Hawks guard Trae Young firmly believes he’ll be a better player than fellow rookie Luka Doncic, explaining his reasoning to Andrew Sharp of Sports Illustrated this week. The two players have been compared for months after the Hawks and Mavericks agreed to a draft-night trade in June.
“The thing with Luka,” Young says, “he’s a great player. I don’t understand why it can’t work out for both situations. I hear [Atlanta made a mistake] all the time. Luka’s a great dude, and I think he’s going to be a really good player. But at the same time, I’m going to be a better player. Just because of my ability to stretch the floor, get others involved, I think I’ll be better.”
The Hawks traded their No. 3 pick — used on Doncic — to Dallas in exchange for the No. 5 selection and a first-round pick in the 2019 Draft. Atlanta then made the decision to draft Young fifth overall and solidify him as the franchise centerpiece.
Young has averaged 17.5 points and 8.2 assists in 14 games this season, shooting 41% from the floor and 27% from downtown. To compare, Doncic has averaged 19.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest, connecting on 47% from the field and 39% from 3-point territory.
There’s more out of the Southeast Division tonight:
- Heat guard Tyler Johnson labeled the importance of the team staying hungry for success, despite several players cashing in on new contracts in recent seasons. “I think what’s crazy is before any of us got any money, we were just some dogs,” Johnson said, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. “I think that’s what the beautiful thing is. We had to just come together.”
- Chase Hughes of NBC Sports details how Wizards coach Scott Brooks has consistently altered his rotation this season, keeping his players on edge. Brooks’ changes are in response to the team’s poor start to the 2018/19 season.
- Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb will likely receive interest from multiple teams in free agency, putting his potential return after the season in question, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer writes. Lamb is averaging 12.9 points in 14 games, tied for his career-best.
That Dallas #1 is top-5 protected. Ouch! Well ATL still has their own pick to go for RuiJaZionD’RJ. Their three #1s last year are okay for three rooks.
These guys are proving me wrong, as I viewed them both as the biggest busts in the draft. However, they play on terrible teams. MCW looked great too during the Process years. The metrics do show how hollow their #s are though.
They’re rookies less than 20 games into the season. I doubt the scouting reports are useful for either one of them.
Hard to get excited about anything they do or don’t do at this point.
If they were going to be busts, as some predicted, we would likely know by now. But they’re both on court, at least at NBA level, and will be able to do what they do. That is something to be happy about in Dallas and Atlanta. Esp for the GMs.
Probably so, but I can think of a few rookies who never panned out despite a solid first year.
There’s several flash in the pans, esp when the team is terrible.
Of course there will be examples of all sorts of rookie experiences, given the large instance size.
But Young’s game has translated to theNBA.
I wonder what the odds are for players proving worthy in their first 14 games!
I would consider future failure to have low enough chances that figurative breath can be let out, if not a “mission accomplished” banner made.
Of course neither of them are on Shai Alexander’s level…
Trae Young is a better playmaker and floor general than Luka Doncic. He can pass with both hands and can drop a dime to anyone on the court, Doncic is really good but he don’t got the same handles as Trae neither the same herky-jerky moves Trae has.
I agree, he’s much better offensively than I thought he’d be but he still can’t guard anybody to save his life. He’s definitely surprised me though.
i disagree in that Luka is very good passer but Trae Young is very good as well but the defense from Trae is such a minus it kinda offsets a lot of his plus abilities
Luka Doncic:
can pass
shoot
drive
dribble
play good defense
Trae Young:
can pass
dribble
shoot
Both are very good, both are gonna have very good careers, but Doncic has a bigger ceiling, he can do all while Trae is more limited with his arsenal… but they will not be busts as many predicted. SMH