Superstar guard listed as Hawks’ most likely player to be traded originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

If you’ve been paying close attention to the NBA rumor mill lately, this probably won’t come as too big of a surprise. But, to the casual NBA observer, it could sound shocking.

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In a recent article for Bleacher Report, Grant Hughes listed the most likely player to be traded on every team, and for the Atlanta Hawks that selection was star guard Trae Young.

Trae Young listed as player most likely be to traded by Hawks

Young has been sidelined since late October with a knee injury and the Hawks have been able to play some decent ball in his absence. Through 25 games of action, Atlanta has a record of 14-11, which is good for ninth in the Eastern Conference standings.

Young has a player option on his current contract for the 2026-27 season that he could turn down in favor of unrestricted free agency. If the Hawks aren’t sure that they’d want to commit financially to Young moving forward, it could make sense for them to trade to try him to recoup some value, as opposed to potentially losing him for nothing in free agency.

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“Trae Young was a strong trade candidate before the Atlanta Hawks proved they could play a more balanced, defensively competent brand of basketball without him,” Hughes wrote. “… Now that Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker appear capable of sharing top playmaking duties in a much more egalitarian attack and the defense no longer features a clear target for opponents to pick on, well…it’s not hard to guess which way the Hawks are leaning. And that’s before even considering the potential cost of a new deal for Young.”

Young has played his entire career in Atlanta since the team selected him in the lottery of the 2018 draft, and he’s had some serious success with the Hawks. He’s a four-time All-Star and was named to an All-NBA team in 2022. He led the league in assists last season and he helped the Hawks reach the Eastern Conference finals in 2021.

Moving on from a player of that magnitude isn’t an easy decision for an organization. So, the Hawks will have to be absolutely sure that they want to trade the guy who has been the face of the franchise for the past several years before considering a move.

At this point, it doesn’t seem like any such move is imminent. ESPN’s Shams Charania recently reported that Young is optimistic about a return to game action this month and that the Hawks believe that his fit with the team’s upstart young core will help to elevate the team in the Eastern Conference.