If Trae Young thought the ease with which he stormed through his first postseason was going to be the norm, dashing around Madison Square Garden and bowing like he owned the house, he just got a reality check from the Miami Heat issued. They made Young’s life hell before graciously ending a five-game gentleman’s sweep against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday.
Aside from averaging just 15.4 points while keeping him in the single digits in two of the five games, Young’s streak numbers look abysmal.
- 30 turnovers against 22 shots made
- 18 percent 3-point shooting
- 31 percent overall shooting
Young finished the streak with 19 points overall in 3-for-24 shooting, including 0 for 12/3, and 12 turnovers in Games 1 and 5. He had 10 turnovers in Game 2 and never surpassed eight assists in any game. By all accounts, he was erased, which certainly benefits Miami’s defense, but also a stark reminder that Young isn’t yet the kind of superstar who can thrive regardless of his own conditions.
He must be able to penetrate the paint. He must be defended defensively. Miami discouraged him from doing the latter, and they pursued him defensively at every opportunity. Young’s math is simple: he needs to rack up a lot of points to come out as a plus if you subtract any points he’s responsible for giving up, either directly or indirectly. He was minus 58 for the series.
After the Game 5 loss, Young said the Heat’s defense was “quite possibly” the best he’s ever faced. “The numbers would say so,” he said. “I didn’t shoot well. I couldn’t reach certain places that I usually get to.”
Again, this place is color. When he fails, much like James Harden, he relies too heavily on 3-point shooting, which, contrary to popular belief, has historically not been Young’s forte.
Early last season I wrote an article arguing that Young is an average shooter who has been disguising himself as a great and has been for a long time. Young shot 36 percent Form 3 in his lone college season, 32 percent in his rookie season, 36 percent in his sophomore season and 34 percent last season.
Am I aware his numbers are affected due to his difficult shot profile? Yes. Do I also think that he takes a lot of difficult shots? Yes. You can talk all you want about shooting talent, and Young’s talent is undeniable, just as there is no denying the impact the mere threat of his shooting, whether he makes it or not, has on defenses that are everywhere must stretch and bend the place in a mostly futile attempt to contain it.
This season, Young has put together a great shooting campaign, increasing his 3-point count to 38.2 percent on eight attempts per game, with a true shooting north of 60, which is pretty elite territory. He didn’t get better as a shooter (he’s always had great shooting talent), he just made better shots, or at least less bad ones.
Please tick the opt-in box to confirm that you wish to opt-in.
Thanks for registering!
Keep an eye on your inbox.
We’re sorry!
There was an error processing your subscription.
I loved Young’s increased emphasis on the midrange, where he made 52 percent of his shots between 14 feet and the 3-point line, a 96th percentile mark, per Cleaning the Glass. His floater stays butter, as evidenced by his match winner in Game 3. This is when Young is at his best, firing a variety of shots and dealing damage from the outside in as a goalscorer and passer. Knowing this, Miami planned the game to force Young into his worst habit of falling deeply in love with 3-ball, the operative term being deep.
After Game 1, when Young jacked 10 of his 11 shots from beyond the arc, almost all of which were somewhere between hard fought and downright ill-advised, Young had this to say: “If you watch the game, you see they’ve got five guys.” in color when I’m on the ball. They do a great job of showing help and not letting me get in trouble. If I try to pass someone, they send a brace and force me to kick my teammates.”
First, let’s get this straight: Miami obviously didn’t have five people in the suit when Young had the ball. At least one defender guarded him on the ball 20-25 feet from the basket. Usually two or three were pulled up for pick and roll coverage and traps and the other helping defenders can’t just stand in the paint off ball, that’s illegal. Exaggeration aside, Young’s point is that every defender was either a step away from the color or his path to the color, and all were ready to close in on him once he started moving downhill.
