Plenty of observers from all over the wide world of sports have weighed in with opinions on the ongoing contractual dispute between the Dallas Cowboys and star pass rusher Micah Parsons. Only one of them, though, is the starting point guard for the Atlanta Hawks:
It’s possible, of course, that Trae Young’s post contained no subtext — that it was just a message of solidarity with his fellow star athlete.
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It’s just that … well, we couldn’t help but notice Young’s post came about three and a half weeks after he became eligible for an extension of his own contract, on July 6:
That re-up could top out at four years and $229 million — the same deal De’Aaron Fox just got in San Antonio. And … well, we couldn’t help but notice that, a month after he became eligible, Young still doesn’t have that new extension.
That apparently isn’t sitting too well with Trae, as Marc J. Spears of Andscape relayed Wednesday on ESPN’s “NBA Today”:
“You know, Trae has done a lot to show that he’s invested in the Hawks,” Spears said. “Nickeil Alexander-Walker, [Luke] Kennard — he convinced them to sign with the Hawks … he came to Summer League, and he got to meet with Bryson Graham, the new president, [and] some of the other new front-office guys. There’s a new front office in Atlanta that’s trying to make decisions, but what I’m hearing at this point — and you can tell by Trae’s tweet, and I saw him during the Finals — he’s disappointed that it hasn’t come, it hasn’t been offered. So don’t be surprised at this point [if] he plays this out and sees what happens next summer. But to me, Trae has nothing to prove. He’s a star.”
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Young is a star — an explosive scorer and visionary playmaker, a four-time All-Star and one-time All-NBA selection. He led the NBA in assists last season and has averaged more than 20 points and 10 dimes per game in each of the last three seasons. Only Russell Westbrook, Oscar Robertson, James Harden and Isiah Thomas have more 20-and-10 seasons than Young, who led the Hawks to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021.
At issue, though, is whether the Hawks view Young — inarguably one of the NBA’s preeminent offensive engines and perennially graded as one of its least effective defenders — as a star worth paying a full 30% of the salary cap through the end of the decade, a period that will cover Young’s late 20s and early 30s. Especially considering, since that surprise run to the NBA’s final four, the Young-led Hawks have gone from vying for the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy to persistently slugging it out in the sullen depths of the Eastern Conference.
The Hawks have changed coaches, co-stars and lead executives around Young, and the results have largely remained underwhelming: a 160-168 record over the last four seasons, eighth best in the East in that span, with four straight trips to the play-in tournament and zero trips past the first round of the playoffs. Fairly or not, Young has served as the face of that middling performance — as the talismanic leader of a team that consistently ranks among or just outside the NBA’s 10 best offenses, but just as consistently ranks among its five-to-10 worst defenses.
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This past season, though, felt different. The Hawks climbed out of the bottom third of the league in defensive efficiency, thanks largely to the acquisition and breathtaking breakthrough of Dyson Daniels, the league’s Most Improved Player and Defensive Player of the Year runner-up. They made it to the semifinals of the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup, with Young authoring yet another memorable moment at Madison Square Garden. They were .500 and a game out of sixth in the East in late January, before ascendant forward Jalen Johnson went down with a shoulder injury that ended his season and effectively scuttled the balance of Atlanta’s.
Trae Young has a number of reasons for wanting an extension from the Hawks. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
(Mike Ehrmann via Getty Images)
While the results remained underwhelming — an under-.500 finish, another trip to the play-in, another exit before the postseason proper — the underlying process seemed more sound. The Hawks headed into the summer with an exciting core of big, young, talented athletes around Young — Johnson, Daniels, 2024 No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher, Onyeka Okongwu — and proceeded to ace both the draft and free agency, adding Kristaps Porziņġis, Alexander-Walker, Kennard, touted Georgia prospect Asa Newell and an unprotected 2026 first-round pick from either the Pelicans or Bucks.
Suddenly, the Hawks have plenty of size, shooting and defensive acumen surrounding Young — the makings of an ideal build around a diminutive point guard who struggles to get stops, but who ranks among the best of the best when it comes to manipulating a defense and creating great looks for others. (As NBA.com’s John Schuhmann recently noted, the Hawks led the NBA in shot quality last season, but finished just 17th in team effective field-goal percentage, which accounts for 3-pointers being worth more than 2-pointers.) In an East where ruptured Achilles tendons have led to the Celtics, Bucks and Pacers all dramatically reconfiguring their rosters — and likely opened up at least one or two top-six spots in the process — the Hawks have an opportunity to make a significant leap up the standings and possibly even contend for home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
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All that’s missing, it would seem, is a renewed commitment to keep Young entrenched at the controls of the squad. That’s a pledge, however, the Hawks don’t have to make right now: Young still has two more seasons remaining on the five-year, $215 million maximum-salaried extension he signed in the summer of 2021. The Hawks can finalize an extension with him at any point between now and June 30, 2026; he’s in line to make $46 million this season and holds a $49 million player option for 2026-27.
Given that runway — and given also-pending extension decisions on Daniels and the just-acquired Porziņġis — new Atlanta general manager Onsi Saleh might prefer to hold off, wait to see how his revamped roster performs with Young at the controls and re-engage later. Given Young’s ability to opt out and hit the unrestricted free agent market next summer, though, that could be a dicey proposition; the possibility, however slim, that he could just walk seems a grim one to consider.
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You wonder if a compromise deal — either a four-year pact at less than the max, or a shorter-term, higher-dollar agreement that would allow him to re-enter the market once he’s reached 10 years of service time, a la Luka Dončić — might be in the offing. You also wonder, though, if Young, having just watched the less decorated and productive Fox get the full boat, doesn’t see much value in concession.
If that’s the case, and if Young enters the season without a new deal, it’ll be interesting to see whether whatever disappointment he’s feeling bleeds over — and whether that hovering uncertainty results in more widespread disappointment for a Hawks team that had seemed to have plenty of reasons to be excited for the season ahead.
