The Trae Young Paradox

Featuring new, high-effort visuals!

We are oh so close to the NBA regular season at this point, with Tuesday marking the official start of what looks to be a very intriguing next 8 months.

One of the favorite dark horse candidates to shake up the East this year seems to be the Atlanta Hawks, who were voted as the team that made the “best overall moves this offseason” by league GMs. On paper, a lot of guys were shipped out, ranging from Caris LeVert to Clint Capela to Larry Nance Jr. Of course, it matters more about what the team got back: Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Luke Kennard, all of which make this team more potent than it’s been in years.

That presents a problem, however.

With so much firepower, Trae Young is now under the barrel. He is a player whose style is something of a paradox in the sense that whatever he scores on offense will likely be scored back on him on defense; one whose tit-for-tat statistics are the pure embodiment of Hawks .500 basketball; one who is also one of the league’s best playmakers and feels like he should be a winning player.

Today, I want to take a look at the sheer historocity of Trae, along with why this season feels like a make-or-break year.

Oh, and I’ve got some new, more appealing visuals to showcase, too.