One of the most heated debates that are currently held in the basketball world is who is the best young point guard in the league? There are excellent players at the position littered around the NBA and with veterans such as Damian Lillard and Stephen Curry entering their 30s, it will soon be time to pass the torch onto some of the young guys.
One of the young point guards that people think can ascend to that level is Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks. Young entered the NBA with some hype surrounding the long-range shooting prowess that he showcased collegiately at Oklahoma.
While he has struggled at times with the physicality of the game and is a poor defender, Young can be a maestro with the ball in his hands. He is a threat to shoot once he steps over halfcourt, which requires defenses to extend, creating scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates.
Young is in his fourth season in the NBA and is having his best one yet. He is having the best season efficiency-wise in his career, making 45.8 percent of his shots overall and 38.5 percent of his 3-pointers for an effective field goal percentage of 53. He is averaging 28.1 points to go along with 9.4 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game.
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He was named to his second All-Star team and is doing what he can to help get the Atlanta Hawks back into the postseason after making a surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021. Some people believe Trae Young flies under the radar sometimes, including one NBA executive who believes Young is disrespected around the league.
“The fact he didn’t make the All-Star team last year was a joke. He definitely doesn’t get the respect he deserves,” a second West executive said.
Part of the reason he may not get respect is the team’s success or lack thereof. The Atlanta Hawks had a losing record the first two seasons of Young’s career and could make it three out of four this year. He certainly made a name for himself during the playoff run last year, but he was inefficient throughout the postseason.
His lack of an impact defensively will also hold him back in a lot of people’s eyes. He finished third in ESPN’s rankings, but it is hard to imagine how that ranking would be impacted if he changed places with the players behind him in LaMelo Ball, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Darius Garland.
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Given his size, there are some limitations to Trae Young’s game that he will not be able to overcome that other players don’t have to overcome. You cannot teach size, so Young just has to have an elite impact offensively to overcome his defensive deficiencies. Even Garland, who is the same height as Young, has a wingspan that can at least give some shooting guards some trouble.
