Trae Young's tenure in Atlanta is over, with the Hawks agreeing to trade the high-scoring and frequently criticized guard to the Washington Wizards for a package including veteran CJ McCollum, a person with knowledge of the move said Wednesday night.
Corey Kispert is also headed from Washington to Atlanta, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade had not received the required league approval.
NBA
reporter Marc Stein was first to disclose that the sides were closing in on a deal, and ESPN first reported that the agreement was in place.
The Wizards held McCollum and Kispert out of their loss at Philadelphia on Wednesday night. Young was on the bench in street clothes for the Hawks' win over visiting New Orleans.
Young is 10th in points, 12th in points per game, first in assists and first in assists per game since entering the NBA as the No. 5 pick in the 2018 draft.
He is one of five players to rank in the top 10 in both points and assists since he entered the league; the others are Denver’s Nikola Jokic, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic, the Los Angeles Clippers’ James Harden and Phoenix’s Devin Booker.
Jokic has won a championship and is a three-time MVP. Doncic is considered an MVP candidate, Harden is a member of the 75th anniversary team, and Booker is a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
Young doesn’t get the level of respect those players have earned. He's a four-time All-Star — two of those nods coming through voting, two of them coming when Commissioner Adam Silver added him to the roster as an injury replacement.
But the Hawks, this season anyway, have been better without Young. Atlanta was 2-8 this season when Young played; the Hawks are 16-13 without him.
Over his career, the Hawks won 49% of their games when Young wasn't in the lineup — as opposed to 45% when he played.
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