Report: Multiple All-Stars to have more trade interest than Trae Young
The NBA offseason is more entertaining than the regular season in a lot of ways, and it’s sure to be that way for the Hawks.
Quin Snyder’s team was incredibly difficult to watch this year, but this offseason should make up for it. Not only does Atlanta own the No. 1 overall pick, but they’re also overwhelmingly expected to trade one of their All-Stars.
Trae Young or Dejounte Murray? Both cases have valid points. Building around Young because he’s the better player makes sense, but so does Murray because his counterpart would fetch more on the trade market. However, it might not be the lofty return many Hawks fans imagine if the club did put Trae Young on the trade block.
“Where Young will fall among the pecking order of available talent this offseason has been a predominant question league personnel are discussing throughout this combine week,” Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports said.
Fischer reports that a pair of other All-Stars — Brandon Ingram and Donovan Mithcell — would have more trade interest than Young.
“Donovan Mitchell, for starters, would rate far above Young on the league’s open market if Mitchell’s extension conversations don’t lead to a guaranteed future for the All-Star guard in Cleveland.”
Mitchell is a five-time All-Star, who helped turn the Cavaliers into one of the better teams in the East over the past two seasons. He is averaging more than 28 points per game in his playoff career and has scored at least 29 points in his last five playoff games this year.
To think he’d have more demand than Trae Young isn’t crazy, especially when you look at their past two seasons. The Hawks point guard is a much better facilitator compared to Mitchell, but Young has been much less efficient scoring the past two seasons.
“An unofficial poll of executives in Chicago also suggests Pelicans wing Brandon Ingram will have a wider range of teams interested in acquiring the one-time All-Star, as compared to Young, should New Orleans truly explore a roster shake-up of that magnitude,” Fischer added.
Ingram is a 20-5-5 guy; his best season came in 2022-23 when he averaged nearly 25 points per game on 49.2% shooting from the field and 39% from beyond the arc. He’s not a better player than Trae Young. That’s not even debatable.
However, to say that a 6-foot-8 wing will have a “wider range of teams interested” isn’t outrageous because that type of player is in more demand than an undersized point guard who needs the ball to impact the game.
Trae Young’s trade value was never higher coming off the magical Eastern Conference Finals run in 2021, when he would’ve demanded a Donovan Mitchell-esque haul that the Jazz got in return, but it’s slowly diminished with every passing season.
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