Hawks News: Atlanta Reportedly Open to Trading Trae Young Following NBA Lottery Win

Atlanta Hawks All-Star point guard Trae Young, the best player on a miserable No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference this season, has seemed inextricably linked to the Hawks since they traded eventual Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic's draft rights (he was the No. 3 pick) for Young's (the No. 5 pick) on the day of the 2018 NBA Draft.

Now, at last, it seems as if that bond is weakening. That could be an ideal outcome for both parties. Since making a surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals as the fifth seed in the 2021 playoffs, the Hawks have either missed the playoffs entirely or just barely snuck in, only to be vanquished during the first round.

Young and former All-Star backcourt partner Dejounte Murray have been an awkward fit alongside one another, as both players normally thrive with the ball in their hands, and thus struggle to overcome an effective "your turn, my turn" offensive approach when playing in tandem.

The Hawks got some incredible draft luck in the league's draft lottery on Sunday. Prior to the draft lottery, Atlanta (who finished with a bad-but-not-terrible 36-46 record for the 2023-24 regular season) was slotted in as possessing the No. 10 pick, with just a 3% chance of moving into the No. 1 spot. The Hawks somehow managed to buck the odds and snag the top pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, their first No. 1 selection since 1975.

According to Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta general manager Landry Fields — a former player —was stunned to have an opportunity at the top of this year's draft.

"I was shocked," Fields said. "If you look at the percentages, and when I first saw that it wasn't between 10 and 12, that launched us into the top four. So I was like, 'Alright, we got a real shot at this thing.' So, a bit of surprise, but a lot of excitement."

Now armed with some impressive draft equity this summer, it appears the Hawks may be emboldened to truly begin a teardown of their Young-Murray era and look to start fresh.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported from the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago earlier this week that the Hawks will look to

"This is a tremendous opportunity for Atlanta to start reshaping their roster. They had Dejounte Murray in trade talks [around the 2023-24 deadline]," Woj said. "I think the possibility of trade talks including Trae Young this spring and into the summer are very real too. But that No. 1 overall pick for the Hawks gives them a chance to bring in an impact player if they decide to maybe go younger and start maybe rebuilding this group."

The Hawks have posted diminishing records of 43-39, 41-41, and most recently the aforementioned 36-46 across the past three seasons, never finishing higher than a seventh seed and never escaping the first round in that window. It's clear that a lot of the team's veterans, starting with its two well-compensated starting guards, could use a fresh start.

It will be fascinating to see what kind of market is out there for Young.

The 6-foot-1 Oklahoma product, still just 25, was named to his third All-Star team this past season (while on a sub-.500 team), and posted impressive averages of 25.7 points on .430/.373/.855 shooting splits, 10.8 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.3 steals a night. But he's long been known as a defensive sieve, while Murray is a one-time All-Defensive Teamer. Young is a talented scorer and a high-volume long-range sniper, but his need for a heliocentric offense and his limitations on the other side of the ball suggest he may thrive best within a particular system. And that sure doesn't seem to be this Hawks squad anymore, which even in a wide-open Eastern Conference has struggled mightily of late.

Young just finished the second season of a five-year, $215.2 million contract he agreed to with the Hawks. He'll earn a whopping $43 million next season and has a player option for the last year of the deal in 2026-27.