Trae Young comes into tonight’s game versus the Brooklyn Nets averaging 15.5 points per game (3rd among rookies) and 7.3 assists per game (1st among rookies and 9th in the NBA). Those are solid NBA numbers for anyone and arguably terrific for a rookie, but for Young, many look for the negatives.
There are some negatives. Young is shooting 39% from the
field and 29% from beyond the three-point line. He is also averaging four
turnovers per game, good for 4th worst in the league.
He is a rookie.
We used to be able to say a kid’s going to take his lumps in
his rookie season and look past some of the early mistakes. For some players we
still can.
Luka Doncic, widely considered the best player so far from
the 2018 draft, is averaging 19.6 points, 4.9 assists, and 6.7 rebounds. Those
are also impressive numbers for a rookie. Doncic is shooting just 43% from the
field and is averaging 3.3 turnovers per game. However, you rarely hear anyone
doing anything but gush over Doncic, perhaps rightfully so. Young, like other
star rookies in his class – notably, Deandre Ayton - has been disproportionally
overshadowed by Doncic and the attention he does receive from the media and
fans alike, is often perplexingly negative.
Young is aware of this.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Young said before his game against the
Nets last month, when I asked him why he seemed to have so many “haters.” “I
didn’t know me playing basketball would cause so many people not to like me.”
“I definitely recognize it,” he continued. “Something that
my Dad has always told me is that there’s more people out there that love you
than don’t. So, the more people that don’t like me, that just shows there’s
even more people in the world that do. So, I don’t even trip, I don’t let it
affect me or think about it too much.”
It is hard to pinpoint a reason for the skepticism about Young’s
game, but a few reasons that you hear from the anti-Trae Young crowd include
the hype he received at the college level and the lofty comparisons that some
in the media and basketball circles made between him and Stephen Curry.
Although Young started his college career in spectacular
fashion and tailed off statistically in the second half of his first and only
season at Oklahoma, he still finished the season as the NCAA leader in points (27.4)
and assists (8.7) per game, a feat that had never been accomplished by anyone,
much less by a freshman. In an age where hype is handed out like candy on
Halloween, Young’s praise and acclaim seemed justified.
As for the Stephen Curry comparisons, it is never fair to
compare a college player or rookie NBA player to a two-time league MVP, three-time
NBA champion, and a player many consider to be the best shooter of all time.
Granted, Young may have been a victim of believing his own hype by falling in
love with ridiculously deep 3-point attempts, but, hey, the kid is young and
shot selection is a much easier fix than shot mechanics or confidence.
His struggles with his outside shot are what most of Young’s
detractors point to and is particularly bothersome to those flabbergasted by
the Curry comparisons. 39% from the field and 29% from three-point range is not
good, but the problem stems mostly from poor shot selection rather than any
mechanical issue with his shot. If you take away some of his unnecessary
30-foot attempts, it’s likely his 3-point percentage would be more respectable.
Moreover, Young is a 20-year-old obviously still learning
the game. To put up 16 points and 7 assists on a regular basis in the NBA, on a
team with maybe the least talent in the league is truly an accomplishment.
“I think it’s going really good,” Young said about his
rookie season. “I mean, I definitely could be better, knocking down shots,
making more shots. But for me, doing what I’m doing without making threes, I
think is a good thing. I mean, I’m doing pretty good.”
He is.
With all the talk about his shooting percentage and
turnovers, things most rookies struggle with, people are missing the many positives
he brings as a rookie. Young’s ability to finish around the rim at his size, his
court vision and his uncanny ability to draw fouls and get to the free throw
line have all been extremely impressive.
“Obviously, [Young] hasn’t shot the ball well from three
this year and part of the education and conversation with him is shot
selection,” Hawks’ coach Lloyd Pierce told me after that December game in Brooklyn,
in which Young posted 13 points and 10 assists.
Young is confident his shooting will come around.
“For me, I know why I’m missing now. I’m shooting flat, I’m
not getting enough arch on it. I’m not doing the things that I’ve been doing
since I was 5-years-old,” he said. “So, I think it’s just getting in the gym
more, getting back to my mechanics. That’s gonna come.”
So, you’re confident your shooting will come? “My confidence
never varies.”
Vince Carter, in his 21st season in the NBA,
thinks Young will be just fine if he focuses on the most important thing: being
a point guard.
“The most important thing [for Young], outside of
everything, is learning how to run his team,” Carter said after the Brooklyn
game. “When you’re a point guard you have a huge responsibility. Coming in as a
2 through 5, you have some responsibility, but as a point guard, running the
team, having the keys at this young age, it’s a huge responsibility. I think
these are the growing pains that he will go through that will help him last as
long as he wants to in the league.”
“We always talk about ‘oh his shooting,’” Carter said
mimicking Young’s critics, “and we talk about the percentage or we talk about
his assists. None of that matters, you have to run your team.”
Running a team and being a traditional point guard is
something that Young seems very comfortable with, evidenced by his high assist
numbers despite the lack of any proven scorers around him. Young, for one, is
also confident in his playmaking abilities.
“I just feel like I’m smarter than my opponent. I think I
can out-think my opponent, whether it’s knowing how to get fouled or knowing
where my teammates are at. I’m a cerebral point guard.”
His coach is on the same page.
“Because he has the skill to facilitate for other guys, he
can get 10 assists pretty much every night. I think he had 10 again tonight and
I thought he had a great floor game,” Pierce continued in December.
If you take away the hype, the unfair comparisons or the
infatuation with other rookies, Trae Young is having a rookie season comparable
to anyone in his draft class. He has already proven to be an elite passer at
this level, having been top ten in assists for the majority of the season. He
is one of two rookies to be top ten in a major category (the Knicks’ Mitchell
Robinson is currently 10th in blocks).
Young has been even more impressive since we talked in
December. In his last 12 games, starting with the Brooklyn game, Young is
averaging 15.4 points, 7.6 assists and is shooting 44% from the field and, get
this, 50% from three-point range.
Young is clearly “doing pretty good” in this his rookie
season and his trajectory is pointing up. Haters be damned.
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