After Eclipsing Michael Jordan, Is Trae Young One of the Best Point Guards in the NBA?

NBA superstar Trae Young has been in fine form this season. Young’s performance has been one of the few positives from the Atlanta Hawks‘ season so far. Despite his impressive performances, the Hawks are 13-19 and are 11th in Western Conference Standings. However, there have been a lot of trade rumors as well. But Young is not bothered about the reports and is performing at the highest level. Notably, he recently passed Michael Jordan in an incredible record.

Trae led the Hawks to the Conference finals just a couple of years ago. He looked very much like a franchise’s main man and a future superstar. However, the team was eliminated in the first round in the next two seasons. This, along with the organization’s struggle this season, has raised some concerns about Young.

Trae Young’s impressive run

Trae Young has been consistently improving in the league. In just his sophomore year, Young averaged close to 30 points and 10 assists per game. In the seasons that followed, his scoring took a slight hit. But his assist numbers kept increasing. Last season, he averaged a double-double for the first time in his career with 26.2 points and 10.2 assists per game. Ice Trae has only improved this season and is currently averaging 28.3 points and 11.3 assists. His shot-making has been efficient as well.

In December, the point guard was unstoppable and dished out assists left, right, and center. He started his remarkable run with a 35-point 17-assist game against the Toronto Raptors. He then had seven straight games with at least 30 points and 10 assists. With this achievement, he surpassed NBA legends like Tiny Archibald, Michael Jordan, and Russell Westbrook who had five straight games with 30+ points and 10+ assists.

In the seventh game, he had 30 points and 13 assists to tie All-Time great Oscar Robertson’s impressive long-standing record. However, Young failed to break the record in the eighth game. The Big O was certainly one of the best point guards the league has ever seen. He was a triple-double machine.

So, even though the Hawks star did not beat the Hall of Famer’s record, it is still a spectacular feat. Furthermore, Young still has the possibility of breaking it. Given this, is he one of the best point guards in the league?

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Trae Young is one of the best

Trae Young is in his sixth year in the NBA but has only made the All-Star team twice in 2020 and 2022. The Hawks knew he would not be an instant superstar in the league when they traded Luka Doncic for Young on draft day. Even though he has been good, the fans and the organization had to be patient with him at times as well. A lot of people believed Young had a better ceiling than Doncic when they entered the league even though the Slovenian is younger.

Also, some were not convinced about Luka since he had never played in the United States before. With how things are now, one would argue that the Dallas Mavericks got the best of the trade. However, we cannot let the trade dictate our perception of Trae. Doncic is once again in the MVP race this year. But that does not diminish Young’s good performances.

Ice Trae is having a great season and is certainly one of the best point guards in the league. Also, he is not very far from Doncic. Amongst guards, Luka has the best scoring average at 33.4 points per game while Young is in the fourth spot with 28.3 points as per NBA.com. When it comes to assists, Young (11.3) is second behind Tyrese Haliburton (12.7) and Luka is third (9.4).

However, when you consider both points and assists, Trae gets the #1 spot making him one of the best guards in the league. The 2x All-Star has proved that he can score and dictate the game with his distribution this season. Some might argue that he is not able to convert his individual brilliance to team success. However, Young is not the problem for the Hawks, their defense is.

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Last season, the Hawks scored 118.4 points per game which was the third-best in the NBA as per Basketball Reference. However, the team allowed 118.1 points on average which was one of the worst (26th of 30). This has worsened this year. The Hawks are scoring 122.2 (3rd of 30) points on average while giving up 122.7 points per game (27th of 30). The Hawks need to make some adjustments on the defensive end to make full use of Young’s form.

Editorial Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of EssentiallySports.