So, Trae Young is the newest member of the Washington Wizards. This piece started life as a column called “To Trae Trade, Or Not To Trae Trade” debating the pros and cons of going through with the trade, and then about 45 minutes after I finished writing it he was traded.
Young was a distressed asset in Atlanta, but he is off to start a new basketball life here in DC. What are the pros and cons of the trade, and was it ultimately a good move?
The Pros
Young is a brilliant offensive player and one of the best
playmakers in recent memory. Young’s 9.81 assists per game average over his entire career is third all-time behind arguably the greatest point guard ever in Magic Johnson and arguably the greatest stat-padder ever in John Stockton.
His 25.18 points per game career scoring average places him at 13th all-time, sandwiched between Oscar Robertson and Damian Lillard. Pretty good company there.
Young also has experience playing deep into the playoffs, having led the Hawks to the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals (and nearly to the NBA Finals, thanks to a Giannis Antetokounmpo injury). Bringing in Young would mean the Wizards are at least starting to consider questions like “What if we tried to put a good basketball team out there?”
The Wizards also have the salary flexibility to take Young as a half- to one-and-a-half-year rental. Young is owed $46 million for the 2025-26 season and a $49 million player option in 2026-27. If Young and the Wizards aren’t panning out, then Washington could trade him next February to get something in return, assuming he picks up his player option (He almost definitely will). Or the Wizards could just enjoy the additional cap flexibility.
The Cons
Let’s start with the obvious: Young’s defense is indefensible. Every cliche used to describe poor defense — Trae’s a layup line, Trae’s a turnstile, Trae’s a traffic cone — fails to properly capture the porosity of the NBA’s single worst defensive player.
Young’s gaudy numbers also have a tendency to mask some offensive inefficiencies. Ironically, given that Young both has the reputation as a sharpshooter and he literally goes by “Trae,” he is not a particularly good three-point shooter, cashing just 35% of his career attempts. He is also the NBA’s career leader in turnovers per game at 4.2.
Finally, as SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell wrote last night, Young is a very on-the-ball kind of player and will not be someone who can do much off of it. Basically, the Wizards will just be a projection of his basketball personality. If he works out well with Bilal Coulibaly, Tre Johnson, Kyshawn George and Alex Sarr, great. If not, Wizards fans will be frustrated with him sooner than later.
The Verdict
Young is the exact type of trade that the Wizards should have been after — he was a distressed enough asset that they are likely to acquire draft capital alongside him, yet he is a good enough player that the potential reward of the reclamation project significantly raises the Wizards’ long-term ceiling. And if it doesn’t work out, he’s only on the books through next season.
Also, Young is injured this season, so don’t be too worried about the Wizards giving up their Top-8 protected pick in 2026 to the New York Knicks. Great move.
