{"id":524199,"date":"2026-01-08T05:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T05:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524199\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T05:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T05:28:23","slug":"trae-young-joins-wizards-in-trade-with-atlanta-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524199\/","title":{"rendered":"Trae Young joins Wizards in trade with Atlanta Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Hawks have traded four-time All-Star guard Trae Young to the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum and forward Corey Kispert, according to ESPN<\/a>. The Hawks drafted Young fifth overall in 2018.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Rough Draft<\/a>, Atlanta\u2019s most engaging morning newsletter.<\/p>\n

The trade concludes Young\u2019s seven-plus season tenure as the face of the Hawks franchise and sends the 27-year-old point guard to Washington, where he will reunite with Travis Schlenk, the executive who originally brought Young to Atlanta through a draft-night trade with the Dallas Mavericks in 2018. Schlenk currently serves as vice president of player personnel for the Wizards.<\/p>\n

A new direction for Atlanta<\/p>\n

The Hawks, currently sitting ninth in the Eastern Conference with an 18-21 record, have struggled with Young in the lineup this season, posting a 2-8 record in games he played. The team has performed notably better during his recent six-game absence due to an injury.<\/p>\n

The trade positions Atlanta to potentially pursue a significant salary acquisition in the coming months, with reports suggesting Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis as a potential target.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Young has $95 million remaining on his contract through the 2026-27 season, including a player option for next season worth $49 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Young\u2019s legacy in Atlanta<\/p>\n

Young departs as the Hawks\u2019 all-time leader in three-pointers (1,295) and assists (4,837). He led Atlanta to three playoff appearances, including a run to the 2021 Eastern Conference finals, where the Hawks fell to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The point guard earned All-NBA honors in the 2021-22 season and made four All-Star Game appearances during his time in Atlanta. Young averaged 25.2 points and 9.8 assists over his Hawks career, leading the league in assists last season with 11.6 per game.<\/p>\n

Young tied with Russell Westbrook for the second-most seasons averaging 25 points and 10 assists (two), trailing only Oscar Robertson (five). He also ranks second all-time in points scored or assisted per game at 48.1, behind only Luka Doncic at 48.9 \u2014 the player for whom he was traded on draft night in 2018.<\/p>\n

This season, Young had been managing residual pain from an early-season right MCL sprain before the quad contusion sidelined him.<\/p>\n

Sources indicate the Wizards will evaluate Young\u2019s health upon his arrival in Washington, with no immediate extension talks expected between the two sides.<\/p>\n

No draft picks were exchanged in the Young trade between Atlanta and Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Hawks have traded four-time All-Star guard Trae Young to the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[208,7,6,494,682,468,3892,72375,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-524199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-trae-young","12":"tag-washington","13":"tag-washington-wizards","14":"tag-washingtonwizards","15":"tag-whats-your-atl","16":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115857831273521827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}