Atlanta Hawks Need to Start Asking Questions After Trae Young’s Terrible Play-In Performance vs Chicago.
The Atlanta Hawks were supposed to become a perennial playoff team with Trae Young being a younger, less dynamic version of Stephen Curry. The front office was so convinced of his talent that they traded Luka Doncic for the chance to build a team around him.
The honeymoon phase between Young and the Hawks was the stuff people loved to see. After his first two seasons saw him develop into a bona fide franchise player, he exploded into a superstar after leading the Hawks to a surprise Eastern Conference Final appearance in 2021.
However, the Hawks have been disappointing ever since, bouncing out of the playoffs in the first round over the past two years. This season was especially painful as they lost to the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the play-in tournament, effectively killing their postseason chances before it got started.
The Hawks are now six years into the Trae Young experiment, and it’s pretty clear that something isn’t working. They must now ask some tough questions, and the answers may be things the roster, the organization, and the fans won’t be a fan of.