{"id":131578,"date":"2025-03-30T11:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T15:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=131578"},"modified":"2025-03-30T11:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T15:04:16","slug":"hawks-leader-trae-young-coy-continuing-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/30\/hawks-leader-trae-young-coy-continuing-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks Leader Coy About Continuing To Play For Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young<\/a> will still have two years remaining on his contract after this season, with a player option for 2026-27. That being said, he\u2019ll be eligible for an extension this summer. The four-time All-Star is subsequently approaching an offseason in which he\u2019ll have to make a serious decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hawks\u2019 Trae Young Coy About Signing Contract Extension<\/h2>\n

In an ideal world, Young would like to stay with the Hawks. He\u2019s even on record saying he\u2019d like to win a championship in Atlanta<\/a>. Yet, he\u2019s also expressed his desire to play for a winning team.<\/p>\n

To that point, the Hawks have had a record that\u2019s at or below .500 in each of the last three seasons. They haven\u2019t made it past the first round of the NBA Playoffs since 2021. In that time, the Hawks have been handicapped by injuries and at the mercy of their management.<\/p>\n

Their blockbuster trade for Dejounte Murray<\/a> was all but a horror film. Trading five second-round picks for Saddiq Bey<\/a> was definitely a bad idea. The jury is out on their decision to trade the oft-injured De\u2019Andre Hunter<\/a> this season. At the time, he was scoring a career-high 19.0 points per game.<\/p>\n

So, unsurprisingly, Young was coy when cornered about the possibility of signing an extension<\/a> this offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still stuck in the moment right now and not really focusing on that right now,\u201d he tells HoopsHype reporter Michael Scotto. \u201cI know it\u2019s going to come… I\u2019m just focusing on this team, building these young guys, and giving them confidence. At the end of the year, everything else will be discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those comments align with Young\u2019s answer about his impression of the team\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to determine the future. I\u2019m so stuck in the moment right now and focusing on what they wanted me to do this year by trying to build these young guys and give them confidence. I\u2019m focused on that and not focusing on the end result. At the end of the day, focus on getting better every day and letting the results come as they go.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, when he was asked about 2025 Defensive Player of the Year favorite Dyson Daniels<\/a>, his intentions were much clearer:<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to continuing to build with him because he\u2019s got a bright future for sure,\u201d Young says.<\/p>\n

Helping The Young Guys<\/h3>\n

Young has spent his entire career with the Hawks, the franchise that acquired him in a draft night trade with the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n

In an alternate universe, if the Hawks don\u2019t make that trade with the Mavericks, they would likely have ended up with Luka Doncic<\/a>. In fact, there was a time that Doncic\u2019s agent believed his client would be drafted by Atlanta<\/a>. The way the deal played out left a bitter taste in Bill Duffy\u2019s mouth though, as he steered Alex Sarr<\/a> away from the Hawks in the 2024 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Atlanta would\u2019ve drafted Zaccharie Risacher<\/a> anyways but they didn\u2019t even get the opportunity to workout Sarr. Strange for a team with the No. 1 pick. All is well that ends well though, neither Risacher nor Sarr have played poorly during their rookie season.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Risacher has averaged 12.1 points and 3.6 rebounds per game on 44.9 percent shooting from the field, operating as a Swiss<\/del> French Army Knife. The versatile Sarr has averaged 13.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 blocks per game in a season that\u2019s been underappreciated. With that being said, Washington is 16-58, while Atlanta is 35-38.<\/p>\n

As Young continues to help players like Risacher and Jalen Johnson<\/a> get comfortable, the Hawks should only improve.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young will still have two years remaining on his contract after this season, with a player option for 2026-27. That being said, he\u2019ll be eligible for an extension this summer. The four-time All-Star is subsequently approaching an offseason in which he\u2019ll have to make a serious decision. Hawks\u2019 Trae Young Coy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":131632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1608,30,62,556,18],"tags":[49244,4975,98,1349,49147],"class_list":["post-131578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-wizards","tag-alex-sarr","tag-nba-contracts","tag-nba-draft","tag-trae-young","tag-zaccharie-risacher"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131578"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131633,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131578\/revisions\/131633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}