Hawks star Trae Young, who underwent an MRI on his left hand after injuring it in Friday’s loss to Toronto, has been diagnosed with a tear of the radial collateral ligament (RCL) in the fifth finger of that hand, the team announced Sunday.
According to the Hawks, Young will undergo surgery on Tuesday to repair the RCL and will be reevaluated in four weeks.
It’s unclear whether or not Young will be healthy enough to return at the four-week mark, but even if he is, he’ll miss more than half of Atlanta’s 26 remaining games. The team currently has a 24-32 record and is hanging onto the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference, two games back of the ninth-seeded Bulls and three games ahead of the No. 11 Nets.
Securing the No. 10 spot would give the Hawks a chance to make the playoffs, though they’d need to win two play-in contests against higher seeds to advance in that scenario.
An All-Star this season for the third time in his career, Young is averaging 26.4 points and a career-high 10.8 assists this season in 51 games (36.5 MPG), with a shooting line of .426/.371/.856. He’s the Hawks’ leading scorer and his 30.3% usage rate is easily the highest on the roster.
Young is under contract on a maximum-salary deal for two more guaranteed seasons beyond this one, then holds a $49M player option for 2026-27. He has been cited as a potential offseason trade candidate a couple times since the Feb. 8 deadline, though those reports were based more on the speculation of rival executives than information from inside the Hawks’ organization.
With Young unavailable, Atlanta will likely lean more on Dejounte Murray and Bogdan Bogdanovic to handle the ball and initiate the offense.
It’s worth noting that guard Trent Forrest, who is on a two-way contract, has reached his limit of 50 active games, so it will be interesting to see whether the team makes a roster move involving Forrest to fortify its backcourt depth. Promoting him to the 15-man roster would free him up to continue playing, though it would require waiving someone on a guaranteed contract. Cutting him would allow Atlanta to add a new two-way player who could be activated immediately.
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