As he surveyed the scene before him, he saw much of it in a few variations:
ESPN/Screenshot
Young has all five sets of defensive eyes aimed squarely at himself. That’s what happens when you’re a superstar and always have the ball. They are easy to follow; not necessarily easy to defend, but easy to track. Hawks President Travis Schlenk has spoken to me countless times about his and the coaches’ efforts to get Young to see the value of moving more off the ball where chasing becomes more difficult. This is something he has yet to commit to and work on, but it also requires the Hawks to field enough capable playmakers for Young to be freed to move away from the ball.
Schlenk has tried to build his squad with that in mind. From Kevin Huerter to Bogdan Bogdanovic to DeAndre Hunter who didn’t have a great season but has blossomed into a self-builder, you can see the idea of multiple handlers on the pitch. But the gulf between these guys and Young is so great that it’s difficult to move away from Young, who can do anything when offense is elite and defense doesn’t give you any room to maneuver.
As constructed, the Hawks rely almost entirely on Young being magic.
In the regular season he was, and it still only finished 9th and needed to win two play-in games to even make the playoffs. Young led the league in total points and assists. He has a case for the first-team All-NBA. But the game after the season is different. Young was great in last year’s playoffs, but there were and are qualifiers to consider.
The Knicks were about as weakly seeded as the No. 4 you’ll find in the playoffs, and while the Sixers had strong defense with Ben Simmons on the perimeter and Joel Embiid as an anchor in defense, they always had to hunt down even weaker defenders. In his first postseason, he still shot just 31 percent from 3, but he hit big enough and took advantage of the other holes.
There are no defensive holes in the heat. There’s little, if any, drop-off over their perimeter defenders. Young might start out with PJ Tucker or Kyle Lowry harassing him, requesting a screen, and then switching Jimmy Butler or Bam Adebayo on him. Maybe two of these guys are teaming up. Max Strus stayed with him. Young complimented Gabe Vincent’s defense. All these guys were able to contain Young one on one. That’s the key.
With all the talk of Young seeing multiple Defenders gathered in his general area, he didn’t beat the one right in front of him for most of the series. Yes, the Heat jumped traps and helped down with their wings, but for the overwhelming majority of the series, Young just didn’t hit the first guy. They all stopped in front of him. They all filled his space. They all became physically with him. And the bottom line is that from the first quarter of the series, Young gave in to that frustration too easily. He said to hell with the anger and started pulling up 3s.
Again he made 18 percent of them. In two postseasons, Young has made 30 percent of his 3s. Numbers don’t lie. So now he’s not getting in the suit and the 3s aren’t falling, so he’s pushing to make a difference against a defense that’s bigger and stronger than him. And that’s how it goes with sales. Thus, the Heat took one of the regular season’s most untenable weapons and turned it into a postseason product of his worst habits.
it’s not really a blow to Young; it’s just a reality check. This elite defense is relentless. The Boston Celtics just put Kevin Durant through a torture chamber. The Toronto Raptors are equipped with wall-to-wall wings that can switch anything, and James Harden can’t find an inch to score inside the arc.
Presumably, Young will find himself in a lot of these postseason matchups, and if he continues to work mostly on the ball, he’ll have to find ways to get his cash points even if everyone knows where he’s going. or where he wants to go.
That’s what makes Chris Paul great. He never stepped on the gas, never acted on anyone else’s terms, never settled for bad shots. Being just as dangerous off the ball is what makes Stephen Curry great. Whatever development Young takes and whatever roster moves the Hawks may make this summer, it has this series to keep an eye on.
Trae needs help, but he also needs to make better decisions, shoot better, defend better, play better. His first postseason was a love story. His second was a horror show. A good player would attribute such struggles to the defenses they faced, but great players don’t understand that excuse. That’s what makes her great. They may find the sledding tough, they may struggle, but they won’t be denied for an entire series, at least not to this extent. You will succeed no matter how deep it hides. Trae couldn’t. He was mated at every corner. That was a wake up call. Time will tell if he has an answer to that.