Ohm YoungmisukOct 27, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
- Ohm Youngmisuk has covered the Giants, Jets and the NFL since 2006. Prior to that, he covered the Nets, Knicks and the NBA for nearly a decade. He joined ESPNNewYork.com after working at the New York Daily News for almost 12 years and is a graduate of Michigan State University.
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THE EMORY SPORTS Medicine Complex practice courts are quiet after just about all the Atlanta Hawks players have left for the day.
But Trae Young, sitting near the baseline of the two practice courts, can always hear the noise and chatter that surrounds him.
Entering his eighth season, Young is beloved in Atlanta. But his critics, from Patrick Beverley to anonymous online trolls, constantly chirp.
Young can practically recite the gripes against him: “I can’t adjust my game. I can’t play with this guy or this guy.
“I mean, it’s very comical to me,” Young says. “It’s very funny. There’s so many things, man.”
After coming within two wins of reaching the NBA Finals in 2020-21, Young and the Hawks have been in four straight play-in tournaments, losing in the first round twice before failing to make it to the postseason the past two years.
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Young said he goes into every season thinking it is his most important one, but he admits this one feels “special” and is “definitely the biggest season for me.” He is in his prime, and the reigning assists champ has his best roster yet. Young, who has a $49 million player option for next season, wants to show Atlanta he is a superstar talent worth the four-year, $229 million max extension he is eligible for.
But in this restrictive second-apron era, Atlanta will wait on an extension. By waiting, the Hawks can see how things go with this retooled roster and still maintain flexibility in case things don’t go well, giving them the option to take a new route and build around a promising young core of developing talent. The Hawks and Kristaps Porzingis are also going to wait on a potential extension and see how this season goes.
For Young, the All-Star can explore his options next summer if he does not get an extension later this season. That means he’ll have to get used to not having control of his immediate future.
“I think it’s going to be great. I’m not worried about it,” Young told ESPN when asked about entering the season without an extension. “As much as I wish it was, it’s not all in my hands and I can’t control everything. I just can only control the present. And I know if we win, everybody eats … I understand what winning can do.
“If certain things don’t go my way as far as injuries, health and stuff that I can’t control, that may be the man above telling me there’s another plan for me. I’m focused on making sure all my guys, Quin [Snyder] included, get taken care of and succeed.”
This summer, new general manager Onsi Saleh directed one of the most impressive offseasons in the NBA, adding Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard while also acquiring the New Orleans Pelicans’ unprotected 2026 first-rounder, a potential high lottery pick in a deep class.
Young’s task is to blend those vets with rising Hawks like Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher and Onyeka Okongwu and lead Atlanta to contention. Injuries have left the East open for the taking with stars like the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum and Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton sidelined.
That and an enhanced roster has given Young a prime chance to return to the playoff stage, prove he’s still the franchise player worth building around and silence the doubters. He believes the talent around him will allow him to show he is more than what people think.
“There’s a lot of misconceptions of me,” Young said. “They’ll get changed over time, and I truly believe that.
“And I feel like a lot of it will get changed this year.”
Trae Young admits this season feels “special” and is “definitely the biggest season for me.” Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
BEFORE THE START of the Hawks’ second day of training camp, the team’s weight room is livelier than normal. Young, now one of the older vets on the team at 27, is jumping around, high-fiving teammates and getting them pumped up before hitting the weights.
“I will say there definitely is a new sense of energy with Trae this year,” Okongwu, who is entering his sixth season, told ESPN. “He’s always had that, but it’s different this year. He’s really taking that leap forward in terms of leadership. He’s really trying to galvanize the show. We have a really young team, so he’s trying to be the guy to lead the youngins and to be a voice for the guys in the locker room.
“Just in terms of communication, I’ve heard him more this year than I have in previous years, and I commend him for that.”
During training camp, Johnson took note of how much Young “has just been smiling.” Nothing can dampen Young’s excitement about his teammates this season — not even Beverley.
Two weeks earlier, Patrick Beverley was questioning Young’s ability to lead and win. In a brief online beef, the former Clipper said he talked to some of Young’s former teammates who questioned his leadership and didn’t like playing with the point guard.
Young responded on his podcast by telling Beverley to “state your source” and that he was never intimidated when facing “Patty Bev” — a standout defender during his 12 seasons.
