Trae Young is no longer the franchise centerpiece of the Atlanta Hawks.<\/p>\n
Atlanta reportedly traded the guard to the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, per ESPN’s Shams Charania, who added<\/a>, “The Wizards are not expected to have immediate extension talks with Young, and both sides will evaluate his health once he arrives in Washington, sources said.”<\/p>\n The Athletic’s David Aldridge, Sam Amick and Josh Robbins<\/a> added of Young’s future: <\/p>\n “While rival teams expect Young to pick up his player option, league sources say Young has not made a decision on that front at this point. He is open to the prospect of discussing an extension but is assessing the free agency landscape for this summer, as well.”<\/p>\n McCollum reacted to the trade in a statement to NBA insider Chris Haynes:<\/p>\n According to Spotrac<\/a>, Young’s contract features a $46 million cap hit for the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n The Wizards now have $247.4 million in total cap allocations<\/a>, while the Hawks are at $187.5 million in total cap allocations<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here is how each team’s depth chart could look after the move:<\/p>\n PG: Trae Young, Bub Carrington<\/p>\n SG: Tre Johnson, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham<\/p>\n SF: Bilal Coulibaly, Justin Champagnie<\/p>\n PF: Khris Middleton, Jamir Watkins, Will Reilly<\/p>\n C: Alex Sarr, Marvin Bagley III<\/p>\n PG: CJ McCollum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker<\/p>\n SG: Dyson Daniels, Luke Kennard<\/p>\n SF: Zaccharie Risacher, Corey Kispert<\/p>\n PF: Jalen Johnson, Asa Newell<\/p>\n C: Onyeka Okongwu, Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is, Malik Williams<\/p>\n The Hawks didn’t move Young ahead of the 2025 trade deadline, although there was some speculation<\/a> about him possibly being traded. Even the decision to hold onto him at the time brought his future with the franchise under the spotlight given his contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 2025-26 campaign was set to be the final one on his deal ahead of his $49 million player option for the 2026-27 season. The long-term uncertainty on that deal meant the Hawks were facing a decision regarding whether to offer him an extension, trade him or let him play out the contract and hope he didn’t grow discontent with his situation.<\/p>\n As for Young, he could have demanded a trade before the 2025-26 season or even played it out and then declined the option before signing elsewhere if he didn’t want to remain in Atlanta.<\/p>\n Charania reported Monday that he was working with the team to find a trade:<\/p>\n Charania’s report came amid plenty of speculation that didn’t go anywhere ahead of the 2026 trade deadline, although there were multiple<\/a> reports indicating<\/a> there wasn’t going to be a robust market for him that would create a bidding war between contenders.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the Hawks still decided to trade him.<\/p>\n It is the end of an era for the guard who has been with Atlanta his entire career following a draft-day trade in 2018 that landed Luka Don\u010di\u0107 with the Dallas Mavericks. His resume with the Eastern Conference team includes four All-Star selections and a spot on the 2021-22 All-NBA Third Team.<\/p>\n His best moment likely came during the 2021 playoffs when he led the team on a surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals before it lost to the eventual-champion Milwaukee Bucks in six games.<\/p>\n It seemed like Atlanta’s future was bright and just getting started since it was his age-22 season, but it has struggled to replicate that type of postseason success since. It lost in the first round in 2022 and 2023 before falling in the play-in tournament in 2024 and again in 2025.<\/p>\n At his best, Young is an offensive machine who can take over a game at a moment’s notice with his ability to hit from well beyond the arc, facilitate when defenders collapse on him and attack the lane off the bounce.<\/p>\n He averaged 24.2 points, 11.6 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals a night during the 2024-25 campaign, although efficiency was something of a concern as he shot 41.1 percent from the field and 34 percent from deep with 4.7 turnovers per game.<\/p>\n He has followed with averages of 19.3 points, 8.9 assists and 1.0 steals in 10 games in 2025-26 while shooting 41.5 percent from the field and 30.5 percent from deep.<\/p>\n Washington being the team to trade for him is surely surprising for some seeing how it isn’t a realistic contender in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n Yet Young also isn’t a long-term commitment since he could decline his player option and hit free agency ahead of next season. That means the Wizards have a headline name to play out the stretch run and should have no shortage of flexibility assuming he is no longer on the books next season.<\/p>\n Perhaps then Young will look at various contenders in free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trae Young is no longer the franchise centerpiece of the Atlanta Hawks. 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