Trae Young Suggests If He Was 6'8, He'd Be The Best Basketball Player To Ever Play The Game
Alright, let's start with the obvious.
No, Trae Young would not be the GOAT if he was 6'8. I think we can all agree with that right? I feel as though it's important to come to an overall agreement before we continue. He'd be awesome no doubt, but he would simply not be the best basketball player to ever play, and that's OK!
Now that we've established that, I'm also not going to drag Trae Young for thinking this way or actually deciding to say it out loud. Why? Because we have ALL done this. You're telling me you haven't said you'd be in the pros if you were just a little taller or bigger?
"Man, if I was 6'5 I'd be in the NBA"
is something every single one of us said at one point or another in our lives, most notably when our playing careers finally came to a close and you took that high school jersey off for the last time. That the only reason we never made the league wasn't because of skill, but because of genetics. Some people hit the genetic lottery and make millions and become professional athletes, some people become bloggers. That's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. I'm also not going to drag Trae for having supreme confidence in himself. If you don't believe in yourself, who will? Even if that delusional confidence makes you say things that are rather insane, I can respect it. You don't make the NBA and have the success Trae Young has had without extreme self confidence that you belong, so I see that as a positive.
As a player, Trae Young is pretty polarizing. I think we're at the point of his career where at this point he's most definitely become underrated to some degree. That doesn't mean he isn't flawed or that his size doesn't present challenges once you get into a playoff series, but to be consistently throwing up this type of production and only having 3 All Stars and only 1 All NBA to his name is pretty crazy
I should also remind you that he's a 26/3/9 guy in 27 postseason games with plenty of big time moments
The problem is, the Hawks kind of stink. As the years go by it looks more and more like their 2021 ECF run was more the exception than the rule, and the one constant on that team is Trae Young. The Hawks have tried adding talent, they gave up a shit ton for Dejounte Murray to help make up for Young's perimeter defense, only that didn't work and they just shipped him off to the Pelicans. They've tried different coaches, all of which still end up in the same place. Now they've drafted someone #1 who looks 2 years away from being 2 years away while the rest of the conference gets better and better every summer.
That's why I think most would consider Young to be the next star player on the move, but it's exactly not that simple. In this new CBA world where trades are harder than ever and given what the Hawks are going to want back in terms of assets, there aren't a ton of teams around the NBA that have both the assets AND the contracts available to make the money work since this is Young's current deal
How many teams are there that have a need at PG, have assets to trade, and are close to contention to the point where adding Trae Young would be the missing piece? It's not exactly a long list and probably why Young hasn't been moved yet. We're seeing the same thing with Zach LaVine and the Bulls and Brandon Ingram and the Pelicans right now. The trade market is tough for these high-priced stars who are good, but flawed.
Having said that, I do think we take Trae Young's talent for granted a little bit. We pretend like consistent 30/10s every night is easy and not wildly impressive for anyone, let alone a player of Young's size. He's had more and bigger playoff moments than some recent MVPs for crying out loud, and that should count for something.