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Current Hawks players describe Young as a leader who cares, a guy who organized their group text chain to promote camaraderie on one of the league’s youngest rosters. In a 111-107 win over the Orlando Magic on Friday, a smiling Young celebrated with rookie Asa Newell during a timeout after finding him for a 3 and an alley-oop dunk in a tight fourth quarter. It was as if the point guard was the one who just scored his first two professional baskets.
“Last year, he made tremendous [strides] with the leadership component,” Saleh told reporters before camp started. “I thought he was great playing off the ball, just his energy towards the game. His teammates, I thought he was great last year [with them].
“We’re super confident in him just helping lead our guys and playing with a guy like Onyeka, Kristaps, Luke and Nickeil, having more weapons around him, too. I think it’s super exciting, but just the natural development of a star player. He’s getting better every year, and we expect that to happen this season as well.”
Young and the Hawks will need patience, though. As seen on opening night when the Hawks were stunned 138-118 by the Toronto Raptors, there will be an adjustment period with all their new pieces and moments of adversity with the Hawks playing nine of their first 14 games on the road.
That stretch includes two key games against Orlando, another team that had an impressive offseason and is looking to rise in the East. Already, the Hawks have had to play two consecutive games without Porzingis (flu-like symptoms) and Risacher (right ankle sprain). Johnson (right ankle sprain) joined them on the sideline during Saturday’s loss to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
But their offseason moves gave them much-needed depth that the Hawks are hoping will be the difference between contending in the East and being a middling play-in team yet again.
Those moves came with an assist from the franchise point guard. When Young knew the Hawks were going after Alexander-Walker and Kennard in free agency, he called both to recruit them and sell them on the city of Atlanta.
Alexander-Walker was told stars from teams courting him during free agency would reach out. But it was only Young who called him multiple times.
Alexander-Walker, who is coming off two straight Western Conference Finals appearances in Minnesota with Anthony Edwards, sees some similarities between Young and Edwards in how their confidence and competitiveness can rub some the wrong way.
“Ant has a very strong personality,” Alexander-Walker told ESPN. “Trae has a strong personality. It just comes out different. And so when guys are very self-confident and aware of who they are, to the untrained eye that could be arrogance. It could be cockiness.
“Trae has confidence. Ant, Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander], Luka [Doncic] has confidence. … But [Young] still wears a heavy burden of pressure. And he’s had success through his pressure.”
“Last year, [Young] made tremendous [strides] with the leadership component,” general manager Onsi Saleh told reporters before camp started. Alex Slitz/Getty Images
The Hawks designed their offseason to get Porzingis, Alexander-Walker and Kennard to take some pressure off Young, who has had to reshape the way he plays. Snyder has been emphasizing pushing tempo and having Young pass the ball up the floor to create early offense for wings like Johnson, Risacher and Daniels, who recently signed a four-year, $100-million extension.
He also will have Young play more off ball, passing to eventually get the ball back for an easier shot — similar to Stephen Curry with the Golden State Warriors — instead of having to expend a ton of energy creating his own shot against defenders.
For the 7-2 Porzingis, he says his “main mission” is to make life easier for his new point guard — and it’s not his first time working with a dynamic playmaking point guard. He played alongside Luka Doncic in Dallas for two and a half seasons, but the two were not the fit Dallas had hoped for.
Now Porzingis will try to use that experience to make things work better with Young.
“The playmaking, they both have it at the highest of levels,” Porzingis told ESPN of Doncic and Young. “They do some similar stuff, honestly. Their builds are different. But they’re both masterminds at reading the basket, anticipating what’s going to happen, reading the game, anticipating what’s going to happen.
“That experience [with Doncic in Dallas] is definitely going to help me. Playing with Luka and having those open conversations and open dialogue with Trae about what he likes, where he wants to get the ball, and how I can make his life easier.”
Porzingis and Doncic ran 405 pick-and-pop plays together with Doncic as the ballhandler in 2019-20 and 2020-21, second-most among all combinations and trailing just Young and John Collins, according to ESPN Research. But Young has not had a center like the man dubbed “The Unicorn.”
Already a master of the floater with 752 in his career — the most in the NBA since tracking began in 2013-14 per GeniusIQ — Young is looking forward to unveiling new wrinkles in his game alongside Porzingis.
