We all know that the season for the Eagles is over.
In the first round of the play-offs, the Hawks lost to the Bulls 116-131 and unfortunately went out.
In this life-and-death battle, the Hawks were blown up by the Bulls in the first quarter, trailing by 18 points 22-40 in a single quarter, and in this quarter, Trae Young, the star of the Hawks, played 12 minutes, shot 0 of 3, and only scored 1 point on free throws.
Trae Young played a total of 43 minutes, shooting 4-of-12 from the field, 3-of-8 from three-point range, and 11-of-13 from the free-throw line, finishing with 20 points, 2 rebounds and 10 assists.
The stats of 20 points + 10 assists don't look bad, but Trae Young's hand is actually very bad, and he only thinks about making fouls.
A scene in the third quarter is very representative, when the Hawks chased to 85-91, a difference of 6 points, the key offensive round, Trae Young held the ball and squeezed and dismantled, Dosunmu just had physical contact, he started to shoot and make a foul, the referee did not blow the whistle, Trae Young only complained, and was hit by Dosunm with a fast break.
It was also after Dosunm's fast-break dunk that the Bulls got up again and beat the Hawks again with a wave of 19-4, widening the gap to 21 points, and the game slowly lost suspense.
One statistic worth noting is that Trae Young's plus/minus is -27, which ranks last on the team, which means that the Hawks still have a net 12-point advantage in the five minutes he was not on the floor.
As a comparison, the other core of the Hawks, Dejounte Murray, played 46 minutes in this game, shooting 11 of 21, 3 of 6 three-pointers, and scored 30 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals, with a plus/minus of -6, that is, the Hawks lost by 9 points in the 2 minutes that Murray was not on the court.
Returning to Trae Young, it is objectively unfair to evaluate his level in one game, after all, he is also playing with a finger injury in this game, and he is a substitute in the backward section, and he has also proven himself in key games.
For example, in the play-offs last year, the Heat, who later entered the Finals all the way, planted a hand on the Hawks, and Trae Young scored 25 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists in that game.
In fact, if you judge by the performance of the whole season, Trae Young is still an All-Star level player: averaging 25.7 points and 10.8 assists per game, shooting 43.0%/37.3%/85.5% from three, 58.5% true shooting rate, and 7 consecutive 30 points + 10 assists highlights before injury.
Trae Young is one of the league's best pick-and-roll ball handlers, can digest a lot of the ball, and is not inefficient, as long as he is given a defensive pie-eating center and a group of 3-and-Ds, it seems that the lower limit can be guaranteed, and 2021 is a masterpiece, that year, the third-year Trae Young played the playoffs for the first time and went all the way down to the Eastern Conference finals.
However, Trae Young is also a player with very obvious shortcomings, with a lot of turnovers and poor defense, and he can turn in beautiful stats in large sample games or be targeted in a series of games.
And, unlike many superstars, Trae Young's methods of restricting him are also very transparent, as long as he can squeeze out the pick-and-roll and have enough resources to change the defense, his power will be greatly reduced, of course, it is not easy to do this, but at least he knows how to do it.
Let's talk about eagles, there are really a lot of problems with eagles now.
On the one hand, their record is not up and down, and it is almost impossible to win the championship with Trae Young and Murray as the core, on the other hand, their draft picks are not yet their own, and the 2025 and 2027 first-round picks and 2026 first-round swaps are all in the hands of the Spurs, which means that if they can't make the playoffs next year, they don't even have a first-round pick.
The good thing is that the Hawks have a lot of good assets, Trae Young, Dejounte Murray still have an All-Star level, Bogdan, Hunter, Sadiq Bey, Okongu, Capela also have their own styles, and third-year Jalen Johnson has made great progress this year - it must be said that Jalen Johnson is the biggest gain for the Hawks in this failed season.
So there are actually two paths in front of the eagle.
The first is to keep the lineup and continue to fight, which is also a relatively poor choice at present, because it has been two seasons and has not yet played at a high level. Of course, there may be exceptions, such as the Timberwolves, who were out of the first round last year and thought the Twin Towers were outdated, and as a result, they rushed to third place in the West this year.
The second is to change the team through trades in the offseason, as for who to trade, role players or core players, Dejounte Murray or Trae Young, it feels like no one can say.
One more thing to say about the second point is that the Hawks have been struggling this season, and Dejounte Murray has been in trade rumors for most of the time due to the lack of a duo;
But after Trae Young was injured and the Hawks' record did not retreat, there were suddenly more voices of "trading Trae Young", so it has to be said that the Hawks only have Jalen Johnson who is not for sale, yes, Trae Young may also be traded.
Trae Young himself may want to go, and when asked about his future in an interview after the season, he said, "I want to stay here, but I also want to win. ”
Even, as soon as the Hawks were eliminated, Trae Young's next home has caused discussion, and at present, his four most likely next homes are: Lakers, Bulls, Mavericks, and Spurs.
Among them, the Lakers and Spurs had an "affair" with Trae Young in the middle of the season, and it was reported at the time that if the Hawks chose to send Trae Young away, the Lakers and Spurs would be the most likely next home.
If you still remember, in 2021, when Trae Young led the team to the Eastern Conference finals, fans thought it was just the beginning, and for a while, discussions of "peerless double pride" and "Yang has no regrets" can be seen everywhere;
However, in the past two seasons, the Hawks have all fallen in the first round, including a 1-4 loss to the Heat in 2022 and a 2-4 loss to the Celtics in 2023.
Yang's personal ability is definitely there, but his style of play is more special, he needs to match a specific lineup, and the shortcomings are also obvious, it is generally believed that the ceiling is not high and it is difficult to compete for the championship. As for where he will be in the future, whether the Hawks or the Lakers, the Spurs, or the offseason, there may be big news.