes in at 24 on this year’s player rankings list.

Jason breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young, why he’s the 24th best player in the NBA, and why he’s not higher on the list.

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