“I haven’t had a guy like him in the NBA,” Young said. “So I think you’ll be able to really see what different things that I can do with a guy that can pick and pop and spread the defense, spread the five man out to 30 feet. I think you’ll be able to see a lot of different things that I haven’t been able to show in the past, too.
“Hopefully this year I get a lot more catch-and-shoot shots, something that a lot people don’t think I can do.”
Young is used to having the ball in his hands, having dribbled 226,906 times, the most of any player since he entered the league in 2018. But he is willing to sacrifice scoring as he focuses on getting his teammates more involved. His scoring average dipped from a career-high 29.6 points per game in 2019-20 to 24.2 last season.
Johnson — who opened the season with 22 points, eight assists and seven rebounds — is emerging as a playmaker Young can rely on. Young mentioned how he and Johnson were building chemistry together before the forward suffered a season-ending shoulder injury on Jan. 23.
“I want a lot of people to write us off,” Johnson, now fully recovered from surgery, told ESPN. “What we’re building behind the scenes, it’s something special.”
Young is bullish about what the Hawks can do with the most talented roster he’s had.
“If we are healthy,” Young said, “I mean the world better be ready for what’s coming.”
Young and Johnson were building chemistry together before the forward suffered a season-ending shoulder injury on Jan. 23. Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
WITH PORZINGIS AND Risacher sidelined in Orlando, Young still found himself having enough help to erase a 14-point deficit and stun the Magic.
“I thought he managed the game as well as I’ve seen him manage a game late,” Snyder said of Young. “Just directing people where to go. And our guys were listening, too.”
Four teammates scored in double figures, but it was Young who closed the door. He scored 11 of his 25 points in the final 5:59, including sinking a patented 15-foot floater to quiet the Orlando crowd with 46.3 seconds left.
Trae Young clutch floater oh yes that’s the good stuff â„ï¸ pic.twitter.com/9ART10rYCt
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) October 25, 2025
“He brought us home,” Johnson said.
When it comes to silencing the naysayers, perhaps it is not surprising that the Hawks star — wearing an OU hoodie at the Hawks practice facility — looks to another famous former Oklahoma Sooner signal-caller as an example.
“You see it playing right now with another OU guy with Baker Mayfield and what winning does for somebody,” Young said of the quarterback who has changed the public’s perception of himself by guiding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to consecutive playoff appearances since 2024 and a 6-2 record this season. “I get chills talking about it. I know what I can do or what the image of me looks like once I just win.
“Win again.”
It’s been more than four years since Young became a New York villain and took a bow at Madison Square Garden, waving goodbye to Knicks fans after eliminating New York in five games in the first round in 2021. That was the start of a surprising run to the Eastern Conference Finals in just his third season.
Perhaps Young thought there would be many more deep playoff runs with clutch shotmaking after that. He isn’t taking this chance — with the best cast he’s had around him — for granted.
“I’m willing to give up the ball,” Young said. “It’s just you have to have the guys that are out there that want the ball first to make a play, and two, that can draw certain attention when they do get the ball.
“I feel like we got that now.”
The week before camp started, Snyder and Young met to discuss their approach for this season. Both men mentioned the word “efficiency” during their talk. Young averaged 11.6 assists but shot a career-low 41.1% from the field and led the league with 4.7 turnovers last season.
“The keyword for Trae is efficiency,” Snyder said. “I think what you are going to see is Trae having to feel the game in a way. … There’s games that’s going to mean scoring more. There’s games where he will be passing more. The constants will be him forcing pace, not just pushing the ball off the dribble but passing ahead. He was one of the best at passing ahead, if not the best.
“The other thing he has to do every night is be efficient defensively … One of the things we did talk about was me challenging him … He wants to get better every year.”
While teams like Cleveland and New York have had more time together and are expected to be the top two teams in the East, the Hawks hope that they’ll eventually soar at the right time to make some noise in the postseason.
If that happens, Young might finally hush the haters like his fellow formerly maligned Sooner quarterback.
“People may get the wrong perception of us because of what you see on social media or what somebody may say about you,” Young said. “I understand Baker, when they say, he’s a hothead [or] he’s crazy. But then when you’re winning, now he’s a dawg. He’s competitive. The whole perspective changes just because you win. That’s my main focus. I just want to win.
“That’ll change all the narratives.”
Contributions from ESPN Research’s Matt Williams.
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