Getty Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young
During the first two games the 2019-20 NBA season, Trae Young has averaged 38.5 points, 9.0 assists and 7.0 rebounds. More importantly, he’s led the Atlanta Hawks to a 2-0 record to start the year.
After being the runner up in the NBA Rookie of Year Award race last season, it seems like Young feels as though he has something to prove this year. The second-year guard has been seen all summer long taking part in several NBA runs in the Drew League and in New York City with Chris Brickley’s Black Ops runs at Lifetime Fitness.
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Analyst Candace Parker Guarantees Trae Young Will Be NBA All-Star This Season
Last week during TNT’s broadcast of the Los Angeles Clippers versus the Golden State Warriors, NBA analyst Candace Parker guaranteed that Trae Young would be an NBA All-Star this season. It came after showing highlights of the Hawks game against the Detriot Pistons.
“Let me tell you what, he [Trae Young] is to be an All-Star this year. I guarantee he is going to be an All-Star this year,” said Parker.
In the first half of the Hawks game against the Pistons, Young scored 26 points, which was the most he’s tallied in half during his career. His previous high was 24 points against the Chicago Bulls last season.
Hawks Coach Lloyd Pierce Believes Teams Will Blitz Trae Young
At the 8:54 mark of the fourth quarter in that same game, Young was shown a double-team, resulting in him opting pass out of it. After the game, Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce was asked when Trae has it going on offense if anything he does is surprising.
“The ball went in the basket, but teams are going to blitz Trae regardless,” said Pierce via Fox Sports Southeast. “He’s the focal point of what we do offensively, and they’re going to blitz him. We’ve talked about that a million times already — three of the five teams in preseason blitzed him, they’re going to do that. It’s our execution out of the blitz that’s important. Vince (Carter) came in and had a great ball-fake — I think that was the most exciting moment we had — we get a weak-side three because that’s some of the stuff we’ve been working on and talking about. So Trae, great job getting off of the basketball and the other guys making plays because of the blitz.”
There was plenty of praise to go around for Young after this game, even from his own teammates. Following the 117-100 victory, Hawks forward John Collins talked about the sophomore guard and his performance against the Pistons.
“He was incredible from start to finish,” said John Collins via Fox Sports Southeast. “He came to play, [the] first game of the year he wanted to start it off right, and he did.”
The Hawks are looking to improve their record on Monday to 3-0 when they face the Philadelphia 76ers.
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